A business can need warehouse space tomorrow.

So why can leasing it still take 12 weeks?

Emails. Phone calls. Spreadsheets. Attorneys. Site inspections. Negotiations. Documents moving between parties.

And after all of that, the signed lease often disappears into a drawer.

James Holbrook believes the problem isn't a lack of industrial real estate.

It's the infrastructure surrounding the transaction.

In this episode of The AI Edge Podcast, Louis Fernandes sits down with James Holbrook, Founder and Executive Chairman of Warehub, to unpack how more than two decades and roughly 2,500 short-term industrial leasing transactions led him to rethink the entire process.

Warehub is building a structured operating environment designed to connect landlords, tenants, and brokers around verified property information, standardized workflows, transactions, compliance, and eventually the full lifecycle of operating industrial space.

James says a process that can traditionally take roughly 12 weeks can be compressed dramatically inside a more structured environment.

But this isn't a story about removing people from real estate.

James makes the opposite argument:

Technology should remove friction so brokers can spend more time on judgment, strategy, and relationships.

In this conversation:

• Why short-term industrial leasing remains so manual
• What 2,500 transactions taught James about recurring friction
• How information asymmetry slows commercial real estate
• Why tenants increasingly need flexibility instead of long commitments
• How landlords can monetize vacancy and underused space
• Why brokers remain critical even as transactions become faster
• How Warehub approaches verified property information
• Why James rejected a traditional SaaS pricing model
• How the platform aims to compress leasing from weeks to days
• Why businesses often implement AI before fixing their data
• How structured data creates the foundation for useful AI
• Why AI should provide guidance—but not make real estate decisions autonomously
• How Warehub could eventually connect space, labor, equipment, transportation, insurance, and services

James also shares an important founder lesson.

His biggest mistake?

Planning too long.

After years developing the thesis, Warehub is now entering the phase where theory meets the market.

And James believes that five years from now, people may look back and think it's crazy that industrial leasing ever took as long as it does today.

James Holbrook is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Warehub and Founder of Payson Smith Holbrook.

He has spent more than two decades in industrial real estate and estimates he has completed approximately 2,500 short-term lease transactions.

That experience became the foundation for Warehub—a platform designed to create a more transparent, flexible, and efficient industrial leasing environment.

James Holbrook — LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jholbrookpsh/
Warehub — Website

Warehub.com
Warehub — LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/company/warehub-inc/

“Idrasil was ultimately born in a prison cell.”

After nearly two decades pursuing one idea, Steele Clark Smith III is still fighting to answer a controversial question:

Can cannabinoids move from the dispensary counter to the prescription pad?

In this episode of The AI Edge Podcast, Louis Fernandes sits down with Steele, CEO of C3 Pharmaceuticals, for a conversation about pharmaceuticals, cannabinoids, opioids, regulation, government, AI, entrepreneurship, and what it takes to pursue a mission when the road lasts far longer than anyone expected.

Steele's story is anything but conventional.

His interest in the problem was deeply personal. After being prescribed opioids, Steele describes an extremely difficult withdrawal experience that ultimately helped shape his perspective on patients, medicine, and the difference between sympathy and genuine empathy.

Then came another defining chapter.

While incarcerated following a 2007 indictment, Steele remembered a former patient whose insurer had been willing to reimburse his cannabis expenses.

That triggered a bigger question:

What would cannabis have to become for a physician to actually prescribe and dose it like medicine?

Steele says that question ultimately led to Idrasil, which he describes as a standardized cannabinoid tablet designed around pharmaceutical dosing rather than the consumer cannabis model.

In this conversation:

• Why Steele separates pharmaceutical cannabinoids from recreational cannabis
• Why standardized dosing matters to his thesis
• How his personal opioid experience shaped his mission
• Why he says Idrasil was “born in a prison cell”
• What nearly 20 years of persistence taught him
• Why he's exploring a government-first strategy
• His vision for a roughly 100,000-square-foot pharmaceutical operation
• How he thinks about manufacturing, security and hiring at scale
• Where AI can transform pharmaceutical data and regulatory workflows
• Why humans still need final approval in high-stakes AI workflows
• How founders distinguish conviction from stubbornness
• Why Steele believes perseverance has been his greatest advantage

What makes Steele's story fascinating isn't simply the product.

It's the length of the fight.

He has faced legal battles, regulatory uncertainty, capital challenges, changing markets, and years of waiting for the environment around his idea to evolve.

Yet when asked why he hasn't quit, his answer is simple:

“I truly was born for this.”

This is a conversation about what happens when a founder refuses to let go of an idea, even when proving it takes decades.

Steele Clark Smith III is the CEO of C3 Pharmaceuticals and the founder behind Idrasil, a cannabinoid-based tablet he has spent nearly two decades developing and advocating for within a pharmaceutical framework.

Steele's background includes experience across cannabis, pharmaceuticals, legal and regulatory matters, patient advocacy, and entrepreneurship.

Today, his focus is building the infrastructure, team, regulatory pathway, and government relationships he believes are necessary to bring his pharmaceutical vision to scale.

Website: Idrasil.com

Company: C3 Pharmaceuticals

LinkedIn: Steele Clark Smith III

Personal Website: SteeleClarkSmith3.com

Steele also says he can be found on X, Truth Social, and Facebook.

AMERICA IS 90 DAYS FROM EMPTY GROCERY SHELVES

We assume the grocery store will always have food.

Kendell Lang believes that assumption is far more dangerous than most people realize.

After witnessing firsthand what happens when critical infrastructure and food supply chains fail, he's building a radically different model—one designed to make communities more food-independent while making regenerative agriculture economically viable.

In this episode of The AI Edge Podcast, Louis Fernandes sits down with Kendell Lang, CEO of mOrganic Holdings, for a fascinating conversation about food security, agriculture, technology, AI, carbon markets, and what it will take to build more resilient communities.

Ken's mission can be summarized in one sentence:

“We are making healing the planet the most profitable business in the world.”

His journey to that mission is deeply personal.

After his late wife was diagnosed with glioblastoma in 2001, Ken began questioning what he understood about food, health, plants, medicine, and the systems surrounding them. That experience ultimately became part of a much larger mission around food security and the legacy he wanted to leave his children and grandchildren.

In 2016, Ken moved from San Diego to Puerto Rico, where approximately 95% of consumed food was being imported, according to his account. Hurricane Maria later demonstrated just how quickly interconnected systems can break when electricity, water, transportation, agriculture, and supply chains fail simultaneously.

Today, he's applying those lessons in Hawaii through mOrganic.

But this isn't simply farming.

Ken describes an ecosystem combining controlled-environment aquaponics, regenerative soil systems, agroforestry, livestock, renewable energy, sensors, real-time data, blockchain infrastructure, carbon measurement, and AI.

In this conversation:

• Why Ken believes food security must become hyperlocal
• What Hurricane Maria taught him about fragile infrastructure
• How mOrganic achieved 52 consecutive weekly harvests in Puerto Rico
• Why billion-dollar vertical farming companies can still fail
• How regenerative agriculture can become profitable
• Why Ken believes carbon markets need better measurement
• How sensors, blockchain and AI fit into modern agriculture
• Why food security increasingly intersects with national security
• How technology can amplify human expertise instead of replacing it
• Why Ken believes environmentalism and capitalism can work together

Kendell Lang is an entrepreneur, real estate developer, agricultural innovator, and CEO of mOrganic Holdings.

Ken brings decades of experience spanning sophisticated real estate development, controlled environments, agriculture, infrastructure, and capital markets. During the conversation, he describes developing more than 12 million square feet of real estate, helping take two companies public, and advising another before turning his focus toward food security and regenerative agriculture.

His mission:

Make healing the planet the most profitable business in the world.

Connect With Kendell Lang

LinkedIn: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/kendelllang/

mOrganic Holdings: morganic.ag
Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/morganically/