Overview

• Company – Dolphin Labs, a CalWave spin-out developing the xNode wave-energy converter for persistent offshore power.

• Company journey – The team’s roots go back to CalWave, which first received a Department of Energy grant to prove out the xNode technology for small, anchored wave-energy systems. That early support helped validate the approach and set the stage for a larger grant award the following year, giving Dolphin Labs the resources to spin out and focus on commercialization. With those funds, they began moving the xNode from prototype into a platform tested with the U.S. Navy and ocean-observing partners.

• Why Forge – Dolphin Labs needed a simple way to manage budgets, timekeeping, vendor spend, while a small team was busy testing hardware in the water.

About Dolphin Labs

Dolphin Labs develops the xNode buoy, an anchored wave-energy converter designed to deliver up to ~1 kW of persistent power for sensors, subsea comms, and vehicle charging. The team spun out from CalWave to focus on ocean-observing and defense use cases.

The challenge

• Project accounting with hardware reality – Field work, procurement, and subcontracts made it hard to keep budgets and actuals managed appropriately.

• Timekeeping was difficult to manage – The team needed compliant timesheets without adding admin overhead.

• Financial Management, unmanaged –  Dolphin Labs had difficulty managing projects and identifying a clear financial picture.

What they needed

• A single place to see budget vs. actuals by task, with clean support docs for every charge.

• Time collection that engineers would actually use.

• A repeatable monthly close and financial clarity.

How Forge helped

• Budget to transaction matching – Forge mapped bank and card transactions directly to budget lines and tasks, so reviewers could trace every dollar in seconds.

• Effortless time management – Forge provided a slack bot that pre-filled hours by award and task, provided daily nudges, and late-time flags, which delivered a timesheets without chasing people.

• Financial Management and Projections with Ease – Forge provided data to the ability to identify monthly projects and provide financial clarity to the Dolphin Lab Board and investors.

Results

• On-time reporting with audit-ready support for every reimbursement.

• Less spreadsheet thrash. Engineers stayed focused on prototypes while finance kept a clean paper trail.

• Clear burn visibility by task and partner, which made change decisions faster.

Why it matters

Wave-energy R&D mixes hardware, vendors, and sea trials. Forge gave Dolphin Labs a simple, compliant backbone so the team could spend more time in the water and less in spreadsheets.