The Curious Learners

🎧 New Podcast Episode: Infrastructure at the Heart — Why the Energy Transition Is a Delivery and Business Model ChallengeWe often hear that clean technologies like solar, wind, and batteries are the key to decarbonisation. But the real challenge isn’t about technological breakthroughs. It’s about delivery, getting projects permitted, financed, built, and connected to systems that weren’t designed for this kind of transformation.In this episode of The Curious Learners, I explore why infrastructure, not innovation, is the critical bottleneck in the energy transition. Narrated by my AI co-hosts, the episode unpacks:Why execution risk is now the dominant risk for investorsHow policy, permitting, and market design are stalling progressWhy business model innovation matters more than hardware breakthroughsWhat’s missing in how we evaluate and scale climate-tech infrastructureBacked by insights from the World Economic Forum, McKinsey, Allianz Capital Partners, and CDPQ, this is a systems-level look at where the real work lies in the net-zero journey.🎙️ Listen in and share your thoughts — is it tech that’s holding us back, or something deeper?#EnergyTransition #ClimateTech #Infrastructure #CleanEnergy #NetZero #PrivateEquity #TheCuriousLearners

In this episode of The Curious Learners, we take a step back from the noise of disruption and zoom in on something more subtle - but just as transformative: the quiet reinvention of the real economy.Across manufacturing floors, supply chains, family businesses, and financial institutions, a less glamorous but more enduring form of innovation is underway. It’s not about tearing industries down; it’s about modernizing them from within.We explore how small and mid-sized - often overlooked in the venture or policy spotlight - are integrating AI, reshoring supply chains, transitioning to low-carbon operations, and navigating generational change. These aren’t the stories that usually make headlines, but they are the backbone of economic resilience and industrial transformation.This episode builds on my latest essay, Beyond Disruption: that the next decade of meaningful progress will be driven not just by startups, but by the incumbents, successors, and operators who choose to build better systems from the inside out.If you're interested in patient capital, modern manufacturing, climate transition, or the power of steady execution - this one's for you.

In the latest episode of The Curious Learners, my AI co-hosts and I explore a theme that’s become central to my investing journey: resilience.Not just in the narrow sense of withstanding shocks — but in a broader, more dynamic sense: how our energy systems, industrial processes, and infrastructure can become more adaptive, more efficient, and more climate-aligned in the face of growing uncertainty.And there’s one technology that’s quietly showing up everywhere: Artificial Intelligence.From steel mills optimizing scrap recipes to ports cutting idle time with smarter logistics, to power grids forecasting and rerouting energy flows in real time — AI is beginning to reshape how foundational sectors operate. This isn’t just about marginal gains. It’s about building resilience by design.This episode draws from my recent article — Resilience in the Age of AI — a piece that weaves together insights from the latest IEA Energy & AI report, real-world stories from companies like Maersk, Fortescue, Shell, and Gerdau, and reflections from the IEA Global Conference on Energy and AI, which I attended in late 2024.Whether you’re a founder, an investor, or just curious about where industrial transformation is headed — this one’s for you.

Today, my AI co-hosts are exploring the major shifts reshaping the energy landscape: digitalisation, decentralisation, and decarbonisation. Here is the blog post that I published on The Curious Learners.As demand grows and renewables like solar and wind rise, the aging grid faces immense pressure. The solution? A decentralised grid with local energy generation, storage, and demand management, all driven by flexibility.We'll dive into Distributed Energy Resources (DERs), the building blocks of this new system, and how their adoption varies across developed and developing markets. Plus, we'll tackle the challenges to widespread DER adoption, from regulatory hurdles to market design flaws.

Welcome to another episode of The Curious Learners. I again turn to my AI co-hosts who continue to do great job talking about my posts on The Curious Learners.Today we're exploring a critical landscape where efficiency meets innovation: the world of IT and Operational Technology integration.Imagine a manufacturing plant suddenly grinding to a halt, or a power grid plunging entire cities into darkness. These aren't just hypothetical scenarios—they're real risks in our increasingly connected digital ecosystem.In this episode, my co-hosts unpack how real-time monitoring is transforming industries, preventing costly disruptions, and creating a more resilient technological future. From automotive manufacturing to healthcare, from energy grids to retail, we'll reveal how cutting-edge monitoring technologies are not just improving operations—they're rewriting the rules of business continuity.

System companies? What does that even mean! My AI Co-hosts in this latest episode of The Curious Learners do a great job in discussing the funding environment for system companies, i.e. the integration of hardware and software companies.So, what are system companies?System companies integrate hardware (tangible components) and software (intangible solutions). One example that comes to mind is battery storage systems, where the hardware stores energy, and battery management software (BMS) optimizes operations. System companies combine these elements to drive efficiency and scalability, making them essential for achieving net-zero targets.However, these companies face some unique hurdles:1️⃣ Significant capital requirements to scale manufacturing2️⃣ A funding gap in late-stage VC/early growth, critical for transitioning prototypes into scalable products3️⃣ Investor hesitancy due to the perceived complexity of system companies versus software-only modelsThe climate-tech investment landscape reveals a delicate balance of challenges and promise. While investments have recently declined, the resilience of climate-tech start-ups and their growing share in start-up investments offer hope.However, urgent action is required, especially given the monumental scale of clean-tech investments needed for a net-zero transition.

Join me for an extra special episode on The Curious Learners! It was created using Google's NotebookLM AI tool and my blog post on The Curious Learners (link here)!Today, we're diving into a critical but often overlooked aspect of our path to net zero: the electricity grid. We’ve all heard that electrification is key to decarbonizing industries like transportation and buildings, but what often goes unmentioned is that none of this can happen without a robust transmission network.In today’s episode, we’ll explore why the transmission grid is the ultimate bottleneck in accelerating renewable energy deployment. As electricity demand surges—driven by everything from electric vehicles to AI-hungry data centers—we face a grid that’s outdated and stretched to its limits. The stakes are high, with $21 trillion needed by 2050 to overhaul the global grid, and a staggering number of renewable projects stuck in the queue, waiting to be connected.But there's hope. We’ll discuss innovative solutions like advanced conductors, reconductoring, and Grid Enhancing Technologies that could drastically improve the capacity and efficiency of our transmission networks. These technologies are essential if we’re going to speed up the shift to renewables and hit our decarbonization targets.So, stay tuned as we unpack the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in ensuring that the grid is up to the task of powering the future!

Hi everyone. My guest today is Mert Mumtaz. He is the co-founder and CEO at Helius, which is a developer platform for the Blockchain ecosystem. Mert is not new to crypto. Prior to starting Helius, he spent years at Coinbase building different products across payments and others. Helius currently supports the Solana ecosystem and Mert has been a big supporter of the ecosystem since its early days.Mert and I had a fascinating discussion about the state of Blockchain, Solana vs. other networks, upcoming L1 ecosystems and of course his plans for Helius. Below are some highlights of the episode. Please give it a listen to hear a great conversation.Where does your conviction for Solana come from?Its unique tech aspect, its different approach to Blockchain design and scaling and of course the strong developer community.What is your view on use cases of Blockchain?Payments is an obvious use case and what Blockchain offers is a 10x improvement over traditional wire systems.  Another big area is token incentivized physical infrastructure network with examples in wireless networks, maps, energy grid, etc.What is a one-liner for Helius?Helius enables developers to build crypto powered applications in a frictionless way.What is the problem that Helius solves for builders?For any software development process, there is naturally a gap between having an idea to build something and actually executing it. In crypto, that gap is wider and is full of frictions due to additional complexity around models of Blockchains, RPC nodes, etc. Helius shortens the gap and bridges ideas to execution.How did the experience at Coinbase lead to realisation of the need for a product like Helius?It was a natural conclusion during the Solana expansion of Coinbase. Many of the resources available for the Ethereum ecosystem (e.g. Etherscan, APIs, etc.) didn't exist for Solana, which I was working to build at Coinbase.What is the mix of projects on Solana?Payments is a big space and developing fast. Intersection of NFTs and DeFi is also interesting. This is in particular due to compression, which is a tool that enables to mint large number of NFTs at minimal cost. The one I am most interested is physical infrastructure networks.What is your expansion plan at Helius in terms of other Blockchain networks?Our vision at Helius is to build specialized infrastructure for high throughput and scalable L1 networks. Solana is the most scalable one and we will expand to others.What new products are on the way?Three that I can disclose: 1) Blockchain explorer called X-Ray, which makes it super easy to read and make sense of transactions on Blockchain. 2) RPC 2.0, which re-designs the archiving system on the back-end. 3) A new product called Geyser VM that allows streaming data directly from the validator by using Geyser plugins.Where does transformation come from in crypto in the next 3-5 years?Payments is the killer app for crypto. Crypto is a much better way of facilitating payments and the problem is regulatory uncertainty around stablecoins and the differences in the regulatory environment across regions will determine how geographically distributed it will be. Others are physical infrastructure networks as mentioned and decentralized infrastructure (e.g. storage).What are you most curious about?1) Chat GPT - mind blowing how impressive it is! -> Stephen Wolfram's article2) How data centers work and whether there is a way to improve the industry (hint: using Blockchain)3) Storytelling! -> As engineers, you often neglect something like storytelling, but have been trying to improve that skill. 

Hi everyone. My guest at The Curious Learners is Amos Wittenberg. He is the co-founder of Dovetail. Amos and his co-founder Phillip Marks are building the climate risk modelling toolkit for investors. Dovetail helps to identify and quantify risks and opportunities in the era of climate transition.What Dovetail is building is critical for institutional investors' workflows, investment strategies and decision making. And it goes beyond climate-tech investors of course. Take Oil and Gas as an example. Investors need to take into account the exposure of Oil and Gas companies to stranded assets, to climate-related taxes and levies, as well as the knock on effect of transitions in other industries (e.g., EVs reducing demand for lubricants)—and hence the potential for higher costs and lower revenues for the industry. Amos and I had a great discussion. Here are some highlights from the episode. There is much more in the episode including how Dovetail collects inputs, the approach to integration with investors' workflow, Amos's background in journalism in financial crime and his experience at Palantir and how both led him to found Dovetail.How do you think about the risk framework in the era of climate transition?Climate transition is an undisputed megatrend. Over the next 30 years it will drive billions of dollars to change hands in practically every industry, regardless of how effectively we transition. All investors need to incorporate that risk in their strategy and decision making.What does Dovetail do against that risk framework?Dovetail provides a modelling toolkit for investors and lenders to understand both the risks and the opportunities of the transition at equity level.What is the horizon for Dovetail's modelling approach?It depends on the industry, however we typically model on a three to five year horizon.What are the key building blocks of the product?Primarily there are two sides to it: one is the systemic risks, which apply to each company relatively equally in a particular sector and geography, and the other is idiosyncratic risks, which define how each company is set up against such risks.What is the output? Is it a scoring system?We stay away from generalist scoring systems. Instead, our product gives investors both a high-level view of how their particular investments and overall portfolio would perform as well as tangible detailed projections (e.g., adjustments to revenue growth assumptions over the next 5 years).How does the current pace of net-zero transition drive your projections?The viability and economic feasibility of net-zero transition have improved. In addition, momentum is gathering in the capital stack and among regulators, driving disclosure and transition aligned investment.What are you most #curious about and what are you doing to #learn more about it?Green hydrogen! I went back and forth between being interested in it and sceptical. But I have gained a better understanding and am now exploring specific companies and applications developed with green hydrogen.Please enjoy my conversation with Amos Wittenberg. 

Hi everyone. My guest at The Curious Learners is Yurii Kyparus. He is the co-founder of Wallchain, which is a start-up that addresses the issue of MEV (miner extracted value) in crypto. MEV refers to value extracted from crypto transactions. Wallchain captures this value and returns it back to users.Here are some of the topics that we discussed on the episode:- MEV as a problem and opportunity in crypto- MEV across different chains- Wallchain versus its peers in terms of technology and business model- Wallchain's new B2C product with direct integration to wallets- Missing element of DeFi to fulfil its purpose- Yurii's journey from a big tech engineer to web2 founder and to web3 founder- Wallchain's pitch to new people to join the team- Most curious about these days? (AMMs, hint for a new product upgrade at Wallchain)Please enjoy my conversation with Yurii Kyparus.