Growing up in South Florida, Roberto Lama spent as much time underwater as he did on land. Surfing, diving, and exploring reefs gave him a love for the ocean – and a front-row seat to its decline.
“I felt like I really needed to be working on the issue I cared about the most,” Lama told Refresh Miami. “Corals were dying, bleaching events were happening, and I couldn’t just sit by.”
Having studied bioengineering and software at Stanford, Lama was working in biotech when he decided to pivot. Instead of developing new lab tools, he launched Endur, a Palm Beach-based startup focused on a different barrier: the red tape that keeps solutions from reaching the ocean in the first place.
Permitting, Lama explained, is one of the biggest bottlenecks for coastal projects. Approvals to deploy even simple structures like seawalls can take months or years, delaying innovation.
“It’s not always a technology issue,” he said. “It’s a deployment issue. We have solutions, but they get stuck in regulatory processes.”
Endur’s answer is a platform designed to streamline the permitting maze. Lama described it as a kind of TurboTax for ocean projects: helping innovators, consultants, municipalities, and ports navigate complex requirements while making regulators’ jobs easier.
“We’re not bypassing safeguards,” he said. “We’re making it faster and more efficient for everyone.”
The platform could serve a wide range of users. Startups testing new technologies face heavy scrutiny since regulators don’t yet know how those solutions will affect the environment long term. Consultants can use Endur to cut down on paperwork and spend more time applying their expertise. Cities and ports can build resiliency plans backed by a system that standardizes workflows across multiple projects.
There’s also an investor angle. Lama pointed out that regulatory risk can deter capital. By smoothing out approvals, Endur could help attract more funding into the BlueTech sector.
For now, Lama is building the company largely on his own, with his brother, Nicolas, advising on legal frameworks. But the long-term vision is bigger: a platform that not only manages permits but also supports marine spatial planning – deciding how different parts of the ocean should be used, from aquaculture to renewable energy to conservation. He envisions Endur eventually providing the digital backbone for marine testing sites across the country. Lama was recently selected to be part of Seaworthy Collective’s upcoming fall cohort.
South Florida, Lama believes, is the right place to build Endur. “Floridians understand the value of the ocean more than most,” he said. “We’re surrounded by it, and we see both its beauty and its fragility every day.”
That proximity to the ocean’s problems also creates momentum for solutions. South Florida’s BlueTech community is growing, drawing together startups, universities, and government programs.
“Nothing gets built in isolation,” Lama said. “It’s exciting to be part of a community where people want to protect the environment and build resilience for the future.”
For Lama, it’s also personal. Those early dives showed him the magic of the ocean. Building Endur is his way of ensuring the next generation can experience the same.
This story was originally published by Refresh Miami, a WLRN News partner. Refresh Miami is the oldest and largest tech and startup community in Miami with over 16,000 members.
