Going Direct Conversations

I sat down with Will Fry, founder and CEO of American Operator, to talk about one of the biggest questions in the U.S. economy: who will own the next generation of small businesses?

Among the topics we discuss are:

* Why allowing Private Equity to buy up Main Street is a disaster for local communities.

* The Great Ownership Transfer (6 million businesses for sale).

* The fatal flaw in most small business acquisitions.

* American Operator’s, “Operate-to-Own” Model: From 10% to 70% equity.

* Why Capital, not Operators, is the biggest bottleneck.

Enjoy.

Watch/listen on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts

Recording date: April 1, 2026

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

04:02 Importance Of Local Business Ownership

07:05 From Mainshares To American Operator

17:28 Will's AHA Moment

20:20 The Operate-To-Own Model Explained

25:50 Scaling And Governance Challenges

27:42 How To Create Leverage For Local Business Owners

30:18 Why AO is a Holding Company, Not a PE Fund

32:17 The Vision For Going Public And Reviving The American Dream

35:11 Will's Background

42:21 Financialization And Its Effects On Society

48:36 The Future Of Small Business Ownership In America

53:25 Problems With The Franchise Model

57:59 Using Content To Build Trust

01:01:19 Rapid Fire

Follow Jordan on X:

* https://x.com/jrwolfe

Connect with Will:

* X (Twitter) – https://x.com/buysellsmb

* LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/fryw

* Website – https://americanoperator.com

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Jordan

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I sit down with Aaron Feigelman, the head of food systems at Cultured Supply, to discuss the hidden monopoly of broadline food distributors and the need to reimagine wholesale food distribution from the ground up. We discuss why the current supply chain forces suppliers to kill the nutrients in our food, High Pressure Processing (HPP) technology, and how the company we’ve been incubating, CS Juice, is using AI to build a decentralized distribution network for food service.

Enjoy!

Watch/listen on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts

Recording date: March 25, 2026

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

03:19 Aaron's Interest In Improving The US Food System

05:12 Taking A Full-Stack Approach

07:23 Introducing CS Juice?

10:54 Understanding Broadline Distribution

14:44 High Pressure Processing (HPP) Technology

17:17 HPP vs. Heat Pasteurization

18:45 HPP Products In The Food Industry

20:10 Why New Local Food Distributors Keep Failing

26:19 The Production Layer & Vertical Integration

30:44 Why Vertical Integration Is Not Common In Food

40:24 Importance Of Going Direct

42:45 70% Margin Or Die In Traditional Retail

45:27 Why Software Alone Doesn’t Work

48:56 Americans Pay A Lot For Low Quality Product

52:26 Reimagining The Food System From First Principle

53:40 Amazon vs Etsy

59:28 Customer Service & Building Loyalty

* Follow Jordan on X:

* https://x.com/jrwolfe

* Connect with Aaron:

* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronfeigelman/

* CS Juice: https://www.csjuice.com/

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Jordan

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I sit down with Scott Porter, founder of Dynamic Green Products (DGP), to unpack an overlooked, unsexy corner of the real economy that literally keeps everything moving: industrial lubricants.

Nearly 99% of lubricants today are petroleum-based. They’re part of an old, centralized system built on commodity inputs, distributor choke points, and entrenched incumbent brands.

DGP is building high-performance, bio-based lubricants made from American-grown plants and soybeans. They are engineered to be drop-in replacements that outperform petroleum.

But this conversation goes beyond oil. It’s about:

* Changing how professionals buy lubricants by going direct

* Disrupting a distributor-dominated industry

* Competing with entrenched incumbents

* Rebuilding domestic supply chains from the ground up

Enjoy.

Listen/watch on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts

Recording date: January 29, 2026

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction

03:18 What’s Wrong With Industrial Lubricants

06:23 Dynamic Green Products Overview

11:42 Performance: Why Plants Can Beat Petroleum

16:38 People: Operator Health And Safety

19:22 Planet: Using American-grown Plants, Not Petroleum

20:09 Working With World’s Largest Equipment Brands

24:07 Applying The Going Direct Framework To DGP

26:11 Pillar #1: Production

30:41 Pillar #2: Wholesale Distribution

34:30 Amazon vs Bricks-and-Mortar Retail

45:49 Pricing Strategies for Bio-Based Products

49:02 Supporting American Farmers And Building Domestic Supply Chains

54:01 Reconnecting Production And Consumption

55:03 Creators And The Future of Buying Lubricants

01:01:26 Importance Of Knowing Your Customers

01:06:13 Rapid Fire

Follow Jordan on X:

* https://x.com/jrwolfe

Scott & DGP Links:

* Website: https://dgpworks.com

* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-porter-a09644b/

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Jordan

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I sit down with Andra Keay, a researcher on human-robot culture and head of Silicon Valley Robotics. We discuss the importance of ethical design in robotics, why humans form deep emotional bonds with physical machines, her 5 ethical laws of robotics, and how we can design robots that are actually good for humans.

Enjoy!

Recording date: March 10, 2026

Watch on YouTube; listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

01:30 About Silicon Valley Robotics

08:49 Designing Robots That Are Good For Humans

17:51 Why We Treat Robots Like Humans

21:46 Children And Robots

25:36 Creating Robots That Emulate Humans

30:38 Ethics And Incentive Structures In Robotics

34:51 Andra’s Five Laws Of Robotics

42:55 Policy And Regulation In Robotics

44:26 Community Building In Robotics

45:46 Andra’s Work At Singularity University

48:48 Rapid Fire

Follow Jordan on X

* https://x.com/jrwolfe

Connect with Andra Keay

* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andra-keay

* Substack: [email protected]

* Silicon Valley Robotics: https://www.svrobo.org/

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Jordan

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I sit down with Toby Shorin, a researcher, writer, and technologist, to discuss his popular essay “Life After Lifestyle.” We dig into why the lifestyle brand era has ended, how culture is being “eaten” by financialization, and why Toby is starting to abandon culture as the main lens for understanding what’s happening now.

Enjoy!

Recording Date: February 18, 2026

Watch on YouTube; listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction

03:36 Understanding The Going Direct Economy

05:07 Brands Structure Our Relationships

06:09 Life After Lifestyle Article

08:37 The Era Of Lifestyle Brands

16:31 Culture As A Concept Is Only 200 Years Old

17:29 Culture vs. Tradition: A New Perspective

20:20 The Financialization Of Everything

26:15 Will AI & Robotics Create More Centralization?

34:19 Controlling Production = Controlling Minds

35:36 Defining The Cultural Production Service Economy

36:24 From Making Goods To Making Culture

44:21 Why Toby is Abandoning "Culture"

48:37 Closing The Door On The Past

59:39 Toby's Background

Follow Jordan on X:

* https://x.com/jrwolfe

Links to Toby’s Work:

* Website: https://tobyshorin.com/

* Email: [email protected]

* Essay: “Life After Lifestyle”: https://subpixel.space/entries/life-after-lifestyle/

* Essay: “After Authenticity”: https://subpixel.space/entries/after-authenticity/

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Jordan

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I sit down with Saman Farid, founder of Formic, to get real about what it takes to deploy industrial robots in practice. We go deep into robotics-as-a-service, how we can make manufacturing more productive, and the labor reality for small/medium-sized manufacturers in the United States.

If you want a dose of robot reality beyond flashy demo videos, you will enjoy this episode.

Among the topics we discuss are:

* Deployment gap in the robotics

* Hidden labor crisis

* Robotics as a Service (RaaS)

* China vs U.S. manufacturing culture

* How Formic turns automation from CAPEX to OPEX for their customers

* Scale through coordination vs consolidation

Watch on YouTube; listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

Enjoy.

Recording date: February 11, 2026

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction

01:49 Why Factory Tours Should Be Mandatory

09:08 State Of US Manufacturing

16:36 Chinese vs American Approach To Manufacturing

18:57 The Labor Debate

25:40 Breaking Down Robotics-As-A-Service

35:37 Importance Of Geographical Density

37:47 Financing Automation

40:55 Scale Through Coordination vs Control

45:45 Challenges In Robotics Adoption

51:40 Formic Capital Strategy

56:26 Formic Longer-Term Vision

58:13 Rapid Fire

Follow Jordan on X:

* https://x.com/jrwolfe

Connect with Saman Farid:

* X – https://x.com/samanfarid

* LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/samanfarid/

* Website – https://formic.co/

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Jordan

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I sit down with Jan Liphardt, founder of OpenMind and Stanford professor, to discuss an important question that will shape the future: who should control intelligent robots?

As AI and robotics converge, our economic and societal trajectory may hinge on whether robots become closed, black-box systems or open platforms that anyone can build on, audit, and deploy locally.

Jan and the team at OpenMind are building OM1: an open-source, AI-native software stack for robotic systems. Think of it as Android for humanoids, with an App Store where developers can ship new skills to robots in the real world.

Enjoy!

Watch on YouTube; listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

Recording Date: January 23, 2026

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction

02:15 Different Views On The Main Bottleneck In Robotics

09:50 OM1 - An AI-Native Operating Systems For Robots

14:51 Building The Connective Tissue

20:16 Future Of Dexterity

24:03 Openmind’s Hardware-Agnostic Approach

28:32 Vertical Integration vs. Open Collaboration

30:31 Building An App Store For Humanoids

38:26 Long Tail Of Robot Training Data

43:49 Data Utilization Challenges

46:13 Edge AI And Hardware

52:37 Working With OEMs and Enterprises

59:58 Why Start A Company Now

01:07:06 Rapid Fire

Follow Jordan on X:

* https://x.com/jrwolfe

Jan & OpenMind Links:

* Website – https://openmind.org

* GitHub – https://github.com/OpenMind/OM1

* Email – [email protected]

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Jordan

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I sit down with Meta Prime, a writer and online network builder whose work I discovered on Substack. Meta Prime and I do a deep dive into a recent essay he wrote titled, “The Necessity of Rebuilding the Social Structure in America.”

We explore how and why America’s social fabric broke down, what rebuilding it looks like in practice, and how the Going Direct economy can play a central role in restoring it.

Enjoy!

Watch on YouTube; listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

Recording Date: January 08, 2026

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction

04:51 Meta Prime’s Essay: The Necessity For Rebuilding Social Structure

12:11 Defining Social Structure

20:31 How To Start Rebuilding The Social Structure

27:23 Meta Prime Project Background

35:42 Building Parallel Systems

42:50 Going Direct And Rebuilding The Social Structure

47:16 Building Strong Networks In The Digital Age

49:58 Decentralization And The Future Of Systems

01:00:53 Building Practical Solutions

01:04:41 Understanding Fraternal Networks

01:08:27 Rapid Fire

Follow Jordan on X:

* https://x.com/jrwolfe

Links to Meta Prime’s Work:

* Website – https://metaprime001.com/

* Substack – https://substack.com/@metaprime001

* X (Twitter) – https://x.com/MetaPrime001

* Youtube – https://www.youtube.com/@metaprime001

Resources Mentioned:

* Area 2 Farms – https://www.area2farms.com/

* Article: “On The Necessity of Rebuilding Social Structure” - https://metaprime.substack.com/p/on-the-necessity-of-rebuild-social

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Jordan

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I sit down with Sam Lessin, Cofounder and General Partner at Slow Ventures, to unpack why he believes decentralization is inevitable.

Sam is an original thinker and really fun to talk to. He and the Slow team have built an impressive track record of being early and right. They’ve made early investments in Robinhood, Pinterest, Nextdoor, Solana, Airtable, and more.

In this wide-ranging and entertaining conversation, we discuss:

* How the Internet ironically became the greatest centralizing machine ever

* How the, “Physics of Technology” make centralization and decentralization inevitable cycles

* Why capitalism serves dollars, not people

* Why Slow Ventures invests in unpopular ideas and refuses to be specialists

* The brittle food system

* VC’s broken incentives

Enjoy!

Watch on YouTube; listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

Recording date: December 17, 2025

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

01:44 Slow Ventures Approach To Investing

04:41 The Role Of Content In Venture Capital

07:41 Is Decentralization Inevitable?

15:24 Why The Internet Centralized Everything

17:43 Technology As Leverage To Decentralize

23:59 Incentive Structures In Decentralized Models

31:23 Early Facebook Days

32:09 Current Narrative In Silicon Valley

34:54 Delusion Of Greatness in Tech

37:09 Birth Of Slow Ventures

39:01 VC Challenges In Funding Decentralization

42:45 How AI Is Changing Seed Investing

45:47 Concept Of Memetic Warfare

49:33 Slow Ventures Etiquette School

51:32 Rapid Fire

Follow Jordan on X:

* https://x.com/jrwolfe

Links to Sam’s Work:

* X – https://x.com/lessin

* Slow Ventures – https://slow.co/

* The Slow Ventures Guide to Etiquette – https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Etiquette-Technology-Finance-Society/dp/B0G43P4PBD

Resources Mentioned:

* Meme Lord – https://www.memelord.com/

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Jordan

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I sit down with Onye Ahanotu, founder of Ikenga Wines, to unpack his wild idea of creating an entirely new beverage category in the U.S. Onye has invented a way to make palm wine, one of the oldest beverages on earth and a staple across the global South, without the palm tree.

By bio-designing a “molecular palm sap” from different plant sources, Onye produces palm wine locally in Berkeley, California. Ikenga is a powerful example of how new forms of science can enable more decentralized production.

In this episode, we discuss:

* Why palm wine is one of the oldest wine categories most people have never heard of

* Why traditional palm wine must be consumed within 1–2 days

* How Onye bio-designs molecular palm sap from plants

* Ikenga’s decentralized, local production model

* Palm wine’s flavor profile

* Why the middle market in wine is getting squeezed

* How palm wine could become the missing pairing for global Southern cuisines

Enjoy!

Watch on YouTube; listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

Recording date: December 8, 2025

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction

00:51 What Is Palm Wine?

02:47 Traditional Production Of Palm Wine

07:54 Making Palm Wine Without The Palm Tree

13:24 Onye's Journey To Making Palm Wine

19:48 Creating A New Beverage Category

21:28 Dialing In Different Flavor Profiles

24:10 Current Production Capacity

26:42 Understanding Shelf Life And Flavor Evolution

29:10 Distribution Challenges In The Alcohol Industry

32:38 Navigating Consumer Trends

38:20 Future Of Beverages

43:34 Pricing Strategy: Accessible Luxury

45:59 Developing A Technical Expertise

Follow Jordan on X

* https://x.com/jrwolfe

Links to Onye’s Work:

* Website – https://ikengawines.com/

* Email – [email protected]

* LinkedIn (IKENGA Wines) – https://www.linkedin.com/company/ikenga-wines/

* Instagram (IKENGA Wines) – https://instagram.com/ikengawines

* Instagram (Onye) – https://instagram.com/onyeahanotu

* LinkedIn (Onye) – https://www.linkedin.com/in/onyeahanotu

Resources Mentioned:

* The False Promise of Optimization by Coco Krumme - https://www.amazon.com/Optimal-Illusions-False-Promise-Optimization/dp/0593331117

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Jordan

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