Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: This is Prakash Govindhan, Co Founder and CEO of Gradient and you're listening to the Water Values Podcast.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: The Water Values Podcast is sponsored by the following market leading companies and organizations by Suez Digital Solutions Optimizing Water by IDE Water Technologies, your partner in water treatment and sustainable desalination for six decades by Advanced Drainage Systems Our Reason is water by 1898 & Co. Possibilities Powered by Experience by Woodard and Curran High Quality Consulting Engineering Science and Operations Services Buy Interra Innovation and Stewardship for a Sustainable Tomorrow by Xylem Let's Solve Water by the American Waterworks Association Dedicated to the World's Most Important Resource by Black and Veatch Building a World of difference and by 120 water new rules need new tools. This is session 278.
[00:01:11] Speaker A: Welcome to the Water Values Podcast. This is the podcast dedicated to water utilities resources, treatment reuse in all things water. The now here's your host, Dave McGimpsey.
[00:01:26] Speaker B: Well hello and welcome to another session of the Water Values Podcast. As my daughter Sarah said, my name is Dave McGimpsey and thank you for joining me and thank you for your support over the last 11 plus years. Now we have a terrific show for you this month. Water industry veteran and Parkview Advisors founder and president Jim Good comes on and he relays some fantastic insights and tips for startups about the journey that startups encounter. You won't want to miss this one, so stay tuned.
Also, Reece Sisdale joins us for a Bluefield on Tap segment that delves into the latest on federal expenditures on water.
But before we get to today's conversations, we always say thank you to our fantastic group of sponsors. Suez Digital Solutions, IDE Water Technologies, Advanced Drainage Systems 1898 & Co. Woodard & Curran, Entera Xylem, the American Waterworks Association, Black and veatch and 120 water.
That is a terrific collection of impactful companies that have affirmatively decided to support water industry thought leadership and education. And I thank you all and I'd like for you, the listener, to do me a favor. If you work for or with any of those sponsors, please thank your boss or thank your contact at the sponsor firm and tell them that you appreciate their leadership in the industry through the sponsorship, that simple little note of thanks will go a long way, believe me.
And as long as you're letting sponsors know how much you appreciate their support of water industry education and thought leadership, hey, why not leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or whatever other podcast directory you access the podcast on It'd be greatly appreciated and of course helps others find out all about the podcast. And also, please don't forget to subscribe to the podcast so it lands in your podcast directory upon release.
Well, before we head on to the interview with Jim, we've got a Bluefield on Tap segment with Bluefield Research's Reece Tisdale. So take it away, guys.
Rhys, welcome to another Bluefield on Tap. How we doing this month?
[00:03:29] Speaker C: I'm pretty good, Dave, so pretty good.
Before we jump into this, I just want to say one thing.
Is an ice cream sandwich a sandwich or is it a dessert? I'm arguing with my children, at least one of them who was home this summer, and he keeps telling me it's okay to eat three or four ice cream sandwiches a day and it counts as multiple meals.
[00:03:51] Speaker B: I go with the latter. It's a dessert. You know, I think whoever came up with the term ice cream sandwich did it to kind of ameliorate how bad it would be for you. You know, in terms of the sugar intake.
[00:04:05] Speaker C: I agree with you, but tried telling a 15 year old attitude entire box. So that's where we are this summer.
[00:04:11] Speaker B: Well, those are problems that have long passed me by. So, World of Water, speaking of problems, what's written to the top of the heap this month over at Bluefield?
[00:04:27] Speaker C: So, yeah, I mean, a number of different things as you could imagine.
There's a lot of things like big beautiful bill, there's what's up with tariffs.
And so as a result, we're getting a lot of questions from clients and we've had a number of different conversations. One way of zeroing in on this or partly as part of the discussions, we've also been looking at iija, sort of what's the status of ija? Are those funds hitting the street? Are they slowing down or picking up? And for the listeners, just sort of, you know, a top line number. We've really zero in on the state revolving fund dollars through IJ. That makes up about 84, 85% of the total funding from 2022 to 2026. And so we've been tracking that project by project.
So that's where we are.
[00:05:16] Speaker B: Yeah. So I assume funds, you know, funds are down significantly. But what has your research kind of shown on for state? You mentioned state revolving funds. How about, how about those?
[00:05:31] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean state revolving funds are the main things. And I think we've talked about this before, I believe. And right now of the, for state revolving funds, of the $43 billion appropriated as of July 2025, there have only been about 7.8 billion that have been awarded, you know, down.
So it's really low. It's really. So we're looking at about just shy of 18%. And it seems to be even slowing down when you look at it quarter by quarter.
[00:06:02] Speaker B: Wow.
What does that mean? Is that, is that an omen for, for the water sector?
[00:06:11] Speaker C: Yeah, I don't want to rate. I mean, it's a little bit, it's a little alarming. I think the way we look at it is what, you know, what was interesting was we knew it was down just overall, but then when you look at a quarter by quarter, what was telling us in Q1 of 2025 from same quarter previous year? So from Q1, 2024, the awards are down about 49%. And then you look at Q2, they were down 55%. So they're definitely down.
And I think part of it is the executive orders, the slowdown coming out of Washington where there is uncertainty or just a slowdown of funding.
I think that's part of it. I think just uncertainty overall. And what does that mean? And also just trying to figure out what was going to happen with some of the big ticket items like emerging contaminants and lead and copper rule funding. There are questions about, hey, what do we do here? And maybe a slowdown on the awards there. It's not, is from our perspective, it's not tariffs, though. I mean, I think a lot of people would say, oh, it's probably tariffs. I don't think it's that. That point. That being said, I would say by the end of the year there should be a big bump. I mean, that's where a lot of, you know, when you get over to October is really when you were likely to see a wave of awards. But will it make up the difference? That's a good question.
[00:07:31] Speaker B: You mentioned big beautiful bill. I know there was a lot of concern about the state revolving funding for the state revolving funds coming out of the big beautiful bill. What, what, what did OBBBA end up doing in regards to SRF funding?
[00:07:48] Speaker C: Well, they're going through reconciliation right now, so there are likely going to be some cuts. You know, it could be 15 to 20%, whether it be for clean water or drinking water. And I think clients are definitely concerned about that. I think small utilities should definitely be concerned there. Even in the ramp up, there have been questions about, well, you know, state revolving funds are the same as wifia, which I would argue with that.
I feel pretty strongly about that. And Overall, though, state revolving funds have been fairly, have been bipartisan. I think they're good. It's a way of, you know, the feds inject capital into the states and the states really decide. So every state is a little bit different and how they manage the funds, some, even in the case of IJA, are better than others. I mean, I think eight states make up 50% of the wards thus far.
So we'll see what ends up happening. It's probably going to be another month or two before we really know.
[00:08:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
All right, what else, what else is coming out of the federal scene? You know, you mentioned tariffs, and you don't think the slowdown is because of tariffs. There's a, you know, trade deals are starting to come along.
The stock market continues to chug along incredibly.
So where do you think we're going to land? I mean, there's, there seems to be certainty or at least we're gaining greater clarity. Where, where are we going to land on the federal policies?
[00:09:21] Speaker C: Yeah, I think. Well, the tariffs are the number one question that clients I think have at this point. I mean, we have, you know, and I think you're exactly right. The stock market, the prices are up and so. But if you start looking into the company filings, you start to see that they are swallowing some of the prices at this point.
So really the question is going to be what is the, what are the Q2 financials going to look like? But the second half of 2025 is probably where it's going to start to rear its head. We're also starting to see select projects, not many, though, quite honestly, that have been delayed. But one conversation, I've had conversations with several vendors, engineering companies as well. And what we're starting to see is contractors who are at the end of the line of sort of, they're building the projects. They seem to be doing really well with really no slowdown. Engineering firms, on the other hand, are starting to show signs of deferments and slowdowns when it comes to rfp. So it takes so long for the water sector, for those dollars to make their way through the digestive tract, so to speak.
And I think that's the biggest. So I think it's a little bit of.
You just can't feel it at this point. But I don't want you. You're right. All signals on the surface look good, but you start having conversations with the engineering companies, it makes me a little, little nervous.
[00:10:50] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Well, you're, you're reference to the digestive tract will sound Familiar coming up here in today's episode because we talk about startups and their journey through the valley of Death. And so the guest, Jim Good, talks a lot about the municipal sales cycle and that. So it was very apropos of you to mention that.
[00:11:18] Speaker C: Yeah, the valley of Death, it's something when I used to work in the energy sector, particularly renewables, that was always a big discussion. Hear a little bit less about it in the water sector, but it's real getting from one side to the other and, you know, cash is king. And if you can't get to the other side, you're done.
[00:11:37] Speaker B: Amen. Well, Reese, always great talking with you. Thanks for the current snapshot of where we are in water sector and funding and federal policy. So really appreciate your time and insights and we'll talk to you again next month.
[00:11:52] Speaker C: All right, Dave, take it easy. Enjoy those ice cream sandwiches.
[00:11:55] Speaker B: Take it easy. Bye, Reece.
As always, great information from Bluefield Research and Rhys Tisdale. Now it's time for the main event, our interview with Jim. Good. So let's get that water flowing.
Well, Jim, welcome to the Water Values podcast. Great to have you on. How are you today?
[00:12:11] Speaker A: I'm doing great, David, and thanks for inviting me to appear today.
[00:12:15] Speaker B: Absolutely. I'm looking forward to our discussion.
Just for starters, could you give us a little thumbnail on who you are and how you came to the water sector?
[00:12:25] Speaker A: Yeah, I'd be happy to.
I came to the water sector the usual way. I worked on Capitol Hill for a number of years and couldn't figure out what to do. So I ended up in the water business.
It's only partially a joke because I really did on Capitol Hill for a number of years and did move from there to the water business.
I worked on some tax issues peculiar to the private water sector and that got me introduced to some of the investor owned water companies and the trade association that still represents them, the national association of Water Companies.
I think you're originally from Indianapolis and they used to have an industrial water utility, Indianapolis Water Company.
And so that was the type of entity I started my career with, was working for a privately owned PUC regulated trade association that represents those types of companies. And from there I moved back to California, where I'm originally from and worked for the California Water Service Company in business development.
From there I went to Veolia, which I'm sure you've, you're very familiar with, you've heard of. I did business development and then operations for them.
Part of that time at Veolia, they asked Me to go to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and head up a consulting business line they had for a few years where we provided analysis of utilities operations and recommendations for improvements ahead of that team, as well as served as the on loan chief executive of the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority. And when that ended, I opened up my own business, the Parkview Advisors, which is a consulting firm that works with utilities of all types and all sizes and all locations across the country to help them with issues of particular importance to them, whatever those might be. And I also work closely with a lot of early stage companies that are trying to figure out this strange beast called the American water sector and how it, how it serves its customers, how it purchases technology, how it raises money, that type of thing. And I've been doing that off and on for about 10 years. Had a short stint with Jacobs where I ran their industrial O and M business. But other than that, I've been working in my own company for the last decade or so.
[00:15:08] Speaker B: That's a, that's a fascinating journey you've had. We'll have to talk offline about the old IWC at some point. I was, I was involved when that got sold by NiSource, I was involved in, in that, in a unique way. But in any event, I'm very interested in one of the things you kind of said you focused on is helping small companies and startup companies kind of get into the water sector. Because there are so many stories of people, you know, companies with great technology or what have you, they think they've got a great idea and they just die on the vine. And so let's. Can you kind of big picture, walk us through what are the stages, for lack of a better term, of kind of these startup companies and then we'll kind of explore each stage. Does that make sense?
[00:16:01] Speaker A: Yeah, sure, sure.
The startup is the life cycle of a startup in the water business.
And I've actually worked with some startups not in the water business pretty similar, but really it starts usually with, well, always with a very, very good idea from a very, very smart person or group of people. They typically are either working for a, say a large engineering consulting firm, a Jacobs or a CDM or somebody like that, or they're in a university environment and they, they've really got, think they've got the sector figured out and they've got a great idea to take an existing process and make it better, typically automating it, making, putting it on a platform, adding AI, what have you.
So that's stage one.
Stage one B maybe is trying to scrape up some money, family and friends, maybe a local incubator, and trying to get a. What I would call a kind of a bench scale number of installations. So five or 10 customers who adopt the technology, put it into place and serve almost as a test bench for the, for the product or service.
Then it gets really hard, really, really hard. Because the sector is so huge in terms of the fractured nature of the marketplace.
And I would say that most of these companies face a valley of death. That's a term you hear in the startup world writ large. But what it really means in the water business is how do you get from having just a few installations to a critical mass in a sector that's got 45,000 water utilities and is spread across an entire continent, and you need cash to pay your employees, improve your product and what have you, then very few make it through that valley of death. The few that do typically are purchased by a strategic.
And the founders are made happy and flush, as are the initial investors. And then the product or service gets wrapped into another company. Probably some that you've had on your podcast and definitely have heard of.
Not too many go out on their own and standalone as existing companies.
But in fact, sitting here right now, I can't think of a single one. But that's the typical life cycle in this, in this sector.
[00:19:02] Speaker B: Got it, got it, got it. So let's talk about the early stage. You kind of said that that's kind of where you germinate the idea and you try and try and scrape together a little bit of money. So talk.
If someone comes to you saying, hey look, I got this great idea for the water sector.
I need help figuring out how I, how I even, even get it into a utility. What, what, what's.
How do you approach that?
[00:19:32] Speaker A: That.
[00:19:33] Speaker B: Yeah, that question.
[00:19:35] Speaker A: Well, I. Look what I do personally, I try to try to see how well they understand the sector and the battles they're up against, because like I said earlier, it's a very fractured market. So in addition to 45,000 water utilities, you've got.
Numbers vary, but 15,000 wastewater utilities, 9,000 stormwater utilities.
And the sector is innately conservative, slow to adopt and. Or slow to change and slow to adopt new technologies. And it's understandable, right, because your businesses to provide safe, pro. Safe drinking water, a product that people consume the customers to do it reliably and affordably and not make anybody sick or worse. Or it's to move the wastewater out of a community, clean it up so it doesn't damage the environment.
And get rid of it.
Pile on top of that, most of those utilities are municipally owned and the municipal sales cycle is by its very nature bureaucratic and slow. So you may have the greatest idea in the world, you may be the very smart person, and typically both of those things are true.
But one, do you understand those factors I just laid out? And two, what is your approach or strategy to address those issues or weather them in your business plan, in your cash burns and that type of thing? And if, if, if the answer is reasonable, then we can talk about places to get money. And, and there's, there's lots of places that are interested in funding startups with, with good ideas, with what you might call angel investments and then going into the subsequent rounds.
[00:21:31] Speaker B: Got it. So just out of curiosity, what type of, you know, of early stage companies are you seeing the most of? Are they primarily tech?
[00:21:43] Speaker A: Primarily, yeah. A lot of platforms, a lot of ways to utilize AI, data crunching, that type of thing, to do things better, quicker with, with fewer, with fewer people involved. Which, no, may sound horrible, but this is coming into a sector where you've probably heard this term on your podcast a lot, the Silver Tsunami, which is people my age who are leaving the sector, they're retiring with 30, 40 or more years of experience, and there's not a lot of folks coming in behind them to fill in those, those gaps.
And you got a lot of very small systems out there with maybe several hundred or several thousand connections that just by their very nature don't have the resources to have a lot of people. So the idea of having a platform that operates better with less human intervention, that's something that can fit pretty well with the place a lot of utilities are right now.
[00:22:54] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree. And one of the other benefits of AI that I've heard is it's not necessarily going to replace people, but it's going to allow humans to do more higher value work rather than having to do the just rote, whether it's some sort of bookkeeping entry or something like that.
Humans can do more critical function work.
[00:23:23] Speaker A: Yeah. And also ironically, less higher function work. What I mean by that is water system, wastewater system is a big mechanical beast with motors, engines, machines, probes, membranes, what have you that need to be repaired and, and monitored and the oil changed and all that. And you know, that is, that is an incredible set of skills that often doesn't match with the ability to utilize a spreadsheet or do a mathematical analysis. So let AI do that and let it say, hey, based on our data Pump number one, it needs to be inspected. Pump number two is vibrating a lot. You need to go reconnect that to its, its, its base. And so it, it allows the, the work that, where the rubber heats, hits the road or the wrench hits the, the bolt to, to be the main focus of the people with the skills to do that.
[00:24:31] Speaker B: Right, right. So one of the other things you mentioned in kind of this first stage was the potential for getting angel investments.
Do you have any tips for, for essentially writing the business plan that would, would cause an angel investor to say, yes, I'll invest?
[00:24:55] Speaker A: Well, my, I just go back to what I said earlier.
I would say find an old grizzled water veteran, two or three, and sit down with those people and talk through your idea.
Because again, we're dealing with usually very smart people with very good ideas, but maybe not a lot of experience with the water sector and how it's set up. And so that would be number one, they really got a clear eyed view of what, what you're facing in the sector. But then also look at some of these, some of these constraints that we've been talking about. And, and how do you address these challenges? So, so those people are retiring. Okay, so you're going to develop a better computerized maintenance management system. All right, well, how is it better than the hundreds of systems that are out there already? And how does it help the utility and the people who work there provide better service, you know, measured in stretching your maintenance dollars, utilizing your capital investment dollars more efficiently, being able to justify a rate increase when necessary to raise the money to keep your system running?
So those are the types of things that to me are what are going to attract people to show you really you understand the sector at large. But then you also understand how your product or service finds a, a real challenge, a real world challenge for utilities and makes it a little bit easier for a utility to handle. I guess the, the nomenclature is pain point, but that to me that's that that just proves that your good idea is also practical and applicable to real world problems.
[00:27:14] Speaker B: Right. Yeah. As you were, as you were talking, I was going to say it sounds like the traditional find the pain point and solve for it. Don't be a solution in search of a problem.
[00:27:24] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. I think that's great advice.
[00:27:29] Speaker B: Okay, so let's move on to the second stage you described. And that's kind of once you, building up the customer base, getting the test bench, so to speak, give us some tips for navigating that stage of a startup Slide.
[00:27:48] Speaker A: Yeah, so that's an area where a lot of these platforms do quite well.
They get 5, 10, 15, 20 installations and they get that in a number of ways.
I've seen some startups with a more regional focus and they're able to leverage off their personal and professional relationships and get a number of installations say in a confined geographic area because they've served that customer base in some other capacity and, or they, they've got a good network, you know, working through local and national trade associations and there's bespoke firms you can bring on that do nothing but handle the marketing and sort of the business development side of things, making cold calls and getting inside.
You know, that's not what most startups can do for a bunch of reasons.
And so it's a good thing to quote sort of outsource.
And the, you know, the other thing that I've always recommend, and it's not necessarily going to get you many short term installations, but it gets you into the ether of the water sector is get in front of regional and national or even international consulting engineering firms and let them know about your technology and, or platform and what it can do. So again, A Jacobs, A Stantech, A Burns and Mac Brown and Caldwell, et cetera, there's lots of them because those firms, they're always looking for a competitive advantage in their sector but also they have a huge network built in and it helps to get your technology and your idea known, which will eventually, if you survive, lead to more sales. So those are some of the strategies that I've, I've counseled firms to use and you know, they've, they've been successful at least in nailing down that kind of, that bench test level of installations.
[00:30:26] Speaker B: So how do you make the jump from that bench test level to the true commercialization is it sounds like one component is getting in front of the major engineering firms. Are there any other aspects of making the jump to true commercialization that you see as necessary?
[00:30:50] Speaker A: Yeah, and this may sound a little counterintuitive, but the thing that seems to me that seems to be the most effective way to get to that level of commercialization, it honestly is to look outside the water sector, to look at adjacent businesses. So non water utilities, energy utilities, for example. And, and the reason for that is, you know, to get to commercial, commercial commercialization level of a business that could stand on its own with, you know, its internal resources, you're, you're just not going to make it in the water business.
You know, your cash is going to run out before you can get to that scale because so many entities in the sector are so small they can't really afford to pay you the price that you need to survive. And there are some, don't get me wrong, there are some very large water utilities out there, obviously. But take a, take the municipal sales cycle, which is often a year, and double it or triple it for these big, these big entities, you know, in New York or Los Angeles or Dallas.
And not a lot of small firms can survive that period because they just can't bring the cash in. So at the same time, you know, look at energy utilities, look at gas utilities, look at public works departments in, in cities, if you've got a, if you go out a platform, say that, say maintenance management system that's with a very few tweaks, it could probably serve the fleet of a typical city or it can help you maintain assets in a gas utility or an electric utility.
And you know, I've seen that with a couple of firms that are successfully pursuing that approach.
And I think they're going to make it. I think they're going to make it to a place where they survive and they can either stand on their own if that's what they desire, or be attractive enough to be picked up by a strategic.
[00:33:17] Speaker B: Got it. So do you have any thoughts on how to mitigate cash burn?
[00:33:27] Speaker A: How to mitigate cash burn? I mean, that's the question, isn't it? And my experience has been really focus on the thing that, or two that you do best. And that may seem incredibly obvious, but you would be, or maybe you wouldn't be surprised at how few firms can do that.
And it, it's, it's, it's natural. I mean, you run, it's, you've got a great idea, you've got a good installation of, of project, you know, say a handful or a dozen or 20 installations. And you're probably thinking, hey, I'm pretty good at this. So if I'm good at this, I'm probably good at sales, I'm probably good at marketing, I'm probably good at all these other things. Wouldn't, in reality, maybe what you're really good at is developing a platform that's easy to use and easy to implement, quick to implement.
And you know, you've mistaken your, your success there for the ability to do anything. So, you know, focus on say, the technology and outsource everything else, whether hr, legal, sales, you name it.
I, I think that's, that's, that's the best way to, to preserve your cash that I've seen. I don't, I can't pretend to say that I have a magic formula that nobody else has ever thought of, but from my experience, that's what I've seen works.
[00:35:08] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Just avoid avoiding the next shiny object almost.
Yeah.
[00:35:15] Speaker A: And you know, it's, it's funny and I feel safe to say this because I, I think I have this trait myself is, you know, it's, it's easy people in these businesses to get distracted. It's kind of the, their mental makeup by and large.
So, you know, find a good mentor or a coach who can check your ideas that keep you focused.
Right.
[00:35:41] Speaker B: So let's say you're one of the lucky companies, lucky startups that makes it through this, you know, this, this challenge here and is starting to be approached by a strategic or private equity or something like that.
What, what do startups need to think about when it's comes time for an exit strategy?
[00:36:05] Speaker A: Yeah, well, I would say you need to be thinking of your exit strategy when you start your business.
And the reason I say that is because there's, there's at least two strategies, maybe more.
Are you trying to attract a strategic and most firms are, or do you want to make a go of it as a standalone business, come out the other side with, you know, sufficient cash flow to run as a going concern, maybe even even go public? You don't see that a lot these days, sort of generally in the business world. But you know, there are people out there who, that's their dream. They want to have a, a small business that's successful and allows them to have a decent lifestyle and maybe employs, you know, handful dozen hundred, 100 people.
Of course, you know, nothing says you can't change your mind with the situation you're in. But that's going to drive you a different approach.
The first approach, which is attractive, strategic, you're probably going to be focused more on annual recurring revenue and number of installations you have and growth.
The second group, those who want to have a long term successful business on a standalone basis.
Those factors are important too, but just more important might be the profitability, the ability to produce positive cash flow and there's not a hard and fast line between things in that first group and things in that second group. But it is a, it is a question of emphasis and focus. One of the differences might be, you know, you don't take on, if you're, if you want to build your own standalone business for the long term, you don't intentionally consciously take on loss leaders.
And maybe if you're focusing more towards a strategic, maybe you're not as reluctant to take those on. So those are important things. But once you decided, okay, I want to be acquired by a strategic, one of the key pieces is going to be what's your technology roadmap? Because we're almost always talking about technology, so are there other products to come out? What's your schedule for refinements, that type of thing.
And secondly, what's your, what's your backlog? What are your growth prospects?
And you know, I'd like what, how to, how have you truth that? Because you're going to get a lot of pushback and questions from a PE firm or strategic about just how real that your sales funnel is.
And so, you know, what have you done to really test the strength of your funnel in third, you know, three months, six months, nine months, 12 months, 18 months.
Those are the types of things that, you know, you'd like to see brushed up when the strategics come knocking.
[00:39:33] Speaker B: Got it, Got it. Well, Jim, this has been a fascinating discussion. I've really enjoyed speaking with you.
Before we say goodbye, do you have a leave behind message?
[00:39:43] Speaker A: Yes, I do.
And that is it's common in this sector to use the word disruption in the startup world.
And my thoughts are that is not something that's attractive in the water business.
Nobody wants their water service disrupted. What they want is water service that's reliable and efficient and safe.
And that may sound great when you go to raise money, you know how you're going to disrupt the water sector. But I can tell you, having been in the business for 35 years, I've never once run into anybody, a utility executive, a customer, a regulator who says, yeah, just disrupt the sector. Now they might say provide a product that works better or more efficiently or helps me get my work done.
And those things certainly make sense. But disruption, you know, and if you have any doubt about that, ask your spouse or your, or your kids or your mom, hey mom, do you want your wastewater service disrupted? I'm pretty sure I know what her.
[00:40:54] Speaker B: Answer is going to be.
That's, that's great. I love that. I love that play on words.
So, Jim, thank you so much for coming on. You've been fantastic. For those who want to find out more about you, more about Parkview Advisors, where can they go to get that information?
[00:41:09] Speaker A: Well, just go to Parkview Advisors llc. That last, just the last few letters are very important or else you'll get a different company. Dot com.
Awesome.
[00:41:20] Speaker B: Well, Jim, again, thanks so much for coming on. Really appreciate your time and we'll talk to you again soon. Thank you.
[00:41:25] Speaker A: Thank you David. Really enjoyed it.
[00:41:28] Speaker B: Jim was absolutely awesome. Just phenomenal tips for startups. I especially like his begin with the end in mind tip. That's great advice. Not saying you can't change your mind along the way, but thinking long term always helps crystallize what you're doing and why. It just drives that point home.
Well, I'd love to know what you thought about the interview. Please check out the Show Notes page for information and links on this episode. Just google the Water Values Podcast and click the first link that comes up. That's our landing page on the Bluefield Research website for longtime listeners. You know that Bluefield Research and the Water Values LLC are not affiliates, we just have a joint marketing arrangement and as part of that, Bluefield Research gives us a home on the web.
Well, you can email me at david.mcgimpseyentons.com and you can sign up for the newsletter at that landing page I mentioned earlier as well.
And thank you again for tuning in and I hope you make it a great day. Plus, I want to give a huge thank you to all of our sponsors. Again. The sponsors of the Water Values Podcast include suez Digital Solutions, IDE Water Technologies, Advanced Drainage Systems, 1898 & Company, Woodard & Curran, Entera Xylem, the American Waterworks Association, Black and veatch, and 120 water. This show would not be possible without those great companies and industry leaders.
And again, thank you for listening and for subscribing to the Water Values Podcast. Your support is truly appreciated.
In closing, please remember to keep the core message of the Water Values Podcast in mind as you go about your daily business. Water is our most valuable resource, so please join me by going out into the world and acting like it.
[00:43:42] Speaker A: You've been listening to the Water Values Podcast. Thank you for spending some of your day with my dad and me.
[00:43:48] Speaker B: Well, thank you for tuning in to the disclaimer. I'm a lawyer licensed in Indiana and Colorado, and nothing in this podcast should be taken as providing legal advice or as establishing an attorney client relationship with you or or with anyone else. Additionally, nothing in this podcast should be considered a solicitation for professional employment. I'm just a lawyer that finds water issues interesting and that believes greater public education is needed about water issues. And that includes enhancing my own education about water issues. Because no one knows everything about water.
