Adam Tank: Anti-Disruption: Selling Innovation to an Industry That Hates Risk | Make Water Work 035

2026-05-21

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The water industry doesn't want to be disrupted. And that's not a problem — it's the whole point.In this episode, Isaac sits down with Adam Tank, co-founder and Chief Communications Officer at Transcend, to talk about what it actually takes to build and sell technology in one of the most risk-averse industries in the world. Adam has spent his career at the intersection of water, startups, and design thinking — from GE's venture group to a water robotics company spun out of General Electric, to leading Suez's smart cities group, to co-...

The water industry doesn't want to be disrupted. And that's not a problem — it's the whole point.

In this episode, Isaac sits down with Adam Tank, co-founder and Chief Communications Officer at Transcend, to talk about what it actually takes to build and sell technology in one of the most risk-averse industries in the world. Adam has spent his career at the intersection of water, startups, and design thinking — from GE's venture group to a water robotics company spun out of General Electric, to leading Suez's smart cities group, to co-founding Transcend in 2019.

The conversation covers what the water industry still gets wrong about innovation, why the real opportunity might be in energy rather than water, and why the single most important word when selling to a utility isn't "efficiency" or "savings" — it's risk.

Adam covers:

→ How Ralph Exton and a GE internship started it all

→ Why solving non-revenue water isn't about finding the leaks

→ The single most important thing early-stage water entrepreneurs get wrong

→ Why "disruption" is the worst word you can use with a water utility

→ Risk mitigation as the real language of utility decision-making

→ The toilet-to-tap PR failure and what it says about water communication

→ Why over 50% of California's energy is water-related — and what data centers are forcing us to reckon with

→ How AI is about to change who can innovate in the water sector

→ Why Transcend is focused on the planning phase — and why 80% of project outcomes are decided there

The technology exists. The talent is there. What's missing is the ability to communicate value in the language utilities actually speak.

Connect with Adam Tank: linkedin.com/in/adamtank | adamtank.com | transcendinfra.com