Tom Ferguson runs Burnt Island Ventures, the first venture fund dedicated entirely to water. In this conversation he lays out the investing case for a $1.6 trillion market most people have never thought about: where water sits on the S-curve, what changed around 2020, what exits actually look like, and what it costs the person running a small fund.
Guest: Tom Ferguson, Founder and Managing Partner, Burnt Island Ventures
Host: Ravi Kurani
CHAPTERS
0:00 Intro
0:46 The S-curve, and where water sits on it
4:35 Why execution, not ideas, is the bottleneck
11:18 Why now: what changed around 2020
16:18 What exits actually look like in water
19:40 The capital spectrum: venture, PE, search funds
21:46 Private credit and the water bond market
24:37 Where water needs people right now
26:30 From Imagine H2O to raising Fund I
30:32 Why they pass on most water companies
35:01 The weirdest ideas that turned out to be good ones
41:09 Agriculture, and the next PFAS investment
42:13 AI, data, and what still has a moat
48:21 Long sales cycles as a moat
49:44 Growing up between London and the west coast of Scotland
55:40 The unromantic reality of running a fund
1:02:24 Water rights, and why he stays out of them
1:07:21 The best life advice, from The Wire
1:09:14 Where to reach Burnt Island (not with AI)
LINKS
Burnt Island Ventures: https://www.burntislandventures.com
Tom's podcast, The Fundamental Molecule: https://www.burntislandventures.com/the-fundamental-molecule
Full episode notes: https://www.liquidassets.cc/water-trillion-dollar-asset-class-tom-ferguson/
Liquid Assets is a podcast about water through the lens of business, technology and policy.
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