Episode Transcript
[00:00:15] Speaker A: Welcome to Battle Ready where we prepare leaders to thrive under pressure, navigate uncertainty and rise to adversity. I'm your host, Ricky Chavez.
Excuse me. Today's guest is Todd Thomas, a recognized voice in AI Energy has done amazing things out there is actually an author of a trilogy. We're going to talk to him. I'm going to go without the bio. I'm actually talk to him. Todd, welcome to the show.
[00:00:42] Speaker B: Thanks so much for having me. Glad to be here.
[00:00:44] Speaker A: You know what, I read all these things, man. Tell me about the trilogy, about your books.
[00:00:49] Speaker B: Yeah, so the trilogy, the Unleashing Abundant Energy Trilogy. And it really looks at our current energy landscape.
The energy demands are just exploding and AI is certainly accelerating that. They need the desire for more AI and more compute space.
And so how do we meet that challenge?
Everybody's kind of looking for a silver bullet. Is there one solution that's going to solve our energy problem? And I think the reality is there is no silver bullet.
People are looking at renewables and nuclear and those are great options and there's a lot of great work being done there.
But over the next 10 years, we probably need to double the global energy capacity. And if we take all of the renewables right now and we triple them and throw nuclear in there too, and triple nuclear, that still doesn't get us to the amount of energy that we're going to need in 10 years. So we still need oil and we still need coal, and in fact we probably need to increase our use of those in addition to tripling our renewables and adding in nuclear to get to the amount of energy that we're going to need in 10 years.
And so the book really looks at what are our realistic options, what are the real costs of those, how do these different energy options compare price wise so that we can make long term, solid, pragmatic decisions. So that's really what the book series is about. What are our different energy options and how do we make sure that we have enough energy to meet our needs? And how do we make pragmatic, realistic choices around that?
[00:02:31] Speaker A: And about two and a half years ago, you're the CEO and founder of Woodchuck AI, a climate impact startup, transforming waste into value. Talk about that a little bit. What, what brought that on?
[00:02:45] Speaker B: So I actually got a call from North Star Clean Energy. So North Star Clean Energy is the public utility for the state of Michigan. They provide electricity to the state of Michigan and they have three bioenergy facilities in Michigan that can burn biomass to produce renewable clean electricity. But they didn't have enough biomass, they needed more biomass. They were, they were being forced to augment their fuel supply with fossil fuels. So they were looking for something to catch them up immediately on biomass. But they also have the same issue that they think they need to double their energy capacity in the next 10 years. So they were looking for a solution that would catch them up on biomass immediately, but then also grow with them in double capacity over the next 10 years.
So we came up with the concept of woodchuck. So what Woodchuck does. Woodchuck works with construction companies, and we divert wood from construction sites. So instead of taking all of that wood to the landfill, we process it into feedstock and supply it to Northstar Clean Energy to produce clean electricity to support homes and businesses across Michigan. And what we found is there is a massive supply of wood in construction waste. Last year in the United States alone, we sent 40 million tons of wood to landfills from construction sites. That's a lot of wood. If we can divert all of that wood and, and not send it to the landfill and instead we convert that into energy, that will make a real positive impact. And by doing that, we can also avoid the carbon. Northstar Clean Energy has carbon capture systems, so when they're generating electricity, they're capturing that carbon. So we can literally reduce our waste and produce clean energy simultaneously.
[00:04:25] Speaker A: So are there any states that really, really kind of lead in having all this excess wood? I mean, I would think Texas is, especially in the Houston area. I mean, we have so many new construction sites. I mean, how do you even approach them?
[00:04:42] Speaker B: So interestingly, there's a direct correlation with AI data center construction. When you're building one of these hyperscale data centers, they actually produce a lot more waste than a traditional commercial project. And that's because all of this high tech equipment, all of the servers that are arriving on site, they arrive on site in six sided custom pallets. And inside those pallets are a ton of cardboard and a ton of plastic protecting those servers.
So all of that material for the most part right now, goes to the landfill, but all of that material can be reused. So when you work with an AI data center, a hyperscale data center, what Woodchuck wants to do is make sure that none of that packaging material, those custom pallets, the cardboard, the plastic, we want to recycle the cardboard and the plastic, and we want to turn all of that wood into renewable energy. So anywhere that you're building data centers is a ripe opportunity for Woodchuck to come in and Help. And as you're mentioning that, that's certainly happening all over Texas. Texas is building tons of data centers, but it's really happening all over the US Data center construction is absolutely the biggest, fastest growing segment of the construction industry.
The big tech companies just can't build them fast enough, honestly.
[00:05:57] Speaker A: So how do you get in touch with these guys and how do you approach the leadership, you know, and present your solution when they may kind of, you know, scratch the surface, but don't really understand the impact?
[00:06:14] Speaker B: Yeah, so we, we were very fortunate. Our very first project for Woodchuck was an Amazon facility. It was in, it was in central Michigan and Amazon was building a, is actually a distribution center.
And that was, that was the first project that we did. And when we first started, all we were looking at is wood. So we launched that project and we diverted a couple thousand tons of wood for them and we presented them a sustainability report that showed them the wood that we diverted and the carbon that was diverted.
And they were excited about that. They immediately replied, hey, that's great.
But what about all the other materials we have on the job site? What about our plastic? What about our cardboard? Can you help us with that?
And we had purposefully built our platform to be very flexible because we didn't know what we didn't know, right? We didn't know what was going to come next, but we knew there was something. So we built our platform to be very flexible. So we immediately responded. We taught our algorithms what cardboard was and what plastic was. And month two, we diverted wood, cardboard and plastic for them, and delivered to them a nice sustainability report that showed them all the materials that were diverted. So Amazon wants at least 70% of all of their material diverted from any job site. And that's a goal that they have that is difficult to attain without a company like Woodchuck helping them.
So they were very happy with the success of this first project and has opened the doors to more projects with them.
The other great thing about it is we built a really good relationship with the contractor.
And so through those relationships, we've been able to do some additional data center projects. We've been able to do some EV battery factory projects. And we're now starting to get recognized by the end clients, right, by Ford and Google and Amazon and the people that are building these buildings. And they want more of this diversion because they all have divergent goals that they've, they've publicly announced and they've got big sustainability goals that they've been publicly announced. And I think there's more and more attention going to not just the sustainability once the buildings are up and running, but how can we be more sustainable in the construction of these buildings to begin with. And that's where Woodchuck can really come in and make a difference. So for, for a little teeny, you know, startup that's really just in our third year, we're really pleased with the list of kind of name brand clients that we've been able to bring on board.
[00:08:39] Speaker A: That sounds like, you know, it's funny you threw out Amazon. You know, in a prior world I was a director of HR for dicom Transportation and up in Boston. And what we did, we actually had a bunch of Amazon buildings, you know, that we worked with. Cause we did small package delivery like FedEx.
So we were all of New England. So you know, now and, and coming back to Houston, you know, we have all these FedEx buildings, these hubs that are, that are, I would imagine are something that you're looking at also will be a good client for you. Is that right?
[00:09:16] Speaker B: Absolutely. I mean, I think the reality is everybody has wood waste and everybody has more wood waste than they think they have.
The example I like to give is next time you go to the grocery store, drive around back, just drive around the back of that little mini mall where the grocery store is. And I guarantee you almost every single one of those businesses is going to have a stack of pallets behind their business.
Right now all of those pallets are going to the landfill.
All of those pallets are a great source of potential feedstock for energy production. So we can really look at just about any, any segment. I mean, right now we really focus on construction and there's such a really great tie in with AI data construction.
But it, but excess wood waste and the value of that wood waste is really universal. Whether you're looking at retail or food or transportation, everything in our country comes and goes on pallets. And typically those pallets are wrapped in shrink wrap, which is also recyclable. So all of those materials, it just makes me sick when I see all that stuff going into dumpsters and going to the landfill. It all has great additional value.
And you know, obviously there's a, there's an environmental and a sustainable side about to that, but there's also just an efficiency in a cost reduction side. If you can take all of that material that right now is waste and you're paying somebody to take your waste and throw it in a landfill. If instead we can divert all of that material, turn it into a New product, turn the wood into feedstock for energy use. If you bail up that cardboard and bail up that plastic, it becomes a commodity that can be sold. So instead of paying someone to haul all this material away as waste, we can divert it and turn it into monetizable commodities.
[00:11:03] Speaker A: And so that monetized commodity, is that something that is paid back to the people you get the waste from? Or how does that.
[00:11:13] Speaker B: Yeah, we typically do a revenue share with our clients. So if we get, you know, $10 in rebates on our cardboard, we're going to, you know, share a portion of that back to our client, and they can then share that back with their end client. And that's part of how we're able to provide savings to all of our clients. So typically, when we're on a construction site, we will reduce their waste hauling costs by typically at least 30%. And when you're in the construction business or like really any vertical, transporting material is a cost of doing business, so you can reduce that cost. That savings goes straight to the bottom line. So it's very valuable.
[00:11:46] Speaker A: Well, you know, as you talk about that, you know, my mind's running. You know, my wife worked for Coca Cola for 14 years. And so we had. They have these warehouses where they load up the trucks and they put everything on pallets. They shrink rack, they load them on the trucks and that. And then they bring all that mess back, and then they put it in this big old pile. Who knows what happens? I mean, it's been years that she's there, but I can remember going there and seeing all these, you know, trucks full of the shrink wrap, the pallets, and everything else.
What an amazing opportunity for you and for them. Right?
[00:12:22] Speaker B: For everybody. For all of us. I mean, the reality is the universal truth. We have too much waste everywhere. That's not an America problem. It's not Mexico problems. Not it's a global problem. Everybody has too much waste, and we all need more energy. Those are two problems. And by tying the two together, we can help both. We can reduce waste and we can produce more energy. And when we talk particularly about wood, when you look at US landfills, US landfills are typically 30 to 40% wood by volume. Our landfills are filling up, and nobody wants a new landfill. Nobody wants a landfill near them.
So if we can keep all of this wood out of landfills, it's going to allow us to have fewer total landfills to extend the life of the landfills we have. And all of that wood can be turned into energy. So it really is an elegant, simple solution to two major problems.
[00:13:16] Speaker A: Wow. Listen, we'll be right back with more with Todd Thomas and all the energy he's helping out with.
Welcome back to Battle Ready.
When more of what you want is on watching all the time, you can approach and look at Battle Ready and every other NOW Media TV favorite live or on demand anytime you like. Download the free Now Media TV app on Roku iOS and unlock non stop bilingual programming in English and Spanish. If you're on the move, you can also catch the podcast version right from your website and at www.nowmedia tv. From business and news to lifestyle and culture and beyond, NOW Media TV is always there available for you to share with you and your family. Now we're back, we're talking with Todd Thomas about all the solutions he has with the energy. Todd, welcome back.
[00:14:14] Speaker B: Thanks so much. Glad to be here.
[00:14:15] Speaker A: So, two and a half years, you know, talk to me about being an entrepreneur and what that looked like and what were you doing before you decided to, you know, found this business?
[00:14:31] Speaker B: So I've kind of been in the startup world for a while. I've done a number of different startups. My co founder and I, Dre, this is actually the third company that he and I have done together where we built an AI platform to, to drive efficiencies and new commercialization opportunities.
So been in the startup world quite a bit. I've, I've been on the other side too. I've been at big corporations and, and been part of that. I've got to tell you, I, I really enjoy the fast paced, fluid environment of a startup.
[00:15:01] Speaker A: So what, what, what's so appealing for that of that for you?
[00:15:06] Speaker B: Well, I think there's this myth of stability when you're with a huge corporation and I don't buy into that myth. I actually, you know, looking over my career I spent my most longevity has been with startups. I've been with them longer than big companies. And I think part of that is when you're in a, you know, when you're a cog in a, in a much bigger system, a lot of times your success is driven more by the team around you or by your boss or by the division than your own, than your own work and your own productivity and your life at that company can often be determined by factors that have nothing to do with you.
I've been at large companies where there were layoffs, where entire divisions were just let go.
And so it had nothing to do with the work of the individual people within that division, but the company made a change, and so all of a sudden your job is gone.
When you're at a startup, particularly the early stages, where there's one or two or three or five of you working, your success or failure is directly related to your personal work and what you're doing every day.
So I find that obviously that's challenging and scary, but it's also exciting and motivating. And when you're at a little teeny startup where there's only a handful of you, you get to do everything. Your fingers are in strategy and product and sales, you get to do everything, which is also exciting. So, yeah, I'll take a startup every day of the week.
[00:16:34] Speaker A: So, you know, and doing the startup, you know, you know, there's a lot of leadership and mentally draining opportunities because you're trying to figure out what you want to do. There's a lot of decisions you need to make. What advice would you give to somebody who's looking at doing a startup or in the beginning of their startup, you know, to help them with the mentally draining feeling of constant decision making?
[00:17:01] Speaker B: I'd say be ready for ambiguity, be opportunistic and ready to move to the new opportunities that you see.
No business really follows a straight line, and that's particularly true of startups.
There are small pivots almost every day.
And so you need to be opportunistic and go where those opportunities are.
And you need to be flexible because you're not always going to see the bumps in the road. So you need to be comfortable with a fluid environment. You need to be comfortable with ambiguity. And if you, if you, if you aren't comfortable with those and you can't get comfortable with those, then that may not be the right environment for you.
[00:17:45] Speaker A: You know, a lot of change. We always make the joke in the military, you know, you know, the Marine Corps is always talking about Semper Fidelis, always faithful, and, you know, we always used to joke in the army, you know, Semper Gumby, always flexible, because you never know what's going to bounce, where we're going to go, what's going to change, and when we looking at a target.
So talk about that. You know, when you're in the middle of something, you feel like the plan is made, you're going in the direction and you hit the fork, right? And how does that decision process go for you?
[00:18:19] Speaker B: So I think the key is you, you need to expect that changes are coming, and you need to plan that changes are coming. You, you can't have A singular plan with a singular path that you plan follow. Because that's just not going to work. That there's, there will always be corrections, there's always going to be adjustments, pivots, call it whatever you want, but you're not going to, whatever that initial plan is, it's, it's going to end up being different. So you need to plan for that and prepare for that. So build flexibility into your processes.
Build a team that is flexible, that has multiple different skills. And if you're building a product, build a product, particularly software products can be very flexible.
And so build products that can adjust in real time to the new challenges or the new opportunities that come your way.
[00:19:06] Speaker A: What about disciplined processes? Can you share a moment when a disciplined process rented a bad decision?
[00:19:16] Speaker B: Yeah, sure.
Anytime you're with a startup and you're building a new software product, your first clients will always have requests of you. And I know the phrase is the customer is always right.
And sometimes that's true, but that's not always true.
Bill Gates is famous for saying, sometimes we need to help educate customers on what they should want.
So you certainly want to gather customer input as early as possible. Customers will tell you what they like and what they don't like, but then you have to take that and think about it strategically and figure out how you want to respond. And one of the things that I think is a big mistake for a lot of young startups and young entrepreneurs is they, they do too much one off customization for initial clients, which is really different than building a startup. If you're going to build a custom software company and you're just going to respond to customer needs and give them what they want, you know, that's, that's one path to follow where every project is a separate one off custom software product. If you're trying to build a startup and you're really trying to build something that you're going to resell over and over.
As you're making these decisions and responding to clients, you need to ask the question, is this productizable? Is this feature or this improvement that they're requesting something that other clients will want and we can use over and over? So if we build this for them, can we make that part of the product and will it help us sell this product moving forward? Is it productizable versus a custom one off for this one customer? And I think that's often a tough decision for a young startup or a young entrepreneur that has a client that's willing to pay for something.
But you have to make that decision, do we want to take this project and take this money if it isn't something that is repeatable and we can resell to future clients? And I think from my opinion, you want to make the decision to only do work that is productizable. You do not want to do one off custom work. If you want to be a startup, if you do want to do that one off customizable work, that's fine. But then you're going to head down the path of custom software team, not a new start of building a new product.
[00:21:27] Speaker A: So I guess and based on what you're saying right now is you have to be willing to tell them you can't do something.
[00:21:36] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Sometimes you need to tell a customer no, and sometimes you might lose that customer. Right. But you need to look at strategically what is the best for the company overall. And you know, when you look at a new client or a new customer or a new investor, I think too often a startup will think that they have to take this money or they have to take this client, they have to take this investor. You don't. It's a two way street. The investors and the clients are, they're judging you and deciding if they want to do work with you. Well, you get to make that decision too. And not every client is a fit, not every investor is a fit. And you as the, you know, as the leader of a startup or the founder of a startup, you, you need to be smart on which clients you choose to serve and which investors you want to take money from.
[00:22:23] Speaker A: So that's like that old adage, all business, not good business.
[00:22:28] Speaker B: That's true. That is true.
[00:22:29] Speaker A: So tell us, you know, before we go into this commercial, tell us a little bit how somebody can reach out to you, you know, look at your business and even get a hold of you.
[00:22:38] Speaker B: Sure. We are Woodchuck AI and our website is simply Woodchuck AI.
And you can come visit us there. There's a contact button right on there that will send an email right to me. Or you can also find me on LinkedIn. I'm just Todd Thomas on LinkedIn. And you can reach me there pretty easily as well. We're easy to find.
[00:22:57] Speaker A: And you have some videos on your, on your website. What are those videos on? I see the two ladies.
[00:23:03] Speaker B: We've got a couple.
Yeah, yeah, we've got a couple of videos that show our process and our technology and how that works. And that video that you were looking at with those two ladies there, that was our, our grand opening in Michigan, where Governor Gretchen Whitmer actually came and gave a keynote to talk about the sustainability and how we're driving environmental and business improvement for the state of Michigan.
[00:23:25] Speaker A: That's pretty exciting. We'll be right back with Todd Thomas and Woodchuck. AI, Welcome back to Battle Ready. You know, during the break, Todd and I were having some conversations, you know, and I was asking Todd about, you know, just AI, AI platforms and all the things out there. And you know, I'm a little bit older, I'm in my 60s, and you know, I mean my, to be brutally honest, my social media, my daughter runs my social media. My daughter, you know, if something's going on my phone, I give it to my daughter. My kids, they have to deal with it. And we were talking a little about the direction of AI and how scary it could be for some people. And then you said some things that I really like that I really love you to share with.
Give me your thoughts on AI and how it helps or it affects just John Q. Public.
[00:24:30] Speaker B: Yeah, thanks so much. I appreciate that.
AI is a huge subject, right? It covers a lot of things and everybody has a different idea of what AI is because it can do so many different things.
I think most people think about AI, they're thinking about the chat bots that they interact with or, you know, frequently asked question responses.
And AI is really good at that. AI is great at replacing any redundant process or redundant questions. So if it's the same thing over and over, you know, tens of times or hundreds of times, AI can take that over for you. So a human being doesn't have to do the same repetitive task over and over.
AI is not good at unique, complex, one off questions. That's where the human brain is still just vastly superior. AI is not approaching the human brain.
And so when you think about AI, a lot of people are nervous of, oh, this is going to, this is going to replace people, this is going to reduce jobs.
I think what it's really going to do is replace redundant tasks.
And I would view that not as a person replacer, but as a force multiplier. So if you've got a team of five and they can do a certain quantity of work, if you can teach them and incorporate AI tools into their work, it doesn't mean you're going to reduce your team from five to three. It means that team of five can now do five times more work. So the AI can really be a force multiplier. So if you're a small businessman or even a small division or a Small team within a large company, you can now get a lot more work done and you can have AI taking over all the repetitive tasks and doing a lot of your checking to make sure that you're not making mistakes. AI is really good at that as well. So you can do more work with less errors by utilizing AI.
And, you know, kind of one way to think about it, think about when we transitioned from typewriters to word processors. Right. A lot of people were like, oh, secretaries are going to lose their jobs. Well, they didn't, did they? But they learned how to use a word processor and now you've got the computer checking for spelling errors and grammatical errors. So now your secretaries are now being able to produce documents faster than they used to with fewer mistakes. AI is really that same type of transition to the next better technology that's going to allow workers to work better, produce more work, and produce higher quality work.
[00:27:06] Speaker A: So the cool thing about it is a person should embrace it in a way that once they learn it, they can implement it to grow their business.
And I don't want to say minimize their workload, but make their workload stronger and larger in order for them to make more money. What were your thoughts on that?
[00:27:30] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. So I know that you do a lot of real estate work and I imagine that you and your agents probably spend a lot of time on property descriptions. Right. And picking out the best photos for your properties. Right. That's a big time suck for you guys.
[00:27:45] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:27:47] Speaker B: And you're wordsmithing to make sure it's exactly right because you have a limited amount of time to catch that buyer's attention.
That's the type of thing that AI is really good at.
Type the basic description and then have AI refine it or improve it. You can ask the AI to lengthen it or shorter to make it stronger or more passive, and I will respond and give you the results that you want. So I think just in your world in real estate, I think that's an immediate example of how it can save your agents time and produce a better, more concise, more alluring description.
[00:28:26] Speaker A: Well, you know, and speaking of that, it's really interesting that you brought that up just now because earlier today I was talking with my office manager and we were looking at one of our listings and I had went to a ChatGPT class probably a couple weeks ago, and this lady had just, she just bewildered me about how specific you talk to Chat GPT and how CHAT GPT can do this and the other. So out of the blue, I just I told my, my office manager, I said, watch this. I'm going to take this listing and I'm going to drop it into Chat GPT and I'm going to, I'm going to be specific. And I just hit the voice recorder. I'm like, hey, take a look. I want you to review my listing. I want you to review the words, review the descriptions, give me some ideas how to make it pop, what's good, what's bad. What could we do better to entice somebody to actually look at it?
And I just, I hit send.
And then I was like, right before actually we got on the air, I was like, looking at this, I'm like, oh, oh, my God. It says these are the good things.
These are the, these are some things you might want to look at to make it pop. This is generic. And then I talk to my office manager and I'm like, hey, did you read this? She goes, you know, that's really funny because I did all my descriptions in Chat GPT and I pieced it together, right?
So what I. I think a learning point for me on that today was, you know, after you piece all this together, then you put it back in again to make sure it all gels, right?
And yeah, that was pretty cool today. You know, I'm like, last, right before we got there, I take all our listings and drop them into Chat GPT. Let's see, let's see what goes on because we've already used it.
We took pictures of like, backyards and we used AI to hey, make a backyard oasis in this backyard and make it look, you know, so now people can envision what the backyard could look like. Because, you know, after Covid, you know, a lot of people have leaned towards, you know, backyards, pools, things like that.
So, yeah, I mean, so that makes definitely AI, you know, very much more appealing.
And people can use it. I mean, the class I was in, the lady was, hey, you need to tell her what you want all the way down. I want a house this many bedrooms, this many bathrooms. I want the door to face this direction. I want it to be five minutes from a Starbucks, just whatever the heck you want. And she threw it in there. I was like, wow.
So I'm on this level, which is a shorter level or just kind of a down to earth level. I'm thinking, when you're in there, how do you, I mean, how do you use it to help you, like, build some business like this?
[00:31:25] Speaker B: So everything we've been talking about for the last couple of minutes has really been LLMs, large language models. And you're right, they become very conversational. Right. You can just talk to it now and it'll give you a response and that's great.
The AI that Woodchuck uses is a little bit different version of AI. We use image recognition.
So image recognition, or some people call it computer vision, it's a different flavor of AI that really has been matured in a lot of different industries. Manufacturing has been using it for years to identify defects and pull out defects so they don't go into the product.
Medical world healthcare has been using image recognition for a long time.
Computer vision or image recognition can identify a lot of things that the human eye just can't see.
So it can do things like detect breast cancer way before a radiologist would see it with their naked eye.
So we take that type of AI image recognition and we use it to process our wood.
So when we take in wood, we start to process it and the AI will look at that wood and the AI can tell us, does this have permanent contaminants in it like fire retardant or preservatives or things that we don't want in wood when we are, when we're producing energy.
And the human eye just can't see that. Right, but the AI can see that. So it helps us segregate out bad wood and we'll use that throughout the processing. So the end result is we get really clean, really high quality biomass that produces really clean, high energy, high Btu content, electricity.
So it's a really great technology that brings a ton of value to processing.
[00:33:15] Speaker A: And so when you present that to these leaders in like for example in Amazon, do you take it to that level or you just basically show them how it'll benefit them and the money that they can save? How do you do that?
[00:33:33] Speaker B: We do both ways. We, we believe strongly that in order for something to be sustainable, it can't just be environmentally friendly, it has to be financially sustainable. If it's not financially sustainable, it literally is not sustainable. Right. You can't do anything that's going to consistently lose your money. You have to make money on it.
And I would argue that sustainability done well, is all about efficiency. And efficiency means cost reduction.
Everybody likes cost reductions, everybody likes efficiencies. Those are, those are non political. Right. I think everybody agrees with that.
So when we're talking about applying AI or when we're, we're talking to new clients, we talk to them about job site efficiency, about reducing their waste, we talk to them about reducing Their costs and those things ring true with everybody.
And I say, particularly on a job site, the operations folks on a job site, they care about efficiency and cost reduction.
Then when we talk with the, the higher ups within the company, that C level folks or the marketing people or the end clients, the big technology companies, they care a lot more about the sustainability reports and they want to know how much carbon is diverted. So we can talk to both of those. We can talk to the operations folks about efficiency and cost reduction and we can talk to the C level folks and the marketing folks and the end clients about sustainability and CO2 avoidance. It really addresses both those things. I would say they go hand in.
[00:35:00] Speaker A: Hand, which is a win win for everybody, right?
[00:35:04] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:35:05] Speaker A: Guys, we'll be right back after these few words with Todd for our last segment.
Welcome back to Battle Ready. Don't so don't miss a second of any of the shows on NOW Media tv, streaming or even live and on demand. You can do it whenever you want. You can actually go and download it on Roku or iOS, you can enjoy it on the go and you can access it on your NOW Media TV site and you can do it Battle Ready at any time in English or in Spanish. You know, it's covering business, breaking news, lifestyle, culture and more. Now media TV is available 24 and 7.
And so the stories you hear about and see all the time will give you the opportunity to see some of the amazing people, we have, some of the amazing guests and all the things that are happening now and to become Battle ready. So in our last segment, we're going to talk a little bit again with Mr. Todd. Todd. Todd. How you doing there, sir?
[00:36:07] Speaker B: Doing great, doing great. Enjoying the conversation.
[00:36:09] Speaker A: Listen, and I really appreciate you rolling with me today. I know that you have to fill out a bunch of questionnaires. We talk about leadership and, and I think leadership is important.
I think today's show took me to a direction that I really like and that's AI and, you know, entrepreneurship people, you know, starting their own businesses, you know, and you know, obviously you said you've done it for quite a few years. Majority of your life has been in the entrepreneur realm, right? And so you've obviously seen the rollercoaster of highs and lows.
But I asked you at break, what is your purpose? What is the purpose, man? Why did you start this business?
[00:36:54] Speaker B: So I think we're at a really exciting time right now. We've talked about it throughout the show. AI is really becoming ubiquitous and I think it's really important that we, we need to recognize the risks. But also AI brings huge opportunity. And if we embrace that opportunity and learn how to use it appropriately, AI can really be a big force multiplier that allows all people to be more productive and produce more work and better quality work. And I think that's really important that, you know, we don't have to be scared of AI replacing people. We can utilize AI to make the people that we have more productive.
And so that's important.
But this huge growth in the use of AI, I mean, it's just exploding. We're still just at the beginning of this growth curve. I think it creates additional demands, right? We're building all of these AI data centers in order to respond to all of these AI requests. And that brings a huge energy need.
And so we're kind of seeing a convergence of energy utilities and technology companies.
And at the same time as we are building these big data centers. And one of the ugly truths of building a hyperscale data center is it produces way more trash than typical commercial construction.
And the big end clients that Google and the Meta and AI and Oracle, the people that are building these, they're very sustainable, sustainability conscious. So they want to build their buildings sustainably. So now we've got big tech, utilities and construction all merging into this, into this epicenter, trying to solve these problems. How do we produce the AI that we need? How do we generate enough electricity to support the AI that we need? And how do we build all this in a way that's efficient and smart?
And that's where Woodchuck comes in. We sit at that convergence and we can work across all of them and help all of them by really trying to make sure that when we are building these buildings, we do it in the smartest, most efficient way so that we can make it more efficient.
We can be a cost reducer, we can be a waste reducer, and we can be a carbon reducer. And there are wins for all three of those groups, right? There's a win for the tech companies, there's a win for the public utilities, there's a win for the construction companies. And at the end of the day, if we can reduce the total amount of trash, we can literally reduce trash, reduce waste, and we can turn that into more energy. It solves problems and really makes a win, win, win. So that's the purpose of Woodchuck.
I think our timing is kind of perfect, right?
We launched at a time when the need is just exploding. So we feel really fortunate that our timing is great and our Goal really is, as we continue to see AI data centers springing up all over North America, we want to make sure that none of that cardboard, wood, plastic ends up in landfills. We want to turn it all into its highest, best use.
[00:40:00] Speaker A: So you are a solution in today's world for. And I was saying, you laughed at me earlier, like, getting rid of all the trash, you know, them getting them dumps, taking the dumps down. Because, you know, I know driving on 99 around Houston, I look to the right and I see those big, big landfills and those machines pushing crap around. I'm thinking, man, that's kind of an eyesore. And now you're taking those eyesores and making energy out of them that we need, I mean, we'll need for years to come, you know, and that's an amazing thing.
So once again, how does somebody get ahold of you, reach out to you and want to know more about your business?
[00:40:42] Speaker B: So you can find us online@woodchuck AI. It's not woodchuck.com, it's woodchuck AI. So check out our website. There's a lot of information there. There's an easy link on the website to contact me.
You can also find me on LinkedIn. I'm Todd Thomas on LinkedIn.
If you really have a lot of interest in the energy and AI in the details behind it, you can look me up on Amazon. I'm Todd Thomas on Amazon and you can see the book series there. That's all about, really everything we've talked about today, AI Energy, waste reduction. It's all in there. So it's the Unleashing Abundant Energy Trilogy. And. And the newest book is called Hyperscale. The full title is Hyperscale AI Data Centers and the Next Great Expansion of Global Energy Capacity. So you can find me any of those places?
[00:41:33] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm going to have. While we're talking, I'm going to see if we can get the group in a TV station to pull up those books again. Because I think the whole thought process of what you do right now is pretty amazing. And I think that the fact that, I mean, there's not really. I've never even heard of a business like yours. I think we have the books up right now, the books that are up, the trilogy on all the different ideas you have with energy solutions. Is that right? Is that what's on there right now?
[00:42:03] Speaker B: Yeah, there they are. That's. Yes. Everything we've talked about today is in these books. Absolutely. A little bit more detail. So if you found the discussion today interesting and you'd like to learn more.
Grab one of these books and hopefully you'll enjoy it.
[00:42:17] Speaker A: Well, cool. And then we're going to talk one more thing. We're going to circle back around to the beginning of the show when we talked about, you know, starting a business, being an entrepreneur. You know, you've done a couple different businesses now you're here. You've been doing this about two and a half years. You're kind of in the infancy, but you're moving pretty quick. What's your goals for 2026?
[00:42:39] Speaker B: So we've been very fortunate. Our timing has been good and we built up a pretty amazing initial client list. So our plan for 2026 is really to grow with our existing clients as they start to break ground on new data center projects. We will go where they need us. So we, most of our projects right now have been in Michigan or very close in the Great Lakes area. We're now ready to expand really anywhere in the US So if our clients need us in Texas or Virginia or California, we, wherever they need us, we will go and support them. And I know you're based in Texas and Texas is really interesting. People think of Texas as the drill baby, drill state, but the reality is Texas produces more renewable energy than any other state. You guys have a ton of solar farms and a ton of wind farms. So Texas is not just the fossil fuel leader. Texas is really the energy leader.
And Texas is an exciting place right now, so. And you're also seeing a ton of data centers being built in Texas. Texas is kind of like a microcosm of the whole global issue, AI energy, renewables all together. So I think you're living in an exciting place.
[00:43:48] Speaker A: No, I definitely agree that especially in our area in the Houston area. I mean, it's one of the most diverse markets in the United States. I think we learned from 2008 we were just oil and gas big all about oil and gas. And now, I mean, we have the big FedEx centers, we have the Amazon building, we have everything here just coming, striving, doing well. And obviously we need people like yourself that bring in some of the solutions for all these dumps that we still have out here to help us, you know, with our energy.
And I think the cool thing about this whole conversation, honestly to me is when you see somebody that has an idea and just runs with it, and I'm really impressed with that about you, Todd. I mean, I think that's as scary. I know when I left corporate America and Went into real estate or I'm working for myself.
Like you said earlier in the show, you know, you're used to doing something all the time, but you're governed by what's going on. You can not do extra. I mean, you can do extra, but the money's not any different or the experiences are different. But out here, you know, sky's the limit for you, don't you think?
[00:44:55] Speaker B: I do, I do. And I think that's the American story. If you can come up with a new idea to do something in a better way and you're providing value to your clients, yeah, the sky's the limit. You can, you can do it, you can achieve anything you want. So, yeah, absolutely. That's, that's, that's the dream of a startup, and I'd say that's the American dream.
[00:45:16] Speaker A: So what would you tell somebody?
Maybe a young, young you just finishing college, thinking about, instead of going to corporate America, maybe doing some on your own, what were some steps that you would kind of tell them, hey, these are the things you need to do to try to figure out what you want to do.
[00:45:34] Speaker B: Honestly, I think really important thing to think about if you are thinking about a startup or you're a young entrepreneur, is start with the problem, don't start with a solution. I think there are lots of young entrepreneurs or startups and they, they build something they think is really cool. They build a solution or a technology and they think it's really cool, and then they go out and try to find somebody to buy it. I think that's a really tough way to go. And I don't, I don't think that works out well. Many times what you want to do, what is much more effective, is start with a problem that you need to solve and identify whose problem is this and are they willing to pay to solve this problem.
So if you can identify that, so you identify a real problem, you identify someone that is willing to pay to solve that problem, and then you let the problem define the solution. Maybe it's an AI solution, maybe it's not. Maybe it's a software solution, maybe it's not. Maybe it's a process or an operational solution, but let the problem define the solution.
And now you've really got something because now you've got a solution and you've got an initial client that is willing to pay for that solution, and that's gonna put your startup off on the right foot.
[00:46:45] Speaker A: You know, Stephen Covey, I think he says begin with the end in mind. That's kind of what you're saying, figure out what's the problem, come back, find a solution, instead of everybody wants to do a solution, but without knowing the problem. Right. Todd, you know, I appreciate you spending some time with us today.
You are amazing. Thanks a lot.
I love that. I love the energy thing. You know, I'm thinking about my grandkids. That's good for them, right? And I got plenty of them. Plenty of grandkids.
So thanks for equipping us. And I know our show was. Was pushed to leadership. I think the twist with the AI and the entrepreneurship was amazing. So thanks again for spending your time with us today.
[00:47:26] Speaker B: Thanks so much for having me on. You made it really easy. You're a great host. You guided me right through it. Thank you so much.
[00:47:31] Speaker A: All right, guys, you know, nowadays, to be battle ready, you have to dream big, think of a problem, find a solution, and reach out to Todd. He can help you. We'll talk to you soon. Looking forward to seeing you on our next show at Battle.
