ZS2 - Telling It Like It Is - Peer Guidance

hey good morning everybody welcome to another telling it like it is my name is jade alberts the founder of pure guidance i'm back in my home office after doing it live at the alberta technology symposium what a great event we had last week 360 of our best friends great tech leaders thank you minister schweitzer and minister goldberg for coming out and sharing your knowledge and and your outlook for how the government is going to be you know helping us moving forward the videos panel discussions fireside chats those will all be up hopefully by the end of the week you can check them out at the canadian blockchain youtube channel i'll post that up in a little bit but i'd also like to thank startup tnt for sponsoring this our next summit is starting in a couple weeks applications end today of course we're all heading to unite the prairies in saskatoon next week but before then we are going to talk zf zs2 with scott jenkins scott how are you today i'm doing fantastic jade looking forward to our chat this morning oh i'm always looking forward to our chats i'm always inspired after our chats especially since we you know you won the clean tech about uh i guess it's about almost a year and three months ago around that time frame it's crazy like you just mentioned you know startup tnt and some of the information from uh you know you uh attending the uh alberta tech symposium last week i saw actually i saw it's not just the two ministers you mentioned a lot of government officials that were sending out shout outs to you guys but uh yeah a graduate of the startup tnt program and uh we were the successful winner just over a year ago that's right yeah and that's uh we just and you crushed it well you know what it's interesting about startup team t and and obviously you know we can chat a little bit about today and and for all the the new uh cohort of companies that are going to be competing uh for the process the the whole process just opened so many doors for us uh and it's really i know we're gonna talk a little bit about today but dr doug brown my co-founder along with kristin davis the three of us we think back it got really going the accelerations s2 because of startup tnt and it's it's so good i mean we can talk about that now because i mean i again i see it all the time i i hear this all the time and you know right now i mean we had almost 40 companies apply in the calgary area alone and i believe we're up to almost 30 in edmonton and we're at 25 to 25 27 in saskatchewan and it because it does people are knowing what what it does to kick off even if you don't get an investment it starts the kickoff of your of your fundraiser yeah well you know like one thing you know and and for the those folks uh listening today uh if there's any of the companies that are joining the program and the competition you know obviously as an alumnus we'd be more than happy to share our experience which has been amazing but i was thinking about it and uh the startup tnt because it brings so many folks from alberta saskatchewan even british columbia together to meet some of these companies they may not have heard of that so many light bulbs go on so after our first pitch and intro session with startup tnt we got a whole bunch of folks reach out to us and that led for us uh to being invited to be part of foresight the cleantech accelerator which is doing by the way jeanette jackson ceo forsyth doing an amazing job in western canada and canada wide for uh you know aspiring technology companies and helping them grow um and so and then some of the investors when we won the startup tnt uh conversation most importantly to me building a business they've become our clients it's turned into actual revenue top line revenue and projects for us um you know we're focused we're a technology company we're developing new technology and i know we'll talk a little bit about that today but at the same time we're growing rapidly the top line like we're a real business generating cash flow so startup t was really helpful there as well no that and that's and i like and i love hearing that right and and and i see it and obviously thank you for the kind words and obviously i mean you saw the benefit in it we know this happens and and it's priceless and well let's talk about you know that goes right into our next question uh or our for our first question of you know when you came in you know you you didn't no one knew what zs2 was we had a meeting a little bit with uh you and and and scott and or sorry and dr brown explained to me what it was and then you just kept rising and rising and rising up the tnt so why don't you share how you how you came out of the you know came into your career in in harnessing science and technology to build a better world and and come up with a zs2 idea so um this i'll try not to make this too long-winded so my background you know has always been with technology companies in infrastructure construction manufacturing so trying to find innovative ways so started my career uh after university started actually at kpmg so good finance background and then uh was involved with pure technologies early on uh worldwide leader in infrastructure monitoring large pipelines concrete pipelines cement pipelines you'll see kind of the synergies here as i started them up here post tension buildings cable state bridges and pure amazing coming and i had some amazing mentors there jamie paulson peter paulson just an amazing cohort of colleagues and i was a young guy and learned a lot from them as i grew and became an executive of that company and i left pure learning a lot and joined a small calgary startup at the time run by a gentleman by the name of mogan smed called dirt environmental solutions in 2006. and it was chaos and we were raising money a bit and mogens had done it before and it was all about prefab manufacturing for interior construction so saving materials labor giving our clients cost certainty and building them a beautiful product but what i learned a lot at dirt was all about sales and distribution and north american distribution channels and how you can really turbo charge the top line of your business and growth by having strategic partners especially in construction that are local and so i departed dirt in uh the end of 2017 after leading the successful ipo in the tsx great team of folks and i'll give a shout out to many of our zs2 team members who also have dirt in their past pedigree and uh i met a gentleman by the name of dr doug brown and doug's background is carbon engineering and direct air capture of co2 he had done his phd on solar panel technologies he's always had a passion for sustainable energy uh creation but also reducing greenhouse gases and finding commercial products or processes that could do that and it was that dirt that uh i had learned about magnesium oxide tiles four tiles for a raised four system and so doug and i put our heads together and really it was kristin who kind of then smacked those two heads together as fast as she could and she's freakishly strong so you can imagine there was actually some tears mostly for me that's much tougher than that and it's different guys like we're in the middle of a pandemic or we're starting in a pandemic we don't know what the world is going to look like we should start our own company and focus on delivering sustainable resilient environmentally friendly but prefab products for the construction industry that are safer so we like to say safer healthier and more efficient for people and the planet and that's really what's led us to build status 2 to deliver building envelope so we're like prefab solutions for the exterior of a building but they provide higher fire resilience resilience against mold hurricanes higher strength but but also similar to borrowing on the dirt dna a little bit that it's cost certainty speed reduce labor you know give people an economic benefit to the project as well so sorry that was very long-winded but that's sort of how we we're covered babies that is too was created you know as the pandemic was raging and helped us keep sgna costs down we didn't need an office for a year especially when you're raising that always helps yeah well i i think and i think the timing was right i mean you look at what's going on in the world the fires uh the fire in fort mcmurray the fires in california the hurricanes all the things that come on i mean i think it's just a perfect time for a a solution that looks after the world but also protects the people that are supposed to look after the world you know you mentioned really really quick there and all of that and actually i was kind of i'm saving some news to share with you jade first and your listeners uh which i'll get to a second as well uh when talking about wildfires so obviously in the united states and canada this is an issue and it's it's probably going to grow in prominence it's unfortunate you know climate change is real we have to address it in a meaningful way i was in northern california about four weeks ago with one of our newest tech partners our distribution partners dh construction so i want to give them a shout out amazing construction company who is really shifting their entire business you know they've been in construction for 30 years have an experienced team and they're shifting towards more resilient fire resilient housing options in northern california and around the bay area largely around what's called wui certification wildland urban interface and the requirements of the insurance companies that if you're building homes in these areas prone to wildfires you have to demonstrate higher fire resiliency but the other thing that that our clients and i met with fire marshals i met with city inspectors the excitement level for our type of product they want to just help us you know demonstrate the product you know we're working on a large subdivision project down there now is also about energy efficiency with insulated panels so our tech panels because they're heating and cooling costs mostly cooling air conditioning their energy cost electricity costs are through the roof so we can provide our clients with you know significant savings there so the second thing is the big announcement as of friday we have been selected to be part of the kanakobar first nation resiliency challenge consortium to help kanaka bar rebuild the residences that burned the ground during the tragic fires in linton bc last summer in british columbia so we have some upcoming calls i was having a chat with the melanie ross a huge supporter of zs2 at sate yesterday um so there'll be some exciting announcements with that i think there'll be ceremonial groundbreaking here in late may but um yeah so you're the first to know jade and anybody else who's listening so you know thanks mom you know thanks to my cousins oh that's so funny i mean i never know how many people are listening until later that's one thing that sucked about cove but i thought my numbers would go up they did go up in general but what people what they do now is they don't watch it live they just oh i can watch everything later on a webinar type of thing so i'll record it that's right i mean and that's great news and thank you for sharing that here first and obviously you had some more great news in the in the last week um obviously with the musk foundation why don't i why don't you explain that because you'll do a much better job there i will so uh this really credit to you know dr doug as we we call him around here to doug uh and his r d team you know which is growing we're fortunate we've got three phd chemists that work with us too amazing team um so this is really revolving around uh taking direct air capture co2 uh greenhouse gases could be other gases and using the technology that we've developed into a commercialized product which we've developed so the this is the largest x prize in history it's for a hundred million dollars u.s being funded by elon musk and the musk foundation the x prize carbon removal challenge it was announced on earth day last year so 2021 it's a four-year competition so they accepted 1133 companies worldwide to be part of the program so they vetted i don't know how many companies applied or student-led groups thousands maybe but 1133 were accepted into the program we have moved through the program they've added our science our technology we had to have third-party validation uh from a scientist that they uh nominated uh that was done a couple months ago with flying success and so last week we were announced as a top 60 milestone finalist in the x prize one of only seven canadian companies to receive this distinction um and so then on earth day they announced 15 companies to get an initial 15 million dollar seed amount 1 million each we weren't one of the 15 at this stage but we are top 60 we're part of the x prize uh the competition runs till earth day 2025 so we're in the running developing our technology and we have to demonstrate the ability to capture 3 000 tons of co2 sorry i'm getting that wrong over 1 000 tons a smaller amount of co2 dry care capture in a commercialized product our phase one commercial plant expansion which we're launching next month will collect three thousand tons so three times was required to demonstrate the x prize in three years and we hope to have that operational in the next year so obviously our phones right we're ringing off the hook we're still getting a lot of great pr and press from it um some of the companies that are part of the x prize it is amazing what some of these companies are doing we look to some very different than us different industries different it's it's really cool to see what's being done around the world right now and kudos to you and i mean that's just that's so impressive and uh even to be i i look at it it's thinking seven in the top 60 in canada is is astronomical number like that considering it's around the world right around the world and you know if you if anybody's interested at all just you know go to the xprize website carbon removal challenge uh and they've got a map they've got a uh you can search on zatus2 we're listed there's a milestone finalist there's a little blurb on us on the the xprize musk foundation website um but it's really neat to look at some of the other companies and just just stuff that i you'd never even think about and and how far along they've progressed so it gives me a lot of hope actually in terms of you know solving climate change because you know here at status 2 and really actually you know kind of shout out another like the solar impulse foundation of europe we received their distinction in october of 2020 so early on just as we were getting going they had third party validators in europe look at our technology and what we were doing just developing but the key that for them was it has to be you have to have the capability to commercialize it in a usable product that the world needs so it's solving climate change but also with something that makes economic sense and i think that's really where we're in that sweet spot like we have an excellent you know i'm very proud of the business model we have and and i do think you know a lot of our clients we just finished our first projects in new mexico uh utah secured the project in northern california we have a project going on in san diego california right now um so i think a lot of our clients like this these are also products materials technologies clients want yeah and and and i think that's a key right again i'm talking with scott jenkins uh the ceo of zs2technologies.com i posted up the elenaska xprize website there you can click on it in the comment section click on zs2technologies.com in the comments

section take you directly there i also think that's what what you just said is something extremely important you mentioned that you're kind of uh you know a coveted baby you you started in covid but a lot of a lot of companies have a hard time growing corporate or no coven but you've been able to kind of you know get that little that hockey stick and you know i don't want to say it straight up but you've been able to do that and i and that's what impresses me the most about you your team everybody at zs2 uh technology so how how have you been able to do that in such a short period of time uh well one it's mostly the team right you know uh you know in addition to obviously kristin who's our strategic accounts you know co-founder uh leanna gilmore who was a critical member of the team at dirt joined us uh as our director of channel partners and she's really been building out that distribution arm for us um i think for us you know we're about to launch a major marketing initiative for new tech partners in eastern u.s um i think for us it's existing relationships but then really you know matt stewart our director of marketing communications uh our digital marketing campaigns and just being very sophisticated and using data and making sure that our message let me summarize making sure our message is being targeted to high value potential partners so that's created a lot of you know inbound requests for information projects uh we just actually secured our first project in colorado not through direct sales not through a tech partner it was literally through our website but it was targeted digital marketing campaigns to sustainability focused architects engineers um you know environmentally focused construction companies you know this is a big push like building code for energy efficiency here in canada we have you know the province of british columbia probably leading the way with the step code it's called most jurisdictions in bc now at step three so to get your building permit for new builds you have to do an energy efficiency analysis uh even more so the state of california it's called title 24 so it's law that you have to have a building efficiency analysis to get your building permit however if you build with insulated panels that requirement is waived because they know they're so much more efficient um you mentioned wildfires you know we've gotta we've gotta look for additional materials and so if you bring this all together and kind of what's the dna for zs2 and why we're so passionate about what we're doing is we know that the construction industry the world's largest industry like this is the world's biggest industry construction uh has not really been open to a lot of technology change um we saw that with dirk and yet we grew that business rapidly but i believe the combination of prefab manufacturing technologies in combination with true material science true chemistry uh really probably represents one of the the greatest opportunities to disrupt the world's largest industry i know that's a that's a bold bold statement but we're seeing it so we're seeing it and it's a tidal wave it's just starting to hit us i i love i mean and i and i think you are right and and as you said you've taken something that i also just wanted to ask a quick question that i got on linkedin here from marty um he wanted the clarification do you mean 3 000 carbon is actually being removed or prevented from going into the atmosphere so for actually it's a good point so as part of x prize so so this is what's kind of really amazing about our team and great question so our initial business plan when we started status 2 was to work with our strategic partner baymag canada's only producer of high quality magnesium oxide uh and actually one of the world's highest quality minds period and used their offspec production perfect for us and then magnesium oxide takes in co2 as it cures and we can actually bring in co2 so our plan was to to take co2 off of their heat stack but to be part of xprize you actually have to use direct error capture so in partnership with our other strategic partners occam's technology is progressive planet but this is proprietary technology to us that we've designed we can do both oh direct air capture so what i've learned in the last month is our direct air capture technology and then take that co2 it forms a strategic building block of our tech board our tech sheathing tech siding tech floor products um works actually better at colder temperatures uh so it's great for a canadian made solution a made in canada solution but we also on the 3000 tons we also have units that deployed at scale so we just have scale would work for removing the co2 from flue gas so to be determined might be both well that's a good thing right both are a good things because these are we would either be taking co2 from existing emitters yeah from from companies have been around a long time or direct air capture no absolutely and and i hope that answers your question marty i'm sure it does it's it was a very good question thank you and that kind of leads into my i mean now that you're you're going through another raise um and you're going to be expanding you're going to be building a plant let's talk about where you're going to be building that plant where are you going to be expanding your team and uh and you know why you're picking the areas that you may pick sure so um yeah so we were chatting a little bit before you know on air um so we're going to be announcing uh likely next week that we're partnering with ford capital and uh blue deer capital out of toronto uh ford capital here in cary and uh vancouver uh on our next uh expansion financing um the plans are in place we've sketched out we've been talking with our partners baymag progressive planet solutions uh huge shout out to progressive planet and what they're doing with absorbent products and in terms of um sustainable cement solutions so you can see how this all links together um and it looks like we've we've not set in stone uh but it looks like for the phase one commercial plant of the made in canada solutions which will feed then our tech panel plant here in calgary alberta will likely be in kamloops british columbia so there's two phases of our expansion we desperately need to expand our manufacturing here in calgary our manufacturing team amazing but uh i think they're getting sick of working weekends to keep up with the demand and uh we've had a lot of new hires um by the way a bit of a shout out to anybody who's listening or may watch this we are hiring in multiple positions right now uh we're a little short staffed um but then kamloops for the phase one commercial plant access to water hydroelectric power close proximity to one of our strategic partners uh baymax magnesium oxide miners and british columbia so that may work best uh for us uh so that's where that's where we're thinking right now and uh what are some of the reasons for for for being in the kamloops area what's the benefit of being there rather than in calgary or edmonton or saskatoon right so so two things for us so so calgary is home our tech center r d manufacturing at the panels excellent logistics here in calgary obviously it's home base a lot of our investors and then cam loops to calgary very easy transportation wise obviously the british columbia government is twinning the trans-canada highway uh inexpensive uh flight if we have to go in but for trucking cp rail mainline so baymax main facility and by the way they're celebrating their 40th anniversary here in alberta and in british columbia later this summer and they just just finished off a 50 million dollar expansion to their plant um but baymag is in extra camera alberta on the main rail line so it's really about logistics um we think uh cam is excellent place for cost living but also access to progressive planet and their team so they've got a team of mill rights it's where the zeolite so it's strategic so we think co-locating with them there's some land there that's existing an existing building so i'm a big believer in not building new buildings using a brownfield site so we're not causing any more unnecessary construction waste ourselves um so we think we think really for us it's calgary's home base with a secondary base in in kamloops makes the most sense we've had some preliminary discussions with uh some potential sites around cowgi that also might be good fits but but right now it looks like cameras yeah and i mean we're all going to unite the prairies and and we're all we're all in this together right and i love that statement that you just made we don't need to build more buildings especially if you're able to collaborate with partners that you're going to be with and working with for for that have been in business for 50 40 50 years and and you plan on being there for that long too so why not yeah no you nailed it and uh you know and then you know as as we grow and you know doug's got some big plans you know working with again our partners at baymag and then their parent company refer technique you know worldwide involved in uh magnesium and various you know industrial processes we're really a new market for them potentially is how we could then take the blueprint we're developing here in western canada and then deploy that elsewhere in the world to bring you know a much lower carbon higher performing cement products uh to the markets that are obviously there's still a lot of construction you know one thing just a little like little factoid you know next to water by far the most consumed thing by humans on the planet is cement well it kind of makes sense what do we drive on right 12 of co2 emissions a year yeah like this is this is something that needs to be addressed no absolutely i agree i agree i mean it's and i mean i and i just love hearing great success stories that are coming out out of alberta collaborating with people all around western canada and the world for that matter and and what you guys have created is fantastic again i'm talking to scott jenkins the ceo of zs2 technologies click on their website in the comments section um they've got some great things going on they are hiring i put that in there as well so if you're looking looking for a new gig to join an emerging company definitely check out their website so with all these great things going on and raising and expanding and growing and selling what's next oh man that's a good question um okay you know sure we we really are excited about taking the technologies taking the blueprint we're developing in terms of the r d material science and maybe now working with some other fantastic material science companies out there that maybe i also believe for zetas too you know maybe we could help these type of companies if they become part of the zs2 umbrella um i'm actually touring a company this afternoon that's had the same ideas because for them access to capital and distribution throughout the united states and canada may not be an option for them this is obviously something that we have tremendous experience with so it's not just me it's my entire team right we've done this before um so i think that is too you know if i i really want to talk like where are we five years from now um there's probably some other innovative complementary technologies uh that are part of the zs2 story nice i love it and i can't wait to see what those technologies are right that way i mean i won't ask dr brown to come play baseball for our team then because he's going to be way too busy exactly we need him we need him and dr brown we always give him a hard time because he was on the canadian national baseball business back in the day but uh no we want him in the lab uh we want him you know he's got a big presentation coming up next week to our friends at the federal government uh regarding our recent win with engine advanced manufacturing so we we received a significant grant from the federal government for our expansion so that was great news for us um so yeah so that's where he uh he's kind of focused right now nah somebody asked if you're looking for programmers i would say not at this stage uh but i do know another company and maybe i'll give a shout out to our friends at faulk belt and logan spence company uh that are actually expanding they just completed a and congratulations to mogans and his team completing a 35 million dollar financing for their expansion plans and uh barry lowberg uh former founder dirt but uh founder faulk belt doing a great job with their echo software and everything they're doing certainly of interest to us it says to uh in terms of our uh collaboration with them no no absolutely thanks for that shout out i'm always sad when my conversations come to an end because i mean obviously not only i'm an investor i'm a big fan i mean i love the way you talk it's the same way i do we team us that's just priceless right i mean that's i just i just love that that lingo that you use because you know people are the heartbeat of a company and and that's what's gonna you know make you guys great and already has made you great so um i couldn't agree more couldn't agree more on that you know i'll leave that you know one final comment the team like there's not a day i come into the tech center or or now that now that we can travel a little bit more and i'm talking to partners uh in the united states and in canada the quality of our team their efforts their belief their passion for what we're doing it's so easy for me to be passionate talking to you jade because they fuel it it's all them it's not me they're just you know i i'm so lucky i have a dream job i get to talk about it all day long no absolutely absolutely and speaking of uh of talking i and and the last piece i mean you are the second uh i guess ceo that i've had on this show that has taken a company through an ipo hubert lau from trustpicks great man love him he's uh he was the other one and now that you're you know you've been uh you've done it you've grown it you've ipo'd it you've come back to the roots of a startup again you're going through that process so you you've done this twice a few other times so i think this advice is going to be interesting i'm excited to hear it anyway but if you had one piece of advice for a small business startup what would that be scott oh probably i'd have a lot but you know one thing so in terms of you know raising money and doing that here would be my advice to everybody focus on the business focus on your growth focus on why you're different focus on why you're changing the world access to capital whether you go public you don't that will come i see so many people focused on either an exit or the money first were like even though i'm talking about it and obviously i talked with investors it's the secondary focus the first focus is growing our revenue and building a profitable company with a purpose that's going to change the world everything else will follow build your business work on your business that would be my advice and that's great advice we talk about that with companies all the time all the time about focusing on the business and the money will come if you have a good good business good plan good people that will follow because i mean especially here people want to invest in businesses that are are scaling they don't want to give you money to build a business they want you to give you money to scale a business and that's something that what you know it's different in other in other sectors and other industries the valleys to you know toronto but here that's just the way the cookie crumbles okay yeah no i think i think for a lot of investors who have supported us from the early days um you know my last shout out for a conversation you know to dave richardson dave you know a prolific uh canadian investor you know the richton family yeah very well known throughout canada uh zaz2 doesn't exist without dave uh but he saw the vision um but he's really been there to help us scale it and get it to the next level uh and so the rest of the investors startup tnt was their early days how do we get these were the questions how do you get to the next level how do you what could we do to help you to go faster because we're focused on the business yeah absolutely again it's always my pleasure i i i had doc got to interview uh you know dr doug brown there a few weeks ago at our finale of the clean tech and we had a good little chat there even though he was supposed to be live and we did it virtual that's all right it worked out good it's the transition from the pandemic lockdown to you you can actually meet in person now exactly exactly so we have a good good tack we did the five minute fridays i mean you're the the the shout outs and loves you give to startup tnt we really appreciate thank you for all the kind words and uh and and we're on this journey with you and we're excited to be on this journey with you so keep on being awesome and again thank you for coming on and sharing your story today oh i can't say thank you enough to start up tnt and jaden you and your colleagues it's been a wonderful journey so far and we're only getting started oh i know that that's what gets me excited so again enjoy the rest of your day and uh we will chat soon and i hope everyone

2022-05-06 01:35

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