From Engine Room to Boardroom: RK Sethi’s Expedition Through Maritime and Tech

In this episode of The Wavemakers Podcast, we sit down with RK Sethi – marine engineer, restaurateur, startup mentor, CEO at SEAKNOTIQ Ship management and Group COO at YC Ventures – to explore the personal journey behind a multi-faceted career in maritime, technology, and entrepreneurship.

From his first days aboard a vessel to launching a restaurant in Singapore, leading shipping operations in Nigeria, and now investing in the next generation of maritime startups, RK shares lessons on navigating challenges, embracing change, and staying true to passion and purpose.

We talk about:
- The mindset that helped him pivot across industries
- Why operational excellence beats having the “perfect idea”
- His views on decarbonization, automation, and maritime tech trends
- Supporting women in the maritime sector
- And… his 100-piece timepiece collection 🕰️

If you’re passionate about innovation, leadership, or exploring the fascinating world of maritime and its people — this episode is for you!

📌 Connect with RK Sethi and YC Ventures: 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rks15/
https://ycventure.us/

Subscribe to our channel and be the first to join future coffee conversations with the maritime change makers!

🔗 Related Resources and Links:
• Follow Gordana Ilic on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gordanailicphd/
• Follow us on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BetterSea

📩 Have questions or comments? Feel free to reach out via email at gordana.ilic@bettersea.tech

Transcript

Hello and welcome to another episode of The Wavemakers Podcast where we focus on the stories of the people leading the change across maritime decarbonization and digital transformation sectors My guest today has held multiple executive positions across maritime offshore oil and gas industries and he's also very active in terms of investing in future technologies. It is my pleasure today to understand the story of RK Sethi. Welcome! Thank you thank you so much for having me here. I would like to understand what was your journey into shipping as coming from an Indian household growing up in early '90s we were tuned to either become engineers or doctors i think that's the vision of every parent who wants to give a good life to the children and same way I the focus was to get in become an engineer and but I personally had a lot of interest in technology even during my childhood and that's what's the passion was but then ended up in doing an engineering college which I got marine engineering there was no background or history of any maritime personnel in our entire family but it was again an exciting thing which led led me to believe okay maybe that's a very good interesting career path because it will help me to travel again one of the passions and said let's let's do that and then marine engineering happened during the four years we learned the nuances of the maritime industry and then went on board the ship for the first time and that's where the journey started um but then understanding from the marine engineers perspective active sailed as an engineer i thought I can do a lot better in in the industry outside with this learning and that's the journey continued with lot of other functions but then eventually that was the bread and butter to learn about the maritime industry and continue to get into it mhm and I tend to share a quick intro with these roles that people hold but the purpose of the podcast is to understand what drives the people and I wanted to ask you also in your own words how would you describe yourself yeah so basically um I would say that I'm a marine engineer turned entrepreneur turned into a passionate person about technology and which has helped me to grow my career and also helped me leverage the passion which I drive with so as a person by chance marine engineer a restauranter and a passionate person about travel technology and time pieces so yeah that that's I would describe myself as that mhm what were some of the lessons from these different chapters in your life i think the biggest lesson which I've learned is or not the lesson I would say the biggest learning has been the ability to break down complex issues into simple things which are easily understandable by the people or the team which I've worked with so whether it is um you know explaining somebody how a ship works or how technology works how how a restaurant pairing in food and whiskey works or how a watch works so you know complexities which people who do not understand because they do not have the background from that it seems complex but then I've been fortunate enough or you know passionate enough to break it down into very simple examples of how these complex issues that's that's been the biggest learning mhm and through that probably got the buying from people too absolutely that brings the confidence of the people that brings the trust on the people so that's where I have been able to switch between multiple professions also because in any workplace when you give the confidence when you give the trust to the person that this job can be done it's easier to move forward i think that that's important and now that you mentioned switching I know that it sometimes looks complicated to others or scary do you have some tip of how you decided to switch and where did that bravery come from i think the only u focus which for me was to grow personally as an individual and whatever obstacle or the challenge was presented how to find a solution to it so when I came as a marine engineer on board I felt that the challenge I have is if I continue sailing for a long period of time I wouldn't be able to explore the other skills what I have that was my first challenge so what I decided to leave the sailing life and step ashore first opportunity again came in in the commercial side of the maritime industry jumped on took the challenge head on learned about the commercial and moved forward so continued with the commercial and the technocommercial technology um career paths in the maritime industry challenge came that some friends and family decided to we want to open a restaurant in Singapore that who will leave the job and put their hand up i said it's a challenge I will take it so again as and when the challenges came in as a person there were two ways to be in your own comfort zone or take the challenge and move ahead so every time I was presented with a challenge I took that and moved ahead and I think that's been the the reason of my success as I feel that ability to take whatever comes and find a solution for it it could have been easier to stay on board again it's not a wrong choice but that's a choice I made was to shift and move ahead that that's how it is you were listening to your voice within that was calling you to absolutely and is there something that was a learning from that life on the vessel that was useful for running a restaurant 100% i think I spent about 23 months on board the vessel and what I attribute today to every aspect of my career after that and the success and failures is that 23 months because the biggest lesson I g got from there was the ability to do anything and everything whether to wash the floor whether to paint whether to you know look at the sea wet system or the engine system the ability to be hands-on with everything and not have you know hesitation to do any job helped me and when I was running the restauran one day the cleaner got sick and had to go back to the hospital immediately from the restaurant as a owner of the restaurant I cannot hire a new person everybody else was doing their job the cook was cooking the waiters so somebody had to take the responsibility i put my hand up and cleaned the dishes for that entire evening because I I didn't feel that it is it's it's anything less or more because it it it's supposed to be done so that learning came from the time being on board the ship because on the vessel you are only 15 18 20 people you cannot depend on outside help so whatever be the task you have to do it is the biggest learning I think from being on the ship i assume also that people working with you also feel that and then that builds the team spirit absolutely i think every maritime professional comes from that thought process who have sailed on the ship that whatever be the task we have to deliver it within that same finite resources we have because again you cannot be dependent on outside world when you are in the middle of the Atlantic or Pacific or anybody else so that's it no one is saving you but yourself absolutely and you mentioned quickly whether it's a failure or a success right was there any point that at that time it looked like a failure but then later on it resulted in success yes there have been instances but so for me the rest running the restaurant for two years in Singapore was my biggest success in my career so far and it has been the biggest failure also at the same time um it was due to personal reasons I had to quit the restaurant because um you know things were not well with the partners and everything but the learning at that point of time I thought it's the biggest failure for me but when after that starting my career back from I I went back to school did my masters in business started my career again and now reaching as I was a CEO in Nigeria for an offshore company coming here in Dubai you know leading the business strategy as a CEO and running a ship management company when I look back that gave that failure of not being able to continue that success gave me so much learning that now that failure becomes successful for me if I had not gone through that process I wouldn't have utilized those learning to do what I'm doing today so that that's I think it's a failure and success at the same time and now that even the story came slowly back to maritime as well i will ask you the question I ask every guest and that is if you were a vessel which vessel would you be and why interesting question I think I I would see myself as a expedition vessel oh that's a new one because I think working with cuttingedge technologies the vessel finds and discovers newer pastors always ready to take on any challenge which comes in whether waves or the sea the ocean the ice or land so as an expedition I have personally been on expedential journey in my career so if I have to be a vessel I would be a expedition vessel i think that that's and then again utilizing cutting edge technologies to find solutions which I've always been doing and then breaking down problems to find solutions so again that fits well I feel for me mhm when it comes to the cutting edge technologies are there some that you really believe in and and as they are now developing faster and faster and shaping the new age of shipping yes i think traditionally the maritime industry has been slow to adapt to what technologies are available in the market and what has happened for me I started my career during the early 2000s and the shift of what we have seen in the last 25 years has been exponential what you could imagine in 2003 4 is actually been you know implemented today even if you talk about AI or even the fuels or even the battery technologies so what I'm bullish about in the maritime world with technologies would be the transition to more automation and also the expansion in terms of greener fuels and the battery technologies i think these two three things will define the future where the maritime industry technology goes in the next let's say 20 years mhm i was at the ship tech conference last week in Dubai and I was also part of that conversation on you know what are the next 10 years of maritime future technologies going to be so for me there were two things one is the battery technologies and maybe other fuel fuel technologies as well which again is propulsion all all related to propulsion and the second one would be the IoT wherein you have more technologydriven functions on board rather than human intervention so this will define for me the next 10 years in the maritime space I believe mhm and across the founders landscape driving these technologies did you notice a trend on what makes founders successful within the maritime scope so I think irrespective of being the maritime space I think what what makes founders successful is the execution and operations we sit here we talk we discuss everybody can come up with a hundred ideas right how to translate that idea into execution and operations is is what drives or what makes um or breaks the founder of any organization a part of our vision so I'm working with YC ventures as the group CEO one of the visions we have is to create a platform wherein we invite guide mentor put resources to founders who want to set up things in the maritime technology space and coming in with that experience of driving startups helping consulting startups in all functions marketing branding technology operations the make or break for any new company or a startup today's day and age is operational excellence and if a founder or a founding team can crack the operational excellence any idea I believe can be made successful that that's what I I believe in mhm do you think that operational excellence comes from having the best product or the best technology or from being able to manage the stakeholders and bring people together to champion it it's a combination of both I think product or the technology or the service has to be has to have a market fit product market fit is important once you prove that this product or this solution is required then you go with the stakeholders in operational excellence even you know a an average product can become a huge big company if it is done right i think again I sorry go back to the examples of the restaurant when I started the restaurant we opened the restaurant in the yacht club in Sentosa Island of Singapore that place had already 25 restaurants in that two you know sections and adding another restaurant where people go and eat food was not seemingly right because you already have competition but I believe if the competition is there that means there is a need for it that means the product market fit is achieved that people come there to eat now give them the best product to eat among other products and give them the service which is unmatched so then operational excellence if you're running that in a tight space also you can create your niche so then that comes with the operational excellence but because the product demand is there you will be able to successfully differentiate yourself and prove yourself better i think another example is Apple when it came into the industry Nokia was ruling the world but then it created its own name in that space and did it better than anybody else so that that's how I feel if you can enter the space do it better than anybody else there is always a space and market for it so Mhm do you think that there is a specific culture to maritime that there's something different in selling or scaling a product within maritime versus a different business yes I think maritime industry as I said has a lot of tradition and history attached to it right and um it has been a traditional workspace it has been a traditional marketplace where a lot of selling or enterprise sales have happened through relationships in the past I think and that has been true for every industry but at the pace which the maritime industry has adopted to move from tradition to indigenity now I think that pace has increased i think there is more acceptability there is more trust on what is being presented through different mediums whether social media whether conferences whether so initially the trust building to in a product or a solution was more through relationships traditional way of running the business globally and it has moved to more technology based selling more marketplaces coming in and so the idea of trusting somebody has changed earlier it was word of mouth you know me I know you I trust you now you go onto an Instagram post an ad and reel and buy a product because you trust that somebody who's advertising on Instagram is not going to run away with your money so that ways it has so the adoption speed in the maritime space has been slow but I feel in the last 5 to 7 years that has also increased and moving from traditional ways to newer technologies and newer ways of approaching and selling has also changed which I believe is is the trend going forward so I suppose that the pace of the change and the pace at which we are pushed to make decisions speeds up this process of relationship building so before people had time to go and meet and talk and develop it whereas now due to that speed requirement they have to somehow build it remotely efficiently through media channels absolutely i think that that's that's absolutely correct yeah and what are you looking forward to in the next 15 years as I mentioned that the vision we have is to create a platform wherein so as as a company I would say rather than person we have built multiple um organizations in the maritime space ship owner ship manager commercial management crew management we have invested into ship finex and ships as the technology so as a group we have been able to create an entire resource pool that tomorrow somebody wants to come into that ecosystem we will be able to provide from being a ship owner to a technology partner to the agencies to the technical management we can provide the first set of clients across every segment of the maritime industry and that comes in from the understanding we have built it in the past personally professionally so I in the next 15 years I would say that as a part of this platform I want to groom let's say five or seven startups in the maritime technology space and hopefully have two three unicorns out of that so is that that's what the vision would be definitely and sorry no so and also as a part of that um that is on the professional scale personally you know I'm a watch collector I very passionate about travel and watches so I have a good collection and you know showcasing that to the world you know in terms of you know putting it out into the space on what what the collection ethos is about and travel new countries and I've traveled almost now 53 countries so far and the vision would be to continue traveling till I can successfully and healthwise to you know cross and see the maximum possible places across the world so now I remember that I actually brought you i and it's in the fridge but since I forgot to bring it here I will make sure to deliver it to you thank you cuz yeah that was very nice actually me my wife my daughter we all loved that when we were I told you we were traveling across Serbia and you know it was really nice i cannot believe I forgot it you're still here i'm still here now i have reasons to extend my stay but with regards to watch that that sounds like a new venture which one the watch collection no it's a personal passion it's a collection I've been doing for years now i build up a I think close to 100 watches I have with me it's again not to sell or resell it is purely the collection ethos is to have one particular time piece from every brand not have multiple things and also the differentiator in the dial of the watch and color so it's just again it comes now when I look back at it that since you know childhood the ability to understand mechanisms on how things work led me to this maritime career also that how it's always been intriguing on how a ship works right for an outside world the other day I was discussing with my daughter and we I saw my pictures of my first birthday and can you imagine that my first birthday cake first birthday was a ship who on earth would imagine that you would go into a maritime field neither my parents nor anybody and my first birthday cake is actually a cake in the shape of a ship and I was like "Wow that's that's so amazing that the manifestation started when I was one year old." So that is unbelievable and also some of these early childhood experiences shape our decisions later and we not even aware of it absolutely i think and that same thing happened with the watches mhm when I now look back and speak to my parents and you were always intrigued to buy a watch but a very different looking watch when I was I think the first second watches during my early childhood maybe 15 16 years old said you never went for a normal regular watch but you wanted something very different I said okay maybe that's why this watch collection hobby developed in my mind during that time and I continue so yeah it's it's been very passionate I've been thinking of starting no I have an Instagram account with over 12,000 followers on on my watch channel on my Instagram but which one is it maybe someone would like to yeah it's called RKS TI.me rk is time so but always have been a thought to start a YouTube channel maybe someday when when I sit and relax and then I can shoot the videos yes or maybe you can use the venue and Absolutely that is very interesting i was always wondering how come I ended up in shipping but maybe I need to revisit my old childhood pictures old pictures yes absolutely what would be your advice to entrepreneurs coming into shipping now when we talked about this journey of the next 15 years and let's say someone comes to you how would you equip them in a short amount of time or spill something i've been doing a lot of mentorship to young students who come out from the college from maritime colleges and they come back with a lot of ideas and the only advice which I give them is focus on the idea ideas are always there as I said you you can have the worst product or the best product the idea is always there with a lot of people how to execute and deliver is going to make or break it i think that's the single oneliner I always tell them execution is the key any idea can be made successful that's as simple as it gets and I think the focus obviously the dedication and not want what I've seen in my experience right now is people in today's world want the success to come at a very fast pace right so the patience levels are less i think patience is also one of the virtues which is very important to be successful i think I sit here today after 25 years of you know grinding through all different industries and functions and I'm able to sit and talk today because of that grind and patience i think that is so execution and patience in simplest of terms is is what I believe it is important the digital portal is responsible for that impatience yes absolutely the attention span has gone down quite a lot so yes and I always want to give a chance to my guests as well to be on the seat of asking questions so I would like to pass over the torch i think it comes very interesting question which popped into my mind during our conversation right now because we had a conversation about in the last forum I was talking about women in the maritime industry so all the panelists were asked that what is your view of how do we promote more women in this industry you being there already how do you see that and then I will give you my thought but then first I want to hear from you that what do you think about being a woman in this industry and how do you see what's the growth of women in the industry and how can we make it happen as being a part of the industry mhm i tend to also have this types of conversations with most of the women that I interview it just comes naturally um and I have been in that position where I am the only woman in the room with many engineers and also I've been in a company that has pretty diverse employee let's say structure i also noticed that there are segregations when it comes to what roles women choose for example within sustainability I think because we have this nurturing element and tend to choose ESG interest so some of this I think it's related just to the topic and with that now becoming a more evolving topic um I do believe that more women will have the interest to join shipping as well and that was my case I only became interested in shipping when it met decarbonization other than that I have felt that my opinion mattered every time I was in a room with colleagues who were men and they also gave me always space to speak my mind and valued my opinion i do think that there is a difference to how we approach problem solving and there's a different perspective whereas um I rely more onto feeling and sensations and dynamics of people and I try to kind of go for the vision and then come back to okay how to make it happen whereas I noticed that some of the engineering colleagues approach it from a very structured point of view and step by step and this is just something to have in mind when there are mixed conversations that I do think that the magic lies when these two meet in the center point right but that is probably the the only difference but that's that's true what what I wanted to ask or listen from you is that you you chose it because of a particular reason or how you were able to think that okay this the industry maritime industry would be a good fit for you mhm where did that thought come from yeah so initially I had been invited to join shipping but I said I know nothing about it i don't think this is really my peak interest and then when MEK announced that their decarbonization strategy and I was invited to join them to had a innovation portfolio this is where I learned that shipping has such a big impact on the world i think just because it became visible in numbers also how much of the goods are transported through shipping and also the emissions that are related to it and then when I learned that I could have quite an impact that is where my interest in shipping was it was functional right so you know what my thought was and it is contrary or different from a lot of people I have spoken in the maritime industry indry i believe that being a part of the maritime industry we do not glamorize or promote the maritime industry too much to our own kids right i have a 12-year-old daughter when she speaks to me I try to put the thought of that this is also an industry where you can look into a career any function it could be a marketing function it could be an ESG function or an engineering function but an industry exists again coming from my own childhood I till the time I joined the maritime college I had no idea of a maritime industry being existing so I feel that as parents who are already in this industry if we promote this to our own kids who see it and glamorize it enough for them to be a part of the industry especially the girls then there would be a lot more uptake in the generation coming in to see this as a viable future for them it should not happen by chance or by function but by choice mhm and the more like somebody wants there are a lot of people today who wants to become media personalities because it's a glamorized industry there are a lot of people who want to become doctors because we feel it's a noble profession it's a very highpaying profession so as part of the maritime industry I always promote among our peers that you should glamorize this industry so that the generations coming in should see that as a probable career path rather than by chance it should become by choice that's what I I I feel that that's how we can have more women coming into the industry i do agree with you that more visibility is needed right and this goes back to our discussion before we started recording about marketing it is just that it's not as visible for so many of us and even to me and I started paying attention to it because one of my friends started a company within the space and he was he's one of my best friends but until then I was okay I would sit ships but it's just not close enough and other things catch your attention more absolutely but it is true also that for every role that there is in the world it's maybe even more interesting to take it up within a maritime because there's additional element of complexity and different factors that it just gives you a different vision or a different perspective of how things happen right i mean if you go into the media industry you would see things from a very different perspective if you go into the defense or the railways or you know the um different the engineering side the medical side so maritime industry itself has so many facets to it it's not only about the ship right how support services we are talking today you know it's again a part of the industry itself right but that how that has changed and being accepted it's it's important and there is there is a space for everything we provide food to the people who are on board so it's nothing related to the maritime but the logistics of supplying food and supplies to people on board for consumption is an industry in itself and that has evolved amazingly i I've I've been a part of that for a short time that there were companies who were managing technical managing 50 100 ships initially they were supplying it on call through the port through the agents but then it became an industry in itself that they had a separate team only managing the food and supplies to the vessel like how the airline industry works you have air chefs right where these companies are specialized to provide food on the airplanes and the flights same way that's an industry within the maritime industry itself mhm m so you don't need to be in the maritime industry but you can actually be a part of that industry and deliver services to the maritime industry yes so that that's how it is related to the seafares the transportation that's a really big industry like the travel and how do you manage people getting on and off and even the well-being so all these areas that I think that women are very much into yes we have you know the there's a company called Stag Marine and they are doing a lot on the mental health of the seafarers they are very closely associated with us and the partners with us and the way there a lot of women in that team who drive that aspect of the business to understand the psyche of the seafarers when they come offshore what to give so again it's it's another industry within an industry I feel yes well with that I hope that we did inspire some or many hopefully many that's true and that they will now look it up and find a place for themselves here as well as a organization has said as YC ventures group we are happy to meet discuss mentor guide people who want to establish themselves in this industry and give them the right guidance resources mentorship and you know the knowhow and the clients itself so please feel free and have like just connect with us and you know we we can discuss that's what I would like to say the I will place links in the description of the episode so that they can find and thank you very much for being my guest today and for sharing this conversation thank you so much for inviting me it was a pleasure talking to you likewise thank you