When Ben Sparrow came to Joshua Zoshi in 2008 to tell him about a new desalination process he had just invented, Zoshi never questioned it would work.
As former MBA classmate at Simon Fraser University, Zoshi knew what Sparrow was capable of. Convincing corporate investors like Cenovus Energy and Teck Resources Ltd. to invest in a game-changing technology developed by two young men in their early 30s was a different story.
“Since I had worked with Ben previously, there was confidence in the technology,” Zoshi said. “I knew that it was a big idea and the two of us would have a lot of work to do to turn the idea into an actual venture.”
Born in Singapore and raised in Hong Kong, Zoshi came to Vancouver in 1989 with his parents. He grew up in North Vancouver, earned a BA degree in electrical engineering at SFU, and several years later went back to SFU to get an MBA, with a specialization in management of technology.
It was there that he met Sparrow. In 2008, when Sparrow asked him to join him in starting a new company, Zoshi was working with corporate customers to develop business and project management software.
The two young men quit their jobs and started Saltworks Technologies Inc. They entered the New Ventures BC competition and won, which gave them the startup capital to start hiring engineers.
Zoshi said the biggest challenge has been deciding how and when to move out of the R&D stage to commercialization. Saltworks has attracted a number of large corporate investors. Saltworks desalination projects are expected to be approved soon in Alberta and Australia. •
