Middle Tech

334 | Vsimple: Buddy Bockweg on Why 99% of Companies Need to Retool Their Operations Before AI Can Deliver Real Value

99% of companies were built before AI became commercially available in 2023. Now every one of them must transform their operations or watch post-AI competitors do the same work with a fraction of the people.In this episode, Buddy Bockweg returns for his third Middle Tech appearance to explain why Vsimple raised $7 million and moved headquarters back to Louisville.Buddy breaks down the divide between pre-AI and post-AI companies, why the digital assembly line must come before AI deployment, and why starting transformation in 2028 means results in 203—potentially too late. We discuss the "SaaSpocalypse" eating software companies with each model release, why Vsimple requires deep customer engagement rather than self-service signup, and why the window to start this transformation is shorter than most leaders think.Hosted by Logan JonesMiddle Tech is proudly supported by:KY Innovation → kyinnovation.comAwesome Inc → awesomeinc.org

Mission Critical | The Urban Mine Nobody's Processing: Matt Bedingfield of Mint Innovation on Recovering Critical Minerals from E-Waste

The U.S. generates 8 million metric tons of e-waste annually, yet ships nearly 100% of its valuable circuit boards overseas for processing. Export bans and tariffs won't solve that—they'd just create stockpiles. The real fence we need to build is one that keeps material in.In this episode, Matt Bedingfield joins Logan to share how Mint Innovation is building that domestic processing capacity using biometallurgy—a method that combines chemistry with naturally occurring biological matter to extract critical metals like gold, copper, and silver from printed circuit boards. Matt draws on 16 years in metals recycling across four continents, from strategy roles at Novelis to building a $120 million copper smelter in Kentucky, and now as Global President of a company that's already partnered with HP to create closed-loop recycled copper for new EliteBook production.The conversation covers why the U.S. is 1 million tons short on copper annually, why Mint's 15-month, $40 million facility buildout challenges the traditional smelter model, how batch-level traceability lets OEMs own their supply chains, and what the Longview, Texas facility opening in 2027 means for domestic manufacturing. Matt also digs into the consumer behavior problem—aluminum cans hit 85% recycling rates in deposit states versus 15% without, yet e-waste lacks that mechanism. He breaks down why deposits work (Americans respond to financial incentive, not sustainability messaging), why even industry insiders have drawers full of old iPhones out of data privacy fear, and why the real bottleneck is infrastructure, not policy.Everything downstream—data centers, semiconductors, defense systems, grid infrastructure—starts with the metals we have the capacity to process at home.Hosted by Logan JonesMission Critical is proudly supported by:Valent → getvalent.comAbel Construction → abelconstruct.com

333 | Due Gooder: How Nate Royal Built an AI App That Onboarded 23K Students in January

A 21-year-old who failed all his classes freshman year just onboarded 23,000 students in a single month—and he built the company that did it.In this episode, Nate Royal joins us to share how he went from failing out of the University of Louisville and struggling with ADHD to co-founding Due Gooder, an AI-powered platform that turns syllabi into structured assignment schedules, calendar syncs, and deadline reminders. Now at 35,000 users across 4,000+ universities, Nate and his all-student founding team are rewriting the playbook on college entrepreneurship.We get into how a thousand printed flyers produced zero signups while a co-founder's random TikTok comments drove thousands of users overnight, why Nate believes nothing is a product problem anymore — it's 100% a marketing problem, how they raised a pre-seed round after being told they had "a feature, not a product," and what happened when their AI agent built an entire feature overnight using OpenClaw. We also talk pricing strategy, the UGC campaign that generated 2.8 million views, and why Nate has an age cap of 26 on his founding team.This is a conversation about distribution, conviction, and what happens when a founder builds the thing they desperately needed — then figures out how to get it in front of everyone else.Hosted by Logan JonesMiddle Tech is proudly supported by:KY Innovation → kyinnovation.comAwesome Inc → awesomeinc.org

Mission Critical | TVA Is Turning a Coal Plant into a Fusion Reactor: Tony Williams on the Infinity Project

A decommissioned coal plant in Clinton, Tennessee is on track to become the site of America's first commercial stellarator fusion reactor.In this episode, Tony Williams — Executive Sponsor of the Infinity Project at the Tennessee Valley Authority — joins us to share how TVA is partnering with Type One Energy to build a proof-of-concept fusion machine inside the retired Bull Run fossil plant, with a full-scale 400-500 megawatt power plant to follow.We toured the facility and discussed what's actually changed to make fusion viable now — from Oak Ridge's exascale supercomputer cutting year-long calculations down to a single day, to advances in manufacturing and material science. Tony breaks down the economics of fusion vs. conventional generation, why TVA chose the stellarator over the tokamak, and how the project is being de-risked through a coalition of partners including Type One Energy, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the DOE, and the University of Tennessee. We also explore what it means to repurpose aging fossil infrastructure for the next generation of energy production.Hosted by Logan Jones and Alex MercerMission Critical is proudly supported by:Valent → getvalent.comAble Construction → ableconstruct.com

332 | AI, Entrepreneurship, and Wealth in America: Logan & Evan on Building with AI, the OpenClaw Moment, and Why the American Dream Has to Survive This

A senior developer walks into a startup refusing to use AI coding tools. Three months later, he's compressing months of work into a single weekend—and says he'd never go back.In this episode, Middle Tech co-hosts Logan Jones and Evan Knowles sit down to unpack how artificial intelligence is reshaping entrepreneurship, from the tools founders use daily to the economic forces that will define the next decade. Logan walks through the AI-powered workflow he's built for Middle Tech's production, while Evan shares how Valent is using signal-based outreach and reasoning models to transform their sales processes.The conversation covers the OpenClaw moment and what it signals for agentic AI in 2026, why distribution and domain expertise are the new moats as software barriers collapse, how self-driving and healthcare AI are at our doorstep but not yet diffused, and why broader participation in AI-driven wealth creation is essential to the American Dream surviving this moment.Hosted by Logan Jones and Evan KnowlesMiddle Tech is proudly supported by:KY Innovation → kyinnovation.comAwesome Inc → awesomeinc.org