Fixing the Water Infrastructure Data Gap | Blake Anderson, Ziptility

Oh, today on the show we have Blake Anderson. I know, I know. I thought I was interviewing myself as well. No, Blake Anderson is uh a founder, really interesting story. He's a founder of a company that would provide operational help to smaller water utilities on a contract basis. And he grew that company

over the course of four or five years about 30x. And then he was looking for a solution for managing uh all the parts of his business as it related to um working with water utilities. And this other company that provided these solutions cold called him uh called Zipility to see if he wanted to use their product.

He loved it so much and uh his business fit uh a particular growth trajectory that Zipility had in mind that Zipility ended up acquiring Blake's business. So now Blake leads growth initiatives within Zipility while also continuing uh to push forward uh the the the contract operation business. So Blake comes to this conversation with all of this uh

information and experience and data about selling into uh the water utility space, specifically water utilities that are smaller. Because if in case you don't know, some water utilities in more rural places are mostly part-time individuals uh and they can range from uh maybe 5 to 10 to 30 people. So it's actually very uh it's very difficult

problem a lot to operate these and set up infrastructure that's reliable for people in these areas. So uh extremely eye- openening conversation. uh I learned a lot and uh it falls right in the thesis of the grove. How do you bring innovation to places that move slowly and are very critical infrastructure. So thank you as always

to our sponsors, Clean Techch Growth Lab. If you're looking to grow in clean techch, they are the people to do it with. And as always the producers of this podcast, Crazy Blake. Oh, welcome to another episode of The Grove. Shout out to our sponsors mentioned just before this. Without them, it would not be possible to

interview awesome people doing awesome things with awesome names like Blake. >> Yeah, exactly. >> Welcome. >> What's up, Blake? How's it going, man? Yeah, that's how I knew I could trust you. So, >> that's right. I knew immediately I said, I don't care what you do. We have to do an interview. And then you happen to be

directly in the space. So, that was convenient. Uh before we get into all the questions I have, some of my favorite stuff, water, wastewater, utilities, these types of things, uh give a brief introduction of yourself and what you're building.

>> Cool. So, my name is Blake Anderson. I founded a contract operations company called Mogan Water Management in 2020. Um, we grew here locally in the Arizona area with our claim to fame being uh taking small historically underserved communities and getting them back into compliance, getting a bunch of infrastructure funding and um getting

them sustainable. Um, we were dealing with some operational issues and so we became customers of a company called Zitility which offers GIS and kind of like a CMS asset management software all built into one. uh and it fundamentally changed the way that we do everything.

Um and got along good with the founders. Um they really had the same heart for small utilities that we did and so uh last year they acquired our company and now I've been working for them. Um so I kind of wear two hats. I still am on the operations side but also I'm the VP of

strategic operations for Zatility. >> Sweet. So you have years and years of uh experience and contact and doing all this activity in small water utilities. Is that right? >> Yep. So >> specifically. >> So when you were a baby, were you look were you looking around saying, "I can't wait to start my own company and service

uh small water utilities or did something happen at some point?" I would say that uh when I was a high schooler, I had no idea. And that was the daunting question that people ask is like, "What are you going to do when you grow up?" And still some days like I don't know.

It just kind of keeps changing and I keep doing the things that I like and love and get excited about and it just worked for me. >> Um but when I got married, I took the first job that had insurance. I mean, like, it's really not that sexy or well thought out of a story, but

>> um we I I took the first job that had insurance working for a small municipality, kind of worked my way from there into a private utility, got my certifications, and uh I was looking for a way to make some little extra side income. Um and so with smalling small utilities, they don't need full-time

staff. They just need like a fractional operator basically. And just by happen stance, my name is Blake Anderson. Um, so alphabetically I pop up first on the list. I had these highle certifications and so um, I started just getting calls. Um, started taking them and, >> uh, I didn't really know what I was

getting myself into. I didn't realize that there was such a disparity between a utility with even 5,000 connections and a utility with 500 connections or even 50 connections. uh as far as like the professional level of service and care being provided and um I I just I I like solving problems. It was fun to

kind of go in and be able to get your hands dirty and actually make changes. Uh utilities tend to be kind of bureaucratic and um entrenched like in the way that they do things and for good reason. And so when you work for a little bit larger utility, you don't have a lot of ability to make changes.

Um and you know a lot of the big problems have already been solved and so going to these small utilities every one of them was like a puzzle. It was like how do we fix their um wells and tanks and how to get all these things to operate? How do we train the board on

you know how to think about rates and how to think about finance? Um and then we eventually were able to collect enough data to say these are kind of the critical infrastructure pieces um and we could tell that story and go get funding um through SRF programs and that sort of thing. So currently we're managing about

$24 million for the projects across I think roughly 18 utilities. So >> that's that's incredible. And how long ago would you say you can officially or unofficially, however you want to answer it, but how long ago did you start uh your company?

>> I would say I started doing it part-time, you know, just like sole proprietor in 2018. Um went full-time in 2020 and then created the LLC when I started getting my first hires in 2022. Um, and so from in 2020, uh, we had just myself and I took on my first like full operations

and maintenance contract. So I was going to be the guy that showed up and fixed leaks, do that sort of thing. And that was 93 service connections. Um, and currently we have just over 3,000 service connections across 11 utilities plus all the project management stuff on top of it.

>> All right. So then so then to uh to set a little bit of a foundation for anyone in the audience that is not um super knee deep in wastewater or water utilities in general. Um what are we talking about when we are saying uh I mean you said municipality. I don't know

if you mean like a public owned utility but then you talked about private utility. What's the difference between the two? And then also we're talking about connections. You're saying going from this to this amount of connections this amount of connections. What does that mean? So those two things.

>> Okay. Uh, great question. Um, so I guess let's start with what's a public water system. Um, so a public water system, um, as defined by the EPA is any, um, source of drinking water that serves over 15 households. Um, so once you cross that line, you become a public utility. And so you're required to

monitor different health uh, outcomes like bacteria. you know, sometimes uh you can get into like lead and copper, you know, metals, but it depends on the structure. And so that can be anything from like a National Forest Service campground, you know, where you've got a bunch of campsites and people are drinking water there, um all the way up

to the city of Philadelphia where you are. You know, they're both public utilities as far as EPA goes, but the standards are different. um the service connection count really matters because let's take the city of Philadelphia for example. I'm confident that they have a full department that's just for asset management or just for mapping just for

engineering. They have probably a whole crew of guys that their whole job is just driving around and turning valves and another crew of guys that's full-time job is just um flushing fire hydrants. Another crew that's fixing brakes. Um well, as you get smaller, those roles get consolidated. And so eventually you end up at a spot that we

tend to see right around 5,000 connections to a thousand connections where you have like a GM, maybe one or two field guys, and like an office clerk. Um and they're doing all of those roles. And a lot of times that GM is still on the back. Uh once you start going below that thousand connection

count, you get into what we refer to in the industry as contract operations. And that's where they don't necessarily need full-time staffing or if they do, it's very limited full-time staffing. Um but you still have to do all the same kinds of work. You know, they still need somebody to put together an asset

management plan or capital improvement plan. They still need somebody to check the wells. Um, most of the time they only need somebody two to four hours a week, but if something catastrophic happens in the middle of the night, they need five people with experience to be there within a couple hours. And so we

have the ability basically to pull all of these small utilities together and provide a level of service that would be similar to like a public works department, but we do it on a fractional basis for a lot of individual utilities.

So is that is that where the your uh your company and um before Zipility is that what you were providing was kind of a like a a more structured contract service more reliable contract service? >> Yeah, that's exactly what it was. And so um the a lot of people at least in the

state of Arizona because you're in Arizona, you can operate a utility within 200 mile radius of you. So that means if you're in the city of Phoenix, you could go 3 4 hours away and operate the utility. And so a lot of guys have a focus on this big range and they pick up

as many systems as they can and they, you know, move from sight to sight. Um I took the opposite approach. I wanted to have really high density in a local market and um provide the same level of service that you'd see at a larger utility. And so our best customers would be like filling in those gaps because in

my mind we're already driving by them anyways. We should pick them up in the route. >> Interesting. And then you also mentioned uh working at a a private utility. So are are there I mean you mentioned the the public ones. Are there private water utilities?

>> Yeah. Yeah. So there's forprofit utilities that um you know uh companies uh created. There's a lot of venture capital money like people that are buying up um especially uh troubled utilities. Um then there's you know the American waters which are probably a lot more common out there on the east coast east co um EPCOR being out of Canada. Um

but then there's like central states you know they've been uh buying up a lot of small utilities around the US. they've grown to be, I would say, the 10th or sixth largest uh privately held utility company and they've just done that in the past 10 years. Um, and so their business model tends to be um they buy

utility and they generate what's called a reasonable rate of return um based on their rate base. And so they put money into the system, you know, they put in a mile of pipeline and then they go to whatever their corporation commission is and say, "We made these improvements and invested this dollar amount into

capital." Um, and then they get a rate of return off of that investment in capital. Um that's compared to a like you said municipal um or in the case of a lot of our utilities that we operate uh county governmentled special improvement district um where they're just community members. And so you have a board made up

of people who just live in the neighborhood. >> And so sometimes you get people with utility experience, sometimes you don't. Um all of them are you know doing it just as volunteers and uh making the best decisions that they can but uh you know and we I will say we see great outcomes and we see bad outcomes with

both you know necessarily better than the other. I'm agnostic as far as like which is better. >> Oh man, you read my mind because I was going to say you give a a polit I don't know if it's in your interest to take a side given you probably service both. So you have a political answer if you'd

like but I'm just curious you know often when you hear things of oh you know a lot of places are being bought up by these big over you know overarching entities things don't typic you know profits put first so I don't know whether whether you know you can give a an opinion on like the effectiveness of

service or just from a business standpoint like your ability to work with certain customers like does does do you you know gravitate towards either public or private model? I would say we're pretty close to a 50-50 split right now. Um I I would say that we've seen terrible outcomes from private utilities and

public utilities and I've seen good turnaround stories from both, you know, when it comes down to leadership. Um I will say the larger private entities seem to have a system and a path um where they're incentivized to invest in the system and um some of what you know probably forms my opinion is a bit of

survivorship bias where we've seen um systems turn around, we've seen things go well. Um and a lot of that comes down to pretty significant investment in capital into the failing infrastructure. And so because of that uh the privately held utilities tend to have a game plan when they either acquire or as part of

their overall structure um to invest X amount of dollars a year and they do that consistently over a period of time. Um, I do love working with public the publicly held ones, you know, especially some of these small little communities where it's multigenerational because there are benefits there. Like it does feel like you're part of the bigger

community. Um, and so I'd say like from an altruistic standpoint, I enjoy that aspect of it. Um the other thing is if we need an easement and we need to, you know, cut through somebody's yard to go to the next street, they call up their cousin and, you know, say, "Hey, we need

a, you know, like this is what the community needs." And they just cut us, uh, you know, they give us permission to get an ement and go get it done. So the paperwork's a little quicker. So, you know, pros and cons.

>> Okay, great. So, so then um we can So, I'm curious the business model of your original business kind of like contract reliable contractors as a service I think is not maybe uh if you came up to someone and said, "Yo, there's all this crazy innovation and water tech and all this stuff." Someone wouldn't say, "Oh, a

contractor for service business is a type of innovative technology." Although I would argue that it is because it in your experience you're introducing something novel to um to a utility and you're significantly increasing their their ability to operate to service um you know to to do these things that they want to do. Now at the same time

something like Zipility which is tech based I think somebody again that doesn't that isn't in the industry would look at that and say oh that's obviously more innovative like more standard you know you're introducing software you're training people using sensors these types of things in either sense you know you can use either um either example

something that's so core to uh the show and and and the reason why I started this business is when you have critical infrastructure in this case utilities their expected uptime is basically 100% of the time should be like if >> I mean but if if water stops running like you know people lose their mind if

electricity goes out people lose their mind innovation is inherently disruptive so how is it that you you know resolve this tension between trying to introduce something new where inherently you're you're changing how things are operating and potentially introducing some friction with having an uptime of 100 of a of 100%. You've successfully done this

for years now. So, how have you gone about introducing something novel to critical infrastructure? >> Um, I would say trust is a big factor in that you know like you have to have the trust of the stakeholders. Um, at least in my relationship with these utilities to be able to introduce new things. Um,

a lot of the innovation that we did was internally led uh where we have this uh uh vision like mission and vision value statement um that we provide to all of our employees and you know when we have meetings we go over but one of them is that uh high maintenance utility or high maintenance system can

become a lowmaintenance system if you maintain it. Uh, and so that's kind of always been our mantra is like we want to focus on improving stuff. Like >> we know that when we take on a new system that the first three months are going to suck, the first six months are going to be hard, but by year three we

can put the time and the work into a system to really make it kind of hum and and and work like it should. But it takes a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to get to that point. Um, and so, uh, where, like you said, zatility comes in.

Um, let's imagine that I took over your neighborhood today is is operating it. Uh, typically what we would get is a spreadsheet that has a list of all the addresses and all the names of the people who live at those houses. And that would be the mirror read sheet. And then somebody would give us a printed

paper map of like a county subdivision plot map with Sharpie lines drawn in it. And maybe there's some dots for where the isolation valves are >> and a set of keys to the well building. and that's it, you know, like from there, we just kind of have to figure it out. Um, because that's the kind of

recordkeeping that happens. And so, um, a big struggle for us is when we come into a system that we don't have any knowledge of is collecting data. And so, if I go and turn a valve and nobody else has found it yet, how do I share that information with the larger team? And

especially as we're scaling up, you know, like we we take on a uh, you know, multiple utilities sequentially. um if that's all in my head or it's all in you know one of my senior guys head the new hireer that we're bringing on as we staff up doesn't have any of that information and so we were trying to

collect as much of that as we could um and that's when we got introduced as aility we had uh right around the same time I was feeling that pain and I was trying to do it on paper and Google drive and store like valve records and hydrant records um that sort of thing

but really what we need was an updated set of maps because they The ones for the utility that I'm talking about specifically were literally from the 1970s. It was the original like developers which I mean it's like >> but I mean that's just what they had you know and um I'm reaching out to

engineers to get pricing because you know in my mind without a lot of experience like engineers make maps. It's just like what they do you know. Um a and it was $28,000 uh for an engineer to come do a dr to do a drone survey and then you know um drop pins for all the assets in the system,

but they still wanted us to go and paint and identify the entire utility. So like I had to send my staff out to actually go do the field work and then they show up for a day and basically just like fly the whole thing and knock it out. And I just thought like surely I'm I can

handle this, you know, like this this seems this seems like not that complicated. It's 2026. And by happen stance, uh, Zatility cold called us, um, like within a twoe time span of that happening. And they said, "Hey, um, are you interested in doing maps?" And I said, "Yeah, I'm actually getting quotes right now from some engineers, uh,

assuming that they were trying to offer to sell me to like come and map my system for for me and they said, "No, we'll sell you software to do it." And it was $2,000. And not just for the one utility, I could do all of my utilities with it. And I was like, "What is this

thing?" Um, and then we started talking and not only could I do the mapping, but I could log all my work orders. I could keep track of all my inventory, um, track all my staff time. It was like so many of these, um, operational components that were kind of bottlenecking us as we scaled were

solved and in solved in one place. We're all basically now when we pull up the map on our phone, it's a source of truth and a s source of communication across our entire team. So I can see what um Thomas and Caleb and Bryce and all these guys are doing out in the field, but

they can also see what we did. And so when they show up in the middle of the night, they have all the information they need to make decisions. Um and so they're incentivized to adopt. Um, but the big benefit to me and to these utilities is now we've got this huge data set where we've got all these leaks

and all these repair records. And so we can go to funding agencies and say not just we think that we should have money to, you know, replace this main because it it's leaking, but we can say we're running 10 times the national average number of leaks per mile of main in this specific section and and make a good

case and um appeal to why it's worthy of being funded. Um and so that's kind of how it's worked. And so and so from from what I was looking at uh first utility are they servicing waste um water utilities themselves or are they ser are are they a software for companies that provide services for water utilities

like yourselves? >> So our end customer um is always going to be the utility. We will sell to contract operations companies. Um but typically we always want to sell with the util sell to be utility ultimately. Um and a lot of times it's more cost effective. Not every contractor is like me where they want to absorb those

costs. It was more just me dealing with my own personal pain. >> Um and it's not that much of a cost. You know, we try to have set up our price structure to recognize that these are small utilities and these are essential services and not make it break the bank, but make it something that people are

willing to invest in and commit to long term. Um, but yeah, uh, we would say that our, you know, ideal customer is going to be anywhere from a,000 to 7,500 connections. um we'll go as high as 50,000 connections uh which is going to be you know midsized um town mid-size city but once

you start getting beyond that um typically they start getting so fragmented and bureaucratic that they really need somebody to come in and like do custom integrations and um set up custom workflows and scripts because they have procurement departments and all these different you know departments that they're working with.

>> So how so how is your understanding of driving uh driving innovation at uh small utilities? How's your understanding of doing that like like post sale, right? Because there's all this conversation like we're talking about go to market. It's like how do you get to the sale? How do you complete the sale? But uh after you've done the sale

successfully, then there's the whole journey of actually implementing and getting to a place where you've evolved, you made things better for this utility. What have you learned uh over your uh you know the the years that you've been doing this? What have you learned about that process? You know, how have things changed for you and your own business,

but also as utility as far as like post sale um implementation of technology at these small utilities? they have to want it you know I would say that's the biggest thing is um we can make the best product and the you know perfect solution but if the team internally is not willing to adopt it and they don't

want to learn it and like build it into their day-to-day process and workflows they're going to struggle to be successful and they're going to end up with what a lot of utilities you know kind of keep buying for different solutions is like shelfware you know they they buy the subscription somebody champion s it, but then the team doesn't

actually adopt it, and so they're paying the subscription for something they don't actually use or don't use fully. Um, and so we typically can see just in the demo process in the first couple weeks, uh, if a team really gets it. You know, you'll get off the call and we can look at their usage data and you can

see, um, the amount of people that are using it, not just the guy that you demoed with, but how many people he's sharing it with, how much stuff they're getting it done. Um, but we'll see utilities that will map out full subdivisions, like large parts of their system within days. Like the guys that

get it, it just clicks for. And so, um, once we actually make the sale, we have a pretty extensive kickoff process and implementation process, but we really pride ourselves in having done a lot of the thinking for people. And so we know um 90% of everything that you're going to want to have in Zipility is already

prepackaged and built for you. You can still customize stuff on top of that, but we have templates set up for cold weather climates, warm weather climates because utilities have different components and assets that they have. So, uh, you know, here in our part of Arizona, um, I should say like in Phoenix, you'll see what we call wet

barrel hydrants, um, where they don't drain, but in, uh, colder climates, you'll have dry barrel hydrants, so the hydrant drains off. We have different templates set up that can cover those different things. Um, and work orders that are set up accordingly. But when we do our kickoff, we'll go through and ask like a really extensive questionnaire

and say, "What kind of manufacturers do you guys use? What are your standard ones?" And so they don't have, you know, 400 options to choose from, but also they don't have a blank slate that they're just having to figure out how to make a GIS program from scratch. You know, like it's, you know, we we we

really have dug in and, you know, I'd say that's what I really enjoyed about the team at Satility in the first place was >> they cared and deeply understood and researched their customers that they they wanted to understand like what are you doing? Like what's your job? How does this work? So, so interesting to me

from a go-to market perspective that at the beginning you said trust is very important and then what you just said is that they have to want it and uh both of those like from my trying trying to trying to put myself in your shoes selling to a small utility it's less about like hey all the all the values

here all the functionality is here like this is going to be useful for you but your job is less like you like I have to make you believe that. So from a go to market perspective again what have you learned? How do you go about it now? Uh you know what do you anticipate

implementing as you go forward? But how do you reach that level of trust with a small utility? And how do you reach that level where once you make the sale they actually implement it? >> I would say that we are well let me answer your second question first. We're pretty uptight about qualifi qualifying

buyers and we have a long trial and demo process intentionally and even like a pilot process intentionally because it's going to take us um we'll probably lose money or be close to break even in our first year of the sale because of how much time we invest in implementing something. And so it's a lot easier for

us to say, you know, you don't really want this and disqualify a potential buyer um or somebody that's not a good fit rather than take them on and then have them churn in a year or something like that. And so um because of focusing on that, we tend to have customers, the ones that we do have are really

passionate and really excited about um what we've been able to do for them. They're like me, I mean, honestly, where it's like all of a sudden they become your hype men. Um, and last year 40% of our sales came from organic referrals from either uh utility to utility, uh, contract ops to utilities or like engineering partners.

Um, so people who were kind of in the space. >> Um, >> and you know, to our own credit or discredit, none of that was intentional. It's not like we're sending out a newsletter or like asking people for referrals. Um, that's something that, you know, I kind of hope to see us become more intentional about. It's just

that our customers tend to be our best cheerleaders. And so once we break into a market and start to get a little bit of saturation, it explodes. And so, Zatility got their first customer in Indiana, >> I want to say in 2019, and right now 10% of community water systems um, in Indiana are using Zipility. And so once

you crack that market and kind of start to get saturated um it we've found that for us we explode you know um but getting into those initial territories getting those champions and cheerleaders is the hard part. Um and so where does that trust come from? It's it's a lot of work inside know we've

we've tried we've tried events we've tried uh like webinars we've tried like the rural water associations like um all sorts of different things but um it takes a little while. I'm really excited. We just uh signed up with Ferguson this past year and they've taken off as a national distributor. Um, and so it's

been cool to see um, these reps be able to introduce utility to their customers and just take it and run with it. They've been doing great and that's kind of, you know, in in a lot of ways we've been able to >> leverage the trust that they already have just kind of as sales reps and

interacting with these people. >> All right. So yeah, it sounds sounds like a like you said a lot of hard work, a lot of activity, a lot of inerson events and then channel partnerships, you know, kind of a lot of of different things. Um, >> well, where I I wanted to add one thing

there, not to like rock the boat, but I would say that I've, you know, in the past year, I've kind of backed off of events >> for the for the for the small uh for the small utility teams. Do you find that uh even that there's the the time or or the or the bandwidth to make it to these

these Inerson events? Like you said, things are available online. So, are people find trying to find answers online? >> I would say that you tend to see kind of the same groups going or the same people going. Um and like I said, this varies very differently by state. You know, um we have really strong relationships like

the Alliance of um uh the Alliance out in Indiana. um they have a super super strong association. Um they've got apprenticeships and they're doing a ton. Um but that's not the case, you know, across the US. There's different things happening. Um Texas is another good example of an association that we see that's just killing it. They have like

monthly events happening all over the state. You know, people are doing things in like more of a regional basis. Um but there's quite a few that it's just like they have their big annual event a year um and aren't really providing a lot of service beyond that. And so like that's kind of our approach is like how can we

help? And then you know from that point I I'd love to partner with some of those same associations and say like can we support what you guys are doing because I think that our rural water association should be really strong. Um, but can we, you know, provide uh subject matter experts to put on

trainings and resources like I I'm happy to like if we're going to partner, let's partner. Um, and not just have a booth once a year, you know, I'd rather see you more than that. >> Important important point. I'm glad I'm glad that you chose to to stay on that topic because obviously new to me. So, I

think that's important. So, I appreciate that. >> There's a lot of startups that are doing that stuff, man. They hit the associations and and like I said, it worked for us. The alliance out in Indiana has been great to us, but um if that's your only focus, uh you got to figure out ways to reach people because

it's expensive. I mean, you can >> burn through a lot of cash. >> So, where are we going? >> Where are you going? Where are we going? And what are your what are hurdles uh in between? >> Um well, that's a great question. I would say that we are trying to build out satility into a like

growing source of truth. Um we've nailed a lot of like the basics and so now with AI especially we're trying to set up infrastructure so people can connect all their data. Um and so I don't know have you had people on the show that have talked about uh sensors or hardware SCADA any of that stuff? Um I figured

they're pretty common. Um, imagine zipility as the one thing that you can't put a sensor in for. You know, it's all the people stuff that's happening. It's the guy out in the field like collecting measurements and like all this data, but you can't just put a sensor in the ground and like collect that kind of

information. And so because of that, we want to do our best to take the data and then overlay it on top of that information. And so, um, if you have SCADA data, if you have pressure sensors, if you have billing data, pull all that in to have like one source of truth to be able to see what really is

going on in your system. Um, I think it's Yeah. And so it's a little bit different philosophically. Um, the other thing is we want to make it really, really easy to make highlevel decisions. And so, um, just like what we've been able to do for Moon, this was like a big big driver of why we sold because, like

I said, we our company was doing really well. Um, still is doing really well. Um, it was more because I I realized that the insights and the things that we're doing shouldn't require Blake as a consultant to go provide those answers.

Like if you similar to what I was describing with if I'm going to go paint all the lines on the ground and do the leg work, why should I pay for the engineer to come and do the surveying?

The same thing is true for me as a consultant honestly. Like if an operator, even if they don't have the ability to put together like a really robust capital improvement plan, can go collect all of that data, well, we should be able to provide them with KPIs and kind of point to problem areas and

to things they should do. um we should be able to pull in data sets to say what construction prices are in their area. And so um what I'm really passionate about is the idea of being able to provide these small little tiny utilities with a high level understanding and just actionable, you know, not o overly complex next steps.

You know, these are the areas you should prioritize on. This is the general priced for what's in your area. This is what's normal for the industry. Um because if you're like I said to put yourself in the seat of a small little water utility board and you know imagine it's just your subdivision that you're

sitting in. Um >> would you know how to do any of that? you know, it's just it's volunteers. And so, um, sometimes I think people are they have good intentions and they're willing to, um, that they want to do the right things, which is why they're in that role. But we need to do a better job of

equipping them with those answers. And the hard part, in my opinion, is collecting the information. It's not the the right information to make those decisions. It's not the decision itself, you know. Um uh and so yeah, that that's that's the at least the vision over the next few years um that we're excited about. Um

what are the hurdles to getting there? Uh I would say scale is a is a big factor. You know, the the go to market side is um tough and it's a long sales process. It takes a while to build that trust. Um, and as we look at like how our growth in our

early markets has accelerated, um, we want to just be really good at what we do and focus on getting better rather than focus on getting bigger. Um, because we know that that compounding effect is going to continue to grow and we want to be able to serve our customers well when we get there and not

drop the ball at the goal line. So, >> yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So scale and also in inside of that uh where we're going question you said uh also collecting the physical data and and organizing and presenting it that's also a challenge.

So very very I mean very good uh very good problems to have you know that you guys are got a lot of momentum and and I'm curious with all the the work that you have done and all the work that you had to do what inspires you?

Um, man, I I uh I'm a really strong believer. Uh I I I you know, my wife and I are pretty heavily involved in our church. Um and like I love Jesus, you know. Uh and so for me personally, it's service, you know, like I see infrastructure as like they're these systems of entropy, you know, where

everything is like breaking down continually. Um, and I see a lot of disparity between um, the most well financed utilities and the poorest communities. Um, I we didn't mention this in the call, but the part of Arizona I'm in is the two of the poorest c counties in the entire country um, here in southern Navajo and Apache

County. And um once you get outside of like the major resort area that we're in and you go to these outlying areas um they are incredibly impoverished um in some situations. And so for me um that doesn't mean that those people don't have a right to having good water. That doesn't mean those people don't have a

right to um >> uh having good infrastructure and like well thoughtout plans. And because infrastructure fails over such a long period of time, you need to be really thoughtful and proactive and especially so when you're working with small utilities because um they'll take so long to actually build up the kind of resources and reserves that they need.

And so for me um that's kind of the driver is I want to serve and I want to support and I want to help. And um that's what gets me excited. And like I said, it's a big puzzle, man. I mean, it's fun every single day to wake up and get after it, you know.

>> Yeah. Well, if you're gonna do something hard, you do it big and exactly what you guys are doing. Um, and and that's great. I mean, I love that. And and uh if anyone else is inspired to follow along or get in touch, what's the best way to do that?

>> Um, so you can find us on LinkedIn, on Facebook, go to zipility.com. Um, I'm on LinkedIn all the time, so if you look up Blake Anderson and water, I probably will pop up pretty top of the result.

I'm not the most famous Blake, apparently. I don't have a podcast of my own, but uh besides that. Yeah. >> Good. Yeah, I'm chasing you. I'm trying to get more like you on on LinkedIn. So, we we'll be we'll be right up there next to each other. But I appreciate I appreciate the time. I think it's

awesome what you're building. Um uh the the the journey that you've been on. I think it's really awesome. And I look forward to the next one. >> Cool. All right, Blake. Appreciate it, man. All right.