Energytech Startups

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Unknown
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00:00:28:18 - 00:00:55:01
Unknown
Welcome back to energy tech Startups. I am in the studio here with Jason and a very special guest. Mo Sadat, who is the CEO of Strata Hub. Welcome. Yeah. Welcome. No. Thank you. Thanks for the invite. I'm excited to be here. And, Yeah, looking forward to to the discussion and telling you all about, to try to have been, what I've been up to.

00:00:55:01 - 00:01:29:06
Unknown
Yeah. So, you know, I know you have a really interesting, background, a lot of experience from the oil and gas industry. But talk to us first about Strata Hub. What is it? What are you trying to achieve with the with the company? Absolutely. So imagine, the two of you. You have a team, and you're basically being tasked to deploy a really cool AI solution, except that it's in North Dakota and it's -40°F.

00:01:29:08 - 00:01:55:00
Unknown
You've been working at this. The team's excited. And right when you're getting ready to deploy it, you find out that there's the solution fails. The solution fails for really three reasons. Data. Data data. The data is not in the right format. You have data gaps. It's it's stuck in these, data and the historians and the PLC's.

00:01:55:02 - 00:02:37:09
Unknown
And the third is you've got, essentially it's not the in the right format. So basically all this cool AI model that you've developed basically is rendered useless. So that's the problem that I want to basically do away with. And that's where I try to hub. Essentially the genesis of Strata Hub came. So it's a the vendor agnostic industrial, data movement platform that is essentially liberating your operational data that's trapped in in, in historians and legacy historians in in different, in different OT systems and essentially handing it to the people who are going to make decisions.

00:02:37:09 - 00:02:57:08
Unknown
And this is not happening in months. It it happens in hours or days. And so that's what the, the problem that we want to go after and we are going after and to do this, you know, at one tenth the cost and without, you know, needing an army of, consultants to, to help you get there. Awesome.

00:02:57:08 - 00:03:15:15
Unknown
So tell us a little bit about your background, how you, you know, you've been working at this solution for about a year. I would say. How did you stumble on this, that, you know, now I'm going to become an entrepreneur and really dive into this and solve this. What made you so aware of the problem? Right, right.

00:03:15:17 - 00:03:39:22
Unknown
So really, the problem that I just described, that that I lived it it was not just in North Dakota. Problem. I saw this problem, surface in in North America and South America, where I worked in the Middle East. So it's a it's a very systemic problem. And especially now that where, you know, there's a massive focus around the infrastructure investment that's going on towards AI.

00:03:39:22 - 00:04:05:06
Unknown
And then, also about oil and gas companies, they're going about spend about 5 to $7 billion of, of investment into AI, but only 40% of these are really, showing outcomes. So, so, we've got to fix the solve the problem of data logistics. And I think that's something that I face quite a bit, quite a bit.

00:04:05:08 - 00:04:24:05
Unknown
As I was deploying a lot of, or scaling a lot of digital solutions, in my, in my, in my previous life. So, so coming back to, what? So was basically a problem that I lived it. It was not a market opportunity was something that I felt I was outraged about it, and wanted to do something about it.

00:04:24:05 - 00:04:51:19
Unknown
And then, talk to us about that. Talk to us about your, like, early career. Where did you work? Yeah. So. So it's almost two decades of working in, in the oil in fact, I grew up in the oil and gas space. My father was in the oil and gas space, so. So, Energy industries is in my blood, and, and I also got an opportunity to work in different, environments and, and North America, South America, in Middle East.

00:04:51:21 - 00:05:16:16
Unknown
And really, I have a tremendous amount of respect for the for the men and women at the frontlines who are making this energy, security affordability happen for us. So, I can feel a lot of pride in, in, in being, being a product of this energy industry. So now having and what the, the area that I worked in was around scaling of these digital solutions.

00:05:16:16 - 00:05:38:12
Unknown
And what I mean by that is it's not just a, an ERP solution, but it's really about putting data solutions or, AI solutions in the hands of people who are making decisions. And they're the folks who are the frontlines. That's where digital transformations live and die. If you can get the folks to the frontline, start believing in the solution.

00:05:38:13 - 00:06:10:06
Unknown
They don't want another fancy shiny tool. They want they want to just be able to go home to every day safe to their families. So how can we, give them the solutions that can help them do just that? So, so that's so just from a background standpoint, yeah, I've been I grew up in the industry and now, the, the going after the big problem around how do you solve the, the, the data, the data logistics problem that's holding back.

00:06:10:06 - 00:06:29:08
Unknown
And that will hold back a lot of the AI investments that, these companies are going to make in the next, well, that's happening right now in the in the next few years. What's the, root cause of the data logistics problem? I can't imagine it's just because someone in it is lazy. No, sir. No, I think I really like the question.

00:06:29:08 - 00:07:02:17
Unknown
So what? What's happening is that it's. Look, I mean, if I think about, the oil and gas industry, it's it's very data rich. You know, we've got, in fact, was just talking to, one of the, one of the, leaders in the midstream operator and he basically they have about about what they call it about, 10 million, tags that are that they're sampling through, and then, so, so we it's a very data rich environment.

00:07:02:17 - 00:07:23:21
Unknown
The challenges that a lot of this data is sitting in these systems is legacy systems, you know, and there are lots of these, right. You've got, you know, you've got and they've been around for a long time. You've got the, the the data historians. Then you've got all these different machines, PLCs, that are manufactured by different companies.

00:07:23:21 - 00:07:46:00
Unknown
They are work on different protocols and being able to extract that information and bring it in a, in a format that people can then make decisions. That's been the, the, the sort of the gap. Right. So that's really the, the challenge that's been holding us back. A lot of the the operators have been working on getting the data within the enterprise working.

00:07:46:01 - 00:08:11:18
Unknown
So I mean, that's where you see a lot of investments in SAP, Oracle, IBM, where you're putting these massive systems in place. But what about all this OT data, operational data that's sitting in there that can that you're not that's not part of your decision making about where are you going to deploy capital. If you have a set amount of maintenance CapEx, which wells are going to get that maintenance, CapEx and which won't.

00:08:11:18 - 00:08:33:22
Unknown
Right. But what is OT data? I don't think I'm for. Yeah. So so OT data essentially it's it's it's all the data that's coming out of these sensors that are sitting out at the, well sites at the gas plants, on the compressors. What does o t stand for, I guess operational technology. Okay, okay. Got it. So, so it's really all these little sources that, that, like you said, literally millions of tags.

00:08:33:22 - 00:08:54:10
Unknown
That's each little sensor is its own source, essentially. Absolutely. Got it. And and I imagine historically, you know, if you think about some of the scope, it might have been out there for 20 to 40 years, there was a time where the, the, equipment manufacturers didn't want to make the data easily accessible outside of their platform because they there's a power and kind of being vertically integrated.

00:08:54:12 - 00:09:17:19
Unknown
And, that was a defensive mechanism, right? Yeah. But, today we still have to manage, across all of them. So it's a very interesting challenge to have. Yeah. And so what the other thing is that you've had, so many acquisitions that have happened based now in just in the last 3 to 4 years, we have about 300 to $400,000,000,000 billion accusations that have happened.

00:09:18:01 - 00:09:40:07
Unknown
What what that has meant is you've got all these assets that are being, you know, lumped together. But all these assets have different systems and different and, operational technology environments that they have. And this is at the producer level, talking like so when people are aggregating up and trading. Well, exactly. Yeah. So the operational complexity has gone up.

00:09:40:09 - 00:10:00:18
Unknown
So when I started in the field. Right. And it was okay, look at the well, and that's what a lot of the operational leaders are doing. They're looking at. Okay. I want to make sure that I'm producing this. Well, there's no disruption. And get this thing to the sales point. Well, today, it's not just that. It's you have to focus on the processing plant.

00:10:00:18 - 00:10:22:04
Unknown
You have to focus in in midstream, you've got a focus on your water infrastructure, that's there. So all of these aspects, well, the other thing in the Permian, for example, you've got your, your pipeline capacity constraints. So you're working to work. You have an objective, you want to get oil, as cheaply as, as you can to the, to the sales line.

00:10:22:06 - 00:10:48:06
Unknown
But there's so many constraints. And how do you manage those constraints? That's where this aggregation of OT operational data comes together so that you can form you. Where do I really need to my my plan is deploy capital here. But we are already gas constrained there. So maybe we need to think about some other place. And, and the whole idea that you're making these decisions on an annual basis that's out the window, you know, so it has to be very dynamic.

00:10:48:07 - 00:11:14:03
Unknown
Yeah. It's yeah, it's what's happening there. And then having the data at your fingertips so that you can kind of divert your supply if you need to, because the pressure is rising and stuff. It's like all operationally driven decisions. So I mean, I mean in your and in your background, you've been like, you know, gone into a lot of these customers who are not now your customers, you were consulting them, maybe helping implement ERP systems, etc..

00:11:14:09 - 00:11:44:09
Unknown
And so you've seen kind of the resistance that people have towards new technology. What are you finding now as you're talking to customers and trying to sell them your solution? Yeah. So, I always start with what is a problem that we're solving. It's not it's not about the technology, really. It starts off with, who's making the decision and who's really impacted.

00:11:44:11 - 00:12:11:01
Unknown
And so that's been something that's been consistent throughout. My journey is really understanding who's making the decision. And then really, segment segmenting that to say, okay, how does what we do from a technology standpoint, either accelerate that decision or improve the quality of the decision? I think at a fundamental level, that's what we're doing right?

00:12:11:03 - 00:12:18:06
Unknown
So so, to your point around, you know,

00:12:18:07 - 00:12:41:04
Unknown
What's what's the narrative, right? For our customers, it hasn't changed much for me. What what's really it's about emphasizing that, look, your operational complexity is growing. You cannot manage the way you have been. That's number one. So you've you've got to depend a lot on these digital solutions to give you a response so that you don't just making decisions based on your gut.

00:12:41:04 - 00:12:59:14
Unknown
That's one second. There's a real exodus of talent that is happening from in the industry in the last several years. When I started in the field, you know, it was very common to find someone with 10 to 15 years of experience. Now, you would be hard pressed to find someone who has more than two years of experience.

00:12:59:16 - 00:13:22:19
Unknown
So you've got this lot of exodus of talent. So how do we make sure that that institutional knowledge is captured? It's brought in. That's through the, the the the data that's, that's there. And bring that in those insights that are developed. So that's the second. So I think the, the, the key thing there is look, fresh, you cannot operate the way you have been.

00:13:23:00 - 00:13:45:07
Unknown
Secondly, people who were traditionally resistant, they're saying, look, we're swamped. I don't need another shiny tool. Help me solve what I have right now. And and I'll be, I'll be. And plus, I don't have this experience. Hand to call if I run into problems. So I need to make those decisions. But I it has to be data driven.

00:13:45:13 - 00:14:08:21
Unknown
So it's, it's it's sort of this convergence of the industry, the complexity that has gone, the industry, the exodus of talent. That's second and third is obviously now everyone's saying, oh, we need to wait. Where are we on this AI journey? Right. And you cannot be on this AI journey without solving this data logistics problem. So that's so that's kind of the the focus as, as I'm talking to customers.

00:14:08:21 - 00:14:34:02
Unknown
Right now, I imagine two in the last decade, I feel like, you know, we were talking about digital transformation ten years ago, which seems to feel like it's at the high level. But there's also, even today, a ton of discussion around digital twins. Right. Like, what's the digital twin of your oil well or your pumping system? And, and I imagine that digital twin can't just won't work if you don't have a way to, to logistically pull all the data together.

00:14:34:03 - 00:14:54:22
Unknown
Is that been a historical challenge for why digital twins aren't pervasive? So. So I want to pick up on two things that you said, which is which really resonate with me. One was the word digital transformation. In certain, it's with certain clients. I can't even use the word digital transformation, you know, because they've been burned so bad, right?

00:14:55:00 - 00:15:13:12
Unknown
Because the promise of digital transformation has been like, look, I mean, it's going to turn around your fortunes, the margins are going to go, the downtime is going to go down by 50%. Only if you take this and put the solution and and and deploy that. That was one second. Hey, we've got this really cool digital twin technology.

00:15:13:14 - 00:15:36:00
Unknown
If you apply this, you can do so many different scenarios and simulations and that'll give you the outcome that you're looking for. Just give us the data. We'll do it. Well, the the operators have essentially they're all about look, show me the value, show me the outcomes. And then we're going to talk about how do we how do we go from there.

00:15:36:02 - 00:16:03:09
Unknown
And the second thing is around digital twins is it's success is not just simply doing a being able to simulate a small subset of the environment. It's about how you how are you able to scale across the not just one asset, but multiple asset, multiple basins? Now you have even different types of asset bases as well. So how do you bring, how are you able to bring all of that in and simulate those different asset types?

00:16:03:09 - 00:16:26:22
Unknown
Well, that's again goes back to the root cause, which is how is your data industrial data coming in. How is that being transformed and how is that being, ingested and used by these digital twins to, to give you that, the outcome you're looking for. So part of it is verifying ahead, like we have historicals that we can show and prove that these things will work.

00:16:27:00 - 00:16:41:08
Unknown
And I think one of the things that's and you can correct them, I'm wrong because I haven't been in the oil field that long, but all oil wells are not the same. Even in the same field, you're going to have variations based on how it was drilled. In fact, just plow a local rock might be more gassy than others.

00:16:41:13 - 00:17:13:01
Unknown
And so it actually really matters that the digital twin is custom per system, right? Because it's it's not as, replicated as I think we like to believe. So so I think there are two aspects to what you said. One is, look, no matter how, instrumented a field is, and no matter how, how much technology is deployed, there, you the you cannot take away the the human experience, the insight that is there.

00:17:13:02 - 00:17:43:11
Unknown
And and I would this is where I have a tremendous amount of respect for the people that are working in these basins, because each basin is bit nuance, like, you know, from Eagle Ford to you can go to, you know, North Dakota for the Bakken versus you got to Permian, you've got to know and Gulf America, you got to know that formation really well because and and what I find really, something that I respect a lot is a lot of people have sovereignty over these, these areas because they know the area.

00:17:43:13 - 00:18:07:00
Unknown
So when they get this, the challenges of scale, we're talking about thousands of these wells. Right? So how do you bring these thousands of these wells? And then you, juxtapose a lot of the insight that that these, our, our frontline folks have to get you the answer. Right. So, so to your point, there is you'll, you'll, you'll hear from a lot of people.

00:18:07:01 - 00:18:37:12
Unknown
My well is special, right? You'll hear this a lot. And I have lived through it. Where, you know, because it's it's that inherent understanding that, look, this this is different. My field is unique in that way. Now, there are certain elements where it is unique, but mostly there is. Let's just make sure that there are certain common things that we can get out, like, you know, things like flow rates, the, the, the, the tubing, the pressure, the casing pressure, the tank levels.

00:18:37:12 - 00:19:02:15
Unknown
Let's get all of that data together so that you at least have a view, cross-sectional view across your asset base. And then you go into, interlace your, overlay your, your insights on top of that. So that's kind of how I, how I view it. There's complexity, inherent complexity. There's, there's, there's nuance. But you cannot do this without having this, I call it a aggregate view.

00:19:02:17 - 00:19:24:19
Unknown
Yeah. Of your, of your asset because there's like that domain expertise that you're seeing that comes in that's important to read the data and then make decisions on the site. Plus looking at an aggregate of data and gives you that master intelligence that a human, you know, cannot have in the same way because, you know, as a drill operator of this particular drill, you maybe may have the most experience for this drill.

00:19:24:21 - 00:19:43:13
Unknown
But back to kind of what we were talking about earlier, you know, digital transformation is like has been a buzzword for over a decade. And there was a lot of hype, you know, ten years ago saying this is going to change our industry. It's going to make it more so much more efficient. And, you know, everyone was trying to do what you were describing that you're doing today.

00:19:43:13 - 00:20:08:22
Unknown
And a lot of companies have tried a lot of operators have tried themselves that, you know, we're going to create this like predictive analytics, like master, intelligence platform. What have you seen with your experience, like how far have these, often suppliers, you know, or OEMs of these equipment, they wanted to be the leaders in the forefront of analyzing this data and giving you intelligence.

00:20:09:00 - 00:20:32:22
Unknown
You know, why have they not been able to solve the problem that you're solving today? And like, what makes it different for you today and what makes it, you know, unique? Yeah. Amongst everyone else who wants to do the same thing because it's yeah, it's a, it's a problem that we are aware of for many years now. So, it goes back to sort of two principles that I've sort of crystallized the BI experience on.

00:20:32:22 - 00:20:53:10
Unknown
And this is something that I've also reflected in, in the approach that that Strata Hub is taking. One you've you've got a, again, make sure that the people who are making the decisions. But there's a front line, folks, whether it's your asset leaders, whether it's your CFO, you you're aware of the problem that they're solving.

00:20:53:10 - 00:21:36:05
Unknown
And then the second one is, how do you scale that, that solution that you can deploy, which is then talks about what is the what is data architecture that will underlie this, this, this, solution. And what were the different types of, guardrails, security guardrails that you've already, incorporated early on. And it's not an afterthought. And, I mean, there have been times, countless times where we I've worked on really cool innovation projects that have shown outcomes, so there was one where, you know, it was a really cool solution that could do the forecasting, of production in a very complex field.

00:21:36:07 - 00:22:00:07
Unknown
They showed that this worked really well here, but then they weren't able to scale because, you know, again, it goes back to how the data was coming from the other places, how it was getting ingested, how it was being transformed. And it became almost like another 7 to 8 month project. Right. And then leadership loses patience, like, okay, you know, you've shown results here, but I don't I don't want to pay for another data management project.

00:22:00:07 - 00:22:32:06
Unknown
Right where the outcomes. So coming back to your point about the OEMs, in many cases they were solving a very, very, narrow, cross-sectional view of the problem. So, I'll take the I'll just, you know, the oil companies, they're very focused on subsurface. Let's, let's, let's crack that subsurface. But now there's a huge portion of, of your economics that are eaten away by how the water management is working.

00:22:32:10 - 00:22:53:11
Unknown
Right? So I'm, I'm even seeing that, starting to percolate within the oilfield services companies as well, because now they're taking a very broader view of how they want to go after the, the how they want to help, their clients as well, which is, where we want to help accelerate some of their, deployments as well.

00:22:53:11 - 00:23:13:08
Unknown
It's okay. You don't want to be spending a lot of time doing the data, plumbing data transformations, and then really trying to focus on getting it into the into your into your whatever technology you've got. Because then you're the leadership at these energy companies is going to lose patience. So that's where we can help accelerate that.

00:23:13:10 - 00:23:34:23
Unknown
So, so don't try to sell a tool, crack the problem, take a broader aperture to that problem, because that's how the complex where the complexity is lying today, it's not just a subsurface or surface or or, you know, a, a, something that's related to you, like the oil, the, the chemical management, the, the water management that comes along with it.

00:23:35:05 - 00:24:02:04
Unknown
Now, even now, electricity, energy, energy consumption, you've got to take into account, the, the energy consumption that will be used. In fact, that's one of the big problems. I was recently in a conversation with a prospective, client of ours, and they talked about, look, we don't have we don't have a way to forecast our energy consumption because the data that sits in it's sitting in some utility.

00:24:02:06 - 00:24:24:07
Unknown
Now, we need to make sure we bring that in. So so you see I think coming back now that your question around OEMs. So take a broader view. Don't sell technology. And and then really see are there ways that you can partner up with, you know, again plug for Strata hub like players like ours who can help you accelerate that journey?

00:24:24:09 - 00:24:41:08
Unknown
Because it's a pretty broad problem that you're solving, right? And so are you when you're talking, you know, you have a few pilots that are ongoing now when you go talk to your customers, are you, you know, how are you leading that conversation? And really, my understanding is like helping them identify a use case, right? Like, how are you getting there?

00:24:41:08 - 00:25:02:18
Unknown
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00:25:03:00 - 00:25:30:13
Unknown
There's a free tier so you can start today at no cost. That's key. We're on ecom now. Thanks. And back to the show. Yeah. So so, the two, key, I've learned this term now is ICP where your money, your initial customer potential customer profile, or your intended, customer persona of this. I hear a lot of that.

00:25:30:15 - 00:26:00:10
Unknown
So, the two that I'm focusing very much on right now, one is your business unit leader slash asset or a plan manager, and the second one is your CFO. And again, I'm focused a lot on these smaller company. Then I when as part of their sub20 billion dollar companies, because and because they're looking at so let me talk about the first, first persona, which is your asset manager.

00:26:00:10 - 00:26:23:17
Unknown
They are looking at. Okay, I've got very limited amount of maintenance CapEx. Where do I deploy that? That gives me the biggest rate of return. Right. So, so usually going in my hypothesis is like you're, you're you're making decisions on where do you want to deploy your means CapEx. What's keeping you from making the decision faster, quicker, better today.

00:26:23:17 - 00:26:45:18
Unknown
Right. So that's one. And then basically from there the conversation goes into yeah, but my real problem is like my top three problems are like my, my I don't have a way of figuring out what my energy consumption is. This the salt water disposals that I have, they are I've got a lot of spells that I'm dealing with and I need to understand how that's going because, you know, regulatory is going to come at me.

00:26:45:23 - 00:27:11:01
Unknown
And then the third one is, oh, you know what I want to I want, I want this feel like I'm in a reactive mode. How do I get more. So that's then leads to follow up questions. Okay. Then let's go after and solve 1 or 2 things that will show you outcomes and get you, get you the validation that, look, this is this problem can be can be resolved in a very, you know, in a quick it's not a I'm not going to I'm not here to sell you a another digital transformation of several months.

00:27:11:03 - 00:27:36:16
Unknown
This is we're going to get you the answer in days. Rather than months. Right. So, so under the hood. How are you actually doing this is this new technology that we're putting to work or or, you just your expertise. This is so, so, data. So Strata hub is a, a completely vendor agnostic data movement platform that's basically based on a lot of open source, tools.

00:27:36:18 - 00:28:07:20
Unknown
What we're doing right now is and in the piece that that I'm really proud of is that we're this is a platform that can be used by your business unit leaders. It's not some it's not gonna, it's not some. Okay. It's more than welcome to use it. Data engineers. But I would love for, for, business unit leaders saying, look, I'm trying to do this, I'm trying to understand where I'm gonna be spending my CapEx.

00:28:07:20 - 00:28:27:08
Unknown
I need data from these set of wells, and I need data from. And this is the data lineage. And just by prompting, they're able to pull up these connections in the background and they're able to to to then surface them in these whatever whatever tool that they're using. Right. Okay. Like I said, I don't care what tool you use.

00:28:27:08 - 00:28:45:12
Unknown
At the end of the day, I want you to be making decisions quicker. Right? That's that's really what I'm looking after. So so we're able to spool up a lot of these connectors quickly. The second thing is that we're also looking at how do we, transform the data. So a lot of times there's data missing. So you need to interpolate there.

00:28:45:12 - 00:29:03:20
Unknown
Scan rates are different. How do we make sure we smooth that for you. And then you know depending on what format you need the data. So can we do that for you. So, so that's the second component. And third is we can help you monitor and this is something that can be done by, can be done by it.

00:29:04:00 - 00:29:20:16
Unknown
We just can monitor if there's any issue that happens that they can look at, you know, manage my session. So, so, yeah. So, so you said a key word here. So you said prompting. So I assume that means there's a little bit of a genetic magic that's happening. Is there an MCP? I'm curious about like what's what's driving things underneath.

00:29:20:16 - 00:29:54:15
Unknown
And it sounds like you also don't want to tell the customer too much, because maybe it's because a genetic stuff starts to, to walk the line of, maybe it's it's too early stage technology, right? Yeah. So, so there is, there's definitely the agenda. So we have certainly moved in the direction of the genetic because like I said, the whole value proposition is that, look, you don't need an army of, of people onshore or overseas who are looking at your data usually, this is something that now a lot of agents can, can do for you.

00:29:54:15 - 00:30:25:14
Unknown
So if you're looking at extracting of data, if you're looking at transforming the data, if you're looking at just orchestrating it across, those are things that the the agents can do for you. Right. With MCP again, I'm, I'm, I'm always it's always evolving. The piece that I'm very, cognizant about is the data trust. To me, it's very important, especially in the energy space that I've lived in, for the last 24 years.

00:30:25:14 - 00:30:50:08
Unknown
Is that how do you, inspire trust in the data? MSPs is a great. But if you're trying to explore which where is this data coming from? Which tool is it being used? That's where sometimes it gets a little hazy. So where where we are doing is we want to make this all transparent so we know exactly which API we're using, how we're connecting to those, and how how those being built as well.

00:30:50:08 - 00:31:09:08
Unknown
So if anyone wants to look under the hood and do an audit data audit trail, that it's it's there. Do you find other customers? You're obviously very focused on the value and the benefit. But when you start to describe kind of a genetic workflows, are they excited or are they tentative? Tell us about the like the mood in the energy industry.

00:31:09:08 - 00:31:41:22
Unknown
That's what I'm curious about. So I'm initially hesitant in talking about the whole agenda. I'm sort of like agent tech magic. Yeah. It's important to understand where the operator is in their journey. I'll tell you an example, and I can. I can never forget this. We were, having this, conference call with, with this operator, working in, in, in Delaware Basin.

00:31:42:00 - 00:32:03:18
Unknown
And I was on the call, and, you know, the CEO had said, look, we're going to be autonomous operations by 2020 or 2022. That put in some timelines. Right? So there I was consulting, saying, hey, we're going to help you get there quicker, faster. And there was a bit of a pause. And, and then I hear like, yeah, this is all good.

00:32:03:18 - 00:32:21:18
Unknown
But I'm not even able to extract data out of my data. So, you know, I like the idea, but if I can't even get my I did out of scale up, you know, I don't know what what we can do for you in the short term. So so it's really understanding kind of where the client is on their journey.

00:32:21:20 - 00:32:41:21
Unknown
And so that's why sometimes what I focus more on is how are they going to use this? And and what does that mean for their day to day business right now? If they want to know if we have a genetics, I always have my chief product officer sitting next to me is like, all right, you know, go all the genetic on that right.

00:32:41:23 - 00:32:58:14
Unknown
But I guess like the the point here is, yeah, you might some of that leadership might have a vision for where you want to go. But the reality is we have a very technical operational leadership that really understands like what's actually happening. They're not they're not just, you know, someone turning screws. They are having to make these decisions.

00:32:58:14 - 00:33:23:13
Unknown
And that's that's always the, it's convenient because, like, you have a customer who actually tells you what's going on and, and where you can, actually drive to value pretty quickly. I can, there's a I can never forget this one experience. So we were I was sitting in Oklahoma and I brought this up player that's now actually going to almost, $1 billion unicorn now, just seven years ago, actually.

00:33:23:13 - 00:33:43:22
Unknown
So these guys, they were set. Their claim to fame was like, we can help you, predict, failures of your electric submersible pumps 7 to 10 days before that happens. And we can also tell you the mode of failure that will happen. Right? So. So, so we did a pilot for them, and, you know, we showed up like.

00:33:43:22 - 00:34:01:20
Unknown
Yeah, look, we could all these wells there, these wells are going to go or will fail or these CSPs are going to fail. So you need to make sure that the rig is there to pull these out. And we were we were sitting in the room and we had the, their ESB engineer. And we had obviously the asset leader in there.

00:34:02:02 - 00:34:34:03
Unknown
Gas leader was like okay, excited. This ESB leader was was engineer was quiet. And I happened to kind of poke the bear and ask him, so what do you think is like, so you're telling me that this, data model that you have will tell me which wells I need to pull, right. And, and that was a sort of a telling moment is because which is look, you've got to these types of solutions cannot be developed in isolation.

00:34:34:03 - 00:34:56:09
Unknown
You've got to have your domain experts. They have to be very much part of this, this loop and as you, as you're building it up. So, so that's why it's important to make sure that as you're going in this journey, that you're getting these technical folks along with you as you're going to, because leadership will be will, will obviously cares for the outcomes.

00:34:56:11 - 00:35:16:03
Unknown
But in the energy space, what I've learned is that you've got to be able to convince these guys who were, you know, leaving it on a day to day basis, and they're the ones who are going to be using the technology. Right? So yeah, they have to take ownership. So even if leadership says use it, they're not going to use it unless they feel ownership and they feel like they're empowered by this.

00:35:16:04 - 00:35:44:10
Unknown
And there goes your digital transformation out the window. Right? Yeah. Yeah. But the digital transformation is all about that. It's people transformation. It's like empowering. I love that. Yeah. To use these tools and saying like, you know, I, I know the data saying this, but I know from my experience which Val is the one that's going to fail, you know, or if I should believe this data right now or not, you know, or and obviously with experience, when they start using it, they'll know, how to, how to do it.

00:35:44:10 - 00:36:06:05
Unknown
But, but I mean, really fascinating to hear your stories because, I mean, that's really the journey of an entrepreneur, right? Or, is is going out and learning because you could go there and say, I have this fabulous tool that can do all these things for you, but if your customers like, yeah, but who's going to get the data, then, you know, you know, you're solving the wrong problem in many cases.

00:36:06:05 - 00:36:26:06
Unknown
Right. You know, you have to start one step ahead. So talk to us about that journey since you first, you know, decided you were going to start this company, bring this to customers. Everyone has to pivot based on like what they then learn when customers actually start using their tools. What have you learned and how did you learn?

00:36:26:08 - 00:36:40:15
Unknown
The whole process of, you know, really taking in that feedback from customers and then putting it into your product? Yeah. So a couple of things. One is.

00:36:40:17 - 00:37:06:18
Unknown
One is one part obviously is talking about the value prop and how are you going to help them get there. The other component that I find equally important is the the, the ask that often get is how much time will my people have to devote, to to help you get your solution embedded here. Right. Because my people are busy, they have they have.

00:37:06:20 - 00:37:30:02
Unknown
Well, there's no such thing as 9 to 5, but they they have their their shifts. So how do you, how are you going to make it easy for them? So, so the whole deployment approach is very critical. The second thing that I'm learning is that there is, a lot of, you know, I want to I don't want to say, it's not bad behavior.

00:37:30:02 - 00:37:56:00
Unknown
It's just there's so much acquisitions that have happened that there's whole proliferation of data different, you know, behaviors that have been incorporated. And so there are different people's approaches are there. So how do you bring all of that together? So that people's don't feel like you're going to stop using what, the way they have been working, but really understanding how they make the decisions.

00:37:56:00 - 00:38:25:12
Unknown
Right. So really following that workflow and saying, look, how do we incorporate what you're doing and enhance it through this digital solution that we've, that, that, that we have with this data movement platform that we have. So it's really about understanding the workflow end to end and seeing how that can come in and, and, and accelerate, their decision making from there, rather than saying, oh no, no, this is going to completely revamp how you make decisions.

00:38:25:14 - 00:38:55:18
Unknown
I want you to start doing that. That's a big lift for, for for the team. And the second is when you're deploying these, how do we make sure that we can optimize the time that the workforce is spending on helping you create that bespoke solution or response for them? Right. Can you if you think about back to the I guess the life of the business is you think back to a decision you made that really like set the stage or helped you take off.

00:38:55:19 - 00:39:17:15
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. So so I mean, I like the I keep talking about this this experience in North Dakota. Right. That I always, I had this experience in North Dakota, too, when I was in hardware. So I get it, like, leaves a mark. The other thing was that my, my team, one of them decided to have sushi in my North Texas because that's for the best.

00:39:17:15 - 00:39:39:23
Unknown
Sushi. Yeah, exactly. So. And and, you know, poor guy had a had a real bad day. He wasn't able to come out with with me to the field, so. So that so that stayed with me for a while. But but yeah it's really that experience that, you know, when you finally get people on your side that they're saying, look, this is going to really improve the quality of your life.

00:39:39:23 - 00:40:20:00
Unknown
That means you, in when in subfreezing temperatures, you don't have to go to the one side. You can just operate from here. And then that means that you can go to your family's at for the, the, the supervisors thing. I'm not paying over time for for it for this. And then seeing that completely come down because, you know, because we didn't think about how this thing is going to scale across from a data standpoint, that was sort of the moment where it was there was that outrage that I felt because, you know, you especially because a lot of people are not fully bought in, but when they are, they're looking for an outcome,

00:40:20:00 - 00:40:50:02
Unknown
they're looking for the results. So that was that, that, that, that it was I still remember, 20, 24th February where I was like, okay, we I, I've done a lot of time working with the, the frontline folks where now I know, okay. How do you how do you message digital transformation? But what I was not able to answer for them is how do I can get you the data faster, at a cheaper price and without making it into another eight month?

00:40:50:02 - 00:41:07:05
Unknown
Oh, just wait for another eight months of transformation before we can get you the answer right? That was it. Being able to solve things quickly really catalyzes it. And I think for people who don't know, I think even minutes still like 90 minutes from the back end usually for a lot of folks. So it's it's a it's a trip people have to go out.

00:41:07:07 - 00:41:37:20
Unknown
It is you know, the interesting thing was, I, one of the companies I really look up to from a digital transformation standpoint is Aker BP. Aker did a phenomenal job in really making digital a become part of the DNA of the company. But what I, what I tell people is that they had the resources, and they had companies like coordinate that worked for them for multiple multi, multi years before they could get to the answer they created.

00:41:37:22 - 00:41:56:13
Unknown
It's like none of I know a thing or two about this right. Cognizant I mean that's what they did. I mean I mean they had a CEO who was just from day one. You know, he called it like the data liberation movement or whatever. That's the t shirt he used to go around. Okay, you know, I used to work at a sister company of Aker BP, Aker Solutions, and, it's true.

00:41:56:13 - 00:42:12:18
Unknown
I mean, they totally. But then they they took their IT teams, they took the drill teams and made their own company. You know, Cog Knight to help them operate and really start, you know, and this is in the North Sea, so that they can have remote operations so that people don't have to go to these remote areas.

00:42:12:18 - 00:42:39:08
Unknown
Right. And, you know, very early on starting to see how they can just run everything remotely. Yep. And so just picking up on that, right. It was a multi-year journey for them. But imagine our, our, you know, operators here that are not BP, they don't have the kind of resources how can they do this at one tenth the cost and without it being a multi-year journey.

00:42:39:08 - 00:43:00:15
Unknown
Right, right. So that's really the, the, the companies that I really want to help get, get, accelerated on that digital transformation. Yeah. So what I'm hearing from you is you were like, no one's solving this problem. I need to just leave my job and just do this for them, and, you know, yeah. But so what has been the challenge of making that leap?

00:43:00:15 - 00:43:23:04
Unknown
You know, having worked in corporate, having those, I wouldn't say cushy because your jobs were never cushy. I know, you know, you worked long hours and worked really hard, but you have that, comfort of the whole organization kind of supporting you and having those as caf holdings, right? If things go wrong. But now you're on your own.

00:43:23:08 - 00:43:49:19
Unknown
So tell us, like what? How was that transition? The honeymoon period didn't last that long, I can tell you that, I it was. I can tell you it was very exciting initially. Hey, freedom for freedom. Freedom in the sense of. Look, now, I don't have to take meetings that are not going to be, accretive to the cause.

00:43:49:21 - 00:44:20:02
Unknown
I don't have to stand in front of Excel sheets and and explain to why, how do we generate business, or more business? I always said, look, you've got to be out there working that. So. So, but I think there's the a lot of solid takeaways from my experience working in the corporate was, especially as a consultant, was being able to ask the right questions, being able to frame the problem better.

00:44:20:04 - 00:44:44:13
Unknown
But I think what the last I would say year or so has, has taught me is the power of storytelling. I mean, we as consultants are always talking about narratives and how do we tell, the narrative. But I think storytelling is a very critical part of it. The other thing is, what I'm learning is the whole idea of about a, the, the marketing.

00:44:44:13 - 00:45:18:19
Unknown
There's like in corporate, we had marketing who do all these blogs, etc.. Here you are, the mark. You're basically the chief marketing officer for your company as well. So you got to wear that hat. So so how so you have to be comfortable. You know being out there talking and you know, kind of like doing mean podcast what I'm doing right now, which is which frankly doesn't come as naturally for a lot of people, and especially in our we've grown up with the corporate America because there are always some segment of folks who can help you get there.

00:45:18:21 - 00:45:55:03
Unknown
But this is now all on you. So, so, so storytelling, becoming, you know, developing this whole marketing muscle. I think that's, that's becoming that's a, that's a that's a great learning for me. And I think the other thing is, how do you, you know, just on a, on a more tactical level, like, you know, I had a if I had a slide to make, I would send it off to India, and the next day it would be done right if I had some, you know, meetings to arrange, I'd always have, you know, had a good support system who could help me get there.

00:45:55:05 - 00:46:20:15
Unknown
But, now I've had to sort of develop, my own virtual agents to do that for me. Right. So I called Shelly, who's my my my chief of staff. So I had to build that one. I mean, it was a good experience building that one, but I'm sort of more and more trying to figure out how do I amplify myself through the use of AI so that I can do what what I do best as well.

00:46:20:16 - 00:46:51:12
Unknown
Right. Yeah. Empowering your superpower. I'm looking at the clock and unfortunately we're gonna have to start wrapping up. But pay me a picture of where you're going to be in 5 to 10 years. So I would I would love for Strata Hub to become what Salesforce has done for the sales industry. Right. I want the, the strata hub to become the industrial data fabric for all of the energy players.

00:46:51:12 - 00:47:16:09
Unknown
So not just oil and gas. I'm getting a lot of, you know, a lot of, solid pull from even geothermal because they are starting. The not starting. They're actually now scaling up, the their sort of impact now. So, so that's something that I would love for a hub to become that industrial data fabric for all of the energy players.

00:47:16:11 - 00:47:41:06
Unknown
Good. Fantastic. What's one thing that our audience, you know, I hear could do to support you in your goals. So I'd love to have more conversations with the, the business unit leaders, the the asset managers, the CFOs, of a lot of these, companies that are and, that are, you know, in the business of making decisions.

00:47:41:06 - 00:48:04:19
Unknown
And it's getting complex decisions in the, on gas midstream, power and data centers space. Love, again, always looking for those conversations. So that would be wonderful to have those more of those fantastic. And how do people reach out to you to have these conversations? Sure. So again, you can reach out to me on moza dot at Chatter Hub.

00:48:04:23 - 00:48:27:05
Unknown
Com we have where do I spell six because I would get it wrong that good point. It's SBA data. But strat hub.com. That's the easiest way. Just drop me a note. I'm I'm the guy who's reading those emails, so. No, you don't have you don't have an admin. I don't have not been. So.

00:48:27:05 - 00:48:45:00
Unknown
So now I'm the one. And those are the, the the types of emails that like in the morning when I get up, I'm like, okay, what I get, what did I get. Who who reached out to me. So always I will read, I will read and I will respond, awesome. Thank you so much for coming on. And we wish you all the best, on your journey.

00:48:45:00 - 00:49:04:14
Unknown
And we look forward to following, where Strato Hub goes in five years from now. Where are you today? Awesome. Not, Jason. Thank you. This has been wonderful. I love the the conversation. And I love what, the the energy tech, is doing and, energy tech cipher is doing. And so we're really, rooting for you guys.

00:49:04:18 - 00:49:06:06
Unknown
Thank you, thank you, thank you.