Search a title or topic

Over 20 million podcasts, powered by 

Player FM logo
Artwork

Content provided by Burnt Island Ventures. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Burnt Island Ventures or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.
Player FM - Podcast App
Go offline with the Player FM app!

Allan Adams - The Science is the Easy Bit

46:31
 
Share
 

Manage episode 504145180 series 3641875
Content provided by Burnt Island Ventures. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Burnt Island Ventures or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://podcastplayer.com/legal.

It's always worth listening to someone's ‘why’ for doing something. What is their core motivation? Are they a tourist, or are they here for the long haul? When you combine a compelling ‘why’ with the right mix of technical brilliance, charisma, kindness, and energy, you get someone who looks and sounds a lot like Allan Adams. He is the founder and CEO of Aquatic Labs, who have made amazing strides in bringing lab chemistry into real time, eradicating one of the core monitoring problems that is profoundly bad in both water operations and ocean science. This is also the only conversation where the guest's idea of a misspent youth is teaching particle physics at MIT. He is genuinely amazing. Please enjoy my conversation with Allan Adams.

Subscribe to The Fundamental Molecule here: https://www.burntislandventures.com/the-fundamental-molecule

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-fundamental-molecule/id1714287205

-----------

Allan Adams joins Tom today to discuss how witnessing dying coral reefs after the birth of his son inspired him to leave physics and found Aquatic Labs. He critiques the inefficiency of slow, lab-based water analysis and details his mission to create real-time, scalable sensors. By first optimizing industrial processes, Aquatic Labs aims to commoditize its technology, making it affordable for vital future applications like verifying ocean carbon sequestration and tracking the true impact of climate change on our most fundamental resource.

00:00 - Introduction to Water Innovation and Entrepreneurship

00:49 - Allan Adams’ Journey from Physics to Ocean Science

02:29 - Fiji Expedition and Life-Changing Career Shift

05:25 - Passing Ocean Stewardship to the Next Generation

07:29 - Global Climate and Human Impacts on Oceans

11:12 - Founding Aquatic Labs to Scale Real-Time Ocean Sensors

15:43 - Industrial Use Cases and Aligning Profit with Conservation

19:42 - Lessons from Academia and Startup Realities

22:50 - Breaking Lab Bottlenecks with Real-Time Water Sensing

26:43 - Commercialization Journey and Market Pivot Post-Election

32:05 - Hard Lessons in Sales and Building a Mission-Driven Team

37:41 - The Big Vision: Aquatic Labs’ Role in Water and Carbon Markets

43:29 - Allan’s Advice for Water Entrepreneurs

Links:

Burnt Island Ventures: https://www.burntislandventures.com/

Allan Adams: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allan-adams/

  continue reading

45 episodes

Artwork
iconShare
 
Manage episode 504145180 series 3641875
Content provided by Burnt Island Ventures. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Burnt Island Ventures or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://podcastplayer.com/legal.

It's always worth listening to someone's ‘why’ for doing something. What is their core motivation? Are they a tourist, or are they here for the long haul? When you combine a compelling ‘why’ with the right mix of technical brilliance, charisma, kindness, and energy, you get someone who looks and sounds a lot like Allan Adams. He is the founder and CEO of Aquatic Labs, who have made amazing strides in bringing lab chemistry into real time, eradicating one of the core monitoring problems that is profoundly bad in both water operations and ocean science. This is also the only conversation where the guest's idea of a misspent youth is teaching particle physics at MIT. He is genuinely amazing. Please enjoy my conversation with Allan Adams.

Subscribe to The Fundamental Molecule here: https://www.burntislandventures.com/the-fundamental-molecule

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-fundamental-molecule/id1714287205

-----------

Allan Adams joins Tom today to discuss how witnessing dying coral reefs after the birth of his son inspired him to leave physics and found Aquatic Labs. He critiques the inefficiency of slow, lab-based water analysis and details his mission to create real-time, scalable sensors. By first optimizing industrial processes, Aquatic Labs aims to commoditize its technology, making it affordable for vital future applications like verifying ocean carbon sequestration and tracking the true impact of climate change on our most fundamental resource.

00:00 - Introduction to Water Innovation and Entrepreneurship

00:49 - Allan Adams’ Journey from Physics to Ocean Science

02:29 - Fiji Expedition and Life-Changing Career Shift

05:25 - Passing Ocean Stewardship to the Next Generation

07:29 - Global Climate and Human Impacts on Oceans

11:12 - Founding Aquatic Labs to Scale Real-Time Ocean Sensors

15:43 - Industrial Use Cases and Aligning Profit with Conservation

19:42 - Lessons from Academia and Startup Realities

22:50 - Breaking Lab Bottlenecks with Real-Time Water Sensing

26:43 - Commercialization Journey and Market Pivot Post-Election

32:05 - Hard Lessons in Sales and Building a Mission-Driven Team

37:41 - The Big Vision: Aquatic Labs’ Role in Water and Carbon Markets

43:29 - Allan’s Advice for Water Entrepreneurs

Links:

Burnt Island Ventures: https://www.burntislandventures.com/

Allan Adams: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allan-adams/

  continue reading

45 episodes

All episodes

×
 
Loading …

Welcome to Player FM!

Player FM is scanning the web for high-quality podcasts for you to enjoy right now. It's the best podcast app and works on Android, iPhone, and the web. Signup to sync subscriptions across devices.

 

Copyright 2025 | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | | Copyright
Listen to this show while you explore
Play