Chuck Yates Got A Job

Hosted by collide.

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243

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Sep 2026

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About the show

Welcome to Chuck Yates Got A Job with Chuck Yates. You've now found your dysfunctional life coach, the Investor Formerly known as Prominent Businessman Chuck Yates. What's not to learn from the self-proclaimed Galactic Viceroy, who was publicly canned from a prominent private equity firm, has had enough therapy to quote Brene Brown chapter and verse and spends most days embarrassing himself on Energy Finance Twitter as @Nimblephatty.

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September 4, 2026Episode 25425 min

I Started an AI Company in My 50s. Here’s What I Learned | Chuck Yates Keynote

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 it 03:00 Bobby Joe and the 1982 church dance 07:46 Labels matter 11:54 Why energy is bad at marketing 14:41 Building distribution before a product 16:22 The clock reset 18:58 James Broach 21:18 A weekend of Claude code and David Lee Roth 23:48 Houston, freaking Texas 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

August 28, 2026Episode 2531 hr 1 min

A 50-Year-Old Pipe Support Company Where 100 Employees Now Build Their Own AI Agents

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 fire 05:07 A cryptic DM about dad's company 06:15 What Piping Technology makes 09:56 Family business and the second chair 12:43 Every tech wave since dial up 17:02 Getting AI to actually spread 20:14 The guy who cut the cables 24:04 Unveiling a welding cobot 26:16 Pope Leo and new collar work 35:32 Agents on the quoting desk 42:22 The CIO problem 44:22 Letting Claude psychoanalyze you 49:04 Guardrails and permissions 53:11 Five years out 57:56 Intention and action 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

August 17, 2026Episode 25251 min

Silicon Valley and Oil and Gas Are Playing the Same Game

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 length 02:03 What executive AI coaching actually is 04:48 Building the Houston AI Club 08:50 Why Houston is wired for AI 14:29 Augmentation, not automation 18:29 Talking to AI instead of typing at it 22:41 Cost savings versus new revenue 24:37 The real prize in oil and gas 27:54 What executives are actually asking 31:52 Banned in 2024, bought in 2025 33:31 Why you cannot delegate this one 38:51 The Burton McMurtry card story 40:32 Ambition as a technical limiter 44:08 AI as a thought partner 48:23 The September 3rd operator spotlight 50:24 Where to find Leon 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

July 10, 2026Episode 25145 min

Why Oil Companies Leave So Much Money Downhole

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. Snyder 01:05 From drilling to the overlooked world of production 02:47 Old tech, new problems: gas, sand, and horizontal wells 06:24 Physical widgets and the marginal gains mindset 08:32 Why there's no one size fits all 13:00 Heresy: actually watch and fix your wells 16:57 The AI promise of one source of truth 18:43 Rethinking the pumper's daily route 22:57 War stories, the Bakken, and naming tools 25:18 ROI, payback, and how you really sell it 28:25 Who to call, what it costs, and building a company 36:03 How AI reshapes the work itself 38:16 Robots, drones, and the future of the field 40:14 Why boards say yes and value beats cheap 44:53 Wrap up and where to find DJ 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

June 30, 2026Episode 25050 min

The Best Oil Investment Most People Don’t Understand

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 mom 1:23 - Why US mineral ownership is uniquely American 4:28 - The first oil lease and the Far and Away land rush 8:11 - Splitting estates and why mineral owners keep multiplying 9:25 - Karl and Chuck's history and the 2014 Thanksgiving crash 10:43 - Why people actually decide to sell 11:55 - The early days of investing in minerals 14:46 - The Caritas run and the perfectly timed 2008 hedges 22:17 - Buying ahead of the drill bit with Haymaker 23:33 - Why everyone should own some as an energy hedge 26:08 - The four kinds of buyers and the grassroots game 27:22 - The thesis behind Harvest 44:46 - Crazy mineral stories from the field 48:09 - The Toby Bean apple pie story 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

June 25, 2026Episode 24950 min

The Stablecoin Backed by Real Barrels of Oil

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 dresser 2:08 - How Wil ended up bridging crypto and oil 4:03 - What a stablecoin actually is, explained for mom 10:05 - The minus 37 dollar day, USO, and True Tracker 12:21 - Banking a barrel: minting, redeeming, the bank of oil 19:25 - Critical investor mode: what protects your money 24:08 - Credit reviews, unencumbered barrels, and ABLs 28:50 - The reverse Dutch auction and the trading platform 32:16 - A brand new form of capital for producers 36:06 - Crypto adoption, 700 million accounts, and the Yeezys story 38:34 - Selling the company, line fill, and credit over time 45:59 - Who they want to hear from and WTI as the world standard 48:34 - 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

June 2, 2026Episode 24827 min

The Candy Crush Guy Now Secures Oil and Gas AI

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 Houston 02:07 eBay suits, semiconductors, and a detour to Sweden 04:50 How a LinkedIn DM turned into Collide 07:13 Going all in on Claude and chasing SOC2 09:40 Security explained, Fort Knox style 12:42 What's set in stone, what's in flux 14:29 The AI versus AI arms race 15:04 The Mythos model and real reasons to pay attention 16:32 Big brother advice for adopting AI safely 20:00 Data exfiltration and what keeps him up at night 22:30 The next 30 to 60 days at Collide 24:39 Securing the bleeding edge for an industry that skipped SaaS 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

May 19, 2026Episode 24753 min

Can AI Predict the Next Oilfield Disaster?

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 software 2:30 How the software shows up on a rig and in the office 5:45 The SaaS apocalypse question and why context beats raw AI 9:30 Amanda's family mining history and why this work is personal 11:00 Recruiting AI talent to Houston and the six month change cycle 15:00 Shiny objects versus solving real problems 18:00 Auditability, HIPAA, and the black box problem 19:30 Where Collide is heading as an operating system 23:00 Employee resistance and the friction point playbook 27:30 Six hundred page permits, 3000 filings, zero mistakes 30:00 Agentic workflows as the new source of record 34:30 Correlation, causation, and the shale revolution lesson 37:30 The PDF problem and using 2 percent of energy data 41:30 Learning to drive as the AI adoption analogy 43:00 What we are not talking about today that we will be in five years 48:30 Ninety-five percent of employees are using shadow AI 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

March 18, 2026Episode 24620 min

90% of the Oil Is Still in the Ground. This Is the Technology Built to Get It.

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 background 1:30 - How Collide has evolved since Jon joined 4:00 - Agent hierarchy explained 6:10 - The hard part: taking AI from POC to production 9:30 - Auditable search and why citations matter 10:00 - What Jon is most proud of 11:20 - The mapping interface coming to Collide 13:50 - What keeps Jon up at night 16:50 - Using AI to unlock the 90% of oil still in the ground 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

March 11, 2026Episode 24518 min

The Unsolved Problem Hiding Inside Every Oil and Gas Deal

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 Collide 1:34 The reality of energy data: hard drives, banker's boxes, and chaos 4:47 Building document categorization tools from scratch 8:52 Handling duplicates and the shared drive problem 13:57 Why data reliability is the foundation of AI 17:21 The last mile: getting from 80% to 100% accuracy 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