Building startups turns into a rapid fire philosophy session on founders, culture, money, and why velocity beats speed when Jacob asks the dumb questions we all think about. Collin McLelland of Collide breaks down how real companies get built, why talent density matters more than headcount, how power, AI, and energy collide, and what actually keeps teams motivated when the grind gets real.

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00:00 Cold open and founder mindset
03:00 Why founders matter more than CEOs
06:00 Startup ideas and power generation
10:00 Storytelling and clarity over time
15:00 Culture, motivation, and communication
19:00 Building a high velocity company
25:00 Hiring, pay, and talent density
31:00 Remote work and office culture
38:00 Work ethic, burnout, and holidays
44:00 Money, capital, and long term bets

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Trying to make geophysics cool again, and honestly Peter Duncan from MicroSeismic, Inc. makes it easy. We bounce from a bear encounter in Newfoundland to why geophysicists are basically treasure hunters with pricey toys, then land on the simple difference between seismic and microseismic, why sound travels so freakishly well through rock, and how listening to tiny underground pops helps fracking and now geothermal get smarter without wrecking nearby wells.

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00:00 Panel shoutout and event mention
00:23 Peter’s back, making geophysics cool
02:12 How he became a geophysicist
07:18 Bear story in the field
11:34 Geophysics shows up everywhere
14:22 Geologist vs geophysicist basics
23:13 Sound waves, earthquakes, and why seismic works
26:05 Seismic vs microseismic explained
28:11 Microseismic and geothermal’s comeback
40:57 What MicroSeismic actually does in the field
45:34 Frac hits and protecting neighboring wells
48:52 Wrap-up and round three tease

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Growing up in New Zealand somehow turned into mud logging the Aussie desert, rigging up deepwater tech in the Gulf of Mexico, geosteering off Scotland, helping figure out nuclear waste storage in Swiss clay, and finally landing in subsurface risk and insurance where “nothing moves without coverage” starts to make way more sense. Jacob asks the dumb questions, Rodney Garrard from Arch Insurance International answers with real world stories, and the conversation ends on a pretty grounded idea: energy realism beats wishful thinking.

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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

0:00 Zurich check in + quick disclaimer
01:10 Rodney’s origin story in New Zealand geology
03:55 Mud logging in the Cooper Basin desert days
08:00 Houston and early deepwater Gulf of Mexico work
10:30 UK offshore, Rosebank, and geosteering life
14:20 Rotations, family life, and Norway years
17:00 Switzerland nuclear waste storage in clay, granite, salt
24:00 Pivot into insurance and subsurface risk work
27:00 What “energy insurance” actually does, CCS examples
37:10 Europe’s energy realism and the grid wake up call
40:50 Writing, energy density, and “Energy Transition 2.0”

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