Advertise on podcast: Chuck Yates Got A Job

Five lessons pulled from a junior high dance floor, a Wall Street Journal firing, and a weekend in Battle Creek learning to code. Chuck Yates, co-founder of Collide, takes the Ion stage and argues that energy's AI problem was never the tech. It is permission, labels, and an industry that named its flagship product West Texas Intermediate. Plus a serious ask about being better people on the way there. Click here to watch a video of this episode. Join the conversation shaping the future of energy.Collide is the community where oil & gas professionals connect, share insights, and solve real-world problems together. No noise. No fluff. Just the discussions that move our industry forward.Apply today at collide.io Click here to view the episode transcript. 00:00 End of the world as we know it03:00 Bobby Joe and the 1982 church dance07:46 Labels matter11:54 Why energy is bad at marketing14:41 Building distribution before a product16:22 The clock reset18:58 James Broach21:18 A weekend of Claude code and David Lee Roth23:48 Houston, freaking Texashttps://twitter.com/collide_aihttps://www.tiktok.com/@collide.iohttps://www.facebook.com/collide.iohttps://www.instagram.com/collide.iohttps://www.youtube.com/@collide_iohttps://bsky.app/profile/collide-ai.bsky.socialhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/collideai

A garage full of Ethereum rigs once set a house on fire, and that was only the warmup. Rakesh Agrawal and Lloyd Kirchner run Piping Technology & Products, a 50 year old Houston manufacturer where 100 employees now build their own AI agents and a welding cobot just got unveiled to 450 people on the shop floor. Cut cables in West Texas, new collar jobs, Pope Leo, and why the guy with the pickup truck had every reason to be nervous. Click here to watch a video of this episode. Join the conversation shaping the future of energy.Collide is the community where oil & gas professionals connect, share insights, and solve real-world problems together. No noise. No fluff. Just the discussions that move our industry forward.Apply today at collide.io Click here to view the episode transcript. 00:00 The house fire05:07 A cryptic DM about dad's company06:15 What Piping Technology makes09:56 Family business and the second chair12:43 Every tech wave since dial up17:02 Getting AI to actually spread20:14 The guy who cut the cables24:04 Unveiling a welding cobot26:16 Pope Leo and new collar work35:32 Agents on the quoting desk42:22 The CIO problem44:22 Letting Claude psychoanalyze you49:04 Guardrails and permissions53:11 Five years out57:56 Intention and actionhttps://twitter.com/collide_aihttps://www.tiktok.com/@collide.iohttps://www.facebook.com/collide.iohttps://www.instagram.com/collide.iohttps://www.youtube.com/@collide_iohttps://bsky.app/profile/collide-ai.bsky.socialhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/collideai

Houston has always run on optimism, spending everything to drill a hole where nobody has drilled before and then finding out what came back. Leon Coe, founder of Amplify Intelligence and the Houston AI Club, thinks that same instinct is exactly what AI needs. He and Chuck get into why executives cannot delegate this one, why augmentation beats automation, and why your own level of ambition is a hard ceiling on what the models will ever hand back. https://www.meetup.com/houston-ai-club/events/316056350/?eventOrigin=group_upcoming_events Click here to watch a video of this episode. Join the conversation shaping the future of energy.Collide is the community where oil & gas professionals connect, share insights, and solve real-world problems together. No noise. No fluff. Just the discussions that move our industry forward.Apply today at collide.io Click here to view the episode transcript. 00:00 The perfect podcast length02:03 What executive AI coaching actually is04:48 Building the Houston AI Club08:50 Why Houston is wired for AI14:29 Augmentation, not automation18:29 Talking to AI instead of typing at it22:41 Cost savings versus new revenue24:37 The real prize in oil and gas27:54 What executives are actually asking31:52 Banned in 2024, bought in 202533:31 Why you cannot delegate this one38:51 The Burton McMurtry card story40:32 Ambition as a technical limiter44:08 AI as a thought partner48:23 The September 3rd operator spotlight50:24 Where to find Leonhttps://twitter.com/collide_ai https://www.tiktok.com/@collide.io https://www.facebook.com/collide.io https://www.instagram.com/collide.io https://www.youtube.com/@collide_io https://bsky.app/profile/collide-ai.bsky.social https://www.linkedin.com/company/collideai

Everybody chases the drill bit, but the real money can hide in wells that have produced for years. D.J. Snyder left drilling and completions to chase what nobody wanted to touch: production. His company Vannevar builds downhole tools that squeeze more oil out of wells already in the ground, using a marginal gains mindset borrowed from F1 and the Tour de France. Chuck gets into frac plugs, pumper routes, why nobody shuts in a well to fix it, and how AI could give operators one source of truth. Click here to watch a video of this episode. Join the conversation shaping the future of energy.Collide is the community where oil & gas professionals connect, share insights, and solve real-world problems together. No noise. No fluff. Just the discussions that move our industry forward.Apply today at collide.io Click here to view the episode transcript. 00:00   Meet D.J. Snyder01:05   From drilling to the overlooked world of production02:47   Old tech, new problems: gas, sand, and horizontal wells06:24   Physical widgets and the marginal gains mindset08:32   Why there's no one size fits all13:00   Heresy: actually watch and fix your wells16:57   The AI promise of one source of truth18:43   Rethinking the pumper's daily route22:57   War stories, the Bakken, and naming tools25:18   ROI, payback, and how you really sell it28:25   Who to call, what it costs, and building a company36:03   How AI reshapes the work itself38:16   Robots, drones, and the future of the field40:14   Why boards say yes and value beats cheap44:53   Wrap up and where to find DJhttps://twitter.com/collide_ai https://www.tiktok.com/@collide.io https://www.facebook.com/collide.io https://www.instagram.com/collide.io https://www.youtube.com/@collide_io https://bsky.app/profile/collide-ai.bsky.social https://www.linkedin.com/company/collideai

You can own the dirt under someone's ranch without ever setting foot on it and still collect a check every month while an oil company does all the work. Karl Brensike of Harvest Mineral & Royalty Partners calls minerals the single greatest asset class on the planet, and he makes a pretty convincing case for it. Chuck digs into how regular folks can finally get a piece, why people really decide to sell, and the apple pie scheme that squeezed a million bucks out of Chevron. Click here to watch a video of this episode. Join the conversation shaping the future of energy.Collide is the community where oil & gas professionals connect, share insights, and solve real-world problems together. No noise. No fluff. Just the discussions that move our industry forward.Apply today at collide.io Click here to view the episode transcript. 0:00 - Mineral versus royalty, explained for mom1:23 - Why US mineral ownership is uniquely American4:28 - The first oil lease and the Far and Away land rush8:11 - Splitting estates and why mineral owners keep multiplying9:25 - Karl and Chuck's history and the 2014 Thanksgiving crash10:43 - Why people actually decide to sell11:55 - The early days of investing in minerals14:46 - The Caritas run and the perfectly timed 2008 hedges22:17 - Buying ahead of the drill bit with Haymaker23:33 - Why everyone should own some as an energy hedge26:08 - The four kinds of buyers and the grassroots game27:22 - The thesis behind Harvest44:46 - Crazy mineral stories from the field48:09 - The Toby Bean apple pie storyhttps://twitter.com/collide_ai https://www.tiktok.com/@collide.io https://www.facebook.com/collide.io https://www.instagram.com/collide.io https://www.youtube.com/@collide_io https://bsky.app/profile/collide-ai.bsky.social https://www.linkedin.com/company/collideai

What if you could stash a barrel of oil in a digital bank account and drop it in your kid's Christmas stocking? That's the wild idea Wil Harris of Energy Substantiation is chasing, building the stablecoin of oil. He breaks down how WTI coins work, why nobody had ever banked a barrel before, and Chuck puts on his critical investor hat to try and blow the whole thing up. Click here to watch a video of this episode. Join the conversation shaping the future of energy.Collide is the community where oil & gas professionals connect, share insights, and solve real-world problems together. No noise. No fluff. Just the discussions that move our industry forward.Apply today at collide.io Click here to view the episode transcript. 0:00 - The barrel of oil coin on Chuck's dresser2:08 - How Wil ended up bridging crypto and oil4:03 - What a stablecoin actually is, explained for mom10:05 - The minus 37 dollar day, USO, and True Tracker12:21 - Banking a barrel: minting, redeeming, the bank of oil19:25 - Critical investor mode: what protects your money24:08 - Credit reviews, unencumbered barrels, and ABLs28:50 - The reverse Dutch auction and the trading platform32:16 - A brand new form of capital for producers36:06 - Crypto adoption, 700 million accounts, and the Yeezys story38:34 - Selling the company, line fill, and credit over time45:59 - Who they want to hear from and WTI as the world standard48:34 - Still early days and how to reach them https://twitter.com/collide_ai https://www.tiktok.com/@collide.io https://www.facebook.com/collide.io https://www.instagram.com/collide.io https://www.youtube.com/@collide_io https://bsky.app/profile/collide-ai.bsky.social https://www.linkedin.com/company/collideai

Running data security for Candy Crush during a pandemic turns out to be solid training for almost anything, and Sam Texas brought that hard earned paranoia to Collide. From flipping thrift store suits on eBay to keeping the world's biggest mobile game alive from Sweden, his road to oil and gas was anything but typical. He breaks down defense in depth, SOC2, and why locking down AI inside a company becomes its own arms race once the machines start fighting the machines. Click here to watch a video of this episode. Join the conversation shaping the future of energy.Collide is the community where oil & gas professionals connect, share insights, and solve real-world problems together. No noise. No fluff. Just the discussions that move our industry forward.Apply today at collide.io Click here to view the episode transcript. 00:00  The Candy Crush guy comes to Houston02:07  eBay suits, semiconductors, and a detour to Sweden04:50  How a LinkedIn DM turned into Collide07:13  Going all in on Claude and chasing SOC209:40  Security explained, Fort Knox style12:42  What's set in stone, what's in flux14:29  The AI versus AI arms race15:04  The Mythos model and real reasons to pay attention16:32  Big brother advice for adopting AI safely20:00  Data exfiltration and what keeps him up at night22:30  The next 30 to 60 days at Collide24:39  Securing the bleeding edge for an industry that skipped SaaShttps://twitter.com/collide_ai https://www.tiktok.com/@collide.io https://www.facebook.com/collide.io https://www.instagram.com/collide.io https://www.youtube.com/@collide_io https://bsky.app/profile/collide-ai.bsky.social https://www.linkedin.com/company/collideai

Cority has been quietly building environmental, health, and safety software for forty years, and Amanda Smith runs the strategy keeping up with AI that changes every six months. She and Chuck get into why a system of record beats raw AI on life or death calls, how a 600 page permit went from months to minutes, the stat that 95 percent of employees are already using shadow AI, and the PDF problem that has every energy company stuck. Click here to watch a video of this episode. Join the conversation shaping the future of energy.Collide is the community where oil & gas professionals connect, share insights, and solve real-world problems together. No noise. No fluff. Just the discussions that move our industry forward.Apply today at collide.io Click here to view the episode transcript. 0:00 The Cority story and 40 years in EHS software2:30 How the software shows up on a rig and in the office5:45 The SaaS apocalypse question and why context beats raw AI9:30 Amanda's family mining history and why this work is personal11:00 Recruiting AI talent to Houston and the six month change cycle15:00 Shiny objects versus solving real problems18:00 Auditability, HIPAA, and the black box problem19:30 Where Collide is heading as an operating system23:00 Employee resistance and the friction point playbook27:30 Six hundred page permits, 3000 filings, zero mistakes30:00 Agentic workflows as the new source of record34:30 Correlation, causation, and the shale revolution lesson37:30 The PDF problem and using 2 percent of energy data41:30 Learning to drive as the AI adoption analogy43:00 What we are not talking about today that we will be in five years48:30 Ninety-five percent of employees are using shadow AIhttps://twitter.com/collide_ai https://www.tiktok.com/@collide.io https://www.facebook.com/collide.io https://www.instagram.com/collide.io https://www.youtube.com/@collide_io https://bsky.app/profile/collide-ai.bsky.social https://www.linkedin.com/company/collideai

Jon Slominski, Founding AI Engineer at Collide, sits down with Chuck to break down what it actually takes to build AI that works inside a real oil and gas enterprise. From agent hierarchies that read and write across legacy systems, to a mapping interface that lets you chat your GIS data into shape, Jon shares what he's building, what wakes him up at 4am, and why the biggest unlock might still be the 90% of oil we haven't touched yet. Click here to watch a video of this episode. Join the conversation shaping the future of energy.Collide is the community where oil & gas professionals connect, share insights, and solve real-world problems together. No noise. No fluff. Just the discussions that move our industry forward.Apply today at collide.io Click here to view the episode transcript. 0:00 - Intro and Jon's background1:30 - How Collide has evolved since Jon joined4:00 - Agent hierarchy explained6:10 - The hard part: taking AI from POC to production9:30 - Auditable search and why citations matter10:00 - What Jon is most proud of11:20 - The mapping interface coming to Collide13:50 - What keeps Jon up at night16:50 - Using AI to unlock the 90% of oil still in the groundhttps://twitter.com/collide_ai https://www.tiktok.com/@collide.io https://www.facebook.com/collide.io https://www.instagram.com/collide.io https://www.youtube.com/@collide_io https://bsky.app/profile/collide-ai.bsky.social https://www.linkedin.com/company/collideai

Most energy companies buying billion dollar assets get handed a stack of hard drives and have zero clue what's on them. Clay Branch, Technical Staff at Collide, joins Chuck to break down the unglamorous but absolutely critical work of document categorization, data extraction, and why clean reliable data is the real foundation of any AI strategy in oil and gas. Click here to watch a video of this episode. Join the conversation shaping the future of energy.Collide is the community where oil & gas professionals connect, share insights, and solve real-world problems together. No noise. No fluff. Just the discussions that move our industry forward.Apply today at collide.io Click here to view the episode transcript. 0:00 Clay's background and how he ended up at Collide1:34 The reality of energy data: hard drives, banker's boxes, and chaos4:47 Building document categorization tools from scratch8:52 Handling duplicates and the shared drive problem13:57 Why data reliability is the foundation of AI17:21 The last mile: getting from 80% to 100% accuracyhttps://twitter.com/collide_ai https://www.tiktok.com/@collide.io https://www.facebook.com/collide.io https://www.instagram.com/collide.io https://www.youtube.com/@collide_io https://bsky.app/profile/collide-ai.bsky.social https://www.linkedin.com/company/collideai

TCU's energy internship program is back for round two and the results are kind of wild. What started as a summer experiment with business students who knew zero about oil and gas turned into kids giving no-notes presentations on legacy well economics in just ten weeks. Nikki Morris, Executive Director of TCU's Ralph Lowe Energy Institute, and Ryan Haggerty, Owner at RHR Oil and Gas, break down the field trips from Diamondback frac sites to 70 year old vertical wells, how AI is changing the game for young talent but still can't replace the crusty old timer making the final call, and why the industry's biggest problem with 150,000 orphan wells in Texas might need a proactive solution before Washington forces one. Click here to watch a video of this episode. Join the conversation shaping the future of energy.Collide is the community where oil & gas professionals connect, share insights, and solve real-world problems together. No noise. No fluff. Just the discussions that move our industry forward.Apply today at collide.io Click here to view the episode transcript. 0:00 Intro and field trip recap from Riot's bitcoin mining site to Corsicana2:45 First impressions of the oilfield and the stiletto boots story5:22 How students connected the dots seeing wells in person8:21 Why basic energy education is missing from schools10:30 Overview of TCU's energy programs and student workers13:00 How Ryan and Nikki connected through the Fort Worth chamber17:32 AI vs tribal knowledge and the great crew change debate19:07 The HEB data scientist story that shocked an operator21:48 Ryan's legacy well project and what the students discovered25:14 The pyramid of problem solving and where AI fits28:40 What's next for the students and the upcoming TCU Energy Symposium30:52 Nuclear energy gaining traction with SMRs and molten salt reactors34:02 The orphan well crisis and incentivizing proactive plugging37:28 Where to find Ryan and Nikkihttps://twitter.com/collide_io https://www.tiktok.com/@collide.io https://www.facebook.com/collide.io https://www.instagram.com/collide.io https://www.youtube.com/@collide_io https://bsky.app/profile/digitalwildcatters.bsky.social https://www.linkedin.com/company/collide-digital-wildcatters

Most companies talk about AI strategy but freeze when it's time to actually implement. Collin McLelland shares how one E&P CEO cut through the noise by focusing on small, tangible wins—like automating regulatory filings that saved 1200 engineering hours. The real insight? Stop chasing sexy AI projects and start with workflows that deliver immediate ROI. Once teams see quick wins, adoption spreads fast and sophistication builds naturally. Click here to watch a video of this episode. Join the conversation shaping the future of energy.Collide is the community where oil & gas professionals connect, share insights, and solve real-world problems together. No noise. No fluff. Just the discussions that move our industry forward.Apply today at collide.io Click here to view the episode transcript. 00:00 - The AI strategy question every executive is asking00:45 - Why big companies struggle to start with AI01:39 - Start small: the $1M savings approach02:20 - Real example: automating regulatory filings saves 1200 hours02:39 - Why companies chase sexy AI projects instead of practical wins03:07 - How sophistication builds through successive applications03:58 - Reimagining workflows: focus on outputs, not processes04:58 - The foundation: get your data house in order first05:50 - Pattern recognition: where the real home runs happen https://twitter.com/collide_io https://www.tiktok.com/@collide.io https://www.facebook.com/collide.io https://www.instagram.com/collide.io https://www.youtube.com/@collide_io https://bsky.app/profile/digitalwildcatters.bsky.social https://www.linkedin.com/company/collide-digital-wildcatters

Collide AI 2025 Wrapped Part 1 turns into a real talk on why forward deployed engineers win where AI pilots stall, with Michael Cortez, John, and Nick Smart swapping war stories from completions, geophysics, and the startup trenches while they map out how Collide Enterprise moves past basic chat tools into search plus workflows that actually hold up in the real world. Click here to watch a video of this episode. Join the conversation shaping the future of energy.Collide is the community where oil & gas professionals connect, share insights, and solve real-world problems together. No noise. No fluff. Just the discussions that move our industry forward.Apply today at collide.io Click here to view the episode transcript. 00:00 Setup and intros 00:45 Michael’s path and joining Collide 01:59 Nick’s background and role shift 03:08 Collide Enterprise vs community 04:16 Search, RAG, and workflow evolution 06:31 Why out of the box AI falls short 08:41 Time savings and real work focus 11:39 Single source of truth vision 13:16 Small teams scaling bigger assets 17:18 AI adoption vs past tech hype 19:26 Digital transformation missing link 20:20 Why FDEs make pilots work 23:36 Biggest learnings this year 31:52 What’s next in 2026 38:57 Bold predictions for 3 to 5 years 47:37 Fine tuned models teaser and wrap https://twitter.com/collide_io https://www.tiktok.com/@collide.io https://www.facebook.com/collide.io https://www.instagram.com/collide.io https://www.youtube.com/@collide_io https://bsky.app/profile/digitalwildcatters.bsky.social https://www.linkedin.com/company/collide-digital-wildcatters https://app.collide.io/content/RprbJAD

Catching yourself rereading last year’s VC emails while you’re back in Silicon Valley is a pretty good way to realize how wild the last 12 months have been. Colin, Chuck, Canisius, and Todd break down how Collide AI is turning fast POCs into real production workflows, why change management is the actual moat, and how a stacked forward deployed team plus community driven distribution is setting up 2026 to be the year everything scales. Click here to watch a video of this episode. Join the conversation shaping the future of energy.Collide is the community where oil & gas professionals connect, share insights, and solve real-world problems together. No noise. No fluff. Just the discussions that move our industry forward.Apply today at collide.io Click here to view the episode transcript. 00:00 Product market fit jokes and kickoff00:28 VC email flashback and velocity01:29 Forward deployed model and AI first mindset02:18 Sam Texas and AI coding shift04:04 What AI first actually means06:18 Not just podcast bros anymore07:00 AI breaks silos across the business08:21 Doglegs example and incentives09:57 Change management is the advantage10:18 Client story and regulatory filings win12:42 Selling outcomes not hype13:36 Building the FTE team and faster delivery16:24 AI strategy as workflow ROI first18:26 Grok as a thought partner and GPU cluster20:15 Shale revolution mindset parallel22:29 Recruiting, software DNA, and stacked team26:16 Content and community as a recruiting engine29:11 Distribution flywheel in the real world30:22 Team distribution vs product debate32:32 2026 is the scaling year34:02 Community platform finally clicking36:09 Building the community platform the hard way39:20 Scaling clients, POCs, and production41:09 Why mom and pops matter41:55 Energy demand tailwinds and macro impact44:44 One word answer for next year: scale45:20 POC to production cycle time focus47:12 Scaling tech, sales, and financing49:45 Moving at AI speed story50:14 Raising capital and building serious software52:56 Collide as the operator layer vision54:02 Gratitude and community over everything https://twitter.com/collide_io https://www.tiktok.com/@collide.io https://www.facebook.com/collide.io https://www.instagram.com/collide.io https://www.youtube.com/@collide_io https://bsky.app/profile/digitalwildcatters.bsky.social https://www.linkedin.com/company/collide-digital-wildcatters

Collide basically did its own Spotify Wrapped and the punchline is simple: the community doubled, the conversations got more technical, and the team got way clearer on what Collide is now and where it’s headed. Crystal, Todd, Jacob, and Sydney walk through 2025 stats, why events evolved, how Energy 101 came back, what university partnerships unlocked, why Collider AI took a pause, and the platform upgrades and community goals lined up for 2026. Click here to watch a video of this episode. Join the conversation shaping the future of energy.Collide is the community where oil & gas professionals connect, share insights, and solve real-world problems together. No noise. No fluff. Just the discussions that move our industry forward.Apply today at collide.io Click here to view the episode transcript. 00:00 Collide Wrapped setup 00:24 Why an energy specific platform works 01:29 LinkedIn fatigue and the Collide vision 02:55 Community calls and Power Hours 03:33 Member growth stats 04:26 2025 output highlights 05:04 Events evolved and ETN sunset 09:38 What members missed most 10:28 Energy 101 comeback 13:24 University partnerships 18:56 Student field trip recap 21:49 Talent pipeline and students 25:24 Collider AI update 29:31 Gamification and Dog House 33:02 Platform UX roadmap 33:48 2026 goals and favorite moments 42:02 Wrap and thanks https://twitter.com/collide_io https://www.tiktok.com/@collide.io https://www.facebook.com/collide.io https://www.instagram.com/collide.io https://www.youtube.com/@collide_io https://bsky.app/profile/digitalwildcatters.bsky.social https://www.linkedin.com/company/collide-digital-wildcatters