Catching yourself rereading last year’s VC emails while you’re back in Silicon Valley is a pretty good way to realize how wild the last 12 months have been. Colin, Chuck, Canisius, and Todd break down how Collide AI is turning fast POCs into real production workflows, why change management is the actual moat, and how a stacked forward deployed team plus community driven distribution is setting up 2026 to be the year everything scales. Join the conversation shaping the future of energy. Collide is the community where oil & gas professionals connect, share insights, and solve real-world problems together. No noise. No fluff. Just the discussions that move our industry forward. Apply today at collide.io Click here to view the episode transcript. 00:00 Product market fit jokes and kickoff 00:28 VC email flashback and velocity 01:29 Forward deployed model and AI first mindset 02:18 Sam Texas and AI coding shift 04:04 What AI first actually means 06:18 Not just podcast bros anymore 07:00 AI breaks silos across the business 08:21 Doglegs example and incentives 09:57 Change management is the advantage 10:18 Client story and regulatory filings win 12:42 Selling outcomes not hype 13:36 Building the FTE team and faster delivery 16:24 AI strategy as workflow ROI first 18:26 Grok as a thought partner and GPU cluster 20:15 Shale revolution mindset parallel 22:29 Recruiting, software DNA, and stacked team 26:16 Content and community as a recruiting engine 29:11 Distribution flywheel in the real world 30:22 Team distribution vs product debate 32:32 2026 is the scaling year 34:02 Community platform finally clicking 36:09 Building the community platform the hard way 39:20 Scaling clients, POCs, and production 41:09 Why mom and pops matter 41:55 Energy demand tailwinds and macro impact 44:44 One word answer for next year: scale 45:20 POC to production cycle time focus 47:12 Scaling tech, sales, and financing 49:45 Moving at AI speed story 50:14 Raising capital and building serious software 52:56 Collide as the operator layer vision 54:02 Gratitude and community over everything https://twitter.com/collide_io https://www.tiktok.com/@collide.io https://www.facebook.com/collide.io https://www.instagram.com/collide.io https://www.youtube.com/@collide_io https://bsky.app/profile/digitalwildcatters.bsky.social https://www.linkedin.com/company/collide-digital-wildcatters