The Dynamo Show: a Dynamo Ventures Podcast

In this episode of The Dynamo Show, DAT Freight analyst Dean Croke joins Madelyn O’Farrell to explain how years of excess trucking capacity and recent enforcement actions have reshaped the freight market. He discusses rising rates amid tighter driver availability, the outsized role of AI data center construction in flatbed demand, and how GLP-1 medications may affect refrigerated freight. Dean also expects continued volatility in 2027 as capacity remains constrained, and explores how autonomous technology could support drivers, especially during risky overnight hours, rather than replace them. Don’t miss this episode!

Highlights from their conversation include:

• Dean Croke’s Background in Trucking (0:52)
• DAT’s Freight Data and Market Insights (2:56)
• How the Freight Recession Reshaped the Industry (6:00)
• What Signals a Sustainable Freight Recovery? (11:51)
• Flatbed Rates and the AI Data Center Boom (16:47)
• The Ozempic Effect on Refrigerated Freight (23:28)
• Why 2027 Could Bring Driver Shortages and Rate Volatility (25:43)
• Autonomous Trucks as Support for Drivers (30:53)
• Fatigue Risks and Overnight Driving (32:12)

Dynamo Ventures is a venture firm backing founders upgrading the physical economy. As intelligence moves into critical infrastructure and technology collides with physics, industry is entering a new era of transformation - the industrial renaissance.

Born from the dirt and grit of supply chains and shaped by operations, not spreadsheets, Dynamo focuses on the complex realities of building in the real world. We invest in companies transforming infrastructure, manufacturing, logistics, transportation, and the systems that power global commerce.

Dynamo works closely with founders who combine ambition with a bias to action, bringing a builder mindset to venture capital through deep operational insight, systematic pressure-testing and hands-on partnership.

Our purpose is simple: to back the relentless shaping the industrial renaissance. Learn more at www.dynamo.vc.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode of The Dynamo Show, Madelyn O’Farrell speaks with Megan Mauter, Stanford professor and Research Director at the National Alliance for Water Innovation, about how water and power systems can work together. They explore how flexible water treatment operations could help balance grid demand and lower utility energy costs, including a Santa Barbara desalination demonstration that reduced monthly power bills by about 15%. Megan also discusses the challenges of utility adoption, the role of electricity tariffs, fit-for-purpose water reuse, and how distributed treatment and trusted digital tools can support more resilient water systems.

Highlights from their conversation include:

• Megan’s Background and the Water-Energy Connection (0:42)
• How Water Systems Can Support Grid Flexibility (2:08)
• Industrial Load Growth and the Value of Flexible Operations (4:19)
• Comparing Water Assets and the Santa Barbara Desalination Example (6:52)
• Why Utility Adoption Requires More Than Technology (11:49)
• NAWI’s Mission and Research Portfolio (15:40)
• Distributed Water Treatment and San Francisco’s Reuse Model (20:09)
• Electricity Tariffs and Incentives for Flexibility (21:50)
• A Vision for Water Facilities as Active Grid Participants (25:10)

Dynamo Ventures is a venture firm backing founders upgrading the physical economy. As intelligence moves into critical infrastructure and technology collides with physics, industry is entering a new era of transformation - the industrial renaissance.

Born from the dirt and grit of supply chains and shaped by operations, not spreadsheets, Dynamo focuses on the complex realities of building in the real world. We invest in companies transforming infrastructure, manufacturing, logistics, transportation, and the systems that power global commerce.

Dynamo works closely with founders who combine ambition with a bias to action, bringing a builder mindset to venture capital through deep operational insight, systematic pressure-testing and hands-on partnership.

Our purpose is simple: to back the relentless shaping the industrial renaissance. Learn more at www.dynamo.vc.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode, host Madelyn O’Farrell sits down with Scott Cornell, EVP, Crime & Theft Specialist at SPG Cargo & Logistics, to explore how cargo theft has evolved from localized theft into more sophisticated strategic theft. Scott traces his career and explains the difference between straight theft and strategic theft, describes how international crime rings now coordinate much of the activity, and notes the sharp rise in strategic theft. He also questions widely cited loss estimates, points to the broader costs they miss, walks through schemes such as double brokering, MC number fraud, and the Trojan Driver Scam, and discusses insurance and liability challenges. The conversation closes with prevention through staff education, sound processes, careful driver and carrier vetting, and pickup verification tools.

Highlights from their conversation include:

• Introducing Scott Cornell and His Cargo-Theft Expertise (0:28)
• Why “Freight Fraud” Isn’t a Separate Theft Category (2:00)
• Why the Industry Should Focus on Becoming a Harder Target (3:29)
• How Cargo Theft Shifted From Local Crews to International Crime Rings (5:45)
• Why Cargo-Theft Statistics Understate the True Cost of Losses (11:14)
• How Double-Brokering Scams and MC Number Fraud Hijack Loads (15:42)
• How the Trojan Driver Scam Turns Trusted Drivers Into Insider Threats (18:21)
• Background Checks That Can Help Prevent Planted-Driver Theft (22:24)
• How Cargo Theft Is Changing Insurance Coverage and Costs (23:01)
• Why Liability for Strategic Cargo Theft Can Be Hard to Determine (25:51)
• Why Pickup Verification, Staff Training, and Vetting Processes Matter (29:11)

Dynamo Ventures is a venture firm backing founders upgrading the physical economy. As intelligence moves into critical infrastructure and technology collides with physics, industry is entering a new era of transformation - the industrial renaissance.

Born from the dirt and grit of supply chains and shaped by operations, not spreadsheets, Dynamo focuses on the complex realities of building in the real world. We invest in companies transforming infrastructure, manufacturing, logistics, transportation, and the systems that power global commerce.

Dynamo works closely with founders who combine ambition with a bias to action, bringing a builder mindset to venture capital through deep operational insight, systematic pressure-testing and hands-on partnership.

Our purpose is simple: to back the relentless shaping the industrial renaissance. Learn more at www.dynamo.vc.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode, host Madelyn O’Farrell sits down with Rakesh Kumar, University of Illinois professor and semiconductor expert, to explore the technology and economics behind the global chip industry. Kumar explains how the rise of AI is driving demand for chips while high factory costs, long construction timelines, and uncertainty about future demand make it difficult for supply to keep pace. They discuss the risks those dynamics could create for AI companies and the broader economy, what gives Nvidia its competitive advantage beyond CUDA, and whether the CHIPS Act and U.S. export controls are achieving their goals. The conversation also examines how flexible designs, general-purpose chips, and chiplets could make supply chains more resilient, and looks ahead to possible advances in optical communication and three-dimensional chip architecture.

Highlights from their conversation include:

• Rakesh Kumar’s Path Into Semiconductors (0:46)
• Why Chips Matter to the Public and Policymakers (2:02)
• Rising Chip Costs and the Economic Risks of the AI Boom (6:51)
• Nvidia’s Competitive Moat Beyond CUDA (13:19)
• The CHIPS Act: Spending, Research, and Results (15:09)
• U.S. Export Controls and China’s Chip Industry (19:19)
• Why Semiconductor Supply Chains Are Fragile (22:32)
• Building Resilience With General-Purpose Chips and Chiplets (25:58)
• The Future of Computing: GPUs, Photons, and 3D Chips (27:58)
• Final Thoughts and Takeaways (32:00)

If you're interested in learning more, check out Rakesh's new book, The Chip Age: How Semiconductors Became the World's Most Powerful Resource (Amazon).

Dynamo Ventures is a venture firm backing founders upgrading the physical economy. As intelligence moves into critical infrastructure and technology collides with physics, industry is entering a new era of transformation - the industrial renaissance.

Born from the dirt and grit of supply chains and shaped by operations, not spreadsheets, Dynamo focuses on the complex realities of building in the real world. We invest in companies transforming infrastructure, manufacturing, logistics, transportation, and the systems that power global commerce.

Dynamo works closely with founders who combine ambition with a bias to action, bringing a builder mindset to venture capital through deep operational insight, systematic pressure-testing and hands-on partnership.

Our purpose is simple: to back the relentless shaping the industrial renaissance. Learn more at www.dynamo.vc.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode, Madelyn O'Farrell talks with Tom Delahunty, VP of Operations for Asset Lifecycle Management at Iron Mountain, about what happens to IT hardware after its first life. Tom makes the case that decommissioned equipment is a secondary supply chain rather than a waste problem, pointing to 88% year-over-year growth in Q2 as AI and data center buildouts push assets out of service. The conversation covers how a hyperscale decommission works, from data sanitization and secure chain of custody through remarketing that cascades from full systems down to components, and how GPU-dense infrastructure and liquid cooling raise the bar on testing capability. The takeaway for listeners: plan for end of use early, expect used GPUs to become a normal part of procurement, and watch for more R&D investment in reuse and critical mineral recovery as the industry matures toward something closer to the used car market.

Highlights from their conversation include:

• Introduction to Tom Delahunty and Iron Mountain (0:29)
• What Iron Mountain Is and Who It Serves (1:43)
• Record Revenue Growth and Scaling Operations (4:23)
• Data Sanitization, Mobile Shred Units and Chain of Custody (7:00)
• How Reuse Rates Vary Across Decommissioning Projects (8:58)
• Why GPUs Should Follow the Same Longevity Curve as CPUs (11:20)
• Generating Demand Before Assets Arrive (14:40)
• Bottlenecks and Wishes for the Secondary Market (17:21)
• Design for End of Use Improving Among OEMs (18:50)
• Whether the ITAD Industry Can Handle Coming Volume (20:59)
• The Case for R&D Investment in ITAD (23:56)
• Planning Future Compute Needs Around Used Supply (28:40)
• Final Thoughts and Episode Wrap-Up (30:55)

Dynamo Ventures is a venture firm backing founders upgrading the physical economy. As intelligence moves into critical infrastructure and technology collides with physics, industry is entering a new era of transformation - the industrial renaissance.

Born from the dirt and grit of supply chains and shaped by operations, not spreadsheets, Dynamo focuses on the complex realities of building in the real world. We invest in companies transforming infrastructure, manufacturing, logistics, transportation, and the systems that power global commerce.

Dynamo works closely with founders who combine ambition with a bias to action, bringing a builder mindset to venture capital through deep operational insight, systematic pressure-testing and hands-on partnership.

Our purpose is simple: to back the relentless shaping the industrial renaissance. Learn more at www.dynamo.vc 

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode, Halton Group executive Shuresh Maran joins Madelyn O’Farrell to explore how Halton designs mission-critical HVAC and ventilation systems for the most demanding environments, including cruise ships, naval vessels, nuclear facilities, offshore oil and gas, offshore wind, and modern data centers. Shuresh explains how Halton’s core strengths—high-integrity engineering, rigorous testing, and long-life reliability—carry across sectors, and why their equipment must function flawlessly in rare but life-or-equipment-saving moments. He outlines the company’s growth strategy to double revenue by 2030, driven by rebounding cruise demand, long-cycle nuclear buildouts (including small modular reactors), and booming offshore wind. The conversation also covers the shift to unmanned offshore platforms, the importance of cybersecurity and supply chain resilience in defense and energy, the rising expectations of data center owners around longevity and climate adaptation, and Halton’s cautious approach to IoT and remote monitoring in security-sensitive environments. A key takeaway is that as energy and digital infrastructure scales, getting the physical built environment “right” from day one—by partnering with experienced suppliers—dramatically reduces operational risk and cost over a project’s lifecycle.

Highlights from their conversation include:

• Shuresh’s Background and Global Career Journey (0:51)
• What Halton Group Does and Its Four Divisions (1:47)
• Why Ventilation Is Mission Critical in Extreme Environments (3:00)
• Operating Differently Inside Halton for Demanding Sectors (4:47)
• Growth Strategy and Doubling Revenue by 2030 (6:06)
• Offshore Wind vs Oil and Gas: What Transfers and What’s New (7:18)
• Naval and Defense Demand, Long Project Cycles, and Cybersecurity (9:14)
• Data Centers, Reliability, and Climate Adaptation Pressures (11:41)
• Supply Chain, Standardization, and Reducing Bottlenecks (14:06)
• IoT, Remote Monitoring, and Cybersecurity Constraints (16:09)
• Future of Mission Critical Built Environments and Final Takeaways (18:44)

Dynamo Ventures is a venture firm backing founders upgrading the physical economy. As intelligence moves into critical infrastructure and technology collides with physics, industry is entering a new era of transformation - the industrial renaissance.

Born from the dirt and grit of supply chains and shaped by operations, not spreadsheets, Dynamo focuses on the complex realities of building in the real world. We invest in companies transforming infrastructure, manufacturing, logistics, transportation, and the systems that power global commerce.

Dynamo works closely with founders who combine ambition with a bias to action, bringing a builder mindset to venture capital through deep operational insight, systematic pressure-testing and hands-on partnership.

Our purpose is simple: to back the relentless shaping the industrial renaissance. Learn more at www.dynamo.vc.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode, Rachel Permut draws on decades of experience in distributed energy and virtual power plants to explain how demand-side flexibility is becoming a critical grid resource. She breaks down what DERs and VPPs are, why customer enrollment and revenue mechanics matter more than the “shiny” technology, and how fragmented U.S. markets create both complexity and opportunity, with DR payments now reaching up to $100/kW in some regions. Rachel dives into the evolving role of data centers, including flexible AI and batch workloads, water-based cooling trade-offs, and emerging models where data centers pay others on their circuit to reduce load. She outlines the full demand response lifecycle from contract and enrollment through dispatch, baseline measurement, and payment, highlighting where programs typically fail and how better communication, software, and market design can unlock more value. Ultimately, she argues that DERs and VPPs are not a silver bullet but are fast, cost-effective tools that must play a much larger role alongside new generation to address growing grid stress.

Highlights from their conversation include:

• Meet Rachel Permut And Her Energy Industry Background (0:29)
• Why Rachel Focused On Demand-Side Energy And Flexible Load (1:28)
• What DERs Are And How Virtual Power Plants Work (3:23)
• How Much Flexible Load Is Worth Across Different US Markets (7:08)
• Role Of Aggregators And Market Selection For Industrial Operators (9:37)
• Data Centers As Flexible Load And Deferrable Compute Workloads (11:06)
• Where Demand Response Programs Fail and Opportunities For Startups (16:44)
• Measurement, Verification, and Baselines For Load Curtailment (20:25)
• Why DERs and VPPs Should Be A Bigger Part Of Grid Solutions (22:40)
• Policy, Market Design, and Local Capacity Value (24:16)
• ERCOT, PJM, and How Markets Are Evolving For Flexibility (26:35)
• How Industrial Operators Should Approach Aggregators (27:52)
• Closing Thoughts Episode Wrap-Up (28:38)

Dynamo Ventures is a venture firm backing founders upgrading the physical economy. As intelligence moves into critical infrastructure and technology collides with physics, industry is entering a new era of transformation - the industrial renaissance.

Born from the dirt and grit of supply chains and shaped by operations, not spreadsheets, Dynamo focuses on the complex realities of building in the real world. We invest in companies transforming infrastructure, manufacturing, logistics, transportation, and the systems that power global commerce.

Dynamo works closely with founders who combine ambition with a bias to action, bringing a builder mindset to venture capital through deep operational insight, systematic pressure-testing and hands-on partnership.

Our purpose is simple: to back the relentless shaping the industrial renaissance. Learn more at www.dynamo.vc.
 

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Highlights from their conversation include:

Dynamo Ventures is a venture firm backing founders upgrading the physical economy. As intelligence moves into critical infrastructure and technology collides with physics, industry is entering a new era of transformation - the industrial renaissance.

Born from the dirt and grit of supply chains and shaped by operations, not spreadsheets, Dynamo focuses on the complex realities of building in the real world. We invest in companies transforming infrastructure, manufacturing, logistics, transportation, and the systems that power global commerce.

Dynamo works closely with founders who combine ambition with a bias to action, bringing a builder mindset to venture capital through deep operational insight, systematic pressure-testing and hands-on partnership.

Our purpose is simple: to back the relentless shaping the industrial renaissance. Learn more at www.dynamo.vc.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

From time to time, we’ll re-air a previous episode of the show that our newer audience may have missed. In this episode, founder Phoebe Tan shares how her background at Amazon and Singapore Airlines led her to build Taelor, a “Netflix for outfits” circular fashion platform focused on busy professional men. She explains Taelor’s two-sided model, where subscribers rent curated outfits and partner brands monetize inventory and gain rich feedback to improve product design. The discussion dives into how circular systems transform traditional supply chains, the AI and data challenges of working with 100+ brands and non-standard sizing, and how reverse logistics and operations are built for scale from day one. Phoebe also highlights the power of unbiased customer feedback, why access-over-ownership and personalization will accelerate circular fashion over the next 5–10 years, and how sharing models can extend far beyond apparel into other categories of underutilized goods.

Highlights from their conversation include:

Dynamo Ventures is a venture firm backing founders upgrading the physical economy. As intelligence moves into critical infrastructure and technology collides with physics, industry is entering a new era of transformation - the industrial renaissance.

Born from the dirt and grit of supply chains and shaped by operations, not spreadsheets, Dynamo focuses on the complex realities of building in the real world. We invest in companies transforming infrastructure, manufacturing, logistics, transportation, and the systems that power global commerce.

Dynamo works closely with founders who combine ambition with a bias to action, bringing a builder mindset to venture capital through deep operational insight, systematic pressure-testing and hands-on partnership.

Our purpose is simple: to back the relentless shaping the industrial renaissance. Learn more at www.dynamo.vc

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode, Madelyn O’Farrell interviews Eesha Pathak, Senior Director of Product Management at Crusoe, about her unconventional career from software engineering and branding to leading enterprise AI at Google and now building AI-first infrastructure. They discuss Crusoe’s vertically integrated, energy-first approach to cloud and data centers, capturing abundant energy (like stranded gas and renewables) and turning “electrons into intelligence” via GPUs and a custom cloud stack. Eesha explains how Crusoe’s gigawatt-scale campuses and modular Spark edge deployments complement each other to deliver both scale and low-latency inference, dives into the Managed AI platform with its model marketplace, self-serve and tailored deployments, fine-tuning, and upcoming reinforcement learning, and highlights why judgment and holistic thinking are critical in product and engineering. She also unpacks Crusoe’s close partnership with NVIDIA, its role in enabling physical AI and robotics with low-latency compute, a flexible data and partnership strategy, and her long-term vision of Crusoe becoming the most helpful company for people building AI, so customers can focus on their products instead of wrestling with infrastructure.

Dynamo Ventures is a venture firm backing founders upgrading the physical economy. As intelligence moves into critical infrastructure and technology collides with physics, industry is entering a new era of transformation - the industrial renaissance.

Born from the dirt and grit of supply chains and shaped by operations, not spreadsheets, Dynamo focuses on the complex realities of building in the real world. We invest in companies transforming infrastructure, manufacturing, logistics, transportation, and the systems that power global commerce.

Dynamo works closely with founders who combine ambition with a bias to action, bringing a builder mindset to venture capital through deep operational insight, systematic pressure-testing and hands-on partnership.

Our purpose is simple: to back the relentless shaping the industrial renaissance. Learn more at www.dynamo.vc.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.