Imran Kizilbash & Abhinav Jain from Titanium Innovation Investments

Imran Kizilbash & Abhinav Jain from Titanium Innovation Investments

Author: collide. March 3, 2026 Duration: 1:10:52

The industrial world is still running on manual processes and siloed data while our phones got smarter ten times over, and that gap is exactly where Titanium Innovation Investments is placing its bets. Abhinav Jain and Imran Kizilbash, co-founders and managing partners at Titanium Innovation Investments, break down what it actually takes to sell tech into enterprises that move slow by design, why product market fit is something you can lose just as fast as you find it, and how they evaluate founding teams when the revenue is basically zero. Plus some real talk on Houston's startup ecosystem and whether the city has the deal flow to back up the ambition.

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 Introduction
1:00 Titanium Innovation Investments thesis and origin story
4:17 Why industrial tech adoption lags behind consumer tech
7:01 Data as an asset in M&A and enterprise transactions
10:23 Imran and Abhinav's career journeys from field to finance
15:04 What product market fit actually looks like at seed stage
19:24 Unit economics and business models in hard tech vs software
29:56 Cutting through the AI hype in industrial applications
34:23 Data ownership, legal challenges, and enterprise selling
40:16 Change management and why adoption cycles are longer
43:21 Portfolio construction and sector diversification
50:13 Houston's startup ecosystem and deal sourcing nationally
1:04:18 Advice for founders on fundraising and building trust

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


They say everything's bigger in Texas, including the challenges and opportunities presented by climate change. That's precisely why Houston has become a surprising epicenter for the global energy transition. In H-Town, the fourth largest city in the United States, a new wave of entrepreneurs is converging, partnering with established industry titans to forge the technologies that will slash emissions and power a low-carbon future. This is the landscape explored in Energytech Startups, a podcast from collide. that goes straight to the source. Hosts Nada Ahmed and Jason Ethier sit down with the very people driving this change-the founders, investors, and innovators who are building companies at the intersection of energy and technology. Each conversation digs into the real work: the engineering breakthroughs, the complex business models, and the hard-won lessons from the front lines of a sector undergoing massive transformation. It’s a direct line to the strategies and stories shaping the future of energy, making this podcast an essential listen for anyone curious about the business and investment dynamics behind building a sustainable world. You’ll hear frank discussions about funding, scaling, and the practical realities of bringing a transformative idea to market, all set against the backdrop of a city historically known for oil and gas now betting big on its own reinvention.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 87

Energytech Startups
Podcast Episodes
Ian Uriarte from Spindletop AI [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:07
What happens when old-school oilfields meet new-school tech? You get something like Spindletop AI, think machine learning and edge computing tailored for mid-sized operators trying to squeeze more out of every drop. Ian’…
Anwar Sadek from CORROLYTICS [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:13
Corrosion isn’t just rusty metal, it's a billion-dollar buzzkill that sneaks into everything from oil rigs to your local water plant. Luckily, we've got someone who’s flipping the script on this hidden villain using some…
Bryton Praslicka from FluxWorks [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 54:50
Magnetic gearboxes built for the moon? Yeah, you read that right. Bryton Praslicka started out zapping circuits in his garage as a kid and ended up engineering contactless gear systems originally meant for NASA and now t…
Matthew Dawson from Elementium Materials [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:08:52
Batteries might not seem sexy, but they're literally powering the future and turns out, we've all been sleeping on electrolytes. We sat down with someone who's shaking things up by rethinking battery design from the insi…
Rhiannon Parker from Loop Bioproducts [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:08:18
Who knew cactus could be the future of clean energy and sustainable farming? Rhiannon Parker, the brains behind Loop Bioproducts, is flipping the script by turning prickly pear into biofuels, eco-friendly products, and a…
Mush Khan from Alchemy Industrial [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:09:33
Energy storage isn’t just about batteries, it’s about reshaping the future of American manufacturing, and Mush Khan knows it firsthand. From running supply chains in China to now building Alchemy Industrial from the grou…
Ngu Morcho from Vitellaria PdDC [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 47:43
Energy tech meets real-world impact in this one, Ngu Morcho shares how he's helping startups unlock overlooked markets with a boots-on-the-ground approach that blends health, energy, and finance into something seriously…
David Aaronson from Refuel Electric Vehicle Solutions [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:03:07
Apartments and EV chargers, why is it such a headache? That’s exactly what we’re tackling with David Aaronson, the real estate pro behind Refuel Electric Vehicle Solutions. With EV adoption skyrocketing, renters are dema…
Jason Assir from EnergyGigs [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 53:26
Finding the right talent in energy is a headache, but EnergyGigs is flipping the script. CEO Jason Assir joins us to talk about how his platform is making it easier for companies to connect with consultants, freelancers,…
Yao Huang from Carbon Optimum Corporation [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:31
Tackling the 40-gigaton CO2 problem isn’t for the faint of heart, but Yao Huang is all in, turning climate challenges into financial opportunities with some seriously cool tech. After two decades in the tech world, a pan…