Investable Universe

Attacks on critical U.S. infrastructure, from small but potentially lethal attacks on municipal water systems to this spring's Colonial Pipeline hack, have increased in frequency and severity. Amid calls for more robust defense of critical infrastructure--and current enthusiasm for infrastructure investment overall--is current technology capable of identifying potential cyberattack liabilities days, weeks or even months before a hacker might exploit them? In this episode, we talked to Tom Miller, CEO of privately held Virginia-based security company ClearForce, which combines machine learning, compliance, and workflow automation to monitor critical supply chains and identify security threats. In addition to its operating model,  ClearForce's board has a very strong U.S. ex-military presence, including former CIA and NSA Director Gen. Michael Hayden (Ret.), and former National Security Advisor Gen. James Logan Jones, Jr (Ret.) 

California's OHMConnect has a cool take on smart energy: the company's mobile platform, which functions like a "virtual power plant," pays users to curtail electricity use during peak demand periods, incentivizing them through fun flash events held during "OHMHours." With recent initiatives including a California-wide intercity competition to find the state's "Energy Saving Superhero" and a partnership with Google to bring the platform to NEST users, OHMConnect is connecting consumer behavior patterns on mobile apps to sustainable energy usage. Earlier this spring, we spoke to Co-Founder Curtis Tongue on OHMConnect's blockbuster success as an energy/entertainment hybrid.  

Last year's covid-related market dislocations made gold shine as the preferred "flight-to-safety" trade. This year, with vaccination rollouts proceeding in many countries and bringing economies closer to a new normal, there's still a solid case for gold (any idea why...?). Our guest this episode is Wade Guenther, Partner at Wilshire Phoenix Funds, who brought over a decade of experience in the exchange-traded fund (ETF) industry from firms like Horizon and Global X, to Wilshire, which recently rolled out a new gold ETF, WGLD, that offers an enhanced level of exposure to this all-season commodity. We discuss the case for gold in 2021...why Bitcoin's claim as the new "alt-gold" is no substitute for the real thing, and why even stable coins backed by precious metals may not give investors all the exposure they're looking for. 

Solutions to global issues like climate change and energy transition, and the advancement of emerging fields like quantum computing and ethical application of AI are being revolutionized as we speak...by the very young. This episode features Nadeem Nathoo, co-founder of Canada's TKS, or The Knowledge Society, a 10-month accelerator program for students around the world aged 11-17 who want to pursue disruptive innovation and exponential technologies. Beyond just radical homeschooling, TKS is like bypassing school entirely and going straight to a seed-stage startup. Participants have built radio telescopes and 3D printed rockets, developed microbe technologies and AI applications to diagnose depression and build prosthetic limbs, and developed biofuels using CRISPR. TKS has been hailed as a “School of the Future” by the World Economic Forum. We discussed the program, the challenges of post-covid education, and how young people at TKS are tackling fields like energy technology.  

Investable Universe takes a minor detour in this episode: while we've talked about tokenization and digitalization of real assets on several podcasts, this time we're talking about the realization of digital assets. That's one way of conceptualizing NFT's, non-fungible tokens. Is there a future for institutional investment in digital assets, and are NFT's purely a fad or a foretaste of the future of asset digitalization? Futurologist Ben Way is a multi-hyphenate tech entrepreneur and venture investor, as well as the CEO of Silicon Valley venture advisory the Rainmakers, acknowledged as one of the world's first tech incubators and fast-tracker of 204 companies. Rainmakers has advised the Executive Office of the President of the United States on the rollout of UTMS telecom technology, worked with the Microsoft Innovation Team on SaaS. Now, Way has launched a new company, TokenMaker, where users can create their own no-code tokens and NFT's.  

Why hasn't the United States embraced the potential of geothermal energy like other countries have? This question vexed Kathy Hannun, former engineer and executive at Google X, the "moonshot" innovation lab at Alphabet. So she founded Dandelion Energy, the home geothermal startup that just received a $30 million Series B venture capital round, led by Bill Gates's Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Kathy Hannun has been recognized as one of FastCompany's Most Creative People in Business and as a Leader of Tomorrow in Albany Business Review's "40 Under 40." In this episode, she talks about the geothermal market opportunity in the U.S., how she designed a system that to surmount traditional barriers to entry for geothermal, and bringing new investors to Dandelion. 

As the global economy transitions to renewable sources, along with new applications in fuel cell batteries, in electric vehicles, and rocket fuel, the hydrogen energy market is expected to top $208 billion in value by 2027 ($130 billion just in the U.S.) with the potential to create 700,000-plus jobs, according to some market estimates. This episode's guest is Raghu Kilambi, CEO and CFO of PowerTap Hydrogen, an emerging company that partners with fueling networks to install hydrogen fueling stations in the U.S. and Canada, speaking about the future of the "hydrogen economy" and the infrastructure required to store, transport, and deploy it.  

Are boom times ahead for the global graphite market? An essential component in EV batteries and energy storage, in smart materials and Internet of Things applications, in water treatment in lightweight composite materials used in aerospace, and in biomedical devices, graphite has been deemed so critical to the 21st century supply chain—as a battery metal and so much else--that it has been officially designated a strategic critical mineral by the United States. In this episode, Bharat Parashar, Chairman and CEO of Ceylon Graphite, talks about the future of the commodity that his firm calls "the new oil."  

A 2020 report from PriceWaterhouseCoopers (cited by MIT Technology Review) found that from 2013-2019, early-stage venture capital funding in green technologies rose from $418 million to $16.1 billion – an increase of more than 3,750% during the period, or 3 times the growth rate of VC investment into artificial intelligence, which has also been identified as a critical emerging industry. Have company valuations risen too far, too fast? And what does it mean for the energy transition and for private equity and venture capital overall? This episode features Bennett Cohen, partner at San Francisco venture capital firm Piva--the energy, mobility and industrial fund backed by Malaysian state-owned oil company Petronas--on the outlook for renewable energy technologies. 

Sukhi Jutla is co-founder and COO of MarketOrders, which has developed and scaled a highly practical and relevant retail application for blockchain in the precious metals industry, connecting midstream with downstream in the U.K.’s billion-dollar market for gold and diamond jewelry. The company helps independent jewelers to access gold and diamond inputs from global suppliers quickly, efficiently and more cheaply. In 2018 she was named one of the Top 100 European Digital Pioneers by the Financial Times as well as one of the Top 10 Crypto influencers of 2020 by blockchain bank Trastra. In this episode, she talks about the MarketOrders business model, about the future blockchain, and the global supply chain for precious commodities.