My guest today is Nick Dyner, CEO of Moleaer. I've known Nick since the early days of the company when he became a judge at Imagine H2O, and he is one of the founders I admire most in the industry - and for good reason. He has built a fascinating company around the humble and very small nanobubble. No spoilers yet, but they are a revolution in everything from wastewater treatment to biotechnology.

Nick is one of the best sales leader CEOs I know, and his insights on the commercialization process, the process of deciding focus, the communication of value, the gradual exit of the CEO from selling - all just excellent. But there's a lot more in here besides.

Please enjoy my conversation with Nick Dyner.

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For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-fundamental-molecule/id1714287205

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Nick Dyner is the CEO of Moleaer, scaling nanobubble technology to improve water quality in agriculture, aquaculture, and wastewater. A sales-led CEO who values customer empathy and process, Nick joined the company in 2017. He previously built commercial teams for the water industry’s major players, serving as the first salesperson at NanoH2O (acquired by LG Chem) and holding leadership roles at GE Water. He understands the risk-reward tradeoff of adopting new technology in conservative industries. Nick studied engineering at Cornell University.

00:00 - Introduction

02:00 - How Nanobubbles Transform Water Treatment

07:23 - Choosing the Right Markets for New Technology

14:36 - Productizing Technology for Market Growth

20:53 - Building Customer Trust With Complete Solutions

24:23 - Reducing Risk When Selling New Water Technology

27:46 - Scaling From Founder-Led Sales to a Sales Team

33:56 - Building a High-Performing Distributor Network

36:27 - Creating a Market for Breakthrough Technology

41:26 - Creating Sustainable Customer Value at Scale

Links:

Burnt Island Ventures: https://www.burntislandventures.com/

Nick Dyner: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-dyner-8394734/

Moleaer: https://www.moleaer.com/

SM Material

Key Takeaways:

"The risk-reward tradeoff to adopt new technology in water and wastewater is totally distorted against you if you’re bringing a technology to market."

"Empathy is everything."

"We’re really good at emotionally detaching ourselves from the technology... and really focus on process."

"If I just sold you a nanobubble generator, you’ve got to go buy a pump, you’ve got to buy an oxygen generator, you’ve got to buy electrical controls. I just created work for you."

"If the alternatives are better, we’re not going to go after it... you can’t trick the market for that long."

"Ultimately you’re reminding people of sort of that bigger picture, which is: is the technology creating value?"