You may know by now that I get pretty excited when people walk through the figurative BIV door with an understanding of reality that is virtually impossible to diagnose from the outside. From the moment I met Dylan Wolff and he explained what he was up to, I couldn't believe what he was solving. We will go into some depth as to what he's building at CNSRV, but it's the vehicle for the deletion of a stunning quantity of waterway as well as the provision of a multi layered, deeply practical and financial set of value propositions, all of which drop straight to their customers’ bottom line. Once you see it, you really can't unsee it. Dylan also happens to be, as we say back home, a really lovely bloke to spend time with. Please enjoy my conversation with Dylan Wolff.

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

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-fundamental-molecule/id1714287205

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Dylan Wolff is the Founder & CEO of CNSRV, a startup transforming commercial kitchen sustainability. A product developer driven by California’s water crisis, Wolff identified a hidden source of waste: running faucets to defrost food. He built the CNSRV DC-O2, a device that saves 98% of water and halves prep time. Resilience has defined his journey; weathering the COVID-19 industry shutdown, he bootstrapped development and secured groundbreaking rebates from water districts. Today, his tech is used by industry leaders, proving environmental impact drives financial ROI.

00:00 - Introducing CNSRV and the Future of Water Tech

00:49 - Exposing Hidden Water Waste in Commercial Kitchens

02:36 - How Dylan Discovered the Defrosting Problem

04:02 - Validating a Silent Industry Pain Point

06:17 - Turning Curiosity Into a Scalable Startup Opportunity

09:01 - How CNSRV Saves Water, Time, and Labor

12:10 - Matching Value Propositions to Kitchen Stakeholders

15:12 - Navigating COVID and Early Product Development Hurdles

19:42 - Building a Lean Team and High-Performance Product Design

23:52 - Lessons From Founder-Led Sales and Market Education

27:22 - Early Distribution Wins and Scaling Through Rep Groups

30:18 - Product Evolution: Smarter Interfaces and New Models

34:27 - Enterprise Logos vs. Regional Rollouts

36:05 - Quantifying the Massive Market and Water Savings Impact

37:05 - How Utility Rebates Accelerate Customer Adoption

39:14 - The Emotional Reality of Entrepreneurship

41:45 - Essential Advice for Water Innovators: Perseverance

Links:

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

Dylan Wolff: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylan-wolff-032b1439/

CNSRV: https://cnsrv.com/

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Key Takeaways:

"Solve a problem you're passionate about. Translate curiosity into action."

"Perseverance is everything. If you believe in it enough, don't take ‘no’ for an answer."

"The kitchen is full of hidden inefficiencies. Expose reality to solve them."

"Running lean is crucial. You can provide value without massive overheads."

"Every day looks different. It's both the...

In 2015, all of the startup founders who were part of Imagine H2O's Accelerator had to bear with me as I had no idea what I was doing. One of those founders was Sivan Zamir. Four years later she was and remains the only person to go through the program twice, and mercifully, her feedback then was rather better. Now she's VP of Enterprise, Innovation and Venture at Xylem, Burnt Island Ventures’ anchor investor and a true partner. And Sivan has become a serious force in early stage water, taking on the enormous challenge of making a very large company very good at working with very small ones. She and her team not only set a new standard for corporate engagement with the startup community, we think they reinvented it. It has been fascinating to see how the ideas and principles of entrepreneurship are flowing into the wider Xylem organization as a result. She is a force of nature, an unyielding advocate for water and an astonishingly generous friend. Please enjoy my conversation with Sivan Zamir.

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

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-fundamental-molecule/id1714287205

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Sivan Zamir, VP of Enterprise Innovation and Venture at Xylem, shares her journey from two-time founder to corporate innovator. She discusses the systemic challenges large companies face when working with startups and her strategy to overcome them. Key topics include the criticality of team culture and "voice of customer," using agile sprints to drive change, and a unique "partnerships-first" corporate venture capital model. She also advocates for bringing enabling technologies from other industries into the water sector and advises all entrepreneurs to "be kind."

00:00 - Introduction

02:24 - Why Big Companies Struggle to Work With Startups

05:53 - Breaking the Certification Roadblock for Pilots

08:06 - Startup Lessons: Team Culture and Customer Feedback

16:40 - First 90 Days: Research, Business Plan, and Execution

20:32 - Running Sprints and Scaling Innovation Culture

25:18 - Building Partnerships Before Launching Venture Capital

29:49 - How the Accelerator Program Drives Go-To-Market

35:25 - The State of Water Tech: Adjacent Innovation and Low Funding

40:53 - Final Advice: Always Lead With Kindness

Links:

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

Sivan Zamir: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sivan-sidney-zamir/

Xylem: https://www.xylem.com/en-us/

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Key Takeaways:

"Team culture is everything. You can teach skills, but you can't teach culture. It's the backbone of resilience and innovation."

"Voice of the customer is critical. Without it, you're building on a hypothesis without market validation."

"In large companies, innovation must be baked into governance, metrics, and incentives."

"The water sector needs to look beyond itself. Adopt existing tech from other industries."

"Accelerators simplify complex processes. They coordinate efforts and focus on clear...

Out of 910 graduating students in the Class of 2014 from HBS, three went into water. Of those three, only Peter Brooks and I remain. And, meaning no offense to all our wonderful classmates, I'm glad it's him. Peter is just a really great guy. A former Marine, he worked across a variety of fascinating opportunities before setting up Sylmar Group. He and his partner Michael have been hard at work creating a compounding machine in water, building with an infinite holding period. And, as you will hear, it has developed exceptionally in the six years since it was founded. I have been looking forward to this for a long time because there are few people as thoughtful, practical, wise, self-effacing and talented as Peter. I was also amazed to find out that this is the first time he has talked about the Sylmar story on a podcast. So you're literally hearing it here first. Please enjoy my conversation with Peter Brooks.

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

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-fundamental-molecule/id1714287205

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Peter Brooks details Sylmar's "compounding machine" strategy, advocating for patient, long-term investment, cultural integration, and network effects to create value. He explains their entrepreneurship-through-acquisition model, targeting small, high-quality water businesses, and emphasizes operational enhancements while preserving an entrepreneurial spirit. Peter shares insights on managing growth, recruiting talent, and his military-informed leadership. He also addresses the future water market, noting AI's increasing demand and the critical role of infrastructure, and urges entrepreneurs to pursue their "true north" for societal benefit.

00:00 - Peter Brooks & the “Compounding Machine”

02:30 - Equity, Culture & Network Effects

06:03 - Partnering with Mission-Critical Small Operators

11:27 - Listen, Prioritize, Fix Systems

17:02 - Operating System That Scales

21:24 - Disciplined Growth & Smart Capital Allocation

26:35 - Make Water a Talent Magnet

34:46 - Sales as Market Discovery

43:21 - AI Data Centers & Water

50:49 - Tech That Matters Now

1:01:27 - True North Leadership

Links:

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

Peter Brooks: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterharringtonbrooks/

Sylmar: https://sylmargrp.com/

SM Material

Key Takeaways:

"Compounding is the consistent accumulation of small advantages that allow us to win."

"In water, patience is rewarded. Quick-turn investors often misunderstand this."

"We're building a compounding machine with long-term patient capital."

"Plans are nothing, but planning is everything. No plan survives first contact with reality."

"Water is the third pillar of public safety, critical behind fire and police."

"Embrace uncertainty. Entrepreneurship isn't for the faint of heart."

“Roughly every 5 million of EBITDA, you're going to have a different job description if you continue to...