Jacob Vizinat & Jason Harry from Iron Stag Advisory & Pontem Analytics

Jacob Vizinat & Jason Harry from Iron Stag Advisory & Pontem Analytics

Author: collide. August 4, 2026 Duration: 1:05:07

Two engineers who spent years driving innovation inside a major oil company get honest about why the offshore world will land a robot at 20,000 psi but won't swap the pen and paper. Jacob Vizinat of Iron Stag Advisory and Jason Harry of Pontem Analytics unpack the corporate immune system, why the real value lives in the rock, the black magic of flow assurance, and how the right advisor can turn a single pilot into a real shot for energy tech founders.

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 Intro
00:46 Meet Jacob and Jason
02:34 Life as a petroleum engineer
05:55 Driving innovation inside a major operator
08:26 Trading pen and paper for iPads
11:35 The corporate immune system
16:20 Why the value lives in the rock
26:32 Flow assurance and black magic
32:46 How short-term thinking kills innovation
36:00 Building advisory firms after the merger
38:35 Drones, robots, and the rare orchestrators
46:31 What it takes to go offshore
48:00 Reading the 2025 market
53:25 Why founders avoid the gold mine
56:02 Advice for early stage founders
1:01:12 Where to find 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


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: 50

Energytech Startups
Podcast Episodes
Dsider's Game-Changing Tool for Energy Founders [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 59:43
Sujatha explains how Dsider uses technoeconomic analysis to help cleantech and hard-tech startups make better decisions by evaluating projects through both technical and financial lenses. Through a role-play with Jason a…
Inside Latin America's Climate Tech Boom with Benjamin Zehr [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 50:49
Benjamin explores the opportunities and challenges of building energy tech startups across Latin America and the Caribbean, and how Reciprocal is bridging the gap between the global North and the region through a venture…
Why Erik Rambech’s CCS Tool is a Game Changer [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:03:40
Erik shares his journey from working at DNV to founding Endrava, where he’s building digital tools to accelerate industrial decarbonization. Drawing on more than a decade in climate tech, he discusses CapturMap, a platfo…
Secrets Behind HEXASpec's Award-Winning Tech [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:10
Fresh off their win at the Rice Lily Pitch Competition, Sean and Chen-Yang share how they went from PhD students at Rice University to founders of HEXASpec, tackling energy efficiency and emissions through advanced heat…
Sage Geosystems [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 57:49
Cindy shares how Sage Geosystems is applying decades of oil and gas expertise to develop subsurface pumped hydro storage, a breakthrough approach to large-scale, sustainable energy storage. Drawing on more than 35 years…
Liquid-Charge [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:01
Liquid-Charge is redefining EV mobility with emissions-free liquid fuels that extend vehicle range without relying on costly charging infrastructure. Founder Jared shares his journey from writing a science fiction novel…
ENP Technologies [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 58:38
Pranav shares the inspiration behind Unique and how ENP Technologies is using blockchain and AI to close critical gaps in equipment data management, driving greater efficiency and transparency across the energy sector. H…
Transform Waste to Energy with Renu Energy Services [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:01:46
Chris Westmoreland and Jason Wozniak explain how Renu Energy Services is transforming oil and gas operations by converting waste into usable energy, cutting emissions, and creating new value from previously discarded res…