10 Observations from Posidonia 2026: What Digital Maritime Leaders Should Be Thinking About

Chris Slade and the team have just returned from a fantastic week attending Posidonia 2026 in Athens.

One thing became clear to the team from this year’s event: digital transformation in maritime is accelerating, but many of the challenges facing software companies today are not technology problems. They are people, product, and go-to-market problems.

Read Managing Director Chris Slade’s top 10 observations from Posidonia and the areas he believes Digital Maritime leaders should be thinking about in relation to these below.

1. GTM Strategy Continues to Be the Biggest Challenge

Many digital maritime businesses are still struggling to scale commercially.

One recurring theme was hiring leaders from the wrong stage of growth. Success in a mature business does not automatically translate into success in an early-stage SaaS company.

The key question every founder should ask is:

Did this person build the go-to-market function, or did they inherit one that was already working?

The skills required to create repeatable revenue are very different from those required to manage an established sales organisation.

2. Churn Remains the Silent Killer

Most maritime SaaS businesses focus heavily on winning new logos.

The reality is that churn destroys growth.

Every customer lost increases the pressure on sales teams, impacts valuations, and often highlights underlying product or customer success issues.

The best companies at Posidonia weren’t talking about acquisition alone. They were obsessed with retention.

3. Product Customisation Creates Long-Term Challenges

Customisation is often necessary to win strategic customers.

However, if a custom feature delivers value to one customer, there is a strong argument that it should be evaluated for inclusion within the core product roadmap.

Too many platforms become difficult to scale because they evolve into a collection of bespoke customer requests rather than a unified product strategy.

4. Cloud Migration Is Easier in Theory Than Reality

Many established maritime organisations are still attempting to move legacy customers onto modern cloud-based platforms.

The challenge?

Years of customisation, unique workflows, and deeply embedded processes.

Technology is often the easy part. Change management and customer adoption are where the real work begins.

5. Selling Maritime Startups Is Unlike Any Other Sales Role

One of the biggest misconceptions in hiring is assuming that startup sales roles are similar to enterprise sales positions.

They are not.

In an early-stage maritime SaaS company, commercial teams are often:

• Selling a vision rather than a finished product
• Acting as the voice of the customer
• Influencing product development
• Building pricing models and sales playbooks
• Helping define market positioning

In many cases, they are selling solutions that are still being built.

That requires a very different type of commercial leader.

6. M&A Integration Is More Complex Than It Appears

There is significant consolidation taking place across maritime technology.

However, when you acquire a company, you are often acquiring years of previous acquisitions, integrations, technology stacks, cultures, and processes.

The real question isn’t simply:

How many companies have you acquired?

It’s:

How successfully have those acquisitions been integrated?

Long-term value creation comes from integration, not acquisition volume.

7. AI Talent Rarely Comes from Maritime

One of the hottest topics at Posidonia was AI.

The challenge for maritime companies is that the best AI engineers, data scientists, and machine learning specialists are rarely sitting inside the maritime ecosystem.

Companies looking to build world-class AI capabilities must find ways to attract talent from outside the sector while helping them understand the unique challenges of maritime operations.

The talent already exists. The challenge is knowing where to find it and how to attract it.

8. The Platform Winners Are Starting to Emerge

Customers increasingly want fewer vendors, not more.

The direction of travel seems clear.

The winners will be the platforms capable of delivering an integrated solution across multiple operational workflows rather than point solutions focused on individual problems.

From voyage optimisation and routing through to bunkering, compliance, analytics, and port operations, customers are looking for connected ecosystems rather than disconnected tools.

9. Maritime Is Becoming a Technology Industry

The conversations at Posidonia felt very different from even a few years ago.

Technology is no longer supporting the industry.

Technology is becoming the industry.

The most ambitious businesses are thinking like SaaS companies first and maritime companies second.

10. Talent Will Be the Ultimate Differentiator

Technology can be copied.

Capital can be raised.

Products can evolve.

The one thing that remains difficult to replicate is great people.

The businesses that attract, develop, and retain the best talent will be the businesses that define the next decade of digital maritime.

Why Executive Integrity?

Digital maritime sits at the intersection of shipping and technology.

Building high-performing teams requires access to both worlds.

Our team brings that perspective.

Steve Pikett brings more than 20 years of technology recruitment experience, including extensive exposure to the world’s leading technology ecosystems. He understands how to attract talent from outside maritime and build high-performing technical teams.

Adam Thaxter Adam Thaxter has become one of the most recognised go-to-market recruiters in digital maritime, helping businesses build commercial functions across sales, marketing, customer success, and revenue leadership.

As digital maritime continues to evolve, the companies that win will be those capable of accessing talent beyond traditional industry boundaries while retaining the sector expertise needed to execute.

That’s where we help.