What’s new with Blue Comply? That’s the question I asked Emmy and Troy Vareberg, the co-founders of Vareberg Engineering who are taking a big leap into the startup world with their newest venture called—you guessed it—Blue Comply.
And we really do mean a leap. Recently, the husband-wife duo were crowned winners of the Regional Pitch Competition for the Startup World Cup for their IoT Methane Sensing Apparatus, which was created to continuously monitor the thief hatch on oil and gas storage tanks. By winning the Regional Pitch Competition, they were granted the opportunity to pitch at the global event, which took place October 2-4 in San Francisco.
Although they didn’t win the global competition, we have a feeling that this won’t be the last time we hear about Blue Comply.
From Service to Product
“This whole business is so different from Vareberg Engineering,” Emmy said.
The shift from a service-oriented company to developing a new product has brought them into uncharted waters.
“With Vareberg Engineering, we get out of it exactly what we put into it. It’s just our time, right? That’s what we get to build from. But with this product, it’s a completely different beast—a whole new learning process for us. We have never had to do anything like this before,” Troy said.
“With Vareberg Engineering, we’re out there selling ourselves—our long-standing expertise,” Troy said. “But with Blue Comply, we’re out there selling a product or an idea to someone, and that’s a bit harder. Selling an idea and then backing it up with proof that we have what it takes to get that idea to the finish line is a different kind of challenge.”
Despite the challenges, the company remains optimistic through their support from funding within North Dakota. “The Oil and Gas Research Council in the state is actually how we got this all started,” Emmy said. “We received a matching grant from them in June of 2022, which wrapped up this May. We went back to them in July, and they awarded us a second matching grant. Without that, we probably wouldn’t be even this far—if anywhere.”
Taking on the Competition
Their efforts culminated in competing in the Startup World Cup in San Francisco—a nerve-wracking experience.
“I’m not a public speaker—it’s not my comfort zone, but you know, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do,” Troy said. “It was fun, though, to be involved and meet all the other people.”
