AMBA & BGA EXCELLENCE AWARD WINNERS
How did it feel to win AMBA & BGA’s Startup of the Year Award and has it had any impact on Deep Blue’s progress since? Karl Baz: “It was a grounding moment. I’ve always believed that drowning prevention is a problem worth serious technology and seeing Deep Blue recognised for that work made it feel less like a niche engineering project and more like a legitimate product. From an executive MBA (EMBA) perspective, it also gave me a real‑world case I could bring into the classroom instead of speaking in hypotheticals.” Luke Cunningham: “For the team, the award was a strong signal that we’re working on something that matters and that operators and regulators are ready to take AI-enabled water safety seriously. The award has also made it easier to start conversations with major operators and reassure decision‑makers that our technology is credible, not experimental.” What motivated you to do an EMBA and why Bradford? Karl Baz: “My primary motivation was to fill very specific knowledge gaps: capital strategy, governance and leading through scale. For most of my career, I have learned by doing and that is still my preferred approach. I didn’t want an EMBA to replace that; instead, I wanted it to complement this approach, as a more structured toolkit. “I chose Bradford because the format is practical and flexible enough to work alongside a demanding career. That meant I could use work related to my startup as live cases, rather than writing abstract papers about companies I don’t know anything about. I also found that academic work leaks into day-to-day entrepreneurial tasks, giving me a lot of ‘aha’ moments.” What has been your single favourite part of the programme so far? Karl Baz: “The standout for me has been the applied nature of the coursework. Having to write down ongoing real-life work, defend it in class and take feedback from people with no emotional attachment to the startup forces a clarity that is hard to create on your own.”
Ambition • ISSUE 6 • 2025 31
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