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The Oil and Gas Startups Podcast showcases emerging technologies and tells the stories of founders, investors and industry leaders.
0:00 All right. What's going on? All right. I like it. What's going on? Digital Wildcatters. Welcome to another week of the oil and gas startups podcast. Man, I've been sitting here talking to my
0:10 guests for like 30 minutes before we started recording. And I was like, shit, we should just start recording the podcast. So we got Vasily from Cool Edge Bitts on the show today. Hit that play
0:18 button. Hit that play button, man. It's good to have you here. Thank you. Man, interesting background. We're here to talk about drill bits, but we're just talking about your professional
0:27 tennis player and from Russia. You got me on my on my rant where I'm talking about grappling with bears and so I kind of had like a Joe Rogan-esque podcast going on here. But dude, one, you're
0:41 telling me about this bit. I want to talk about this bit here in a minute. Why don't you like just real quick before we get into life story and everything Just give me the high level of why this bit
0:55 is special and why we're here talking about it. And then we'll dive into everything else. Right. So my father is a world famous rocket scientist and, you know, his whole life and career he has
1:06 spent on, you know, taking some of the hottest surfaces and spaces on the planet earth as hot as the sun and cooling them down. You know, he's got many, many patents in rocket engine design. Um,
1:18 he never really was an oil and gas guy or anything, but some of his buddies were business owners and, um, they kind of would just, you know, bug him a little bit. And because they knew this guy
1:29 has the perfect brain and life experiences and works and inventions to design the perfect bit or the hydraulics and fluid dynamics behind the bit. And he's like, Oh, I don't want to, I don't care.
1:40 But so they just start, they start bringing over the Russian came out. Yes. Yes. I can do a little accent. But, um, so they just like bringing over used bits, you know, back, back maybe 10
1:51 years back, it was like, you know, Smith and Altera or NOV, a baker, And, and they just stole him in his garage and he kind of was like He still didn't wasn't even looking at it. Finally, one
2:02 night, he just started looking at it closely. He's like, oh, this is all wrong. You know, they did this all wrong. And specifically looking at kind of how the nozzles are shaped and designed,
2:12 you know, and then kind of some of his background from how he designed, you know, different and invented different rocket engine design products And he said, okay, so he started looking at it,
2:25 doing some experiments, you know, some drawings, some experience experiments and then some designs and then, you know, got a patent together and basically invented more of like a spray flow kind
2:36 of option to where, you know, like a conventional bit you'll kind of have those big nozzles pointing straight down, right, to go down to the cutting floor and then back up to clean Mainly to cool
2:47 some, but he kind of realized that like, hey, really any instrument where there's friction, whether it's drilling or cutting or anything. The improvement has been made in the last 15, 20 years
2:59 to PDC bits on the outside, making the cutters better, increasing the height of the gauge or outside stuff. But nothing has really gone into the engine of the design. So that's what he did. And
3:12 he said, we're not gonna have big old nozzles that point down. We need to, what's stopping? What is the wear and tear? Why is the wear and tear happening here on these bits? What is stopping the
3:24 bits from performing better? Well, it's the heat, the heat, right? So what do we need to do? We need to reject the heat, right? So basically he invented this type of design where, you know,
3:36 we have strategically placed and angled ports, we call them ports, set of nozzles that point right to the cutting edge, right? To the most stressed cutters there. And so what that does, what
3:46 we've done is we've brought the temperature down from 1200 degrees to 700, right? Down by about 33 or so percent. So, you know, you can probably fill in the blanks as to what that does, right?
3:57 More bit runs, better, you know, faster doubling ROP in some cases from some of the market leaders. Yeah. You know, less days on eight, seven, eight days in the rigs, we're saving, you know,
4:10 basically, you know, any, any box that you want to check, you know, whether it's performance, wear and tear, you know, saving money costs, you know, less man hours, less labor, right?
4:22 Environmentally more responsible, that's kind of how we hooked up with Jason, right? And, and those guys, because, you know, you're not using as many big giant diesel engines out there to run
4:31 those bits, right? Yeah. Less CO2 emissions and really any box you want to check, we feel we can check it just a bit better than our competitors, you know? So that's kind of what you want. Yeah,
4:41 it's super, super interesting stuff. You know, it's actually funny, I used to work for this company and venture-level technology and had expandable casing, and the guy, the scientist that
4:51 created. that tool has similar story to your dad, Russian scientists and
4:59 somehow figured out how to manipulate the molecular structure of steel pipe to where it could be expanded. It's cool when you see outside scientists come from the outside and figure out how to apply
5:14 their knowledge to this technology Anyways, you were born in Russia. I was born in Moscow,
5:23 but we lived in Siberia, so the reason it was my dad was away on a project, so my mom's family is from Moscow, so that's where I was born and but I grew up in Nozibirsk, which is a third largest
5:33 city in Russia, largest in Siberia and so very cold, you know, communist Soviet Union, you know, and then my dad kind of won a Fulbright grant, which is a grant developed by a professor,
5:48 basically for foreign research scientists to come here to the US to research. study development at the University of Maryland. Initially we moved to Rockville, Maryland. Okay. And then he was
5:58 transferred to U of H. And it was, my parents tell me to this day that the options were Michigan State or U of H. And they picked Houston because of my tennis. And so we came to Houston and, but
6:09 my dad kind of quickly saw that sadly in this country, you can't raise proper family on a teacher's salary. So, you know, he started thinking outside the box, started his own business called GV
6:18 General Vortex Energy, and started to get a lot of traction, right, with different investors and companies, and started to work with the US Navy in designing combustion engines, injectors, and
6:30 just basically making engines more fuel efficient for use on any type of machinery, you know, from submarines to just machinery that Navy uses, and so he had a lot of work there. And then he
6:42 really fell into his love and passion, which is rocket engine design, you know, working with some of the top companies on the planet, I don't want to name all of them, but some government, some
6:54 billionaire started guys. And so that was kind of his passion. And in the meantime, while this is happening, while he's doing this, I'm Tennyson around the world. So I was highly ranked junior,
7:06 first, second in Texas, most of my junior career. Yeah, top one, let me rewind real quick, 'cause your dad's still around, is he still with us? Of course, of course. And you get him on the
7:15 podcast sometime soon. I got you on the podcast, your dad sounds like a badass He's still with us, he almost wasn't with us because a couple of weeks ago, this stubborn dude at the barrel storm,
7:26 right, brought his fence down. I don't want to time us, but we can't. And he was back there with his neighbor, who's another retired stubborn engineer, dude.
7:35 was like trying to fix his fence. He's like, Oh, bring your son, my oldest son, Jackson. And he's like, Well, I show him how to do this. We come on, we do it. I'm like, Dude, I don't have
7:43 the time. I've got three businesses. I've got a non-profit. We've got five children. We've got crazy stuff. So I said, Man, I'll pay for the dang job to get done. And he's like, No, I do
7:54 this. So him and his neighbor went to it, and the story he tells me is they're out there later night. They had already dug holes, put some cement in to fix a part of the fence And he stepped back
8:06 to give away for his neighbor to pass as they're fixing. Step right into a giant pothole broke both of his ankles. Oh, Jesus Christ, man. At 73 years old, takes longer to heal. So rush to a
8:17 hospital, emergency room, surgery, a couple of weeks ago. Now he's an assisted living care facility. So he's taken care of his wife also from Ukraine, like mine. She was out there visiting her
8:28 father in Kiev, kind of a risk because there's things happening, right? And so she. got the news. She kind of shortened her trip. Her father is in his late 90s. So, you know, I was kind of
8:40 like, well, what stay there? What are you going to you can't lift this dude when you come over here, right? Like you're okay. So we're all helping to take care. But of course, initially, I
8:49 wanted him to be here, you know, and talk his stuff. I hope he's I hope he's getting healed up. I mean, double broken ankles and that's just terrible. So that's right. He sounds like a hell of
9:00 a dude. That's what I was that's why I was asking. So yeah, no, he's one of the leading guys in his field on the planet, you know, rocket scientist, which is people joke about that like, oh,
9:10 you have a rocket site. Well, he actually is one. Yeah. So yeah, I love that man. And so
9:16 really cool that they move down to Houston to support you in tennis. When did you start playing tennis? I started age five and, um, So to give everyone an idea here, you're a professional tennis
9:27 player. That's all I've played. I'm diving into this. Yes, I played some pro, you know, out of Westside Tennis Club, which is here in Houston, you know, and then kind of had some setbacks,
9:36 some injuries, you know, real life came at me, you know, kind of some challenges there in my early 20s, you know, so I kind of stepped back from that. And really kind of fell into coaching. I
9:47 never thought of myself as a coach. I'm always like, I'm a player. I'm not a coach, but I had some really rewarding initial experiences, you know, from teaching. And really, I realized I love
9:57 helping other people more than I like helping myself, you know, so I started. This is crazy dynamic. Right? Like I love teaching people jiu-jitsu, like, you know, people, new people come in
10:06 the gym. They don't know anything. And you see them four or five years down the road and they've got like little parts of your game. They're whipping your butt. Yes. They teach on things and then
10:15 they come with my ass. That's my favorite. Dude, there's been not a lot of cases, but maybe 10 or under.
10:23 you know, experiences where my students have are now beating me. Yeah. And even though I'm a competitor to the death, you know, of me,
10:33 the most competitive person you can find, maybe you'll say, no, I'm, I'm more competitive, but, but like that brings a little tear and a smile to my face. When one of my students is now beating
10:43 me. There's this young kid that have mentored and trained for a couple of years now. And since he was 19, you know, he's like 21 now and he made a comment other day at the gym. He's like
10:54 something verbatim where like his life's mission is to tap me out and submit me and he will soon. He will. He's 21 now. And but it's like I'm like that. I don't feel, you know, I'm 34.
11:03 But it's like, I'm starting
11:07 to become like the old grizzly man in the gym and it's like getting a little grazing. Yeah, I'll get some graze in the beard and I'll always just be like one step ahead of him to where he can never,
11:16 he can never get me. But now there's plenty of people that I've taught and that they come with my ass now and like but that's rewarding like that's like it's awesome to teach and give. And it's,
11:25 but like when you're an athlete like that, so you're caliber, it's kind of a weird shift where you go, it's like, I'm the player, I'm the athlete, but then something starts to transition where
11:36 it's like, oh, there's joy and fulfillment out of teaching and coaching people. Yes, yes. And so you coach now too. Yeah, I coach, I coach, I'm still doing that. I'm scaling back from that.
11:48 I kind of, I'd say worked at a lot of the big country clubs, tennis centers in our city, and I was very comfortable with, as I now call it, the W-2 prison, where it's like, hey, I know if I
12:00 work 50, 60 hours a week, I'll make this amount of money per year. I have my 401K, I have my kids have insurance, blah, blah, blah. All right, and then kind of, you know, we were living in
12:12 Sugar Land, our bubble, we love it. You know, I grew up there, went to middle school, high school there, raising our family there. But, you know, we have 10 beating hearts in our home. You
12:19 know, we have myself, my wife, five children, two dogs and a grandma. So the little one bedroom for, sorry, four bedroom, one story home was getting a little crampy, you know, so we start
12:30 looking for a home and initially in Sugar Land, and this was a couple years back. And then, you know, we had offers put down where we thought we're getting this house bought out from under our
12:39 feet. As I'm sure you know, this like, Hey, the giant corporations sending out the cash buys to cut everyone our gift And Houston was insane, dude, all the Chinese money coming in buying houses,
12:51 all the private equity coming in like, you know, some of these people are my students, by the way. So I have students that, you know, I always joke, like we don't have two parts of government,
12:60 you know, Republicans and Democrats have three or four, which are, you know, the giant companies that run the world. And so corporations and they, they, they bought, I'm like, Hey, we got
13:13 450 down on this house. We're good. It's right here. We're still right here. And I'm like, Oh, someone came and gave us 425 cash. So we took it. Yeah. So we settled in a house out towards
13:22 Katie. And honestly, all my students kind of came to me was like, coach, we don't come here to this place. I won't name it, but it's a big corporate place. They're in the gallery for this place.
13:34 We come here for you. So if you go anywhere, we'll go with you. And so I kind of made a big life decision. Again, you know, crossroads and said, you know, I believe in myself and I'll bet on
13:44 myself before anyone else. And so I left that place and started my own business, my own test academy, and started doing some marketing, consulting for other sports facilities. And then I started
13:55 to find like, man, half of my students are doing that. Where do you do that at? So we teach at different parks, different schools in Houston, you know, public parks, schools, I have assistant
14:07 coaches now as well. Houston, Katie, Sugarland, mainly. But we do Cyprus, we do surrounding areas. And honestly, best decision I've ever made, you know, but also looking back like, man,
14:17 half of my students doctors, physicians, hospitalists. you know, that own their own clinics, pharmacies. So I'm like, and I'm already putting them together. I'm already like, hey, guy, meet
14:26 this guy. Do go do this thing, make some money. Like I'm already, and I'm not in this corporate setting. I don't have to be like, oh, non-compete. I'm tied to this. Hey, I'm free now. I got
14:35 my own thing. So I'm like, I need to start a business in healthcare. You know, we start a company there. And then six months after that, my dad come and sit my sister and I down. I was like,
14:44 oh, by the way, I've got about five or six things I've done in my life You know, inventions, you know, that have been experimented, that have been patented, that could be100 million businesses
14:55 if you don't correctly. And then he told me the whole PDC bit story. He had some troubles in the past. Actually, this is not a brand new, a cute idea on the cloud that we're trying to develop.
15:05 There was a company in the past that ran that my dad was the head of, that had a sad kind of a bad and sad ending due to financial, basically people screwing him over. But it's his baby He's the
15:16 inventor, it's his patent, right? Um, he told me the full story. I said, first two things, right? One is that sucks. My dad got screw over. So I want to make that right. But second, this
15:29 could truly be something that's a game breaker and industry changer. So I said, let's do it. So we started Cool Edge Bits, you know, C Corp, got a group of, you know, board of directors, some
15:37 shareholders, some initial founders, advisory board, and kick things off last October. Okay. Um, but I told my dad, I said, I don't want any bad juju from the past. Get me a new patent Right?
15:47 So we paired them with a, with a gentleman, uh, won't say his name, but very, very experienced used to work at Hughes Christensen, Baker Hughes, 40 years plus drill bit design. A lot of people
15:58 I talked to said, this is the best drill bit design on the planet. So I paired these two brainiacs up my dad and him and they increased the design a little bit. And we went from 12 ports to
16:08 actually 21 now, which some of these people that are building our bits and running our bits are saying you're insane. Uh, but we're like, no, we're not. And it's all right if I show the bottom
16:18 of the course. Of course, of course. To the camera. So how many ports do we have for anyone? 21, 21, so we don't have six big giant nozzles, right? Yeah, so you can see, you know, I mean,
16:28 looks like a normal PDC bit on the outside, right? But when we look at the jet design and the nozzle design, instead of having a couple of jets here in between the cutters, we have 20 plus ports
16:44 here on the bottom Yes, and they're strategically placed and directed to the cutting edge, right, to the most stressed cutters, the guys that see the most action and get the most damage. Yeah.
16:57 And what that does - I wasn't gonna say, like one thing I didn't point out is that there are some here on the sides of the cutters. On the blades. Yes, on the blades. We put six on the six blades
17:07 there. We put a couple of openings, ports, whatever fancy word you want to use, right? But we make sure we put on the back of the blade, so the blades stay strong. And we directed those right
17:18 towards the cutting edge. And so what that's been able to help us do is bring the temperature down, you know, considerably by 30, 30, between 30 to 35 at the cutting edge. So, again, you can
17:31 tell me better than I can, what that does, right? More bit runs. You know, it's funny 'cause like when I started drilling wells in 2010, I mean, we still used roller cone bits for the majority
17:44 of the well and then really started adopting PDCs. And so I've seen kind of the evolution of bits firsthand. Let's talk about the business, like commercializing this thing. So you started a year
17:58 ago, almost. Yeah, yeah, almost. And October, you guys are almost a year in. You've got your bit design. What are you trying to do with this? Are you trying to go put bits down whole and sell
18:07 them to companies? Are you trying to sell the design? Tell me how you think about building the business and where you guys are at right now. Right, so our main three goals are investors. We had a
18:18 couple of initial investors. We're in the seed round, just leaving that round and going into a series A round of investment. We've raised some money. We have some cash flow money in our pockets.
18:30 We're spending someone marketing on building a sales force and team, obviously manufacturing is a big cost. Our goal is to have our own warehouse So we're having our guys build our bits at this
18:41 point eventually. And I guess essentially competitors of ours are building our bits, matrix and steel body, but that's a big goal. But investors, customers getting the bits down whole. We've
18:53 talked to some really large operators and some of them are our friends and connections back to the tennis world. And they're like, hey, dude, you got some great - It's awesome, it's innovative,
19:03 it's a new technology, it's patented, it's protected, it's a good design. And we're all about it, we love it, but we're not about breaking new technology. You know, we're about, you know, a
19:12 guy we talked about said, Hey, Wall Street won't let me do it. Literally, you know, so, but he said, Hey, get with some of these Tier 3 Tier 2 operators. Run your bits, get me 40, 50, 60,
19:22 run reports, right, evidence, get me some testimonyfrom the drilling directors, the pushers, right? And then we'll be your biggest customers So we're at that stage now and partnering with people,
19:32 maybe like yourself. So we're trying to find first pilot customer where you can actually get bits down a hole and run them. Yeah, I mean, look, it's the hardest thing. Like I respect anyone that
19:42 makes down hole tools in this industry because this industry's a follow-on industry. And so everyone likes technology, but they never wanna be the first one to put it in their well. And so it's
19:52 always that first one, but once you get that first one, and if it's successful, boom, I mean, it's a talk to the races and stuff. It's a funny position we're in because it's like the CFOs or the
20:02 COs, the guys that cut the checks, they're like, Oh, this is cool, wow, it makes sense. Well, I'm not a technical guy, but yeah, we love it. Let's do it, talk to my drilling engineers. We
20:09 talk to drilling engineers, they're like, Yeah, yeah, but they've had mostly good salaries, good jobs, big homes, wives, children, take care, right? And so we're in a tough little wedge
20:20 here where it's like we got these guys that like it, we got these guys that approve it, but sometimes they won't take the risk because we feel very confident in what this is gonna do. And we
20:30 actually have not just tests, but runs out in the field who were proving this is outperforming the technology, other technology, but some of these guys are comfortable in what they have. They're
20:41 comfortable in using the biggest, like I said, there's five companies that pretty much control the market. and they won't take a risk on the one or two percent chance that this doesn't work. Yeah.
20:51 Now that's their butt, right? Yeah, but
20:55 you know, these are challenges that all down a whole tool companies face and you can get it done. You just have to find that one champion that believes in it, right? And so that's what it is, is
21:07 a numbers game and talking to people. And so our call to action on the show today is if you're a drilling engineer listening, we're looking for pilots to get this bit down a hole So yes, go visit
21:18 CooledgeBitscom,
21:20 check my LinkedIn page, you know, get active in it. Just inquiries, we want to just talk to you and share with you what we have. Yeah, feedback loops, yeah. No, this is a, this is cool, man.
21:30 I love drilling technology. I'm a drilling boy, you know, broke out on rigs, drilling, and so it's not often I get to have downhill technology here on the show. And so I'm definitely hope that
21:41 this helps you guys some traction and some pilots. The only thing I ask from you is if you do, you can get me a testimony that you got. You got some business out there. Yes, of course, man. And
21:50 so I love, you know, kind of like
21:54 wrapping this up, man. I think that you're an entrepreneur's entrepreneur. And you know, I don't say that often about people, but what I loved about like one part of your story was, hey, I want
22:05 to found everyone told me this was the smartest bit design guy, got him and my dad, these two brainy acts together. Like that's what entrepreneurship is about, that's finding the smartest people
22:14 that you can, and bringing them together to solve problems. Did you have any experience in oil and gas before this endeavor? I got experience in people. I grew up in different parts of the world,
22:26 big cities. I've been through many things. I've seen everything, not everything, but a lot of things and dealt with all kinds of people. My experience is building relationships. I think when you
22:35 build a business, it's like business relationships like marriage. If you marry someone that's, maybe a little sour, you're gonna have a sour life, right? So same in business. So we try to
22:46 connect with people that have similar morals, missions, kind of values and goals and go from there. So yeah, that's just been my experience and putting this whole thing together. And in the end,
22:58 it's like, this is the American dream, right? We're immigrants from another country. Although I'll say I'm a Texan before anything, right? I was born on the other side of the world. I've been
23:07 here 30 plus years. So since you told me earlier, you're like middling over Moscow? Maybe even though that's my birthplace. But, you know, we're definitely into, you know, we have some
23:17 traction with Middle East, with Mexico and other parts of the world, but hey man, this is our back pocket, you know, this great state of Texas. And we want to get our bits down whole and get
23:27 some of these earlier runs. Like we're already having here in our state, you know, and in West Texas as well. And this design was kind of a little beefed up, you know, from the previous design.
23:38 It's four areas like West Texas or Hanesville. Yeah, and I'm super curious to see how it does once it gets downholed because, you know, I think that it makes sense on paper and in my head. And so,
23:53 really curious to see how it goes in. Yeah, we're also gonna have to, me and you are gonna have to go to court a podcast out sometime. I've never played a day of tennis in my life. I'd like to
24:01 learn how to play though. Yes. So, need some fundamental lessons in training and we'll go for court a podcast That's crazy, you say that because a lot of my students are like, man, you're a
24:12 pretty good, maybe one of the best people I've been across that like can get a story out of me. You know what I mean? You're like famous people that everyone knows that I teach this like, oh,
24:22 I've never shared any of this with anyone. But you don't know, that's funny. We won't say names on the show, but you're just telling me who some of your clients are and their kids. I mean,
24:30 you've got kind of who's who of Houston. The city that you're training and soYeah, great soft skills, which I think like. 90 of entrepreneurship is about soft styles. And so, what I said is that
24:42 you're an entrepreneur, you find people and connect them and make it happen. And so, yeah, what we'll do is a couple of things. One, we'll drop Yael's website in our show notes so people can
24:56 find it that way. If you're listening and you're interested in this, you can also go to collideio
25:03 and search Cool Edge Bits. Boom, bring up the video You'll be able to see this bit on video and so get a little bit better of a visual representation for it. So make sure to check that out. And
25:15 yeah, dude, I'm excited about this, man. It's cool stuff. And this is why we're here, man. We're really here to help drilling operations around the world and to help those people save money,
25:28 save time, and we feel a product is better. I don't like to say cheaper, more affordable and faster. We're gonna beat the price, you know, we're gonna do a better job, turn around faster and
25:42 get more things done. And especially offshore, we haven't even delved into, we've had some runs onshore and we have those statistics, but offshore is truly what my father says that this bit was
25:53 designed for. So we're excited. We'll try to help people make more whole, that's what it's about. Yeah, that's what it is. If you're listening, make sure you check it out. Share it with a
26:02 friend. If you had a friend that's a drilling engineer at EMP you'd be interested in this, share it with them. Appreciate you coming on the show, man. Thanks so much. Thank you. All right,
26:09 guys, we will catch you on next week's episode.