Jonathan Fishbein, a UW alumni, founded Ethical Ocean while finishing his master’s degree at UW. Along with his friends and co-founders, Chad Hamre and Gavin Lengyel, Fishbein was able to successfully showcase his start-up on Dragon’s Den.
Ethical Ocean is an online marketplace for organic, fair-trade and eco-friendly products. It allows people to access products from multiple vendors in one location. The products on their site range from eco-friendly fashion to solar powered, hands-free phones, a water-powered clock and fair-trade soccer balls. The site is designed to attract people who want to make a difference but don’t know how, don’t have the money or don’t have the time.
Ethical Ocean made an appearance on the Canadian reality show Dragon’s Den, a show where entrepreneurs present their products and ideas to a panel of successful business executives in order to receive investment finances. Ethical Ocean sparked a heated debate between the executives on the validity of the market for ethical products. At one point, Kevin O’Leary called their site “a stain on the face of capitalism,” but in the end, the presenters secured a deal with Arlene Dickinson for $150,000 in exchange for 20% of their company.
Jonathan was a member of the first graduating class of software engineers in 2006. During his time at Waterloo, he was a member of Engineers Without Borders as well as The Iron Warrior. He is the chief technical officer at Ethical Ocean and is responsible for software development as well as coming up with other technical strategies. Another Waterloo graduate, Mike Spendlove, who graduated from systems design engineering in 2008, is also currently working for the company.
Ethical Ocean celebrated its first anniversary on Earth Day and continues to grow. In an interview with Jon, he said that this company hopes to not only be an ethical division of e-commerce, but a major player in the world of e-commerce as a whole.
If you haven’t already, check out the website at www.ethicalocean.com.
1ccyblaze
I agree with Kevin O'Leary's sentiments.
I wish ethical ocean all the luck in the world because they will never be anything more than a passing fad.
Walmart would NOT be the biggest department store chain in the world if people liked paying MORE for LESS.
A few hippies here and there might purchase something occasionally, but there is no growth potential in a very niche, and ill-defined marketplace. And if this crap sells, walmart is going to hop on the bandwagon in an instant, there is no rubber stamp agency out there that people are aware of, that certifies “ethical” crap.
1ccyblaze
The real question is: Do ethical / green businesses scale? It will be interesting to watch this unfold in the next decade. Is this a passing fad / forever a niche market, or will it make any money.
If everyone starts organic crap tomorrow, how well will your business scale?
Can you keep up with the demand, while maintaining reasonable prices?
Use some critical thinking. Why does the status quo use _____ pesticide if being organic is so easy and awesome? It should be easier for a large MNC to use organic fertilizers because they have shitload's of money compared to Joe the organic farmer.
Maybe they are just stupid, right?
You show them how it is done. Scale your organic business and try to compete with the giants.
Oh i guess PepsiCo is sponsored by the government with all the corporate tax cuts, and they're trying to keep you down.
Good luck.