“Idrasil was ultimately born in a prison cell.”

After nearly two decades pursuing one idea, Steele Clark Smith III is still fighting to answer a controversial question:

Can cannabinoids move from the dispensary counter to the prescription pad?

In this episode of The AI Edge Podcast, Louis Fernandes sits down with Steele, CEO of C3 Pharmaceuticals, for a conversation about pharmaceuticals, cannabinoids, opioids, regulation, government, AI, entrepreneurship, and what it takes to pursue a mission when the road lasts far longer than anyone expected.

Steele's story is anything but conventional.

His interest in the problem was deeply personal. After being prescribed opioids, Steele describes an extremely difficult withdrawal experience that ultimately helped shape his perspective on patients, medicine, and the difference between sympathy and genuine empathy.

Then came another defining chapter.

While incarcerated following a 2007 indictment, Steele remembered a former patient whose insurer had been willing to reimburse his cannabis expenses.

That triggered a bigger question:

What would cannabis have to become for a physician to actually prescribe and dose it like medicine?

Steele says that question ultimately led to Idrasil, which he describes as a standardized cannabinoid tablet designed around pharmaceutical dosing rather than the consumer cannabis model.

In this conversation:

• Why Steele separates pharmaceutical cannabinoids from recreational cannabis
• Why standardized dosing matters to his thesis
• How his personal opioid experience shaped his mission
• Why he says Idrasil was “born in a prison cell”
• What nearly 20 years of persistence taught him
• Why he's exploring a government-first strategy
• His vision for a roughly 100,000-square-foot pharmaceutical operation
• How he thinks about manufacturing, security and hiring at scale
• Where AI can transform pharmaceutical data and regulatory workflows
• Why humans still need final approval in high-stakes AI workflows
• How founders distinguish conviction from stubbornness
• Why Steele believes perseverance has been his greatest advantage

What makes Steele's story fascinating isn't simply the product.

It's the length of the fight.

He has faced legal battles, regulatory uncertainty, capital challenges, changing markets, and years of waiting for the environment around his idea to evolve.

Yet when asked why he hasn't quit, his answer is simple:

“I truly was born for this.”

This is a conversation about what happens when a founder refuses to let go of an idea, even when proving it takes decades.

Steele Clark Smith III is the CEO of C3 Pharmaceuticals and the founder behind Idrasil, a cannabinoid-based tablet he has spent nearly two decades developing and advocating for within a pharmaceutical framework.

Steele's background includes experience across cannabis, pharmaceuticals, legal and regulatory matters, patient advocacy, and entrepreneurship.

Today, his focus is building the infrastructure, team, regulatory pathway, and government relationships he believes are necessary to bring his pharmaceutical vision to scale.

Website: Idrasil.com

Company: C3 Pharmaceuticals

LinkedIn: Steele Clark Smith III

Personal Website: SteeleClarkSmith3.com

Steele also says he can be found on X, Truth Social, and Facebook.

AMERICA IS 90 DAYS FROM EMPTY GROCERY SHELVES

We assume the grocery store will always have food.

Kendell Lang believes that assumption is far more dangerous than most people realize.

After witnessing firsthand what happens when critical infrastructure and food supply chains fail, he's building a radically different model—one designed to make communities more food-independent while making regenerative agriculture economically viable.

In this episode of The AI Edge Podcast, Louis Fernandes sits down with Kendell Lang, CEO of mOrganic Holdings, for a fascinating conversation about food security, agriculture, technology, AI, carbon markets, and what it will take to build more resilient communities.

Ken's mission can be summarized in one sentence:

“We are making healing the planet the most profitable business in the world.”

His journey to that mission is deeply personal.

After his late wife was diagnosed with glioblastoma in 2001, Ken began questioning what he understood about food, health, plants, medicine, and the systems surrounding them. That experience ultimately became part of a much larger mission around food security and the legacy he wanted to leave his children and grandchildren.

In 2016, Ken moved from San Diego to Puerto Rico, where approximately 95% of consumed food was being imported, according to his account. Hurricane Maria later demonstrated just how quickly interconnected systems can break when electricity, water, transportation, agriculture, and supply chains fail simultaneously.

Today, he's applying those lessons in Hawaii through mOrganic.

But this isn't simply farming.

Ken describes an ecosystem combining controlled-environment aquaponics, regenerative soil systems, agroforestry, livestock, renewable energy, sensors, real-time data, blockchain infrastructure, carbon measurement, and AI.

In this conversation:

• Why Ken believes food security must become hyperlocal
• What Hurricane Maria taught him about fragile infrastructure
• How mOrganic achieved 52 consecutive weekly harvests in Puerto Rico
• Why billion-dollar vertical farming companies can still fail
• How regenerative agriculture can become profitable
• Why Ken believes carbon markets need better measurement
• How sensors, blockchain and AI fit into modern agriculture
• Why food security increasingly intersects with national security
• How technology can amplify human expertise instead of replacing it
• Why Ken believes environmentalism and capitalism can work together

Kendell Lang is an entrepreneur, real estate developer, agricultural innovator, and CEO of mOrganic Holdings.

Ken brings decades of experience spanning sophisticated real estate development, controlled environments, agriculture, infrastructure, and capital markets. During the conversation, he describes developing more than 12 million square feet of real estate, helping take two companies public, and advising another before turning his focus toward food security and regenerative agriculture.

His mission:

Make healing the planet the most profitable business in the world.

Connect With Kendell Lang

LinkedIn: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/kendelllang/

mOrganic Holdings: morganic.ag
Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/morganically/

You can have a 720 credit score and still get denied.

And you can spend years chasing an 800 score without understanding what actually makes lenders say yes.

Dave Burgio believes most people are solving the wrong problem: the goal isn’t perfect credit. The goal is becoming fundable before you need the money.

You can have a 720 credit score and still get denied.

And you can spend years chasing an 800 score without understanding what actually makes lenders say yes.

Dave Burgio believes most people are solving the wrong problem:

The goal isn't perfect credit. The goal is becoming fundable before you need the money.

In this episode of The AI Edge Podcast, Louis Fernandes sits down with Dave Burgio, Founder of Trifecta Credit Solutions, to break down what entrepreneurs, real estate investors, operators, and everyday borrowers misunderstand about credit and access to capital.

Dave's interest in credit started early.

He watched his parents struggle financially after a divorce damaged both of their credit profiles. Years later, Dave experienced the other side himself when the 2008 financial crisis hit and his own credit suffered.

Today, his work has expanded from credit education and positioning into business funding and private lending, helping clients understand what needs to happen before they urgently need capital.

In this conversation, Dave and Louis discuss:

• Why a high credit score doesn't automatically make someone fundable
• How someone with a 720 score can still get denied
• Why credit is usually an afterthought until a major opportunity appears
• The danger of waiting until you desperately need capital
• Why business owners often damage personal credit funding their companies
• What lenders evaluate beyond the score
• How entrepreneurs should think about capital readiness
• Why newer investors and founders often struggle to get financing
• How private lending is changing real estate investing
• Why banks are tightening as consumer debt increases
• What Dave learned from operating businesses in multiple industries
• How AI is helping simplify internal operations
• Why people, processes, and systems still determine whether a company scales

One of Dave's strongest lessons is simple:

Prepare for capital when you don't need it.

Dave Burgio is the Founder of Trifecta Credit Solutions, where he helps individuals, entrepreneurs, operators, and real estate investors move from credit positioning to capital access.

His work spans personal and business credit education, funding readiness, business financing, and private lending.

Dave began working in credit as a side business in 2016 before launching Trifecta Credit Solutions in 2020. His mission is to help clients understand their financial position, become better prepared for financing opportunities, and avoid waiting until capital becomes an emergency.

LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/daveburgiocredit/

Trifecta Credit Solutions:
www.trifectacreditsolutions.com

They both lost their jobs on the same day.

Two corporate careers. Two salaries. Gone.

Instead of immediately running back to another paycheck, Mike Deaton and his wife Ligia asked a much bigger question:

What if we built a life we actually controlled?

That question eventually led them to one of the simplest—and most overlooked—business models in real estate:

Buying vacant land below market value and reselling it for a profit.

In this episode of The AI Edge Podcast, Louis Fernandes sits down with Mike Deaton, Co-Founder of Flipping Dirt, to unpack how a former corporate executive went from more than 20 years inside companies including Motorola, Nokia, and Microsoft to building a seven-figure national land investing business.

Mike and Ligia entered entrepreneurship with no guarantee the model would work.

They gave themselves a runway.

They started small.

They learned the market.

And once they proved the process, they began scaling.

Today, Mike brings the same operational thinking he developed running large corporate organizations into entrepreneurship, keeping the business intentionally lean while using systems, automation, data, and AI to move faster.

His philosophy is simple:

Eliminate. Automate. Delegate.

In this conversation, Mike and Louis break down:

• What happened when Mike and his wife were laid off on the same day
• Why they chose entrepreneurship instead of another corporate job
• How vacant land flipping actually works
• Why buying cheap land isn’t enough
• How Mike evaluates markets and prices offers
• Why timing can matter as much as price
• How some investors buy land at a fraction of market value
• Why owner financing can open the buyer pool
• How Mike keeps his business incredibly lean
• Where AI gives land investors a speed and data advantage
• Why adding software too early can destroy margins
• The difference between automating and simply adding complexity
• Why entrepreneurs must become comfortable testing and failing
• How Mike thinks about freedom, control, and real job security

Mike also explains why land flipping is simple, but not easy.

The mechanics can be learned.

The harder part is making the right decisions:

Is this the right market?

Is my offer right?

Mike Deaton is an entrepreneur, real estate investor, and Co-Founder of Flipping Dirt.

Before entrepreneurship, Mike spent more than 20 years in corporate operations, including roles with Motorola, Nokia, and Microsoft.

After he and his wife Ligia were both laid off in 2016, they pivoted into real estate and formally launched their investing business full-time in 2017.

Today, they are active land investors and coaches helping others learn how to generate cash flow by buying and selling vacant land.

Their business is built around a simple principle:

Create more control over your income, time, and life.

Mike on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelbdeaton/

Flipping Dirt:
flippingdirt.us

Instagram:
Mike & Ligia on Instagram

Flipping Dirt on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/flipping-dirt/

Everyone is racing to automate more work.

But what happens when AI removes context, accountability, and the human experience?

Brooks Saye believes companies are asking the wrong question.

The goal should not be:

“How much can we replace with AI?”

It should be:

“How can AI help people make better decisions and spend more time with the people they serve?”

In this episode of The AI Edge Podcast, Louis Fernandes sits down with Brooks Saye, Partner at Varro Capital, to discuss why so many technology implementations fail, what multifamily operators misunderstand about AI, and why the renter must remain at the center of every operational decision.

Brooks has worked across multifamily operations, PropTech, revenue growth, partnerships, and go-to-market strategy. Today, she helps connect operators, lenders, asset managers, investors, renters, and technology founders through Varro Capital, Varro Technology, and Varro Studio.

Her perspective is clear:

The industry does not necessarily need more technology.

It needs better coordination between the technology that already exists.

Fewer disconnected dashboards.

Better workflows.

Clearer communication.

Less administrative friction.

And products built with both operators and renters in mind.

In this conversation, Brooks and Louis explore:

• Why AI should support decisions instead of replacing human judgment
• How companies confuse adding technology with creating innovation
• Why change management determines whether technology succeeds
• What separates great multifamily operators from average ones
• Where AI creates real value in rental housing
• Why PropTech companies fail despite having good ideas
• How regulation is becoming an operational challenge
• Why renter experience should remain the priority
• How technology can give on-site teams more time to build community
• Why the status quo is every technology company’s biggest competitor

Brooks also shares an important reminder:

Renters are not simply units, revenue, or expected demand.

They are people choosing where to call home.

They care whether maintenance requests are resolved, whether someone responds when something goes wrong, and whether their community actually feels like a community.

Technology should improve those experiences.

It should remove repetitive work so operators can return to service, relationships, and communication.

It should not create another login, another disconnected workflow, or another barrier between the renter and the people responsible for their home.

Brooks Saye is a Partner at Varro Capital, where she focuses on revenue development, partnerships, go-to-market strategy, and connecting multifamily operators with technology and investment opportunities.

Before joining Varro, Brooks worked across multifamily operations and PropTech, helping companies grow while remaining focused on the real needs of on-site teams and renters.

Her philosophy is simple:

AI should help. It should not replace.

LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/brookssaye/

Varro Capital:
https://varrocap.com

Varro Technology:
https://www.varroportal.com

Trillions of dollars in aging property infrastructure are still being managed through email threads, spreadsheets, phone calls, and human memory.

A pipe bursts. A manager starts calling plumbers. Residents wait for updates. Vendors send photos by text, sometimes. Board members have no visibility. And after the repair is supposedly finished, someone still has to ask:

“Did this actually get done?”

In this episode of The AI Edge Podcast, Louis Fernandes sits down with Sally Hamidi, Founder and CEO of ON Property Technologies, to expose the hidden operational breakdown inside the HOA and community-association industry, and explain why better technology is no longer optional.

Sally has spent more than 25 years working across real estate, property management, maintenance operations, vendors, boards, and management companies. After building her own management company, growing it to approximately 50 HOA communities alongside a rental portfolio, and eventually selling the business, she stepped into an executive maintenance role and saw the problem from an entirely new level.

The industry was responsible for protecting people’s homes and managing trillions of dollars in aging infrastructure, but critical information was still fragmented across inboxes, spreadsheets, disconnected systems, text messages, and individual relationships.

So Sally decided to build the system she wished she had.

In this conversation, Sally and Louis explore:

• Why the biggest maintenance bottleneck is not the repair itself
• How fragmented communication creates risk, delays, and distrust
• Why managers cannot scale while buried in manual coordination
• How vendor accountability can become measurable
• Why invoices should require photos and service reports
• How AI can help managers identify patterns across repairs and asset lifecycles
• What an emergency maintenance workflow looks like when automation handles the coordination
• Why reserve studies and property data often sit unused
• How management companies can improve service without continuously adding administrative labor
• Why connected systems can strengthen relationships between managers, boards, residents, and vendors

With an automated system, the request can be triaged to the correct vendor, escalated when the preferred vendor does not respond, tracked through arrival and completion, documented with photos, and shared with the appropriate stakeholders—while the manager focuses on higher-value work.

Sally Hamidi, GRI, CMCA, is the Founder and CEO of ON Property Technologies, a next-generation property-maintenance platform connecting management companies, property managers, vendors, technicians, and boards through a unified operating ecosystem.

Sally brings more than 25 years of hands-on experience across real estate, property management, maintenance, and community-association operations. She previously built a property-management company from the ground up, grew it to serve approximately 50 HOA communities and a portfolio of rental properties, and sold the business in 2023.

Sally Hamidi on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sally-hamidi/

ON Property Technologies
weareon.io

ON Property Technologies on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/company/on-proptech/

Most companies are still figuring out how to use ChatGPT.

Guillermo decided to build something entirely different.

Instead of relying on off-the-shelf software, he created his own AI-powered operating system that automates research, outreach, reporting, underwriting, legal documents, and client intelligence, giving his brokerage an advantage that's difficult to replicate.

In this conversation, he explains why he believes the future belongs to businesses that build AI around their own data instead of everyone else's.

What happens when a commercial real estate broker decides that the software on the market isn't good enough?

He builds his own.

In this episode of The AI Edge Podcast, Louis Fernandes sits down with Guillermo, Founder & CEO of Panther Capital Group, to discuss how he's using AI to transform the way commercial real estate deals are sourced, analyzed, and closed.

After closing more than $350 million in transactions before the age of 30, Guillermo made a bold decision: instead of adding more software subscriptions, he invested in building his own AI-powered operating system. Today, that platform automates everything from CRM and reporting to personalized outreach, legal documents, market intelligence, and deal analysis, allowing his team to move faster while delivering a better client experience.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why Guillermo chose to build AI instead of buying software
• How proprietary data creates a competitive advantage in commercial real estate
• The AI workflows helping his team source more off-market opportunities
• How automation is improving client relationships instead of replacing them
• Why execution, consistency, and data are becoming the new competitive edge

Whether you're a founder, operator, broker, investor, or business owner exploring AI, this conversation offers practical lessons on using technology to build systems that create leverage, not just save time.

Guillermo is the Founder & CEO of Panther Capital Group, a commercial real estate investment and brokerage firm specializing in industrial outdoor storage (IOS) properties across the United States.

Since entering the industry, Guillermo has closed more than $350 million in transactions, built a growing investment portfolio, and developed proprietary AI systems that automate prospecting, underwriting, reporting, and client relationship management.

His mission is simple: combine relentless execution with technology to create a better experience for clients while building one of the country's leading industrial real estate platforms.

🌐 Panther Capital Group

https://panthercapitalgroup.com/

💼 LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/guillermo-de-nicolas-mba-sior-80b39614b/

🏢 Panther Capital Group

https://www.linkedin.com/company/panther-capital-group-llc/about/

Would you let AI make a $50 million real estate decision...if you couldn't verify where the data came from?

Artificial intelligence is moving faster than ever—but what happens when it's making decisions based on data that can't be trusted?

In this episode of The AI Edge Podcast, Louis Fernandes sits down with Matthew Schneider, President & CEO of Building, Inc., to explore one of the biggest challenges facing AI adoption in commercial real estate and enterprise organizations: data integrity.

While much of the industry is focused on AI, automation, and tokenization, Matthew argues that the real problem isn't the technology—it's the quality, structure, and trustworthiness of the information behind it. Without verified data, even the most advanced AI systems can confidently make the wrong decisions.

Matthew explains why trust has become the missing layer in digital real estate, how fragmented data creates friction across financing, compliance, transactions, and valuations, and why organizations must build stronger data foundations before AI and digital markets can reach their full potential.

Throughout the conversation, you'll learn:

• Why AI is only as reliable as the data behind it
• The hidden cost of fragmented real estate information
• How trusted data accelerates financing, compliance, and transactions
• Why governance and transparency are becoming competitive advantages
• The future of digital markets, tokenization, and AI-powered real estate

If you're a real estate owner, investor, operator, technology leader, or executive implementing AI, this conversation will change the way you think about data, trust, and the future of decision-making.

Matthew Schneider is the President & CEO of Building, Inc., a PropTech company building the data infrastructure that helps commercial real estate owners, operators, lenders, and investors organize, verify, and activate property information for financing, compliance, reporting, transactions, and emerging digital markets.

Matthew is also a board director at FIBREE (Foundation for International Blockchain and Real Estate Expertise), a researcher, speaker, and recognized thought leader focused on AI, data infrastructure, digital asset readiness, and the future of commercial real estate.

His work centers on creating trusted, verifiable data systems that enable faster decisions, greater transparency, and more efficient capital markets.

🌐 Building, Inc.
https://building.inc

💼 Matthew Schneider on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/realmattschneider/

🏢 Building, Inc. on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-proptech/