Neil SobinFounder

United States - Alexandria, Virginia

The ocean carries 80% of global trade and covers 71% of the planet, but it's the largest and least-instrumented environment we have. Satellites, bespoke sensors, and fragmented national systems can't close that gap at planet scale. The commercial and working fleet (fishing boats, ferries, cargo vessels, offshore operators) can. Quartermaster equips them with the sensors and connectivity to turn each vessel into an intelligent node in a global maritime awareness network.

I came to this from two directions. At Hivemapper, I helped build a decentralized network of everyday vehicles that mapped the world block by block. Proof that a distributed fleet out-covers any centralized system. At Scale AI, I saw how completely AI's leverage depends on the data underneath. The ocean is where those two lessons collide.

We're building the largest maritime awareness network on the planet having already covered more than 10 million square miles of ocean covered to date (2.8 million square miles covered in April 2026 alone) with over 600 vessels active across 25 countries and four continents creating the largest pro-mariner sensing fleet of its kind.