This month has seen the sector buzzing about a new social media platform dedicated exclusively to maritime workers. The Hood, founded by Cyprus-based entrepreneur Josephine Le, has set out to bring all maritime professionals under one roof where they will be able to network, job hunt, chat with colleagues, or share ideas and experiences. Le started off as a crewing superintendent at the Cyprus-based shipmanager Columbia Group six years ago, eventually rising to the position of crewing fleet manager and then senior business development manager, where she worked closely with many different generations and backgrounds. Le tells Splash Extra that during that time, she could not help but notice how disconnected the maritime community was on many levels: between the companies and the workforce, between generations, between nationalities, etc. “During the pandemic, seafarers often felt isolated, and many felt invisible in the industry. The recruitment practices are still problematic, and the lack of digitalisation is on an industry-wide scale, while welfare initiatives and career options for seafarers, including women, are not reaching beyond the vessels,” she says. The Hood platform already had hundreds of users signed up, but with the launch of the mobile app this month, Le expects this number to grow rapidly every day. She says the company, backed by an unnamed venture capital firm, plans to have at least 100,000 users on the platform next year and bring the concept to worldwide maritime communities and universities, while in the next three years, the hope is to have all seafarers and maritime professionals on the app building “a vibrant and diverse community”. The Hood is available on the App Store and Google Play this year, while the web version will be ready in the first quarter of 2025. All maritime professionals, including seafarers and office personnel, are free to join. The maritime sector-exclusive platform offers a set of tools to assist users on their career journey. “No other platform will provide users with a customised sea service application, giving them a separate social/professional profile, allowing them to share access to their CV and all licenses and documents with a recruiter at the click of a button, and without sending these details via email or other mobile apps,” Le says. The Hood also offers free membership to all businesses that offer valuable resources to its users, such as news and content writers, maritime academies, training services, and charitable organisations. Others will get a limited free membership from February to November 2025 to help build their corporate branding. For those who wish to use a recruitment platform, there will be an annual subscription fee, which will allow the platform’s users to run their own job portal and recruitment campaigns. “Imagine this: when a seafarer or maritime worker goes to a job fair or recruitment agency, they will only require a QR code. This would provide recruiters with access to their professional profile on the Hood, and all communication would be done on the app itself without exchanging emails or mobile phone details. Simple, secure, safe and convenient,” Le explains. The Hood is also the only social media platform that promises to donate 20% of its profits to support the welfare and families of seafarers who are its members. “I believe there is a lot more to this industry, and with a well-connected, well-integrated community, we can drive change, attract younger