Best The Fundamental Molecule with Tom Ferguson Podcasts (2025)

1
Will Hewes - Managing Water for a Hyperscaler 44:23

6d ago44:23

44:23

It's no secret that the so-called "hyperscalers"—Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Meta, and others—are doing their hyperscaling in the context of the AI revolution. The pace of digital infrastructure buildout is mind-boggling—about $450 billion in 2024 and with no sign of slowing. All of this has implications for the water sector. So I wanted to talk to …

1
Shane Dyer - Iteration, Hiring, and Customer Voice 41:34

21d ago41:34

41:34

It's so fun when you feel like an investment has been dragged out of your hands. At the end of our deployment of our first fund, I was adamant that our final investments had to be blindingly obvious because the next best use of funds was to give more capital to companies we already knew were amazing. So when I met Shane Dyer, CEO of Irrigreen, the …

1
Megan Glover - The Outsider Becomes the Insider 36:41

1M ago36:41

36:41

When you hear a canary singing in the coal mine, you should stop and listen. Without torturing the metaphor too far, this is how I felt when I started working with Megan Glover at 120Water in 2017 as she started to build her business. The success of a business is predicated on the talent of the people running it, and Megan was important because she…

1
Alex Fuglesang - A Deep Dive Into Desal, Literally 40:34

2M ago40:34

40:34

Sometimes things just strike you as dumb and then one day you understand why. The current model of desalination is a great example. It's something that everyone thinks that we at BIV should be invested in up to the eyeballs, and, of course, we support technologies that are pertinent to desal, but the legacy model is just a tough nut to crack. Ever …

1
Felicia Marcus: A Public Servant for our Era 47:28

2M ago47:28

47:28

Felicia Marcus is one of the most significant public servants in water, having served on the Board of Public Works for the City of LA, served as Regional Administrator for the EPA in Region 9, COO of the Trust for Public Land and Western Director of the NRDC. As if that wasn't enough, she was also the Chair of the State Water Resources Control Boar…

1
Scott Bryan - Pilots, Impact and Acceleration 42:09

3M ago42:09

42:09

I owe what I get to do every day here in a job I love to many people, but Scott Bryan really helped. In 2015, he took a chance on me to become the VP of Programming at Imagine H2O running the Accelerator, and it was a learning curve which laid the groundwork for what we do here at BIV. Scott is one of the most important figures in early stage water…

1
Paul Hauffen - The Customer Inclusion Loop 46:07

3M ago46:07

46:07

True dyed-in-the-wool software pros are a valuable breed in water and Paul Hauffen is one of the best. A two-time entrepreneur, he sold his last company Sedaru, and, in a founding hiatus, is bringing his enormous experience to bear helping companies along their trajectory, partially as a BIV Venture Partner. Paul is a very wise man indeed and his i…

1
Mudasser Iqbal - AI, Water and Institutional Memory 42:18

4M ago42:18

42:18

There is a lot going on in AI right now, from the travails of ChatGPT to the technology being essentially single handedly responsible for the surge of the so-called “Magnificent Seven” and therefore the overall S&P 500 in 2024. But what does it mean for water? Mudasser Iqbal is a career technologist and an exceptional guy, previous CEO of Visenti b…

1
Debra Coy - Earnings Calls, Inflection Points, and Perspective 41:44

5M ago41:44

41:44

Over the last decade, I've been so lucky to learn from seriously good water people, and Debra Coy is one of the best. Over four decades, she has built an extraordinary body of work from public markets analyst to XPV, the preeminent water investing firm that has been extraordinarily supportive to us, to her current independent role advising and sitt…

1
Guillaume Clairet - Operations, Rule-Breaking and Erin Brockovich 37:58

6M ago37:58

37:58

We all know about the CEO in a company. When the company is small, the CEO does everything, and when it's big, the CEO sets the vision, hires the right people and makes sure they have what they need to be successful. But what about a layer deeper than that? Guillaume Clairet is a fascinating example of a world class COO. Now he's too modest to be k…

1
Sarah Brody - From Oceans to McKinsey 35:45

7M ago35:45

35:45

It's always worth paying attention to top-level consultants as crucial advisors to their usually enormous clients. They have their finger on the pulse of the practical needs of the market and are responsive when they see critical mass in an area. Sarah Brody runs the North American water practice of McKinsey, which she has restarted in response to …

1
Michael Rigney - The Millenium Falcon of Heat Pump Water Heaters 39:06

7M ago39:06

39:06

The idea of an Overton Window when the conditions around a political issue change that in turn changes the nature of what is politically possible, is a useful one in assessing businesses. Sometimes conditions change enough in a market or sector that there is suddenly a significant window of opportunity for a founder to run through. We think that is…

1
Ifetayo Venner - Gatekeepers, Big Infrastructure, and Leadership 45:58

8M ago45:58

45:58

It's nice to have friends in high places, and in water, there are few places higher than the presidency of the Water Environment Federation, the core trade body for the wastewater industry. Ifetayo Venner and I got to know each other in 2017 when we both spoke at the opening session of WEFTEC, WEF’s annual gathering for the wastewater world, and we…

1
Mae Stevens - Building the Case for Water on Capitol Hill 37:04

8M ago37:04

37:04

If I was to write a list of all the tricks we’re missing in water, it would be a lot, and somewhere near the very top would be lobbying - engagement with government on the federal and state level. I recognize we've made a lot of progress in the last five or six years in terms of securing capital for the required infrastructure renewal in the US, bu…

1
Jorge Richardson - Water Access, Reliability, and Selfies with Bono 48:02

9M ago48:02

48:02

Jorge Richardson - Water Access, Reliability, and Selfies with Bono Sometimes businesses pop up that take a bit of time to make sense. HOPE Hydration is one of those businesses. When I first met Jorge Richardson in 2021, he was chock full of confidence, like a lot of entrepreneurs in 2021, with an admirably aggressive plan, but I couldn't quite see…

1
Matt Rosenthal - Business Beneath Our Feet 47:43

9M ago47:43

47:43

There's an old saying from east London: “Where there's muck, there's brass.” Essentially, what this means is that the management of the dirtier side of life is invariably an opportunity for a decent business. Sewers are a big business. There are a million miles of them beneath our feet in the US, and about 300 million of them need to be inspected a…

1
Peter Fiske - From Academic to Entrepreneur (and beyond) 45:25

10M ago45:25

45:25

Peter Fiske has packed a lot into his career, from being a rare successful academic to entrepreneur crossover to his current role as head of NAWI, the National Alliance for Water Innovation. He's just someone who loves building stuff, and he's done a lot from building and selling PAX Water Technologies to setting up the infrastructure for the radic…

1
Josh Mackanic - Making the Unseen Seen 33:36

10M ago33:36

33:36

It's well documented that we at Burnt Island Ventures love founder-market fit, but we really love it when it leads us to a founder and company that represents that fundamental leap forward in the operation of that market. Josh Mackanic is one of those founders. His two decades of experience in infrastructure has led him to build a platform people h…

1
Paul Vacquier - Trust, Crucibles, and Kevin Hart 54:44

11M ago54:44

54:44

We talk a lot about founder market fit. It's a crucial component of founder selection because of the simple fact that founders who really understand their industries are very unlikely to build something that people don't want. There is no gap between the perceived reality of their market and the actual reality of their market. An awful lot of ventu…

1
Matt Johnson - Constraints, Sequencing, and Finding the Fun 44:26

11M ago44:26

44:26

People do business with people they like, and Matt Johnson is one of the most likable people I have met in the last 10 years. He is a cocktail of curiosity, energy, reflectiveness, enthusiasm, and both left and right brains that come together in a genuinely compelling person. And his company is a reflection of him and his co-founder, Bibi - a pheno…

1
Nicole Neeman Brady - Intrapreneurship, Entrepreneurship and Public Service 38:32

12M ago38:32

38:32

Nicole Neeman Brady is a real standout in the world of water. An entrepreneur, an intrapreneur fund manager, mentor to countless emerging water professionals, she has packed a lot into her time in the sector. She's currently a managing director with Renewable Resources Group, where she oversaw the raising and deployment of the $927 million sustaina…

1
Steve Kloos - Thinking Right to Left 47:32

12M ago47:32

47:32

In 2015, we still used those table speakers for conference calls. Remember those? Kind of looked like a spaceship. I had just started at Imagine H2O, and the first external call I had on my second day was with someone who was very highly regarded by my colleague Ivy Nguyen, who is now a BIV IC member. Hi, Ivy! That someone was Steve Kloos, partner …

1
Dr. Reinhard Hübner, CEO at SKion 45:40

1y ago45:40

45:40

It's important to have people you look up to in the industry you choose. And by "look up to," I mean to be consistently, wildly impressed by what they're building, their intellect, their clarity of thought, their track record, and how they comport themselves. Reinhard Hübner is one of those people for me. As the CEO at SKion, he has built an undeni…

1
Anthea Sargeaunt, CEO and Co-founder of 2S Water 47:08

1y ago47:08

47:08

Anthea Sargeaunt is the CEO and Co-founder of 2S Water. Multivariate, real-time non-contact sensing is one of the holy grails of water management. Getting it right will allow all stakeholders to understand what is in their water in real time. And if we can get it really right, this knowledge will allow a host of improvements in water management, in…

1
David Stanton, CEO at Cleanwater1, Inc. 45:08

1y ago45:08

45:08

When I started Burnt Island Ventures, I needed help. I needed help of all kinds. But one of the things I needed most as a first-time fund manager was credibility in the decision-making process. Alongside Ivy Nguyen, David Stanton agreed to become a member of our investment committee, and he put a crucial brick in the BIV credibility wall. In this e…

1
Adam Tank, Co-Founder & Chief Customer Officer at Transcend 42:48

1y ago42:48

42:48

Adam Tank's trajectory, from early leadership roles at GE to his entrepreneurial endeavors, offers a wealth of profound insights into the critical trilogy of water, technology, and entrepreneurship at the heart of this podcast. His experiences navigating the dynamic landscape of the water industry, as shared here today, offer valuable perspectives …

1
John Bertrand, Co-Founder and CEO of Daupler 41:37

1y ago41:37

41:37

John Bertrand is our kind of founder, a wastewater engineer who has operated inside and outside the utility fence - he understands his market upside down. What he saw in his time in the utility world led him to wonder if the messy world of managing the constant stream of incoming data from utility customers - calls, text messages, 311 alerts, voice…

1
Tyler Henke, Co-Founder and CEO of Ziptility 39:35

1y ago39:35

39:35

People always bang on about disruption, and usually it's meaningless. Some very rare founders should bang on about disruption because they're actually doing it, but don't. I like to think it's humility, but more importantly, it's because they decided to go and solve a real, deeply felt problem in the market, usually in an overlooked sector, and hap…

1
Matt Swindle, Chairman, CEO, and Co-founder at NLine Energy, Inc. 45:11

1+ y ago45:11

45:11

Persistence is an underrated quality of the best entrepreneurs. VCs never think they underrate it, but they do. The public only ever sees the glory and fireworks when an entrepreneurial story works. But it's the application, the effort, the persistence that lies behind every great outcome that is the primary determinant of that outcome. Matt Swindl…

1
George Hawkins, Founder and CEO of Moonshot Missions 51:38

1+ y ago51:38

51:38

George Hawkins is one of those people who always elicits a smile from those who know him when he comes up in conversation, even when he's not there. The smile also comes when he is present, but the absence of the smile is telling. He is perhaps one of the most admired figures in the US water market, and possibly even in the global market, and for g…

1
Wayne Byrne, Co-Founder and Director of Method Capital and Venture Partner at Burnt Island Ventures 41:53

1+ y ago41:53

41:53

Repeat entrepreneurs are a special breed. They have essentially proved that they operate through skill and not luck, and Wayne Byrne is one of the most skillful. I met him in 2015 in San Francisco as he was picking up one of many awards for OxyMem as they built towards their acquisition by DuPont, his fourth exit in an illustrious career. He's been…

1
Christine Boyle - Founder of Valor Water Analytics and Partner at Burnt Island Ventures 40:07

1+ y ago40:07

40:07

I first met Christine Boyle about a week before I specialized in water at Imagine H20's annual winners announcement, where she was receiving the award for Best Early-stage Water Company in 2015. Fast forward almost eight years, she has been an extraordinary guide and mentor. After selling her company Valor Water Analytics to Xylem in 2018, she rema…

1
Alex Rappaport - The Power of Entrepreneurial Process 52:07

1+ y ago52:07

52:07

You don't often meet someone that you immediately know you'll remember where and when you met them for a very long time. That happened to me with my guest today, Alex Rappaport, CEO of ZwitterCo, at a conference in 2018. I was minding my own business when a coiled ball of energy introduced himself to me, and it was clear that this was a very talent…

1
Mirka Wilderer - Taking a Water Company to IPO 44:21

1+ y ago44:21

44:21

This is a podcast about entrepreneurs. Given that, our guest today might be a little unexpected. Mirka Wilderer is the archetypal corporate innovator, having spent her career with some of the biggest names in the space. Until last year, she was CEO of De Nora and led the IPO of the Italian company. Under her tenure, De Nora evolved into a force in …

1
Bessie Schwartz, Co-Founder of Floodbase 38:50

1+ y ago38:50

38:50

It's always so fun seeing great companies being built for the right reasons. Bessie Schwarz, CEO of Floodbase, has been on a mission to help the world's most vulnerable people since her early 20s. Her company is not only the flood monitoring partner of FEMA and the United Nations, she is also building a quiet revolution in the insurance industry, h…

1
Trailer 1:14

1+ y ago1:14

1:14

Welcome to The Fundamental Molecule. This show explores the intersection of water, technology and entrepreneurship. Each week, Tom Ferguson, Managing Partner of Burnt Island Ventures, interviews innovators, experts, entrepreneurs and investors in the world of water, to help us understand where this trillion dollar industry is headed. These are the …

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The Fundamental Molecule With Tom Ferguson Podcasts

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