The S2G Podcast
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- 9. Nov. 2026
Über den Podcast
This is the S2G Podcast, where we talk to business leaders, investors, policymakers, and thought leaders who have a transformative vision for the future. We’ll explore how their experiences and perspectives offer lessons into scaling the food, agriculture, oceans, and energy transitions.
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After the Midterms: The Politics of Affordability
Last week’s elections produced one of the biggest midterm swings in decades. Many of the issues behind that shift, from rising food and energy costs to tariffs and the war in Iran, land squarely in the sectors …
Shownotes
Last week’s elections produced one of the biggest midterm swings in decades. Many of the issues behind that shift, from rising food and energy costs to tariffs and the war in Iran, land squarely in the sectors S2G invests in.
In this episode, S2G’s Sanjeev Krishnan sits down with Grant Leslie, S2G’s Operating Partner for Government & Policy, and Carlos Odio, co-founder of Equis Research, to unpack what happened and what comes next. Carlos explains what produced the swing, and why data centers became a political issue on both sides of the aisle. Grant describes a new class of pragmatic lawmakers under pressure to deliver on affordability, and why farm states that rarely vote on pocketbook issues did so this time. They close with advice for founders and investors on why politics is no longer something capital can ignore.
Chapters:
03:07 – A historic midterm
11:37 – What happens next in Washington
14:16 – A new class of pragmatic, heterodox candidates
17:38 – What the results mean for energy, food and ag
20:57 – How data centers became a political flashpoint
28:11 – Why farm country voted with its wallet
32:01 – Immigration, farm labor and the Trump White House’s factions
34:35 – Advice for founders: lead with affordability
36:24 – What 2026 tells us about 2028
41:18 – Why investors can’t afford to ignore politicsThis content is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, business, tax or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investor or potential investor in any investment vehicle sponsored by S2G. Investing involves risk, including the risk of loss. Specific companies mentioned in this podcast are for educational purposes and should not be construed as an endorsement of any kind. S2G holds positions in the companies referenced, but this podcast is for information purposes only and is not intended to promote any such company. All views of the guests on this podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of S2G. Any past performance discussed is not indicative of future results. The views expressed herein are opinions based on certain assumptions and subject to change.
For more important information, please see s2ginvestments.com/disclosures.Kapitel
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Closing the Ocean Data Gap with Apeiron Labs
In 2022, S2G helped found Apeiron Labs around one question: what would it take to cut the cost of collecting ocean data by a factor of 100, or even 1,000? The answer turned out to be low-cost underwater gliders …
Shownotes
In 2022, S2G helped found Apeiron Labs around one question: what would it take to cut the cost of collecting ocean data by a factor of 100, or even 1,000? The answer turned out to be low-cost underwater gliders combined with software that manages the network and processes measurements for customers. These vehicles are dual-use by design, and as demand for security rises, new investors and buyers are increasingly interested in technology that also improves weather forecasting, climate monitoring and our understanding of the ocean.
In this episode, S2G’s Sanjeev Krishnan sits down with Apeiron co-founder Ravi Pappu and CEO Rob Rainhart to talk about how far the company has come, from a PowerPoint slide to thousands of hours of operation at sea. Ravi and Rob share how advances in cars, drones, and satellites helped them solve a tough systems engineering problem, and why the cost of watching an entire hurricane season in the Gulf of Mexico could soon be a rounding error. They also explain how steady, long-term ocean measurements could become some of the most valuable inputs to AI forecasting models, and why Ravi believes the company is one large manufacturing run away from delivering that data at scale.
Chapters:
00:02:01 – Ravi and Rob's backgrounds
00:06:08 – The Ocean as a Global Blind Spot
00:10:16 – Validating the Low-Cost Sensing Model
00:14:51 – Lessons from the Aerial Drone Industry
00:19:14 – The Shift Toward Undersea Conflict
00:22:57 – Rebuilding Ocean Mapping and Navigation
00:26:46 – Commercial Applications in Energy, Shipping, and Insurance
00:30:47 – Engineering for Scale and Affordability
00:34:44 – The Role of AI in Ocean Intelligence
00:39:02 – The Future of Global Ocean MonitoringThis content is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, business, tax or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investor or potential investor in any investment vehicle sponsored by S2G. Investing involves risk, including the risk of loss. Specific companies mentioned in this podcast are for educational purposes and should not be construed as an endorsement of any kind. S2G holds positions in the companies referenced, but this podcast is for information purposes only and is not intended to promote any such company. All views of the guests on this podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of S2G. Any past performance discussed is not indicative of future results. The views expressed herein are opinions based on certain assumptions and subject to change.
For more important information, please see s2ginvestments.com/disclosures.Kapitel
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Ocean Intelligence: Where Climate and Security Converge
For years, S2G has backed ocean monitoring for its impact on climate, fisheries, and ocean health, but rising geopolitical tensions have made it a national security priority too, and investment is following …
Shownotes
For years, S2G has backed ocean monitoring for its impact on climate, fisheries, and ocean health, but rising geopolitical tensions have made it a national security priority too, and investment is following. The same technology that improves weather forecasts, tracks climate change, spots illegal fishing and follows whale migrations can also protect undersea cables, monitor shipping lanes and support defense. That dual use is what’s bringing new funding into the space. In this episode, S2G’s Sanjeev Krishnan and Kate Danaher join Tonya Bakritzes to talk about why these worlds are converging, and how the government has long been the first big customer for new technology, from GPS to semiconductors. They also take on the tough questions, including the risks of building a business on government contracts and how data collected for security could be put to work for the public good. The conversation sets the stage for next week’s episode with Apeiron Labs, whose low-cost underwater sensing vehicles serve both defense and climate-related use cases.
00:40: From Ocean Health to National Security
04:22: Why Government Is Often the First Customer
06:35: Why Ocean Monitoring Matters Now
09:25: How Ocean Warming Raises the Stakes
10:40: The Hard Questions of Dual Use Technologies
14:04: Putting Security Data to Public Use
16:15: Commercial Uses Beyond Government
17:47: Looking Ahead to the Next DecadeThis content is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, business, tax or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investor or potential investor in any investment vehicle sponsored by S2G. Investing involves risk, including the risk of loss. Specific companies mentioned in this podcast are for educational purposes and should not be construed as an endorsement of any kind. S2G holds positions in the companies referenced, but this podcast is for information purposes only and is not intended to promote any such company. All views of the guests on this podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of S2G. Any past performance discussed is not indicative of future results. The views expressed herein are opinions based on certain assumptions and subject to change.
For more important information, please see s2ginvestments.com/disclosures.Kapitel
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Who Holds the Risk in AI Infrastructure?
Capital is flowing into AI infrastructure at an unprecedented scale, but investors are not sharing risk equally. In both chips and data center financing, lenders generally favor amortizing structures that fully …
Shownotes
Capital is flowing into AI infrastructure at an unprecedented scale, but investors are not sharing risk equally. In both chips and data center financing, lenders generally favor amortizing structures that fully repay debt during the initial lease term. As a result, equity investors bear the residual value risk of the underlying assets, including both facilities and hardware. This dynamic reflects a core element of S2G’s Age of Adaptation thesis: the evolving cost and pricing of capital.
Karen Fang, Global Head of Infrastructure & Sustainable Finance and Co-Head of the Global Capital Solutions at Bank of America, has spent 28 years in finance. She says nothing compares to the size of the deals she's working on now, and the cost of financing these projects has risen over the last year due to higher rates and wider spreads. In this episode, she and Sanjeev Krishnan discuss how different risk horizons can shape the way debt and equity investors price data center projects, what happens when chipmakers no longer guarantee the residual value of their chips, and why comparisons to the dot-com crash miss the mark. She also explains why solar and batteries still make up most of the new power capacity added to the U.S. grid. And she walks through a $16 billion data center campus in Michigan, financed through a structure her team designed, that uses existing grid capacity alongside battery storage, rather than relying on new power generation.
If you invest in or finance real assets, this episode offers a useful look at how someone close to these deals thinks about risks the market is still learning to price.
Chapters:
02:04 – Karen’s path from China to Tokyo to Wall Street
04:44 – Starting a finance career in the middle of the 1998 crisis
07:23 – The big trends reshaping investing, and why inflation may stick around
11:18 – Why the AI boom is nothing like the dot-com era
13:01 – Are we actually building too few data centers?
14:42 – How higher interest rates are raising the cost of AI projects
19:04 – Easing equipment shortages and the case for industrial policy
22:22 – Who really carries the risk on data centers and chips
28:41 – Why AI demand is fueling a solar and battery buildout
32:27 – Winning community support, and what’s coming nextThis content is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, business, tax or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investor or potential investor in any investment vehicle sponsored by S2G. Investing involves risk, including the risk of loss. Specific companies mentioned in this podcast are for educational purposes and should not be construed as an endorsement of any kind. S2G holds positions in the companies referenced, but this podcast is for information purposes only and is not intended to promote any such company. All views of the guests on this podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of S2G. Any past performance discussed is not indicative of future results. The views expressed herein are opinions based on certain assumptions and subject to change.
For more important information, please see s2ginvestments.com/disclosures.Kapitel
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Rebuilding American Agriculture Around Profit Instead of Yield
American agriculture has never been more productive, yet the system supporting it has become increasingly fragile. Farmers can produce extraordinary yields and still struggle to generate durable profits, while …
Shownotes
American agriculture has never been more productive, yet the system supporting it has become increasingly fragile. Farmers can produce extraordinary yields and still struggle to generate durable profits, while rising costs, concentrated markets, dependence on government support, aging farm ownership, input vulnerabilities, and intensifying global competition expose structural weaknesses that higher yields alone cannot solve.
That is the central argument of Building the Missing Market: A National Strategy for American Agriculture, a new S2G report by Grant Leslie and Aaron Rudberg. The report calls for a fundamental shift in how American agriculture measures success, from yield per acre to risk adjusted profit per acre, meaning how much a farmer actually keeps from each acre and how reliably they keep it once costs and risks are accounted for. But changing the measure is only the beginning. Farmers who want to grow something different often lack the market around them: a committed buyer, a fair price, the financing and infrastructure to make the transition viable, and access to the innovation needed to manage it successfully.
In this episode, report co-authors Aaron Rudberg and Grant Leslie are joined by Al Tank, an Iowa farmer, entrepreneur, and agriculture and trade policy expert. They discuss why the current farm bill may provide farmers with needed short-term certainty without addressing the underlying structural problems, why agriculture belongs in the same national security conversation as semiconductors and critical minerals, and why innovation, capital, policy, and market demand have to move together.
The conversation ultimately asks what it would take to build a different system over the next decade, one in which a farmer who wants to grow something different has a real buyer, a fair price, and financing that allows them to make the transition without betting the farm.
Chapters:
05:10 – Why This Report, and Why Now
08:08 – Shifting the Goal from Higher Yield to Higher Profits
11:03 – Who Moves First: Farmers or Buyers?
14:24 – A Dairy Success Story and Food as National Security
16:32 – Why the Current Farm Bill Falls Short
20:34 – How Farm Payments Discourage Change
24:59 – The 10-Year Plan in Three Phases
29:09 – Getting New Farm Technology to Market Faster
34:47 – What Success Looks Like in 10 YearsThis content is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, business, tax or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investor or potential investor in any investment vehicle sponsored by S2G. Investing involves risk, including the risk of loss. Specific companies mentioned in this podcast are for educational purposes and should not be construed as an endorsement of any kind. S2G holds positions in the companies referenced, but this podcast is for information purposes only and is not intended to promote any such company. All views of the guests on this podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of S2G. Any past performance discussed is not indicative of future results. The views expressed herein are opinions based on certain assumptions and subject to change.
For more important information, please see s2ginvestments.com/disclosures.Kapitel
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Rethinking Energy Security and What the World Got Wrong on Hormuz
Omran Al-Kuwari has been counting: September 16th marks 200 days since the Strait of Hormuz was closed, and there's still no fallback plan. As he puts it, a small regional airport might have more built-in …
Shownotes
Omran Al-Kuwari has been counting: September 16th marks 200 days since the Strait of Hormuz was closed, and there's still no fallback plan. As he puts it, a small regional airport might have more built-in redundancy than the Strait that feeds much of the world's energy.
Omran, whose career in gas dates back to 1999, joins S2G's Sanjeev Krishnan and Frédéric Michel, the former chief strategy and communications advisor to Emmanuel Macron, to argue that Hormuz was never a regional problem. It's global critical infrastructure, and the risk reaches well past oil and gas into fertilizer, food prices, and even the helium hospitals need for MRI machines. Oil had its wake-up call in 1973 and built strategic stocks in response. LNG is having its wake-up call now.
Omran explains why the weak points sit in the gaps between institutions, why we've built an architecture that keeps producing crises, and why the fix comes down to redundancy, governance, and deciding who pays for it. The conversation closes with a reframe: energy transitions don't swap one fuel for another, they stack new systems on old ones, and those systems now have to be built for a more volatile, fragmented world.
Chapters:
01:52 Why Gulf energy is a global issue
06:12 What the headlines miss about Hormuz
08:09 Why global institutions haven't kept up
12:17 Who pays for backup supply?
15:49 How China weathered the shock
19:28 Gas prices, exports, and AI demand
23:46 How Qatar is bouncing back
29:41 Building a more resilient energy systemThis content is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, business, tax or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investor or potential investor in any investment vehicle sponsored by S2G. Investing involves risk, including the risk of loss. Specific companies mentioned in this podcast are for educational purposes and should not be construed as an endorsement of any kind. S2G holds positions in the companies referenced, but this podcast is for information purposes only and is not intended to promote any such company. All views of the guests on this podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of S2G. Any past performance discussed is not indicative of future results. The views expressed herein are opinions based on certain assumptions and subject to change.
For more important information, please see s2ginvestments.com/disclosures.Kapitel
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Energy Empire: The Nurse Who Built a $400 Million Generator Company
Concerts, construction sites, and data centers waiting on the grid all run on temporary power. That means a generator big enough for the rare occasions the site needs full power, burning through unnecessary …
Shownotes
Concerts, construction sites, and data centers waiting on the grid all run on temporary power. That means a generator big enough for the rare occasions the site needs full power, burning through unnecessary fuel when the load is a fraction of what it can handle. ANA's system lets a battery carry the load and runs the engine only to recharge it, cutting fuel use for temporary power needs by as much as 80%. This week, we're featuring an episode from our friends at the Energy Empire podcast where hosts Jigar Shah and Jamie Nolan sit down with Alicia Waineo, Co-founder and CFO of ANA, one of our portfolio companies. They discuss how Alicia went from being a registered nurse to running a business doing roughly $400 million a year, why they kept the diesel engine when everyone else was trying to kill it, and how they funded the whole thing on $700,000 of their own money plus one outside check. Before we hand it over, S2G's Gokul Raghavan explains why this was the bet we wanted to make in mobile power.
Chapters:
00:30 — Why S2G Invested in ANA
05:18 — From Registered Nurse to Co-Founder
07:37 — Betting on a "Sleepy" Distribution Business
11:06 — The Invisible Industry Behind Every Job Site
14:17 — Inside EBOSS: Letting the Battery Carry the Load
18:06 — Why Nobody Did This Sooner, and the LTO Bet
21:35 — $11M to $400M on a Single Outside Check
25:09 — Europe, FlexBoost, and Powering the Super BowlThis episode originally appeared on Energy Empire. Energy Empire is hosted by Jigar Shah and Jamie Nolan, and covers the people, capital, and decisions shaping the future of energy. Check out more of their episodes at https://www.energyempire.fm/
This content is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, business, tax or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investor or potential investor in any investment vehicle sponsored by S2G. Investing involves risk, including the risk of loss. Specific companies mentioned in this podcast are for educational purposes and should not be construed as an endorsement of any kind. S2G holds positions in the companies referenced, but this podcast is for information purposes only and is not intended to promote any such company. All views of the guests on this podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of S2G. Any past performance discussed is not indicative of future results. The views expressed herein are opinions based on certain assumptions and subject to change.
For more important information, please see s2ginvestments.com/disclosures.Can Europe Remain the Protagonist of its Future with Bruno Le Maire
The longest-serving finance minister in modern French history thinks Europe's problem isn't talent, money, or ideas. It's that Europe can no longer make decisions. Bruno Le Maire joins S2G’s …
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The longest-serving finance minister in modern French history thinks Europe's problem isn't talent, money, or ideas. It's that Europe can no longer make decisions. Bruno Le Maire joins S2G’s Sanjeev Krishnan and Frédéric Michel, former chief strategy and communications advisor to Emmanuel Macron, to explain how power shifted away from elected governments, toward Washington, Beijing, tech giants, and the bond market, and why Europe's institutions were built for a world that no longer exists. His fixes are structural, with a core group of six countries moving on defense, chips, and AI, competition rules that let European champions form, and a capital markets union that starts with five willing members instead of waiting for 27. He's candid about the risks at home, with French yields above 4% and debt service climbing toward €100 billion a year, and about why voters are drifting to parties that promise rupture. Yet he ends on conviction: Europe remains the best place to live, and with a handful of big decisions, it can still compete. A rare insider account that is explicit about the problems but stays constructive and hopeful.
02:07 — Power has moved from governments to tech and finance
05:17 — When Musk cut Russia off from Starlink
07:24 — Aging, warming, and AI arriving at once
10:36 — Why voters reject pension reform
13:01 — Let six countries decide instead of twenty-seven
16:41 — France has 48 ministers and needs 10
19:18 — French bond yields and what could break
24:23 — Debt, nuclear power, and German rearmament
28:27 — Three things Europe needs to build a hyperscaler
36:50 — The rise of the far right, and why he's still optimisticThis content is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, business, tax or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investor or potential investor in any investment vehicle sponsored by S2G. Investing involves risk, including the risk of loss. Specific companies mentioned in this podcast are for educational purposes and should not be construed as an endorsement of any kind. S2G holds positions in the companies referenced, but this podcast is for information purposes only and is not intended to promote any such company. All views of the guests on this podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of S2G. Any past performance discussed is not indicative of future results. The views expressed herein are opinions based on certain assumptions and subject to change.
For more important information, please see s2ginvestments.com/disclosures.Kapitel
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What Biotech Can Teach Us About Long Duration Investing
Every investor in long-duration, capital-intensive sectors eventually faces the same question: what do you do when the exit markets close and your companies still need years of funding? Keith Crandell answered …
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Every investor in long-duration, capital-intensive sectors eventually faces the same question: what do you do when the exit markets close and your companies still need years of funding? Keith Crandell answered it the hard way. His firm, ARCH Venture Partners, started as a University of Chicago experiment with a $9 million fund that took 15 months to raise, then hit biotech's "nuclear winter," leading to six years in the 1990s with just a single portfolio IPO.
In this conversation with S2G's Aaron Rudberg from this year’s Summit, Keith walks through the strategies he has honed over the last three decades: licensing narrow "slices of salami" to strategic partners without giving away the core company, treating government grants like a syndicate member, viewing the IPO as a funding event rather than an exit, and scouring the globe to consolidate the IP and talent of the dozen teams working on the same breakthrough. Decades later, that playbook produced the Metsera sale to Pfizer. Keith closes with where he thinks GLP-1s and longevity science go from here.
Read the full Financing Reality Report.
Chapters:
02:20 — How ARCH Got Its Start
07:20 — Raising a $9 Million Fund the Hard Way
09:10 — When an IPO Isn’t Really an Exit
10:40 — Surviving Biotech’s “Nuclear Winter”
14:30 — The Ladder of Capital
17:20 — Why Your First Investors Matter
21:00 — Learning to Fund the Long Haul
27:40 — What Comes After GLP-1s?
Keith Crandell was not compensated for participating in this podcast or for speaking at the S2G Summit. S2G reimbursed Keith's reasonable travel and lodging expenses to attend the Summit, where this presentation was originally delivered.
This content is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, business, tax or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investor or potential investor in any investment vehicle sponsored by S2G. Investing involves risk, including the risk of loss. Specific companies mentioned in this podcast are for educational purposes and should not be construed as an endorsement of any kind. S2G holds positions in the companies referenced, but this podcast is for information purposes only and is not intended to promote any such company. All views of the guests on this podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of S2G. Any past performance discussed is not indicative of future results. The views expressed herein are opinions based on certain assumptions and subject to change.
For more important information, please see s2ginvestments.com/disclosures.Kapitel
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The Riches in the Niches: Financing the Long Tail of the Real Economy
At S2G, we believe the best returns over the next 30 years won't come from crowded deals, but from building the financial infrastructure for businesses that don't fit traditional funding categories …
Shownotes
At S2G, we believe the best returns over the next 30 years won't come from crowded deals, but from building the financial infrastructure for businesses that don't fit traditional funding categories. But how do you finance a business that doesn't fit into any box the capital markets recognize?
Paul Lisiak has built a career and a $1.8 billion firm, doing exactly that. Recorded live at this year's S2G Summit, Sanjeev sits down with Paul, founder and managing partner of Metropolitan Partners, a private credit firm that finances niches many investors never think about, from mobile game revenues to literary rights to non-vocal music royalties. Paul shares his "fishing holes" playbook: find an underfished niche, do the hard underwriting work others won't, earn the complexity premium, and move on once the crowd shows up. Along the way, he explains why he passed on YouTube royalties and funeral homes, why he's now looking at housing affordability, trade schools, and even a bowling alley roll-up, and why he believes we've moved from a K-shaped to an "E-shaped" economy. This episode will leave you with a sharper eye for the opportunities hiding in plain sight and a better sense of what it actually takes to be the first one there.
Read the full Financing Reality Report.
Paul Lisiak was not compensated for participating in this podcast or for speaking at the S2G Summit. S2G reimbursed Paul's reasonable travel and lodging expenses to attend the Summit, where this presentation was originally delivered.
This content is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, business, tax or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investor or potential investor in any investment vehicle sponsored by S2G. Investing involves risk, including the risk of loss. Specific companies mentioned in this podcast are for educational purposes and should not be construed as an endorsement of any kind. S2G holds positions in the companies referenced, but this podcast is for information purposes only and is not intended to promote any such company. All views of the guests on this podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of S2G. Any past performance discussed is not indicative of future results. The views expressed herein are opinions based on certain assumptions and subject to change.
For more important information, please see s2ginvestments.com/disclosures.Kapitel
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Turning Soil into Agriculture's Next Frontier with EarthOptics
Farmers today are in a tough spot. With input costs climbing and crop prices falling, many farm businesses are barely breaking even, yet they still have very little insight into one of the most important parts …
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Farmers today are in a tough spot. With input costs climbing and crop prices falling, many farm businesses are barely breaking even, yet they still have very little insight into one of the most important parts of their operation: the soil. And it's not just growers who want this information. CPG companies, carbon accounting firms, and anyone trying to understand what's happening below the surface need it too. Measuring soil accurately and usefully has always been expensive and difficult, in part because a single field can hide completely different chemistry, structure, and microbial life from one spot to the next. But advances in sensing and AI are changing that equation.
In this episode, EarthOptics CEO Lars Dyrud joins S2G's Chuck Templeton to discuss the company's vertically integrated approach to soil measurement and insights. They get into why we're still so in the dark about our soil and how EarthOptics helps farmers understand which inputs are worth the money so they can turn a profit while improving soil health. They also discuss how the company is integrating AI into every part of its operations and product development, and the vast potential hidden in the soil to discover solutions with transformative applications in agriculture and beyond.
If you are interested in learning more about the soil on your own property, you can try EarthOptics new consumer testing service at Living Soil Lab.
Chapters:
04:40 — Why Soil Measurement Hasn't Changed in 80 Years
06:20 — The Three Dimensions of Soil Health
07:40 — What Better Soil Data Saves Farmers
11:35 — The Cost Curves That Made This Possible
19:45 — Getting an Entire Company to Adopt AI
28:05 — Turning Soil Data Into a New Revenue Line
30:15 — The Dark Half of the Soil GenomeThis content is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, business, tax or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investor or potential investor in any investment vehicle sponsored by S2G. Investing involves risk, including the risk of loss. Specific companies mentioned in this podcast are for educational purposes and should not be construed as an endorsement of any kind. S2G holds positions in the companies referenced, but this podcast is for information purposes only and is not intended to promote any such company. All views of the guests on this podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of S2G. Any past performance discussed is not indicative of future results. The views expressed herein are opinions based on certain assumptions and subject to change.
For more important information, please see s2ginvestments.com/disclosures.Kapitel
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Navigating Progress and Backlash with Fareed Zakaria
Big change only happens when someone tells a story people can believe in, and few people tell stories about the world better than Fareed Zakaria, bestselling author, The Washington Post columnist, and CNN host …
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Big change only happens when someone tells a story people can believe in, and few people tell stories about the world better than Fareed Zakaria, bestselling author, The Washington Post columnist, and CNN host. In this episode, Fareed joins S2G’s Sanjeev Krishnan and Frédéric Michel, strategic advisor to Lupa Systems and former chief strategy and communications advisor to Emmanuel Macron, to unpack the forces rewiring global politics and markets, from why every successful political movement runs on a story to why private companies, not governments, are increasingly the most powerful actors of our era. He asks whether those companies will step up to fill the gaps left by policymakers or just keep making their one narrow ask, and delivers a striking reality check on American market dominance, where the US is 4% of the world's population but 70% of global capital markets. The conversation then turns to AI, and whether it will be winner-take-all or something more like electricity, a commodity that diffuses everywhere and benefits everyone. It's a fast-moving exchange that ends somewhere very human: if AI can write your column, what exactly are you still here to do?
Further Reading:
Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present
Chapters:
2:50 — The French Revolution and why change must be organic
5:00 — Why narrative wins: Trump, Brexit, and the Bezos bet
7:00 — You can't prevent change, but you can arm people for it
10:00 — The backlash against managerial elites
13:30 — When companies fill the gaps left by government
18:00 — America's market dominance and the big AI bet
20:10 — What's left for humans in the age of AIThis content is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, business, tax or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investor or potential investor in any investment vehicle sponsored by S2G. Investing involves risk, including the risk of loss. Specific companies mentioned in this podcast are for educational purposes and should not be construed as an endorsement of any kind. S2G holds positions in the companies referenced, but this podcast is for information purposes only and is not intended to promote any such company. All views of the guests on this podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of S2G. Any past performance discussed is not indicative of future results. The views expressed herein are opinions based on certain assumptions and subject to change.
For more important information, please see s2ginvestments.com/disclosures.Kapitel
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The Illusion of Crowds with Francis O’Sullivan
On paper, capital is pouring into the energy transition. But where is it actually going? In this episode, Sanjeev Krishnan sits down with S2G Managing Director Francis O'Sullivan to unpack his new paper …
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On paper, capital is pouring into the energy transition. But where is it actually going? In this episode, Sanjeev Krishnan sits down with S2G Managing Director Francis O'Sullivan to unpack his new paper, "The Illusion of Crowds," a five-year, data-driven look at how $88 billion across 6,400+ deals has really been deployed, and why the market is far more concentrated than the headline numbers suggest. They get into why so-called "growth" rounds are often just large venture checks, how big funds co-investing with each other creates hidden risk for LPs who think they're diversified, and why the sector is absorbing three to four times more capital than it's returning. Along the way, they trade hot takes on what zero rates did to power markets, whether the AI-driven energy trade is the next halo waiting to crack, and the lessons Frank took from the shale boom. If you allocate capital, raise it, or build companies in this space, this one's worth a close listen.
Chapters
3:20 - Revisiting the Missing Middle: Three Years Later
8:10 - How Zero Rates Distorted Energy Markets
15:50 - Can You Raise Capital If You're Not Levered to AI?
17:30 - Introducing the Illusion of Crowds Paper
26:20 - The Wisdom of Crowds Framework
30:30 - The Capital Crowding Problem: Picking Winners Too Early
34:00 - Value Creation vs. Value Realization
37:00 - From Shale to Clean Energy: Lessons From Frank's Research Arc
This content is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, business, tax or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investor or potential investor in any investment vehicle sponsored by S2G. Investing involves risk, including the risk of loss. Specific companies mentioned in this podcast are for educational purposes and should not be construed as an endorsement of any kind. S2G holds positions in the companies referenced, but this podcast is for information purposes only and is not intended to promote any such company. All views of the guests on this podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of S2G. Any past performance discussed is not indicative of future results. The views expressed herein are opinions based on certain assumptions and subject to change.
For more important information, please see s2ginvestments.com/disclosures.Kapitel
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Financing Reality with Sanjeev Krishnan
The old playbook built on cheap capital, globalization, and asset-light software is breaking down, and Sanjeev Krishnan thinks most investors haven't fully registered what may come next. In this episode …
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The old playbook built on cheap capital, globalization, and asset-light software is breaking down, and Sanjeev Krishnan thinks most investors haven't fully registered what may come next. In this episode, fresh off S2G's ninth annual Summit and the close of Solutions Fund I at $1B, Tonya Bakritzes sits down with Sanjeev to unpack the five secular forces he believes are reshaping the global economy right now: AI, geopolitical multipolarity, an uncertain price of money, entropy, and demographic aging. He makes the case that the real opportunity isn't in betting on what's already obvious, but in financing the gap between an emerging economic reality and the financial infrastructure that doesn't yet exist to serve it. Sanjeev shares what it actually took to close a fund in one of the hardest fundraising environments in recent memory, what he learned from the market builders on stage at Summit, and why the interlinkages between these five forces may matter more than any one of them in isolation. If you're an asset allocator, entrepreneur, or just trying to understand where the next decade of returns will actually come from, this one is worth your full attention.
Chapters:
2:20 — The Financing Reality Report
5:00 — The 1970s Playbook: Four Forces That Shaped the Last Era
7:10 — The Five Secular Forces Defining Today
11:10 — The Most Underestimated Forces: Aging & Price of Money
13:40 — Why the Old Playbook Is Breaking Down
17:50 — Early Market Signals & the Case for Diversifiers
21:30 — S2G's Three-Pronged Approach: Growth Equity, Structured Finance & Bespoke Funds
25:30 — Closing the Solutions Fund in the Hardest Fundraising Environment
28:30 — Summit Takeaways
34:50 — Building for an Emerging Reality
This content is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, business, tax or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investor or potential investor in any investment vehicle sponsored by S2G. Investing involves risk, including the risk of loss. Specific companies mentioned in this podcast are for educational purposes and should not be construed as an endorsement of any kind. S2G holds positions in the companies referenced, but this podcast is for information purposes only and is not intended to promote any such company. All views of the guests on this podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of S2G. Any past performance discussed is not indicative of future results. The views expressed herein are opinions based on certain assumptions and subject to change.
For more important information, please see s2ginvestments.com/disclosures.Kapitel
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How Sofar Ocean is Reshaping Weather Prediction and Shipping
When a ship needs to reroute around the Strait of Hormuz, when forecasters try to predict short and long-term weather, or when scientists model the impacts of a changing climate, it all comes down to ocean …
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When a ship needs to reroute around the Strait of Hormuz, when forecasters try to predict short and long-term weather, or when scientists model the impacts of a changing climate, it all comes down to ocean data. Yet the ocean remains one of the most undermeasured environments on Earth. In this episode, Chuck Templeton sits down with Tim Janssen, co-founder and CEO of Sofar Ocean, to explore why real-time ocean intelligence is one of the most consequential unsolved problems of our time, and how companies like Sofar are finally moving the needle at scale. Tim breaks down how Sofar's network of sensor-loaded buoys is helping to close the ocean data gap, why AI is making that data exponentially more valuable, and how shipping giants are already using Sofar's Wayfinder platform to optimize routes, cut emissions, and respond in real time to disruptions happening right now.
Chapters:
5:10 — The Compounding Cost of Not Measuring
7:40 — What to Measure and Why: Waves, Wind, and Beyond
10:10 — Turning Ocean Data Into Products People Actually Use
11:30 — Wayfinder: Google Maps for the High Seas
15:30 — Geopolitical Disruption: Hormuz, Suez, and Real-Time Rerouting
19:40 — Spotter Scout: The Ocean's New Autonomous Eye
26:10 — Why AI Makes Ocean Data More Valuable, Not Just Cheaper
32:20 — The Holy Grail: Ocean Intelligence at Atmospheric Scale
This content is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, business, tax or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investor or potential investor in any investment vehicle sponsored by S2G. Investing involves risk, including the risk of loss. Specific companies mentioned in this podcast are for educational purposes and should not be construed as an endorsement of any kind. S2G holds positions in the companies referenced, but this podcast is for information purposes only and is not intended to promote any such company. All views of the guests on this podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of S2G. Any past performance discussed is not indicative of future results. The views expressed herein are opinions based on certain assumptions and subject to change.
For more important information, please see s2ginvestments.com/disclosures.Kapitel
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The Overlooked Diversifier: A New Playbook for American Farmland
American farming is under real pressure. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has sent synthetic fertilizer prices spiking, and 70% of US farmers say they can't afford the inputs they need for this planting …
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American farming is under real pressure. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has sent synthetic fertilizer prices spiking, and 70% of US farmers say they can't afford the inputs they need for this planting season. But this isn't just a recent shock. Farm margins have been shrinking for years, and the US has lost almost 150,000 farms in the last five years alone. The commodity model that defined American agriculture for decades simply wasn't built for the volatility we're living through now.
In this episode, Justin Bruch, CEO of Clear Frontier, and Iowa farmer Bryce Irlbeck join Sanjeev Krishnan to make the case that this moment of disruption is also an opportunity for farmers willing to rethink how they operate and for investors paying attention. They explain why the shift toward organic and regenerative farming isn't just an environmental story but also a financial one, and why soil health is a surprisingly important factor in the long-term value of farmland as an asset. If you've never thought seriously about farmland as part of a diversified portfolio, this conversation will change that.
Chapters
07:20 The Super Cycles That Shaped American Ag
10:20 How Policy Locked Farmers Into Corn & Soybeans
11:30 Is the Commodity Model Breaking Down?
15:30 A Vision for the Next 30 Years
24:10 Farmland as a Diversifier Asset Class
28:30 Soil Health as the New Value Driver
31:10 Capital in Rural America
36:00 What Does "Regenerative" Actually Mean?
40:20 Anti-Fragility & the Strait of Hormuz
This content is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, business, tax or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investor or potential investor in any investment vehicle sponsored by S2G. Investing involves risk, including the risk of loss. Specific companies mentioned in this podcast are for educational purposes and should not be construed as an endorsement of any kind. S2G holds positions in the companies referenced, but this podcast is for information purposes only and is not intended to promote any such company. All views of the guests on this podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of S2G. Any past performance discussed is not indicative of future results. The views expressed herein are opinions based on certain assumptions and subject to change.
For more important information, please see s2ginvestments.com/disclosures.Kapitel
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The Case for Automating American Factories With Formic
This episode will change the way you see American manufacturing and showcase why it's both more vulnerable and more adaptable than you may think. Saman Farid, CEO and founder of Formic, sits down with …
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This episode will change the way you see American manufacturing and showcase why it's both more vulnerable and more adaptable than you may think. Saman Farid, CEO and founder of Formic, sits down with Chuck Templeton to pull back the curtain on a pressure point hiding in plain sight: hundreds of thousands of U.S. factories are running behind schedule or turning down orders, not because they lack machines or materials, but because they simply can't find people to run them. Saman introduces Formic's "robotics as a service" model, a subscription-based approach that lets manufacturers deploy robots to factories without the massive upfront capital investment, and explains why this is the unlock that the industry needs. He breaks down where AI in robotics actually stands today, why the Tesla vs. Waymo training data debate maps directly onto the future of physical AI, and why the next decade of American manufacturing isn't about replacing workers. It's about making factories more efficient and profitable, making manufacturing jobs safer and more sustainable, and rebuilding the industrial pyramid from the ground up.
Chapters
4:50 — The Two Big Misconceptions About Robotics
7:40 — Why American Factories Are Stuck in the Past
10:10 — The Labor Crisis Quietly Killing Manufacturing
13:00 — Why Factories Are Turning Down Business
16:30 — Full-Service Robotics: The Subscription Model Explained
21:10 — The Three Waves of Robot Technology
32:10 — The Waymo vs. Tesla Playbook for Robot Training Data
35:10 — Financing a Robot Fleet: Building a Smarter Capital Stack
41:40 — Will Robots Take Jobs? What the Data Actually Shows
This content is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, business, tax or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investor or potential investor in any investment vehicle sponsored by S2G. Investing involves risk, including the risk of loss. Specific companies mentioned in this podcast are for educational purposes and should not be construed as an endorsement of any kind. S2G holds positions in the companies referenced, but this podcast is for information purposes only and is not intended to promote any such company. All views of the guests on this podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of S2G. Any past performance discussed is not indicative of future results. The views expressed herein are opinions based on certain assumptions and subject to change.
For more important information, please see s2ginvestments.com/disclosures.Kapitel
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The Global Energy Order Has Changed. Now What?
Gas prices at the pump are just the beginning of what the war with Iran means for global energy. In this episode, Sanjeev Krishnan sits down with S2G's energy co-leads Frank O'Sullivan and Bala …
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Gas prices at the pump are just the beginning of what the war with Iran means for global energy. In this episode, Sanjeev Krishnan sits down with S2G's energy co-leads Frank O'Sullivan and Bala Nagarajan to unpack what the war in Iran and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz actually mean for the global energy system, not just this week, but over the next decade. From gas shortages hitting stoves in India and setting coal prices at all-time highs, to what this means for industries from electric vehicles to data centers, Frank and Bala trace the long arc of where this crisis leads. They dig into whether this moment could finally shock Europe, Asia, and even the US into building the energy systems they've been putting off for decades, and why this disruption might be the most powerful accelerant for renewable energy in a generation.
Key Takeaways
- The US is no longer insulated from global gas prices. Frank explains that because the US is now the world's largest LNG exporter, domestic gas prices are increasingly coupled to international markets, with real consequences for industrial competitiveness, power costs, and the relative economics of solar and nuclear.
- This crisis is hitting East Asia hardest and fastest. Bala points to a 30x spike in demand for induction stoves on Amazon India as an indicator that consumers in Southeast Asia are moving toward alternatives from the bottom up.
- Europe's energy crisis is a de-industrialization crisis. Bala notes that much of Europe's demand drop after the Russia-Ukraine war wasn't efficiency or transition, it was factories and refineries shutting down. Real recovery requires cheap electricity first, and Europe doesn't have it.
- Data centers will absorb higher gas prices, but not forever. Frank argues that at current prices, hyperscalers will take power anyway they can get it. But as data centers look more like infrastructure than tech products, the cost of input energy may increasingly matter.
- Crisis is a powerful forcing function for building new energy infrastructure. Bala highlights that Germany went from permitting 4 gigawatts of onshore wind per year before the Russia-Ukraine war to 16 gigawatts after, proof that energy security pressure can act as a real accelerant.
Resources:
The Price of War: A Perspective on Why the Iran Conflict Demands a True Energy Emergency Response.
This content is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, business, tax or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investor or potential investor in any investment vehicle sponsored by S2G. Investing involves risk, including the risk of loss. Specific companies mentioned in this podcast are for educational purposes and should not be construed as an endorsement of any kind. S2G holds positions in the companies referenced, but this podcast is for information purposes only and is not intended to promote any such company. All views of the guests on this podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of S2G. Any past performance discussed is not indicative of future results. The views expressed herein are opinions based on certain assumptions and subject to change.
For more important information, please see s2ginvestments.com/disclosures.The Business Case for Sustainability: Lessons from 20 Years at Mars
For large corporations, sustainability sits at the intersection of long-term strategic necessity and short-term financial pressure, and most companies are still trying to figure out how to make it work. In this …
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For large corporations, sustainability sits at the intersection of long-term strategic necessity and short-term financial pressure, and most companies are still trying to figure out how to make it work. In this episode, Kevin Rabinovitch, Global VP of Sustainability at Mars, joins Sanjeev to make the business case for why Mars has been betting on sustainability for decades. He breaks down how the company thinks about risk, supply chain resilience, and long-term value creation and walks through Mars' internal Compass framework, how real supply disruptions and unexpected ancillary benefits have validated the strategy, and why sustainability goals are most useful when treated like R&D investments rather than compliance obligations. He also gets honest about the challenges, such as the persistent gap between what consumers say they care about and how they actually shop, the difficulty of selling a problem and a solution in the same breath, and how to get an organization to apply existing skills toward new sustainability goals. With regulatory tailwinds shifting and food and agriculture facing compounding supply chain pressures, this conversation offers an honest look at what it takes to embed sustainability in the core of a business that intends to be around for generations.
Chapters:
04:00 - What Mars Does
05:34 - Business Case for Sustainability
07:31 - Mars Compass Framework
11:24 - Supply Chain Climate Risks
13:08 - Future Proofing Value Chains
17:30 - Sustainability’s Competitive Advantage
19:39 - The Consumer Contradiction
23:21 - Innovation Pace and Potential
26:04 - Frictions
31:40 - Advice for Companies Selling to Mars
35:09 - Past and Future Reflections
This content is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, business, tax or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investor or potential investor in any investment vehicle sponsored by S2G. Investing involves risk, including the risk of loss. Specific companies mentioned in this podcast are for educational purposes and should not be construed as an endorsement of any kind. S2G holds positions in the companies referenced, but this podcast is for information purposes only and is not intended to promote any such company. All views of the guests on this podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of S2G. Any past performance discussed is not indicative of future results. The views expressed herein are opinions based on certain assumptions and subject to change.
For more important information, please see s2ginvestments.com/disclosures.Kapitel
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How to Build Intelligent, Flexible Manufacturing with Sojo
We are at an inflection point in manufacturing where artificial intelligence, robotics, and data are converging to fundamentally change what's possible in the physical world. In this episode, Barak …
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We are at an inflection point in manufacturing where artificial intelligence, robotics, and data are converging to fundamentally change what's possible in the physical world. In this episode, Barak Bar-Cohen, founder and CEO of Sojo Industries, joins Chuck Templeton to explore what that transformation actually looks like on the ground, using one of the most deceptively complex problems in consumer goods: the variety pack. What starts as a story about putting different flavors into one box quickly opens up into a much bigger conversation about why traditional manufacturing is so difficult to innovate in, and how mobility, automation, and AI can finally change that. Together, they dig into what it really means to layer AI throughout a physical business, capturing everything from machine error codes to engineering conversations, and let the whole operation learn from itself and rapidly improve. It's a conversation that will change the way you think about the snack aisle and the future of physical AI.
Chapters:
2:29 — The Variety Pack Problem
9:20 — The Door to Floor Model
11:38 — Business Model Breakdown
15:20 — Sojo Shield and Traceability
19:01 — Layering AI Into the Organization
28:10 — The AI Culture Shift
34:17 — Sojo and Sustainability
26:47 — Sojo’s Futurę Vision
This content is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, business, tax or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investor or potential investor in any investment vehicle sponsored by S2G. Investing involves risk, including the risk of loss. Specific companies mentioned in this podcast are for educational purposes and should not be construed as an endorsement of any kind. S2G holds positions in the companies referenced, but this podcast is for information purposes only and is not intended to promote any such company. All views of the guests on this podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of S2G. Any past performance discussed is not indicative of future results. The views expressed herein are opinions based on certain assumptions and subject to change.
For more important information, please see s2ginvestments.com/disclosures.Kapitel
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Cutting Through the Noise of a Changing World with Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
In this episode, Gayle Tzemach Lemmon joins Sanjeev Krishnan for a conversation about resilience and opportunity in a world defined by volatility. Gayle brings a rare breadth of experience as a builder …
Shownotes
In this episode, Gayle Tzemach Lemmon joins Sanjeev Krishnan for a conversation about resilience and opportunity in a world defined by volatility. Gayle brings a rare breadth of experience as a builder, early-stage advisor, PE portfolio strategist, foreign policy veteran, former political reporter, investor, and three-time New York Times best-selling author on geopolitical topics, with a front-row seat to multiple moments of global transition. Together, they dig into Gayle’s idea of a “triangle of opportunity” at the intersection of energy, artificial intelligence, and geopolitics, and why those forces are increasingly shaping how societies and economies evolve. They also talk about how to separate signal from noise in today’s policy landscape and what business leaders can learn from entrepreneurs operating in the most fragile and constrained environments. It’s a grounded, clear-eyed conversation about how to think, communicate, and build when the rules are constantly changing.
Key Takeaways:
- Economics and politics can’t be separated anymore. Gayle explains how political forces quietly shape markets, capital flows, and business outcomes, whether leaders want to admit it or not. She argues this is a moment of rising political corners and borders.
- Fairness has become a defining theme of this era. From labor to capital markets, Sanjeev and Gayle discuss why perceptions of who benefits and who doesn’t are influencing trust, policy, and long-term stability.
- Homogeneous thinking is a real business risk in periods of rapid change. Gayle argues that value is increasingly created by people who can move across disciplines and see congruities that others may miss.
- AI, energy, and geopolitics are tightly linked. Sanjeev and Gayle explore how each of these forces shapes the others, and decisions in one area increasingly ripple and resonate across the rest in sometimes unpredictable ways.
- Clear, genuine storytelling is no longer optional. According to Gayle, in a crowded, noisy investment landscape, leaders and companies that can communicate simply and authentically are more likely to earn trust and endure.
You can purchase Gayle’s first book, “The Dressmaker of Khair Khana,” referenced in this episode here: https://www.amazon.com/Dressmaker-Khair-Khana-Remarkable-Everything/dp/0061732478
This content is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, business, tax or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investor or potential investor in any investment vehicle sponsored by S2G. Investing involves risk, including the risk of loss. Specific companies mentioned in this podcast are for educational purposes and should not be construed as an endorsement of any kind. S2G holds positions in the companies referenced, but this podcast is for information purposes only and is not intended to promote any such company. All views of the guests on this podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of S2G. Any past performance discussed is not indicative of future results. The views expressed herein are opinions based on certain assumptions and subject to change.
For more important information, please see s2ginvestments.com/disclosures.The Food as Health Solution Set
In this bonus episode, we’re bringing together seven CEOs across the S2G portfolio to explore what it actually looks like to make food as health a reality within the U.S. healthcare system. In a previous …
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In this bonus episode, we’re bringing together seven CEOs across the S2G portfolio to explore what it actually looks like to make food as health a reality within the U.S. healthcare system. In a previous episode, we focused on the obstacles and investor opportunity, so this week we’re steering the conversation to the solutions already being built and tested in the market.
Across clinical nutrition, oncology, care coordination, meal delivery, and life-science AI, leaders from Mend, Big Bold Health, Pyx Health, Mealogic, NourishedRx, Sōlaria Biō, and Brightseed describe how they’re reframing healthcare through food-based solutions. The discussion spans new scientific frameworks for understanding food as a complex, multi-target intervention, the importance of rigorous clinical evidence and FDA pathways, the realities of reimbursement and payer incentives, and the challenge of patient adherence. Woven together, these CEOs create a blueprint for a healthcare system where food-based solutions are preventative, scalable, and central rather than peripheral.
Links:
The Food as Health Opportunity white paper
This content is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, business, tax or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investor or potential investor in any investment vehicle sponsored by S2G. Investing involves risk, including the risk of loss. Specific companies mentioned in this podcast are for educational purposes and should not be construed as an endorsement of any kind. S2G holds positions in the companies referenced, but this podcast is for information purposes only and is not intended to promote any such company. All views of the guests on this podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of S2G. Any past performance discussed is not indicative of future results. The views expressed herein are opinions based on certain assumptions and subject to change.
For more important information, please see s2ginvestments.com/disclosures.The Price of Transportation in an Electrifying World
Electric vehicles have become a bit of a cultural lightning rod, but behind the headlines, there’s a lot to be excited about. In this episode, Sanjeev sits down with Mitra CEO Galina Russell, S2G Principal …
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Electric vehicles have become a bit of a cultural lightning rod, but behind the headlines, there’s a lot to be excited about. In this episode, Sanjeev sits down with Mitra CEO Galina Russell, S2G Principal Marisa Sweeney, and Clean Tech Strategy Advisors’ Managing Partner Anna Demeo to talk about the state of the EV market and where the opportunities lie today. Mitra, a recent investment from S2G’s Special Opportunities team, helps small and midsize commercial fleets go electric by bundling vehicles and charging into a single, simple offering, delivering savings almost immediately with no upfront cost. The conversation explores how EVs could make the power grid more flexible rather than more strained, why electrification is closely tied to the future of autonomous vehicles, how China’s rapid scaling of EVs and charging infrastructure is reshaping global markets, and why financing remains one of the biggest bottlenecks to broader adoption. It’s a clear, practical look at where the EV story is headed and what it will take to get there.
Chapters:
03:24 - The State of Transportation
05:33 - Cultural Aspects of EV Adoption
09:00 - EV Industry Investment Landscape
11:53 - China's Role in the EV Market
14:42 - EVs and the Future of the Grid
18:49 - Physical AI and Autonomous Vehicles
21:37 - Mitra's Approach to Fleet Electrification
27:22 - Fit for Purpose Capital in EVs
33:17 - Bringing in More Capital
40:22 - Future Predictions for EV Adoption
This content is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, business, tax or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investor or potential investor in any investment vehicle sponsored by S2G. Investing involves risk, including the risk of loss. Specific companies mentioned in this podcast are for educational purposes and should not be construed as an endorsement of any kind. S2G holds positions in the companies referenced, but this podcast is for information purposes only and is not intended to promote any such company. All views of the guests on this podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of S2G. Any past performance discussed is not indicative of future results. The views expressed herein are opinions based on certain assumptions and subject to change.
For more important information, please see s2ginvestments.com/disclosures.Kapitel
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Healthcare Costs Keep Rising. Food Could Be a Fix.
If diet is a major driver of chronic disease, and chronic disease is driving healthcare costs, why are our food and healthcare systems still so separate? And what would change if they weren’t? In this episode …
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If diet is a major driver of chronic disease, and chronic disease is driving healthcare costs, why are our food and healthcare systems still so separate? And what would change if they weren’t? In this episode, S2G’s Sanjeev Krishnan and Dan Ripma use our new Food as Health white paper as a jumping-off point to unpack what “food as health” really means and why a system that keeps getting more expensive without making people healthier is reaching its limits. They explore the tension between medical ethics and financial reality, the disconnect between hunger and nutrition, and why food has to be part of any serious conversation about cost and prevention. Then we zoom out to what this means for investors and how healthcare economics reshape the opportunity in food. Ultimately, this is a conversation about how food could move from being part of the problem to becoming one of the most powerful tools we have to change the economics and the outcomes of our healthcare system.
Chapters:
3:06: Nutrition's Identity Crisis
5:58: The Hippocratic oath vs. The Bond Market
8:03: Food as Health as Strategic Infrastructure
10:48: Economic Implications of Healthcare Costs
12:41: Challenges in Policy and Nutrition
16:24: S2G’s Food as Health Strategy
18:58: Clinical and Economic Evidence
29:04: Investor Perspective on Food as Health
This content is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, business, tax or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investor or potential investor in any investment vehicle sponsored by S2G. Investing involves risk, including the risk of loss. Specific companies mentioned in this podcast are for educational purposes and should not be construed as an endorsement of any kind. S2G holds positions in the companies referenced, but this podcast is for information purposes only and is not intended to promote any such company. All views of the guests on this podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of S2G. Any past performance discussed is not indicative of future results. The views expressed herein are opinions based on certain assumptions and subject to change.
For more important information, please see s2ginvestments.com/disclosures.Kapitel
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S2G's Managing Partners Predict a Year of Complexity and Opportunity
What if the biggest risk right now isn’t getting the answers wrong, but asking the wrong questions? In our Season 3 kickoff, all three S2G Managing Partners come together to unpack a moment defined by …
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What if the biggest risk right now isn’t getting the answers wrong, but asking the wrong questions? In our Season 3 kickoff, all three S2G Managing Partners come together to unpack a moment defined by volatility, AI acceleration, geopolitics, and a rising cost of capital. They explore why constraints are no longer a weakness but a competitive advantage, and how affordability, resilience, and execution matter more than hype. From private markets and global debt to AI, demographics, and the “Age of Adaptation,” Sanjeev Krishnan, Chuck Templeton, and Aaron Rudberg help frame the macro and micro playbook for what it will take to build businesses in 2026. It’s a sharp, honest look at where to find the opportunity when the rules keep changing.
Key Takeaways:
- Constraints create winners. The MPs discuss how tighter capital, higher rates, and geopolitical friction favor disciplined builders and sober investors.
- AI is shifting from experiment to ROI. The conversation reveals how 2026 is about using AI to drive real productivity, margin improvement, and “cheaper, faster, better” outcomes.
- A human edge still matters. While AI is powerful, Chuck argues it’s human judgment, experience, and the ability to guide it that ultimately turn technology into a real advantage.
- Resilience beats efficiency in a volatile world. According to the MPs, the future belongs to companies with durable moats, flexible supply chains, and business models built to survive uncertainty.
- The right questions matter more than ever. According to Sanjeev, old assumptions about capital, risk, and growth no longer hold. Success now starts with rethinking first principles.
This content is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, business, tax or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investor or potential investor in any investment vehicle sponsored by S2G. Investing involves risk, including the risk of loss. Specific companies mentioned in this podcast are for educational purposes and should not be construed as an endorsement of any kind. S2G holds positions in the companies referenced, but this podcast is for information purposes only and is not intended to promote any such company. All views of the guests on this podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of S2G. Any past performance discussed is not indicative of future results. The views expressed herein are opinions based on certain assumptions and subject to change.
For more important information, please see s2ginvestments.com/disclosures.Introducing Season 3
We're back! Season 3 kicks off January 15th. This content is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, business, tax or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment or …
Shownotes
We're back! Season 3 kicks off January 15th.
This content is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, business, tax or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investor or potential investor in any investment vehicle sponsored by S2G. Investing involves risk, including the risk of loss. Specific companies mentioned in this podcast are for educational purposes and should not be construed as an endorsement of any kind. S2G holds positions in the companies referenced, but this podcast is for information purposes only and is not intended to promote any such company. All views of the guests on this podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of S2G. Any past performance discussed is not indicative of future results. The views expressed herein are opinions based on certain assumptions and subject to change.
For more important information, please see s2ginvestments.com/disclosures.“Everybody in the Pool’: Cleaning Up the Textiles Industry With Matter Filters
In this special episode-share, we team up with Everybody in the Pool to spotlight the urgent and fast-growing challenge of microplastic pollution and the breakthrough filtration technology designed to tackle it …
Shownotes
In this special episode-share, we team up with Everybody in the Pool to spotlight the urgent and fast-growing challenge of microplastic pollution and the breakthrough filtration technology designed to tackle it at scale. Longtime tech and business journalist Molly Wood speaks with Adam Root, Matter’s founder and CEO, about how microfibers from everyday laundry to industrial textile production have become one of the largest sources of ocean microplastics, and why the textile industry is facing mounting pressure from regulators, retailers, and consumers to address the issue. Matter’s regenerative filtration system offers a practical, modular solution that can be deployed across home appliances and industrial facilities, delivering both measurable environmental benefits and meaningful cost savings. It’s a forward-looking conversation about how infrastructure-level innovation can reshape a legacy industry and build cleaner, more resilient water systems worldwide.
Links:
Matter Industries Website: https://matter.industries/
Adam Root LinkedIn
All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/
Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/
Become a member and get an ad-free version of the podcast: https://everybodyinthepool.supercast.com/
This content is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, business, tax or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investor or potential investor in any investment vehicle sponsored by S2G. Investing involves risk, including the risk of loss. Specific companies mentioned in this podcast are for educational purposes and should not be construed as an endorsement of any kind. S2G holds positions in the companies referenced, but this podcast is for information purposes only and is not intended to promote any such company. All views of the guests on this podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of S2G. Any past performance discussed is not indicative of future results. The views expressed herein are opinions based on certain assumptions and subject to change.
For more important information, please see s2ginvestments.com/disclosures.How AI for Agriculture Can Outsmart Volatility
Food prices keep climbing. Farmers are facing shrinking profit margins. Can AI really fix both, or is it just another Silicon Valley hype cycle? With all the talk about an “AI bubble,” we bring you a …
Shownotes
Food prices keep climbing. Farmers are facing shrinking profit margins. Can AI really fix both, or is it just another Silicon Valley hype cycle? With all the talk about an “AI bubble,” we bring you a conversation about how AI is already shaping farm viability today and what it could mean for your grocery bill tomorrow.
In this episode of the S2G Podcast, Chuck Templeton sits down with Shail Khiyara, CEO of decision-intelligence company SWARM, and Adam Greenberg, CEO of greenhouse OS provider IUNU, to unpack how AI is being used today across fields, greenhouses, and supply chains. They dig into how digital twins, sensors, and machine vision can turn volatility into an advantage, cut waste, and boost margins for growers while helping keep food more affordable for consumers.
They discuss what it really takes to drive AI adoption in a sector built on thin margins and healthy skepticism, and how partnerships and long-term purchase agreements could reshape the economics of fresh, local food. Whether you’re an AI superfan or a skeptic, an ag insider, or just someone worried about your grocery bill, this conversation offers a grounded look at what a smarter, continuously learning food system might actually look like in practice.
Chapters:
03:55 SWARM and IUNU’s AI Solutions
08:59 Challenges and Mindset Shifts in AI Adoption
11:50 AI's Impact on Decision Making in Agriculture
14:10 Accelerating AI Adoption in Agriculture
25:29 The Cognitive Grid: AI's Future in Agriculture
27:31 Economic Impacts of AI on Farmers
32:08 Successful Partnerships and Future Outlook
36:38 Advice for Farmers on AI Adoption
This content is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, business, tax or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investor or potential investor in any investment vehicle sponsored by S2G. Investing involves risk, including the risk of loss. Specific companies mentioned in this podcast are for educational purposes and should not be construed as an endorsement of any kind. S2G holds positions in the companies referenced, but this podcast is for information purposes only and is not intended to promote any such company. All views of the guests on this podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of S2G. Any past performance discussed is not indicative of future results. The views expressed herein are opinions based on certain assumptions and subject to change.
For more important information, please see s2ginvestments.com/disclosures.Kapitel
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Food Security Is National Security: Agriculture Policy for a New Era
The Farm Bill, our country’s cornerstone for farm and nutrition policy, has long been a rare beacon of bipartisan success. But the recent deal to reopen the government quietly tacked on yet another extension of …
Shownotes
The Farm Bill, our country’s cornerstone for farm and nutrition policy, has long been a rare beacon of bipartisan success. But the recent deal to reopen the government quietly tacked on yet another extension of the 2018 Farm Bill that has had a series of extensions since 2023. So the question is: are we watching the end of big bipartisan legislation? Or is it time to rethink the playbook entirely, bringing in new stakeholders and connecting more of the issues that shape the system to build a broader coalition?
Consider the landscape we’re navigating. This year, USDA projects an agricultural trade deficit approaching $50 billion. Meanwhile, defense, Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, and interest on the debt account for roughly 70% of federal spending. At the same time, 70% of Americans are overweight or obese, and the One Big Beautiful Bill proposes cutting $186 billion from SNAP over the next decade. These are enormous, interconnected challenges, and maybe the only way forward is to bring them to the same negotiating table and design solutions big enough to match the moment.
In this episode, Sanjeev Krishnan sits down with Randy Russell, President of The Russell Group, a bipartisan government relations firm focused exclusively on food and agriculture public policy, and Grant Leslie, S2G’s new Operating Partner for Government and Policy. Together, they break down how linking agriculture, nutrition, healthcare, and fiscal realities could unlock better outcomes for American producers, communities, and national security. But doing that requires a systems mindset. It means widening the tent. It means seeing farm policy as far bigger than agriculture alone.
And ultimately, the people who will succeed here will be the ones bold enough to think differently.
Chapters:
04:59 Randy Russell's Career Journey
06:43 The Rural-Urban Divide in Politics
09:52 State of American Agriculture
13:46 Challenges in U.S. Agricultural Policy
16:28 The Future of the Farm Bill
19:55 New Stakeholders in Food and Agriculture
22:55 Linking Agriculture, Healthcare, and National Security
31:49 The Role of Technology and Innovation
41:41 Food Security as National Security
This content is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, business, tax or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investor or potential investor in any investment vehicle sponsored by S2G. Investing involves risk, including the risk of loss. Specific companies mentioned in this podcast are for educational purposes and should not be construed as an endorsement of any kind. S2G holds positions in the companies referenced, but this podcast is for information purposes only and is not intended to promote any such company. All views of the guests on this podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of S2G. Any past performance discussed is not indicative of future results. The views expressed herein are opinions based on certain assumptions and subject to change.
For more important information, please see s2ginvestments.com/disclosures.Kapitel
Kapitel werden geladen …
Energy Affordability and Fit-for-Purpose Capital with Jigar Shah
When voters went to the polls last week, one issue rose above the rest: the cost of keeping the lights on. Candidates promising lower energy bills swept key races, signaling that affordability has become a …
Shownotes
When voters went to the polls last week, one issue rose above the rest: the cost of keeping the lights on. Candidates promising lower energy bills swept key races, signaling that affordability has become a defining political and economic concern. But throughout his career spanning entrepreneurship, policy, and finance, Jigar Shah has consistently argued that affordability and efficiency must be at the heart of the energy transition. While challenges remain, we live in extraordinary times when proven, scalable solutions like solar, batteries, heat pumps, and home weatherization can dramatically improve efficiency and lower costs. In this episode, Jigar and Sanjeev discuss the discipline and creativity required to build fit-for-purpose capital markets and business models that can unlock these technologies, making clean energy more affordable and accessible for all.
Chapters:
03:26 Jigar Shah's Career Journey
04:55 Jigar's Approach to Problem-Solving
06:51 The Role of Communication in Energy Investing
12:38 Jigar's Current Endeavors and Multiplier
15:15 Challenges and Opportunities in Energy Affordability
19:58 The Cost-Benefit Paradox in Energy Efficiency
22:48 Reshaping the Grid Incentive Structure
29:58 Fit for Purpose Capital Markets
34:04 Disciplined Business Models
37:55 The Future of Energy Efficiency
This content is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, business, tax or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investor or potential investor in any investment vehicle sponsored by S2G. Investing involves risk, including the risk of loss. Specific companies mentioned in this podcast are for educational purposes and should not be construed as an endorsement of any kind. S2G holds positions in the companies referenced, but this podcast is for information purposes only and is not intended to promote any such company. All views of the guests on this podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of S2G. Any past performance discussed is not indicative of future results. The views expressed herein are opinions based on certain assumptions and subject to change.
For more important information, please see s2ginvestments.com/disclosures.Kapitel
Kapitel werden geladen …
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