The Fundamental Molecule

The Fundamental Molecule with Tom Ferguson, Burnt Island Ventures•www.burntislandventures.com

Welcome to The Fundamental Molecule. This show explores the intersection of water, technology and entrepreneurship. Each week, Tom Ferguson, Managing Partner of Burnt Island Ventures, interviews innovators, experts, entrepreneurs and investors in the world of water, to help us understand where this trillion dollar industry is headed. These are the stories of the people building the future of the world’s most valuable and fundamental resource. Explore all of our episodes and learn more at https://www.burntislandventures.com/the-fundamental-molecule

Last refreshed: June 27th, 2025 at 7:00 PM ⓘ

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Episodes

Tyler Henke, Co-Founder and CEO of Ziptility

People always bang on about disruption, and usually it's meaningless. Some very rare founders should bang on about disruption because they're actually doing it, but don't. I like to think it's humility, but more importantly, it's because they decided to go and solve a real, deeply felt problem in the market, usually in an overlooked sector, and happened upon a deeply powerful pathway of company building. Tyler Henke, CEO of Ziptility, is one of those founders. He and his team noticed that the ma...

Feb 21, 2024•40 min

Matt Swindle, Chairman, CEO, and Co-founder at NLine Energy, Inc.

Persistence is an underrated quality of the best entrepreneurs. VCs never think they underrate it, but they do. The public only ever sees the glory and fireworks when an entrepreneurial story works. But it's the application, the effort, the persistence that lies behind every great outcome that is the primary determinant of that outcome. Matt Swindle, the CEO and co-founder of NLine Energy, has it in spades. Not only did he attain the rank of Colonel in the Marine Corps, a rank he retains in the ...

Feb 07, 2024•45 min

George Hawkins, Founder and CEO of Moonshot Missions

George Hawkins is one of those people who always elicits a smile from those who know him when he comes up in conversation, even when he's not there. The smile also comes when he is present, but the absence of the smile is telling. He is perhaps one of the most admired figures in the US water market, and possibly even in the global market, and for good reason. His work in turning around DC Water from the least trusted public entity in Washington DC to the most trusted in just eight years is one o...

Jan 24, 2024•52 min

Wayne Byrne, Co-Founder and Director of Method Capital and Venture Partner at Burnt Island Ventures

Repeat entrepreneurs are a special breed. They have essentially proved that they operate through skill and not luck, and Wayne Byrne is one of the most skillful. I met him in 2015 in San Francisco as he was picking up one of many awards for OxyMem as they built towards their acquisition by DuPont, his fourth exit in an illustrious career. He's been able to play both the hardware and software games at a very high level indeed, and has been an invaluable source of advice and support, both for me p...

Jan 10, 2024•42 min

Christine Boyle - Founder of Valor Water Analytics and Partner at Burnt Island Ventures

I first met Christine Boyle about a week before I specialized in water at Imagine H20's annual winners announcement, where she was receiving the award for Best Early-stage Water Company in 2015. Fast forward almost eight years, she has been an extraordinary guide and mentor. After selling her company Valor Water Analytics to Xylem in 2018, she remained with the company to head up much of their internal digital innovation efforts. She understands more than most the grind of company building in th...

Dec 27, 2023•40 min

Alex Rappaport - The Power of Entrepreneurial Process

You don't often meet someone that you immediately know you'll remember where and when you met them for a very long time. That happened to me with my guest today, Alex Rappaport, CEO of ZwitterCo, at a conference in 2018. I was minding my own business when a coiled ball of energy introduced himself to me, and it was clear that this was a very talented founder indeed. Alex and his co-founder Chris have made remarkable strides in the last four years, and since we invested in April 2021, the pace of...

Dec 13, 2023•52 min

Mirka Wilderer - Taking a Water Company to IPO

This is a podcast about entrepreneurs. Given that, our guest today might be a little unexpected. Mirka Wilderer is the archetypal corporate innovator, having spent her career with some of the biggest names in the space. Until last year, she was CEO of De Nora and led the IPO of the Italian company. Under her tenure, De Nora evolved into a force in the water market globally, especially in the US and increasingly in Southeast Asia. She's a model professional and, as you will hear, deeply insightfu...

Nov 29, 2023•44 min

Bessie Schwartz, Co-Founder of Floodbase

It's always so fun seeing great companies being built for the right reasons. Bessie Schwarz, CEO of Floodbase, has been on a mission to help the world's most vulnerable people since her early 20s. Her company is not only the flood monitoring partner of FEMA and the United Nations, she is also building a quiet revolution in the insurance industry, helping to bring parametric flood insurance (long mooted but not feasible until now) to reality. Their announcement last year alongside one of the worl...

Nov 15, 2023•39 min

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Oct 29, 2023•1 min

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