The 250-billion-dollar bottled water industry is a monstrous waste of energy, emissions, plastic, money, and yes, water. Ideally, it would not exist at all. Luckily, my guest today, Reuben Vollmer, agrees and has built Spout, an atmospheric water generation machine that provides ultra-high-quality water at the counter top, and all you need to do is plug it in.

Reuben’s route here is one of my favorites. A California drought that put his family farm’s water rights at risk led to a rumination on a field covered in morning dew, which led to a single-minded determination to provide extremely high-quality water from air on demand. He is a card-carrying polymath with a background in everything from film to rapid prototyping to advertising to engineering. What he has built at Spout is genuinely amazing.

Please enjoy my conversation with Reuben Vollmer.

Subscribe to The Fundamental Molecule here: https://www.burntislandventures.com/the-fundamental-molecule

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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A Chapman Film School alum, Spout Founder Reuben Vollmer’s career spans roles as a Creative Technologist at Deutsch LA and manufacturing manager in Torrance’s aerospace sector. Inspired by morning dew during a 2014 drought that threatened his family farm, he spent 11 years engineering air-to-water technology. His expertise in 3D printing and circuit design now informs Spout (formerly DewGood), a countertop device producing up to 2.5 gallons of pure water daily. Reuben blends imagination with engineering to provide a sustainable, independent water source free from plastic and pipes.

00:00 - Introduction

02:20 - Making Drinking Water From Air

03:21 - Turning California’s Drought Into Spout

07:29 - Why Failure Is Essential for Founders

09:13 - From Failed Prototype to Breakthrough Product

13:39 - Building a Hardware Startup With Limited Capital

20:20 - Creating Better, Cleaner Drinking Water

24:39 - Pricing and Marketing a $2,000 Water Machine

33:58 - Making Atmospheric Water Generation Mainstream

37:59 - Balancing Founder Ambition With Sustainable Growth

42:22 - Build What Customers Actually Want

Links:

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

Reuben Vollmer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reuben-vollmer-a9314341/

Spout: https://www.spoutwater.com/

Key Takeaways:

"I’m so used to failure. You know, if I’m not failing, then I’m not doing something right, honestly. And I fail probably nine times out of ten."

"Nobody cares that you have a box that makes water. They care if they don’t have to carry three packs of Aquafina to their car every week anymore."

"Focus on making a product that people want to buy, not on the product that you want to make."

"The grander the vision, I feel like the more energy there is to make it happen."

"That raw passion will get you a lot further than paying people. The paying people, most of them don’t care if you succeed or fail, they just want a check."

"We’re on a mission to make the best water on earth, which I’ve never heard a water company even strive to do… we’re not settled just being better than bottled water or tap water."

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.

Subscribe to The Fundamental Molecule here: https://www.burntislandventures.com/the-fundamental-molecule

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?"

My guest today is Corey Williams, who is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in water. He has built and sold no less than seven companies, with his latest, SmartCover, selling to Badger Meter for $185 million at the start of 2025.

Corey is one of the most thoughtful people I know on the art of sales, not only to utilities, but recognizing that great selling is primarily a function of listening and the accurate diagnosis of a customer's reality. His adherence to this principle of really getting to know people, taking their interests seriously - not his own - is at the core of why he's one of the most respected members of our industry.

We get into dealing with the RFP process, building sales teams, the opportunity in the under-instrumentation of the collection network, and why sometimes the best management trick is to ask people to keep up - I'm not sure I could.

Please enjoy my conversation with Corey Williams.

Subscribe to The Fundamental Molecule here: https://www.burntislandventures.com/the-fundamental-molecule

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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Corey Williams leads corporate business development for Badger Meter, where he runs merger and acquisition strategy. He was previously President and CEO of SmartCover until its $185 million acquisition in 2025. A licensed Civil Engineer, Corey has built and sold seven companies, including Optimatics, and previously led technology departments for national engineering firms. He serves as Vice President of the Water Environment Federation (WEF) and is on its 2025-26 Board of Trustees. Corey believes in building sales teams on listening and education to solve the problems utilities actually face.

00:00 - Introduction

02:15 - How to Win Utility Buyers' Attention

06:56 - Master Customer Discovery Without Pitching

09:10 - Solving Workforce Challenges with Services

14:19 - Build Trust to Shorten Long Sales Cycles

17:06 - How to Sell Breakthrough Water Technology

20:18 - Why Water Utilities Are Great Customers

24:13 - How to Build High-Performing Water Teams

29:08 - Building Companies for a Successful Exit

35:07 - Exit Negotiation Tips Every Founder Needs

40:22 - How AI Will Transform Water Engineering

42:52 - The Biggest Opportunity in Water Infrastructure

Links:

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

Corey Williams

Badger Meter

SM Material

Key Takeaways:

“This market is unbelievably polite and we don't like to tell people ‘no’, but what you're competing for is bandwidth and attention, not dollars.”

“If I'm solving a problem you didn't know you had, now I'm really competing for new attention, and I have to frame that.”

“If you have something that has some merit, you'd be amazed at how much the utilities are willing to actually help you.”

“If you take that feedback and make the adjustments, you really learn something if you listen.”

“Hire people smarter than you, at least in the respective areas that you need them. And more important than just hiring them, let them do it.”