Every so often, you come across a story that reminds you why you do what you do. This one started with a film.
Ramon Rubio invited me to join him on The Water MBA podcast. Before that, he’d recorded an episode with Alex Locopoulos from Sciens Water, where the conversation touched on something unexpected: a water documentary narrated by Liam Neeson.
That film—Brave Blue World—was where Ramon first encountered my work. He looked it up on Netflix and along the way discovered Water.org, co-founded by Matt Damon—two Hollywood names, and a powerful narrative about water innovation.
And then, as Ramon put it, the dots connected: the documentary was produced by BlueTech Research, the company I founded, and Sciens Water among others supported the second film, Our Blue World. That sense of a full circle is something I deeply appreciate.
Ramon comes from the EPC and business development side of the water sector—a world focused on reliability, track records, and getting infrastructure delivered. But, as he rightly pointed out, every “proven” technology on an approved vendor list started out as an idea—often in a lab or on a single engineer’s notepad.
How do those ideas make it into the real world? How do they move from pitch decks to projects? That’s the question at the heart of our conversation.
In our conversation, we started by looking back at the early days of BlueTech Research and why I believed the water sector needed a bridge—something to connect innovators with investors and utilities in a meaningful way. From there, we dove into the story behind the films: what inspired me to produce a documentary about water in the first place, and why that journey didn’t end with just one, but led to a second film.
We also explored the future—specifically, the emerging technologies I believe will shape the next decade of our industry. And finally, we reflected on something more personal: how to maintain a sense of curiosity and purpose, even after more than two decades working in this space.
Since Brave Blue World, we’ve released Our Blue World—a film that isn’t on streaming platforms but has been shown at special events like Aquatech Amsterdam, World Water Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival, Newport Beach Film Festival… It’s designed for deep engagement, not mass consumption.
At the same time, I published a book, The Dynamics of Water Innovation, which looks at how technologies evolve from idea to adoption. Ramon read it right after our conversation and shared that it gave him “a new lens on innovation”—particularly the distinction between crisis-driven and value-driven innovation, and the patience it takes to bring ideas to life.
That feedback means a lot because it reflects the bigger truth: water is not just infrastructure—it’s an ecosystem of ideas, decisions, and timing.
You can listen to the episode on The Water MBA and, if you’d like to explore these themes further, pick up a copy of the book here. And if you get the chance to watch the films—do. They’re stories about what’s possible when innovation meets persistence.
Thanks for reading. Let’s keep pushing boundaries—and sharing what we learn along the way.
