About this episode
Canisius Rozario left a multi-billion dollar company managing 300 people to become employee number 12 at Collide. The CTO role at a seed-stage startup came with anxiety, stress, and constant noise about every new AI tool dropping daily. But it also came with the opportunity to build something real in an industry that solves actual problems, where bad answers don't just cost money, they kill people. Chuck and Canisius break down what it actually takes to go from a ChatGPT wrapper to enterprise-grade AI infrastructure, why oil and gas professionals are more impressive than tech bros, and how they're building models trained specifically on petroleum engineering exams. The team went from six months to build a pilot to days, and they're just getting started.Click here to watch a video of this episode.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.ioClick here to view the episode transcript.
00:00 - How Jimmy's dad helped recruit the CTO03:25 - The recruiter pitch that almost missed the mark05:27 - Why a 2.5 hour Sunday call changed everything08:21 - Learning AI by building it in the hardest vertical11:27 - The most important hire Colin ever made13:09 - Recruiting AWS, Microsoft, and Candy Crush engineers17:03 - From miniature model to actual infrastructure19:15 - Why clients ask "what's your software stack?"21:14 - The upside-down map incident on day three24:02 - What startup anxiety actually feels like27:05 - Why shiny object syndrome kills execution29:07 - Six months to a month to weeks to days31:22 - Oil and gas people are the best on the planet35:25 - Controlling drill bits thousands of miles away37:33 - The rubber meets the road next three months40:15 - Building platforms clients can build on43:00 - Principal-to-principal sales versus employee sales47:13 - Team breakdown: the superstars running 100x faster51:20 - Jazz and the haunted Skirvin Hotel story53:32 - Training models on petroleum engineering exams55:36 - Zero critical vulnerabilities on penetration testinghttps://twitter.com/collide_iohttps://www.tiktok.com/@collide.iohttps://www.facebook.com/collide.iohttps://www.instagram.com/collide.iohttps://www.youtube.com/@collide_iohttps://bsky.app/profile/digitalwildcatters.bsky.socialhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/collide-digital-wildcatters
