As you may have noticed, I really like unusual routes into entrepreneurship, where someone with an unfair advantage in and around some area of the world decides to solve something dumb within it. Ravi Kurani is ground zero for that paradigm - the scion of the pool monarchy of Southern California. He will explain. He went from shop assistant to pool boy to impact investor to founder to exited founder, and is now bringing his considerable talents to the roll-up game as well as the streets of New York. He's also the host of the podcast Liquid Assets, which is excellent. So this is me shamelessly trying to steal his tricks. One of my favorite things about Ravi is his insistence on understanding the reality of markets and his commitment to the work it takes to get there. He's awesome. Please enjoy my conversation with Ravi Kurani.

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

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Ravi Kurani is the President of Standard Water Corp, a company digitizing the world’s most critical asset. A mechanical engineer who started as a pool boy, he founded Sutro, a robotic water diagnostics platform, which was acquired in 2019. He is a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, holds three patents in water monitoring, co-authored a book on hardware development, and hosts the Liquid Assets podcast. Ravi is passionate about building products that help society and the environment.

00:00 - Ravi Kurani’s Journey From Pool Boy to Water Tech Founder

02:57 - Building Sutro and the Case for Affordable Water Sensors

05:04 - Why Storytelling Drives Startup Funding and Distribution

13:13 - Pivoting Into the Pool Industry to Validate Water Technology

15:59 - Designing Human-Centered Hardware for Pool Owners

18:12 - Scaling a Hardware Startup From Prototype to Global Shipping

22:21 - Rolling Up Pool Service Companies With AI and Field Tech Tools

28:37 - Why Wastewater Reuse Is the Next Big Water Opportunity

29:53 - Private Equity vs Venture Capital in Water Innovation

31:18 - Liquid Assets: Explaining Water to a Broader Audience

39:36 - The Most Important Lesson for Water Entrepreneurs: Know Your Customer

Links:

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

Ravi Kurani: https://ravikurani.com/

Standard Water Corp: https://www.standardwater.co/

Liquid Assets: https://www.liquidassets.cc/

SM Material

Key Takeaways:

"Storytelling is key. Founders often have great tech but struggle to convey it. You need to distill your message into a compelling story."

"Live in your user's shoes. Understand their needs and behavior. That's the secret to creating a product that truly resonates.”

"In hardware, problems are inevitable. Water gets everywhere, and electronics hate water. You must anticipate and solve these issues."

"The Silver Tsunami is real. Older experts are retiring, and there's a shortage of younger replacements. We need to transfer knowledge effectively."

"The Feynman curve shows that true mastery allows for simplicity. But getting there is a knife fight."

One of the things that is most easily overlooked in water is just how big it is. And we mean Lake Michigan and the Nile and the Amazon basin and all the big things, but cash flow is just as big, if not bigger than actual flows. And all that cash needs to be managed. As you will hear, $500 billion a year flows through US utilities of all stripes alone, coming from customers, governments, NGOs and other sources into those utilities, then out to employees, service providers, utilities, chemical suppliers, consultants, all day, every day. And that half trillion dollars is handled through software that is problematic. Old, expensive, inflexible, poorly designed, especially in under-resourced utilities.

Nobody has successfully built the software to help them manage these flows as efficiently as possible. Nobody until Barrett Hansen and the team at Current arrived to build a platform to solve one of the more obvious and vital workflows in utility management, aiming squarely at those under resourced utilities. Now live with 60 customers, Current is up there with the fastest growing companies we have backed and Barrett is a very smart, very humble guy. I have a soft spot for people who went to graduate school in Cambridge - Allston actually.

Please enjoy my conversation with Barrett Hansen.

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

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Barrett Hansen is the Co-Founder and CEO of Current, a cloud-native utility billing and payments platform purpose-built for small to mid-sized water utilities. An innovative problem solver with a decade of experience in tech and analytics, he combines technical strengths in data analysis, predictive modeling, and visualization with operational expertise and a strategic mindset. Previously, Barrett delivered data-driven solutions in Silicon Valley across fintech, B2B SaaS, and sales operations. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

00:00 - Introduction

02:20 - Utility SaaS Opportunity in Water Industry

03:48 - Why Utility Billing Is Still Manual

06:43 - Finding Startup Ideas in Boring Industries

09:52 - How to Start a Vertical SaaS Business

13:31 - How to Get Your First Customers

17:09 - Pain vs Buying Triggers in B2B Sales

18:52 - Cold Calling Strategy That Actually Works

21:01 - How to Build a Winning SaaS MVP

25:31 - Founder Led Sales for Early Startups

27:37 - SaaS Pricing Strategy for Utilities

29:51 - Customer Onboarding and Retention Strategy

34:29 - How to Build Trust in B2B SaaS

37:04 - Expanding Into Fintech and Payments

40:34 - Using Data Analytics for Utility Insights

44:07 - Why Boring Startups Can Win Big

Links:

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

Barrett Hansen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barrett-hansen/

Current Software: https://www.currentsoftware.app/

SM Material

Key Takeaways:

"$500 billion a year goes through the US utility market, whether it's electric, gas or water. I think global will probably be about 10 times that."

"Utilities, unlike other industries, they're not competitive. If anything, they're extremely collaborative. They share information."

"We're data rich, insight poor. And so that's the role that we think we can play is to kind of help connect the dots there."

Water is one of those sectors that hides in plain sight — essential, enormous, and quietly full of complexity — and very few people have done more over the last decade to help the world take it seriously than Tom Ferguson. From shaping the earliest conversations around water risk, to building global platforms for entrepreneurs through Imagine H2O, to founding Burnt Island Ventures as the first venture firm dedicated exclusively to water, Tom has been a consistent force in defining what this industry can become. Milestones are useful moments to pause and ask first-principle questions, and for the 50th episode of The Fundamental Molecule, Steve Kloos and I decided to do something special - flip the mic. This episode covers a lot of ground — including Charlie Munger, fat tails, Culture Bees, the Burnt Island and keeping the main thing the main thing. Please enjoy our conversation with Tom Ferguson.

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

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Tom Ferguson is the Founder and Managing Partner of Burnt Island Ventures. With a decade in water and startups, he previously led Imagine H2O’s global programming, where companies raised $600M+ under his tenure. Tom holds an MA from the University of Edinburgh and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Christine Boyle is a Partner at Burnt Island Ventures. A veteran entrepreneur, she founded Valor Water Analytics and led its sale to Xylem in 2018, where she later served as VP of Digital Product Development. She is also the Chair of the Cal-Nevada American Water Works Association.

Steve Kloos is a Partner at Burnt Island Ventures. An experienced investor and leader, his background includes pivotal roles at GE Water and True North Venture Partners. He is the founding board chair of Current Water and a longtime advisor to Imagine H2O, specializing in water and climate tech.

00:00 - Water Tech and Entrepreneurship Trends

01:40 - Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing

03:43 - Spot the Series B Funding Gap

06:31 - Scale from Seed to Growth Investing

09:19 - Win in Water with Better Storytelling

13:44 - Use Acting Skills for Founder Leadership

16:43 - Build a Fat Tailed Water VC Portfolio

21:05 - Use Munger Mental Models to Invest Smarter

25:43 - Build Culture Beats that Drive Behavior

26:53 - Hire for Learning Speed

33:03 - Choose a Memorable Fund Name

36:22 - Build a Water Specialist Mega Fund

40:29 - Pick the Right Water Startup Problem

Links:

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

Tom Ferguson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-ferguson-biv/

Christine Boyle: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cboyle/

Steve Kloos: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-kloos-4136bb3/

SM Material

Key Takeaways:

"Stories are powerful. They help us make sense of the world. They shape meaning and understanding."

"Find people who...

Accurate, informed, contextualized, sophisticated research is at the heart of the development of any industry because it allows the players, from CEOs to investors to entrepreneurs, to make better decisions. Since inception in 2011 as O2 Environmental, Paul O'Callaghan and BlueTech Research have been at the forefront of getting pretty much all the key figures in our industry the information they need when they need it.

Paul is a wonderful guy, thoughtful, insightful, a magpie for ideas that usually don’t coexist, and an exceptional entrepreneur in more ways than one. There aren’t many conversations that feature Tolstoy, Chekhov, Matt Damon, Liam Neeson, BIV Partner Steve Kloos, Glen Hansard, David Bowie, and the Beatles. Please enjoy my conversation with Paul O'Callaghan.

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

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Paul O’Callaghan is a scientist, researcher, and documentary producer focused on sustainable water technologies. As founder of O₂ Environmental and CEO of BlueTech Research, he provides global intelligence on water innovation. Paul holds a PhD from Wageningen University, where he developed the WaTA model and co-authored The Dynamics of Water Innovation. He is the executive producer of the documentaries Brave Blue World and Our Blue World. In 2025, he received the Stroud Award for Freshwater Excellence for his contributions to water research and public communication.

00:00 - Introduction

02:00 - What “Disruptive Innovation” Really Means in Water

04:19 - Why Traditional Disruption Models Fail in Regulated Water Markets

06:16 - How to Evaluate Water Startups

08:25 - The 12-16 Year Reality of Building a Water Company

10:49 - Speeding Up Commercialization Without Breaking the System

12:47 - Hardware vs Software in Water

16:20 - Building BlueTech Research

25:40 - Trust, Data, and AI

28:24 - Storytelling as Strategy

31:36 - Brave Blue World

36:10 - Making Water a Universal Human Story

44:49 - One Rule for Water Entrepreneurs

Links:

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

Paul O’Callaghan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/o2environmental/

BlueTech Research: https://www.bluetechresearch.com/

SM Material

Key Takeaways:

"Innovation theories are helpful. They provide frameworks to analyze emerging technologies."

"Disruptive innovation is often misunderstood. It's not just about change."

"In water, a low-end innovation won't work. You can't compromise on drinking water standards."

"The entrepreneur's role is to imagine what doesn't exist and make it real for others."

"In technology innovation, the math and science matter. Fundamentals must stack up."

"The water sector is still emerging. We're just starting to generate critical data."

"Travel opens your mind. It teaches there are many ways to see and be in the world."

"Music lets you participate without speaking. It's a universal language."

"Trust is...

Taking the reins at a company is no small thing, especially when your predecessor in the CEO role was someone as exceptional as Julie Mullen. Julie had built the basis for Aclarity, and following her was not for the faint of heart.

Mike Shaw is not faint of heart. He is an exceptional technical and product leader with fascinating experiences at Evoqua and Nanostone, and he has been leading the development of the Aclarity product up to its first commercial deployments late last year. Now officially in the CEO role - congratulations, Mike - I wanted to hear how he reflected on his journey, the transition from a technical leader to a company leader, and talk about the development of the PFAS market, among many other things, including a certain Manchester United manager. Please enjoy my conversation with the CEO of Aclarity, Mike Shaw.

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

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Mike Shaw has two decades of water industry expertise across product management, engineering, and R&D. Before joining Aclarity, he was VP of Product at Nanostone Water, leading global application engineering and innovation strategy. Mike also spent 12 years at Evoqua Water Technologies, most recently as Director of Process and Technology, where he managed international teams to integrate advanced technologies into the company’s portfolio. A specialist in global water treatment implementation, Mike holds a chemical engineering degree from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell.

00:00 - Introduction

00:49 - Taking Over as CEO at Aclarity After Julie Mullen

01:50 - Aligning Technical and Commercial Teams Around the Real Customer Problem

04:21 - Using Techno-Economic Analysis to Prove Product–Market Fit

12:25 - Shifting From Engineering Leader to CEO

16:14 - Building a Water-Tech Career Path

22:02 - Why Startups Win for Speed

24:17 - Iterating Toward Breakthroughs

29:13 - Solving PFAS Destruction

32:09 - How PFAS Customers Decide

35:47 - Where the PFAS Market Is Headed

45:35 - Water Entrepreneur Advice

Links:

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

Mike Shaw: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-shaw-02172a16/

Aclarity: https://www.aclaritywater.com/

SM Material

Key Takeaways:

"Technical people often drift from the problem. A tiny mistake can lead you off course."

"Good techno-economic evaluation means measuring a problem and assessing the solution's ability to address it."

"Honest assessment of your solution and competition is crucial. Bias doesn't help anyone."

"Having a product management function prevents silos and keeps the team aligned."

"Surround yourself with diverse people. You need pessimists, optimists, detail-oriented, and big thinkers."

"It's not about speed, it's about velocity. Direction of travel really matters."

"Constantly second guess yourself. Test your hypothesis. Surround yourself with people who will challenge you."

My guest today is the exceptional Christopher Gasson. As the owner of Global Water Intelligence, he has built a business that he bought for £17,000 and less than 150 subscribers to the indispensable knowledge source for people in this $1.6T business of water. Those of you who read his opinion columns in GWI know that this is a man not short of opinion, and I think that is an enormous service in a sector that suffers from a lack of people willing to both speak their mind with clarity and be controversial. He thinks as clearly as anyone I have met about water as a business and brings decades of perspective to how he communicates about where the market, and his market, is moving today, from semiconductors and AI to the bond markets and the potential for utility privatization in an era of government indebtedness. He's just right. Please enjoy my conversation with the excellent Christopher Gasson.

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

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Christopher Gasson is the owner of Global Water Intelligence (GWI) and a revered authority on water finance. Since acquiring GWI in 2002, he has built the pre-eminent source of information for the $1.6T water industry, including products like DesalData and the Global Water Summit. An Oxford graduate in Politics and Economics, Christopher combines a background in investment banking with a distinctive voice as a columnist. Known as the "water industry torchbearer," he is also a co-founder of the Global Water Leaders Group and Leading Utilities of the World.

00:00 – Introducing Christopher Gasson

02:10 – Why Christopher Bought GWI and How the Market Collapsed

04:01 – The Pivot to Desalination and the Rise of Global Water Markets

07:05 – Why Industrial Water and Ultra Pure Systems Became the Big Bet

10:42 – How AI, Data Centers and Chip Fabs Reshape Water Demand

15:37 – Hyperscalers, Community Water Partnerships and Public Backlash

17:13 – Extreme Weather, Climate Disruption and NASA’s Scariest Chart

22:19 – How Capital Markets Are Waking Up to Water Investment

27:56 – What the UK Got Wrong About Water Privatization

30:25 – Why Finance Literacy Gives Water Leaders a Strategic Edge

33:10 – What Makes Powerful Commentary and Water Thought Leadership

36:15 – How AI Is Transforming GWI and Water Market Intelligence

39:51 – GWI’s Future as a Global Water Tech Platform

42:22 – Biggest Contrarian Wins and Misses in Water Innovation

47:32 – Essential Advice for Every Water Entrepreneur

Links:

Christopher Gasson

Global Water Intelligence

SM Material

Key Takeaways:

"The water industry is capital hungry. For every dollar in revenue, you need $7 in capital."

"Droughts and floods are increasing with temperature rise. We need agile solutions."

"The public sector owns underperforming water assets. Private sector participation is key."

"Understanding physics is crucial in water technology. Overlooking it leads to failures."

"Water infrastructure needs flexible solutions. Fixed solutions to variable problems don't work."

You may know by now that I get pretty excited when people walk through the figurative BIV door with an understanding of reality that is virtually impossible to diagnose from the outside. From the moment I met Dylan Wolff and he explained what he was up to, I couldn't believe what he was solving. We will go into some depth as to what he's building at CNSRV, but it's the vehicle for the deletion of a stunning quantity of waterway as well as the provision of a multi layered, deeply practical and financial set of value propositions, all of which drop straight to their customers’ bottom line. Once you see it, you really can't unsee it. Dylan also happens to be, as we say back home, a really lovely bloke to spend time with. Please enjoy my conversation with Dylan Wolff.

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

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Dylan Wolff is the Founder & CEO of CNSRV, a startup transforming commercial kitchen sustainability. A product developer driven by California’s water crisis, Wolff identified a hidden source of waste: running faucets to defrost food. He built the CNSRV DC-O2, a device that saves 98% of water and halves prep time. Resilience has defined his journey; weathering the COVID-19 industry shutdown, he bootstrapped development and secured groundbreaking rebates from water districts. Today, his tech is used by industry leaders, proving environmental impact drives financial ROI.

00:00 - Introducing CNSRV and the Future of Water Tech

00:49 - Exposing Hidden Water Waste in Commercial Kitchens

02:36 - How Dylan Discovered the Defrosting Problem

04:02 - Validating a Silent Industry Pain Point

06:17 - Turning Curiosity Into a Scalable Startup Opportunity

09:01 - How CNSRV Saves Water, Time, and Labor

12:10 - Matching Value Propositions to Kitchen Stakeholders

15:12 - Navigating COVID and Early Product Development Hurdles

19:42 - Building a Lean Team and High-Performance Product Design

23:52 - Lessons From Founder-Led Sales and Market Education

27:22 - Early Distribution Wins and Scaling Through Rep Groups

30:18 - Product Evolution: Smarter Interfaces and New Models

34:27 - Enterprise Logos vs. Regional Rollouts

36:05 - Quantifying the Massive Market and Water Savings Impact

37:05 - How Utility Rebates Accelerate Customer Adoption

39:14 - The Emotional Reality of Entrepreneurship

41:45 - Essential Advice for Water Innovators: Perseverance

Links:

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

Dylan Wolff: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylan-wolff-032b1439/

CNSRV: https://cnsrv.com/

SM Material

Key Takeaways:

"Solve a problem you're passionate about. Translate curiosity into action."

"Perseverance is everything. If you believe in it enough, don't take ‘no’ for an answer."

"The kitchen is full of hidden inefficiencies. Expose reality to solve them."

"Running lean is crucial. You can provide value without massive overheads."

"Every day looks different. It's both the...

In 2015, all of the startup founders who were part of Imagine H2O's Accelerator had to bear with me as I had no idea what I was doing. One of those founders was Sivan Zamir. Four years later she was and remains the only person to go through the program twice, and mercifully, her feedback then was rather better. Now she's VP of Enterprise, Innovation and Venture at Xylem, Burnt Island Ventures’ anchor investor and a true partner. And Sivan has become a serious force in early stage water, taking on the enormous challenge of making a very large company very good at working with very small ones. She and her team not only set a new standard for corporate engagement with the startup community, we think they reinvented it. It has been fascinating to see how the ideas and principles of entrepreneurship are flowing into the wider Xylem organization as a result. She is a force of nature, an unyielding advocate for water and an astonishingly generous friend. Please enjoy my conversation with Sivan Zamir.

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

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Sivan Zamir, VP of Enterprise Innovation and Venture at Xylem, shares her journey from two-time founder to corporate innovator. She discusses the systemic challenges large companies face when working with startups and her strategy to overcome them. Key topics include the criticality of team culture and "voice of customer," using agile sprints to drive change, and a unique "partnerships-first" corporate venture capital model. She also advocates for bringing enabling technologies from other industries into the water sector and advises all entrepreneurs to "be kind."

00:00 - Introduction

02:24 - Why Big Companies Struggle to Work With Startups

05:53 - Breaking the Certification Roadblock for Pilots

08:06 - Startup Lessons: Team Culture and Customer Feedback

16:40 - First 90 Days: Research, Business Plan, and Execution

20:32 - Running Sprints and Scaling Innovation Culture

25:18 - Building Partnerships Before Launching Venture Capital

29:49 - How the Accelerator Program Drives Go-To-Market

35:25 - The State of Water Tech: Adjacent Innovation and Low Funding

40:53 - Final Advice: Always Lead With Kindness

Links:

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

Sivan Zamir: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sivan-sidney-zamir/

Xylem: https://www.xylem.com/en-us/

SM Material

Key Takeaways:

"Team culture is everything. You can teach skills, but you can't teach culture. It's the backbone of resilience and innovation."

"Voice of the customer is critical. Without it, you're building on a hypothesis without market validation."

"In large companies, innovation must be baked into governance, metrics, and incentives."

"The water sector needs to look beyond itself. Adopt existing tech from other industries."

"Accelerators simplify complex processes. They coordinate efforts and focus on clear...