Latest / Serious Lady Business / From Neuroscience to Water Security: Building an Innovation Pipeline (and Community) with Soula Chronopoulos
Transcript
- Leslie Youngblood (00:01) Welcome back to Serious Lady Business. I'm Leslie Youngblood, your host, feminist and founder of Youngblood MMC, a marketing media and content agency. Today, I'm thrilled to introduce you to Sula Chronopoulos, president of Aqua Action, an organization at the forefront of empowering innovators and entrepreneurs to build and scale cutting edge water technologies that strengthen water security, sustainability and economic resilience. Sula brings more than 20 years of experience across executive leadership, digital transformation and innovation. She's launched startups, revitalized organizations and now leads national efforts to restore freshwater across North America. A recognized strategist and speaker, she's been named one of Canada's top 100 female entrepreneurs and is a 2026 Clean 50 Award recipient for her work supporting water tech entrepreneurs and ecosystem growth. Welcome, Sula, to Serious Lady Business. Soula Chronopoulos (00:58) Thank you, nice to be here, Leslie. Leslie Youngblood (01:00) I cannot wait to dive into your story and everything, all the good work that you're doing. And before we get into that, let's talk water. Why is water not just an environmental issue, but an economic and security issue? And what happens when leaders finally see it that Soula Chronopoulos (01:19) Yeah, that's a great question. It's a question. Even I asked myself before I joined this organization a few years ago, I I live in Canada, you know, and I live in the Great Lakes and Detroit too, and you'd think that we're surrounded by water and we've got plenty of it, but what we don't realize is we live three days without water. What we don't realize is that 1 % of the water in the world is actually potable. We can drink it. It's not 100%. We're surrounded by ocean. We can't drink salt water. So on one side, Leslie Youngblood (01:37) Hmm. Yeah. Right. Soula Chronopoulos (01:51) we have this wonderful resource that's everywhere. On the other side we don't realize that it's also a national security issue because yes we live three days without it. No water, no hockey, no water, no pizza, no cars, no food. We don't think about that. ⁓ And we don't want to think that water could be a challenge in a world that feels very scary right now. But we can't take our eye off of this because water runs our economy. ⁓ It runs approximately, I mean, if you look at the global GDP, I mean, it runs most of our global GDP right now. So. Leslie Youngblood (02:13) Mmm. Soula Chronopoulos (02:27) Water is not just something we open our tap and run. We need to make sure that water that we drink is healthy, that it can be used in our economy, can be recycled. And as the population grows, that 1 % water that we all share gets less and less for each of us. And what we're seeing is that we're heading for a global water crisis, probably by 2030, if not sooner, where almost half the world will not have access to water. Leslie Youngblood (02:49) Really. Soula Chronopoulos (02:53) We don't feel it here, but we see climate refugees. So it's important we focus on hope and solutions. Leslie Youngblood (03:00) And I'm sure, tell us a little bit about, you we have this new thing that's now draining water is AI and the rise of AI and everybody jumping on this AI train and evolution, which makes sense because it's this game changing technology, but it's really very detrimental to our water supply. And so I'm sure that that's just something really, I mean, I know AI, they've been developing AI over the past 10 plus years. But over the past two years, feels like everything is all about that. Tell us a little bit about how that's impacted your work and should also impact the way people think about water as an economic issue too. Soula Chronopoulos (03:36) Yeah, I mean, it's a great question and it's one that we've been grappling with almost daily now. That train has left the station. So we know AI is out there. We can't just hide and say we're not going to use it. We embrace it in the organization right now. We embrace it simply because we find it's a way for us to ⁓ manually connect entrepreneurs to opportunities through AI agents to be able to put out grant and funding requests faster to automate a lot of our manual work so that we can focus more Leslie Youngblood (03:41) Mmm. Mmm. Mm-hmm. Soula Chronopoulos (04:06) on our entrepreneurs, on our partners and on our mission to do good work in the communities. But at the same time, it can eat up all the energy of a large city. One center has the capacity to eat up the energy of a large city. And everybody's embracing it like nobody's business. And so what we've recognized is that there is a solution to this. And the solution has to be looking for new ways to cool these data centers because fresh water cools the Leslie Youngblood (04:11) Mm-hmm. Soula Chronopoulos (04:36) data centers, it's not salt water. And so we're seeing the emergence and we're looking for solutions in our ecosystem ⁓ for things like how can we cool it maybe in cold areas? How can we recycle that water so that it becomes a closed loop system that can cool the data centers? How can we look for other sources of energy, for example, to cool those data centers? So Leslie Youngblood (04:38) Mmm. Yeah. Soula Chronopoulos (05:01) You know, I think humanity is at its best when we're up against a wall. And we can't deny this train has left the station any more than we can just now refocus our amazing energy to solving it. And we can. And I see that. And that's where, you know, we need to embrace AI, but we also need to embrace, you know, solutions that will ensure our humanity, our economy, and our national security, as we've been discussing. Leslie Youngblood (05:06) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, definitely. What I think is so wonderful, you're so passionate, you're so educated, you're so accomplished in this space, but you didn't start out in the water space. You were a neuroscientist, right, Sula? And so I would love for you to tell us a little bit about your professional journey. I think also too, you know, being a woman and a neuroscientist, one being in the neuroscience in space. Soula Chronopoulos (05:42) ⁓ Yeah. Leslie Youngblood (05:56) And now also being in the environmental space and utility space too as a woman, think it would be, I'd be all ears to hear your experience and your story there. Soula Chronopoulos (06:06) You know, I laugh sometimes. Yes, I'm a neuroscience. I did research in Alzheimer's. ⁓ And sometimes I laugh that, you know, my trajectory has taken me to the root of the caca because utilities are, right? We're talking a lot about water treatment. But. Leslie Youngblood (06:18) ⁓ my god. Yeah, that's right! Literally, the root of the poop. ⁓ Soula Chronopoulos (06:27) ⁓ But at the end of the day, think that when I started out as a neuroscientist, I did a lot of research. what I learned in that world is that it's a pretty tough world, right? It's publish or perish. And I learned that there's a value to not be afraid of putting an enormous amount of work into something to move the needle forward by just inches. Because if you look at it from a systems perspective, the way Leslie Youngblood (06:53) Wow. Soula Chronopoulos (06:57) the research world works and any kind of scientific ⁓ domain works is that everybody adds a little bit to the story that creates those wonderful treatments that we're seeing in the world. And we just saw that now there's actually treatment for Alzheimer's that never existed when I was there. But I ⁓ saw the area as a way of understanding resilience. I there's nothing like losing your grant one year and having to survive off maybe stealing some paper from the bathroom because we had no money to buy that paper. But it taught me the value of hyper focusing on a mission. and not letting anything stop me. Not even the lack of a grant or lack of time. I mean, you put in the time, you get failure all the time. And the worst part is when you have success. I had a professor who would send me back to the drawing board to do my research over again, even though it would take six to eight months each time because he would never believe the first time. So, yeah, way. Leslie Youngblood (07:41) Hmm. No way. Was that like his general MO or was that because you were a woman presenting your research? Soula Chronopoulos (08:08) No? You know what? ⁓ I don't think it was because I was a woman at that stage. think back then it was publisher pair. So, you know, in the university, people don't necessarily ⁓ see that in you. They see like a workhorse. And I think that that was the M.O. back then. But it taught me like to trust the data, to repeat the data, to never give up. And so the first time you do something in works, you have to make sure it's repeatable. It's crazy. God rest his soul that he did that. Leslie Youngblood (08:16) Mm. Yeah, yeah. Soula Chronopoulos (08:39) but I think it helped. ⁓ Leslie Youngblood (08:40) It's a valuable lesson. A lot of people could learn that lesson day research, facts, ⁓ Resilience, right, exactly. And I love what you said too about how it taught you that all this time and effort and work and dedication in the needle moves a teeny tiny bit because I think especially with entrepreneurs, and I'm sure you see that with Soula Chronopoulos (08:47) Yeah, resilience, you know? Leslie Youngblood (09:03) founders that you work with through Aqua Action, is you put in all this work and you like want the entire world to change and you want it all to happen at once and like you're ready and it's like, ⁓ no, like not yet or you just made this little bit and you just have to keep going. And so I think to kind of rectify that, that. Soula Chronopoulos (09:18) That's right. Leslie Youngblood (09:23) is the person like, OK, I'm going to do all this. And even if I move the needle just a little bit, but it still matters and it still adds up because all the others around you are also moving that needle, too. I think that is actually a really profound lesson to learn through like the scientific method, truly. Soula Chronopoulos (09:39) Yeah, and you know, I think one lesson I learned and probably this is where, you know, it started building my confidence as a woman. I mean, it is, they are very male dominated, a lot of these sectors right now. But, you know, there were a couple of instances where I was prolifically publishing a lot of data. And there was ⁓ one instance in particular, there was a terrible student in my lab and the professor wanted him out and what he did. And, you know, I don't know if you know much about the scientific world, but when you Leslie Youngblood (09:49) Mm-hmm. Soula Chronopoulos (10:09) publish your work, first authorship is a big deal because that tells the world you are the one that drove that study. And on two occasions, he made somebody else a first author simply because he wanted them to have a publication that they never would have gotten on their own and he wanted them out of the lab. Leslie Youngblood (10:13) Mm. Soula Chronopoulos (10:30) And that struck me at the time that I didn't fight back at the beginning and I was angry. And I also learned at that time that I will never let that happen to me again in life. And it sort of created in me like this. Leslie Youngblood (10:42) Mm. Soula Chronopoulos (10:46) this, guess, I don't know if I would call it confidence, but more like a mission to achieve things, take all the things that I've learned, but never let people push me down and take away my work, you know, long term, because my work is worth something and not because I'm just a woman. I'm, Leslie Youngblood (10:56) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Right. Soula Chronopoulos (11:05) I'm a solid researcher and I can achieve these things and never let anybody tell me otherwise. So that was also a big learning moment when I realized, you know, also that the lab wasn't the end of the story, but it was also the beginning of impact and the beginning of my confidence. Leslie Youngblood (11:21) Hmm, yeah, I think there's so much to be said there too, where you hear, what's the moment that radicalized you? Or what's a moment that woke you up or shook you? And I think that so many times we can pinpoint it to one of those instances where you're like, wait a second. And it's almost like, I don't know, the world, it's almost, I feel like it's like a movie and I've experienced that, was like, whoa. And it's just kind of. Soula Chronopoulos (11:43) Yeah. Yeah. Leslie Youngblood (11:47) And it just nothing is ever the same from there for better and sometimes for worse, because once you see it, you can't unsee it. But it's also a gift because then you can't unsee it. And then you kind of recognize the game, game for game. And no, now. ⁓ OK. What's up? Like it's on now. Right, right. So you are in the neuroscience, you're publishing papers. How did you pivot to water, Sula? Soula Chronopoulos (11:59) totally. What's up man, that ain't gonna happen again. Yes, absolutely. ⁓ You know, I got pregnant. I mean, those babies, I got pregnant with my second child at the time and I remember... ⁓ Leslie Youngblood (12:22) ⁓ those babies. Soula Chronopoulos (12:31) I took off and my professor would call me literally like every second day, Sula come back your head's gonna turn to mush. And then I saw him, I loved him. I loved him like a father, but he had lost his family. He was toiling away in this university, in this academic institution. And I just think when I left, I didn't see my life. being that anymore. So I took on a role in e-learning at the time, which was really new, and I became a medical writer. And I just realized that there's this whole other new world where I can use these skills and really develop large global launches for pharmaceutical companies. And I learned a whole new sector, how it functions, and it changed my life. I stayed there in that digital transformation e-learning. world for a long time until one day I got a call a couple years ago from a foundation whose mission was water, the Fondation de Gaspé-Beaubien. They are the ones that brought the cell phone to North America. yeah, they're an incredible family but their mission was water and I thought okay let me just go to this meeting. I mean water, we don't have a problem with water. Leslie Youngblood (13:36) Wow. you Soula Chronopoulos (13:48) But I realized after that meeting when I met the matriarch, Nan-Bi Degaspi-Bobien, an incredible, incredible woman who had her own share of carving her space in this world with her husband who was also incredible. And I said, I can't believe this. need to, this is my new calling. So it changed my life, but... I was an entrepreneur, you know, I had my own business, I was a scientist, so I had this whole notion of data and entrepreneurship and I brought it to a non-profit ⁓ charity and I run it differently. But because we run it in a different way and we think differently about it, I think about it as a startup. We're able to achieve impact and just seeing how we can grow more food with less water, just seeing how we can treat water quicker, how we can accelerate, for example, our ability to create new energy sources and ⁓ revamp, for example, the tailings ponds in the oil and gas industry. It's tangible, you know, as opposed to science. where you put that little brick and you watch that become part of a larger body of work, here you're actually seeing it. ⁓ for me, it's a passion now, it's no longer a job. So I think that's how I made that transition. Leslie Youngblood (15:13) Yeah, that's amazing. I love that. And I think also too, and I would love to hear your opinion on this, is now leading an organization, going through what you went through in your previous experience and seeing how others act and how you don't, how you would never lead, how you would never lead or how you would never treat someone. And so I would love to hear about some of those lessons that you apply now to Aqua Action that enable you to be an incredible leader ⁓ from some of the good and bad lessons that you've learned along your way as well from others. Soula Chronopoulos (15:48) ⁓ You know, it's funny, I don't know that I qualify myself as an incredible leader, but maybe I just do things that feel good, right? There's two parts and I, you know, a story I will share with you ⁓ that kind of changed my perspective. Because as women, always sometimes are our worst enemy, right? We don't give ourselves permission to be... Leslie Youngblood (16:12) Yes. Soula Chronopoulos (16:15) less than incredible. And in doing so, you know, we also sometimes get reputations that, you know, a woman who has a strategy in mind or wants to achieve something is, you know, a witch with a B. ⁓ But a man who has the same drive is an incredible leader, you know. There's this duality to it. But I've learned to embrace that and I'm OK with that. Leslie Youngblood (16:31) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Soula Chronopoulos (16:43) And I think the turning point for me was this can be a little profane, but it was when I sold my business and I was living in Atlanta at the time and I was part of a larger global corporation. And I remember sitting in a conference room with a colleague. We were both VPs waiting to see the CEO. And, you know, it was catching up this whole, you know, underlying tone of, you know, dongle jokes of Leslie Youngblood (17:12) Hmm. Soula Chronopoulos (17:13) ⁓ I was the only woman. Leslie Youngblood (17:13) Retire those, like my goodness, the jungle jokes. Soula Chronopoulos (17:17) the dongle jokes, there was dongle jokes, there was, and then there was the question behind the question, right? That came up occasionally. Unfortunately for this poor chap, he asked me this in the meeting, it was just him and I, and he said to me, how did you get here? Leslie Youngblood (17:22) Mm-hmm. Soula Chronopoulos (17:33) And I turned around and I think I probably had enough of this, had enough of accepting this quiet toxicity, not being accepted that I got there in my own accord because I actually had the chops and the skill and the smarts to run businesses and be where I am. And I said to Mo, it's pretty clear, I chucked my way up here and I'm being chucked with an F. Leslie Youngblood (17:55) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Soula Chronopoulos (17:55) And he looked at me and he was horrified. I said, I didn't say that. I said, actually you did. Your question was exactly that. You're asking me whether I slept my way to the top or whether, you know, because you can't believe that as a woman, I actually have the skills to be here. He was so horrified that I actually confronted him with this, that ⁓ it changed my reputation in the organization. And I would say that the Donald joke stopped. Leslie Youngblood (18:02) Thanks Mmm. Thank God. Soula Chronopoulos (18:23) We became good friends. ⁓ But I think what that taught me was that I never let ⁓ people attack me that way. I go in there not thinking I'm a woman, but I go in there feeling confident about what I can do. And I talk about it that way. I look people in the eye. But at the same time, I think I don't forget that my team... Leslie Youngblood (18:39) Mm-hmm. Soula Chronopoulos (18:47) is my customer too and I take care of them and I bring out that mothering I guess with that that wonderful emotion we have to my team but also to the entrepreneurs because ⁓ that's how you inspire people you have to believe in them you have to make sure that you give them the space to act and you are a hockey coach you're not the know-it-all you've got to put together people and treat them with respect and believe in them even when they fail Leslie Youngblood (18:52) sure. Soula Chronopoulos (19:16) to make sure they make it. because it could be a lonely job and we got one life and I don't believe in abusing a team. I believe in being good to them. So in the public, I'm one way confident. I dress things head on when people say them to me and I teach people to say the same thing, especially entrepreneurs, like don't let people put you down. Go with your gut, be confident in your skills and especially as a woman. Leslie Youngblood (19:24) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Soula Chronopoulos (19:48) We tend to tear each other down ⁓ because we feel that pressure to be better, you know, and compete. When we take that away and we just represent ourselves, I think that is when we actually become our true selves as women leaders. We've got to let that go. Leslie Youngblood (19:50) Mm-hmm. I'm here. Yeah, yeah, I agree. think that it's just amazing and I kinda wanna just like sit with that entire, you know, everything you just said there because I think it is, there's so much profound goodness in there too. And just even the fact that we've, every single woman has probably been in a situation where somebody has said something off hand or off cough to them and I would. Wager to bet, nine out of 10 of us will just let it go, because you don't want to be seen as difficult or, whatever, he stinks or this or that. And you think, to challenge it, you'd have to like really, I don't know, whatever, but just a simple response like that challenge, not. Soula Chronopoulos (20:36) That's right. Leslie Youngblood (20:51) not mean, like, or just like, yeah, you're right. You know, and it's like that type of thing, because they don't expect you to have anything to say back to them. They think that like they would. And that simple perspective shift for them of just you, a simple phrase, you standing up for yourself, like you said, changes an entire trajectory and also changes you internally too, because you realize like, yeah, that's all it takes. Like, yeah, that's right. I don't give a rip about you and what you think, because you know it's not true. And I'm going to just, you know, and I think that is so fantastic. And like you said, that makes you a better leader. All these things that you go through. I think as women, we have such unique gifts to offer as leaders, you know, different perspectives that we bring men and women. We complement each other, right? Like we all can be great leaders. There's some better than others. There's ways that women could never be that men get praised for. ⁓ Right. And surely, you know, it's so it's just, think, so important. And I'm I really hope everybody listening takes that away right now from your experience. And, you know, again, Soula Chronopoulos (21:27) No. Leslie Youngblood (21:50) I think what is so fantastic too is with Aqua Action, about 55 % of your programs, your program entrance are women founders. ⁓ And so I think that is so great. Is that a deliberate choice in sourcing selection? Tell us about just how that must be a delight to see women in this really important space. So I would love to hear your take on that, Sula. Soula Chronopoulos (21:58) Yes. Yeah, I mean it's a good question and people ask me that question. I love that question, Leslie. But you know, I think that if you step back and you know, when you're hiring, right, and you don't look at the name and you just look at the CV, you're going to default to a better mix of a team because you're going to see women and men come on. I think there's a natural bias towards men many times, especially in the engineering sector and a lot of who comes through our programming are engineers. So, you know, there's a couple of things we do. There's the deliberate things which, you know, we go out and we engage schools. And in the schools nowadays, the beauty is that there's a lot more women in research. And so we're empowering them to join the program and solve problems, right, for water. ⁓ Leslie Youngblood (22:48) Mm-hmm. Soula Chronopoulos (23:08) we go where they are, know, we're going to go to networks, university, industry groups, underrepresented groups in general. But when we turn a blind eye to who's applying, what we find is naturally, we get almost a 50-50 split when they come in, which is incredible. And I've seen this many times in my career. I remember I was building out a team in Morocco once and Leslie Youngblood (23:10) Yeah. Mm-hmm. Soula Chronopoulos (23:36) Morocco is a very patriarchal society. It's an amazing society of wonderful humans, but it's still patriarchal in many ways. And in the team that was already existing when I took over, there was very few women. ⁓ But when we started building out the team and we started masking the names and we just looked at the skill set, we ended up having, again, a 50-50 split and in fact, two project managers, which was unheard of at the time. Leslie Youngblood (24:05) Hmm. Soula Chronopoulos (24:06) So I think that there's a little bit of a deliberateness and I think a lot of it is like, you can do it, you should apply, giving them a little bit of that confidence. But I think that when we turn that blind eye, we look at it from a skills and a solution perspective. Women are incredibly brilliant, as much as men. I would say more of an equalist than a feminist. I've got boys and girls in my family. Leslie Youngblood (24:29) Sure. Sure. Yeah. Soula Chronopoulos (24:33) But I do recognize that, ⁓ you know, ⁓ representation is not a panel. It's actually a default setting. And we sometimes have to make that effort to have them there, to select for them. But that's becoming less and less of an issue, I think, as we go forward, which is also very hopeful. Leslie Youngblood (24:45) Mm-hmm. Yes, definitely encouraging. I mean, that must be a delight. And what I also think is so great too about that is water is an on-ramp to careers. It's something that is so important, you know, as we talked about previously to society and to our world as we move forward and to have water scarcity be a crisis by 2030. I mean, that's not that far away, like truly. And so I think to have both... brilliant men and women coming up with solutions is just going to get us a way to solve that problem and hopefully avoid that crisis. And I think that it just has to be so fun to be able to connect and see the innovation and the diversity of founders that come into the Aqua Action Program within the water space too. Soula Chronopoulos (25:22) Yeah. gave you an interesting stat. And I don't think many people know this, but ⁓ you got to see what they do, not what they say. Okay. So, and I'm saying this because if you look at the national security strategy in 2024 of the United States and this global threat report, water scarcity for the first time was actually ⁓ in that strategy. They named it as a global threat. And what that meant is that the United States at the time, started putting infrastructures in place, know, looking at cyber security of our utilities, looking at pathways to protect the water, ⁓ designating water technologies as dual use because they're also ⁓ for the military, Military needs clean water on its bases, ⁓ needs to grow food, needs to, you know, build ⁓ societies and everything that we do all over the world, right? So that has been recognized by the government. The government has been funding this. Canada is Leslie Youngblood (26:24) Yeah. Soula Chronopoulos (26:40) now coming on board with that. And I think that most countries right now are starting to look at water as a national security issue and water security as an imperative. So when we think about, you know, ⁓ where we are and where we're going, we know we've been fighting over oil for the last 50 years, but the next 50 years we're going to be fighting over water. Leslie Youngblood (26:47) Yeah. to learn. Yeah. Soula Chronopoulos (27:03) You see it coming with the data centers, with where technology is going, with the growing population, with ⁓ climate impacts, environmental impacts. It's going to be our battle and we're seeing it and that's why they're becoming a hot commodity. And we look at investment, there's a ton of investment now going into water technologies. Fortunately, less than 4%, depending on the source, goes to women. Leslie Youngblood (27:05) Hmm. Right. Mm-hmm. Hmm. Mmm. That's it. Soula Chronopoulos (27:32) But it's growing, you know, and I think when we look at it from a women's perspective, we still have battles ahead of us as women. But as a sector, it is the sector to think about. think for anybody listening, finding sources of water, recycling that water, using it more effectively, especially to make sure that our economy runs, because 60 % of our economy runs on fresh water, is going to be the battle of the future. Water is the new oil. Leslie Youngblood (27:38) Mm-hmm. Yes. Yeah, water's the new oil. That is quite profound, but it makes perfect sense for all of those examples that you shared. And I work with a wastewater service organization here in Metro Detroit. what is, before I worked with them, I didn't think about. my pipes or where my water went, like, or my disposal in my sink that you shouldn't, it just, you know, it's been such an education. But I think also too, more importantly, outside of my education is you realize within the United States, the infrastructure and the pipes are old and Soula Chronopoulos (28:31) They're falling apart, yeah. Leslie Youngblood (28:32) You're falling apart and this is just in one metro area in Michigan, let alone the entire United States, let alone with the population growing, let alone with the climate evolution and it being like a security issue. This is an aging infrastructure. And so it excites me in a way that. We need people to come up with great solutions for this and sustainable solutions. And that it's an opportunity for young people to come in and solve this that was not something that was ever like at the forefront when I was coming of age and looking for something to go into. But I think the utility space and water specifically is so the opportunities are so enormous and urgent. And so it's just, you know, so timely. we don't most people don't even realize, like you said, but we're there. And it's time, we need help. And what I think is so great too is that Aqua Action started in Canada and you recently established headquarters in Detroit, Michigan and came to the United States. Tell us what makes Detroit that fertile ground for water and climate taxula, why Detroit and where do you see the cross-border synergy next? Soula Chronopoulos (29:19) We're there. Yes. Yeah, I love Detroit. mean, I think that everybody thinks about Detroit from, you know, what happened economically, you know, a couple of years back, they think about Flint, they think about all of these terrible things that, you know, this region has gone through. ⁓ but when I visited Detroit for the first time and... ⁓ You know, I was lucky. We've been working with the U.S. Department of Commerce, who's been incredible partners to us in bringing this whole machine that we've built with hundreds of entrepreneurs to Michigan now. And I thought, OK, well, I don't know, Michigan, maybe, you know, Illinois. But I think that the first time I went to Detroit, you just feel that energy. You feel like you see a city that's been revitalized. You see people willing to take risks like they're not afraid. You see grit like seriously. talk about grit but you see the grit. Leslie Youngblood (30:36) I know. Yeah. Soula Chronopoulos (30:38) And every single person we interacted with from, you know, the folks that are rebuilding Detroit, you know, like Dan Gilbert and the Illich family, all the way down to ⁓ the people on the ground who are proud of their city. I just felt like if we're going to come and we're going to build a new economy in water technologies, we can make Detroit and Michigan the water hub of the world. Like that should be our new hub. It sits on the Leslie Youngblood (31:05) Mm-hmm. Soula Chronopoulos (31:08) Great Lakes. It's Leslie Youngblood (31:09) Right? Soula Chronopoulos (31:10) got resilience like in its DNA now. ⁓ And I couldn't think of a better place for us to set up shop to create that corridor of innovation with the U.S. and Canada because we're doubling down on that. We will never shy away from that. There's too many great innovators on both sides of the border and Leslie Youngblood (31:13) you Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm. Soula Chronopoulos (31:34) Great Lakes are going to be the target, know, of a lot of, you know, I guess a target because the Great Lakes have also this ambition to grow like it's the third largest economy in the world right now and they have the ambition to grow. Yes, it's a six trillion dollar economy. Leslie Youngblood (31:36) bright. Is it really the Great Lakes region? Wow. Wow. So what that must have to, cause I know California as a state is like in the top five or something too, but then the Great Lakes region too, Sula. Wow. I mean, wow. Amazing. I did certainly did not. I'm going to go to the hospital after. I'm like, should you know? I'm going to Google it. That's amazing. Yes. Soula Chronopoulos (32:02) third largest economy in the world. Yeah, I bet you do know that and, I you. Google it, absolutely. And so they have these ambitions to grow. And we thought, well, we're going to go with the water is the opportunity is the passion is the grid is and and what we found was a community that embraced us wholeheartedly. So the Great Lakes region, Detroit specifically because of its history for us, it's on the front lines. It's not just our backyard. It's on the front lines of what's going to happen with water. So that is where I think the leadership, the innovation and water technologies and and when I say tech technologies, nature-based solutions, AI, everything you can imagine is going to come from that region and we want to be right there with the people ⁓ that we're going to help and enable to do that. Leslie Youngblood (32:49) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm. Yeah. Yeah, that's incredible. I'm so excited. We're so excited that you're here. And I love when other people love Detroit is or like fall in love with it and see because I think of like you said, it has this reputation still and it's so underrated and it just blows my mind. And it's like, I don't understand. Like, what are you? But and I also think that something, too, that's been really interesting is that what is Detroit? net like not that it has to be the next, but, you know, the Motor City is right, like in our blood and in Soula Chronopoulos (33:13) That's right. Leslie Youngblood (33:29) in Motown and you we have these like cultural roots and industrial roots, but what is going to be the industry that drives the city and the region forward? And when it's like everything's just clicking like duh, it's water. We have this water crisis in here. This smack dab in the middle of these great lakes like and what an opportunity. Soula Chronopoulos (33:45) It's water. Leslie Youngblood (33:51) to have for a state, a community, like people, families, like economy, ⁓ that just trickles out, it's kind of a funny word, like, you know, as water does, ⁓ to benefit everybody as much as possible. And so I just think that is so cool. I mean, it makes perfect sense. I love that so much. Yes. Soula Chronopoulos (34:07) Exactly. ⁓ It's a great story, Leslie. I I sit on Woodward Avenue, Beautiful Woodward Avenue. I recommend coming down and visiting, taking a walk up and down, anybody. You're going to see so much history, the Detroit Tigers, Ford Field and all that. But you look at Detroit River and right across we're looking at Windsor, Canada. And I think that tells a beautiful story how we are intertwined and we're all connected by water. We have families on both sides of that river. Leslie Youngblood (34:15) Mm-hmm. I Yes. Yes. Mm-hmm. Soula Chronopoulos (34:41) And we cannot afford to not focus and do something about it because that is going to be what our future generations are going to need. So we've got to start now to prepare for what's coming. And I think it's here. It's in our back door. Opportunity, opportunity, opportunity. Whenever there's crisis, there's opportunity. Leslie Youngblood (34:54) Yeah, I completely agree. Yeah, I completely agree. I always will say like every single day humanity is on the precipice of their own demise. Right. Every single day is the most extreme day in the history of the world. Right. And every single day we're just moving the ball and trying to keep ourselves from ruining everything. Right. And so but there but I also see opportunity like in every innovation that creates problems, it creates opportunity to rectify or to shift. Right. Where Soula Chronopoulos (35:06) Yes. Yes. That's right. Leslie Youngblood (35:27) for example, plastic, and it was this great innovation. You didn't use glass, it didn't break. And then we start to realize, well, we're ingesting plastics, microplastics. Now we need to fix that. And so there's innovation to move away from that. And so it's just so, it's also, it's a kind of meta if you think about it, right? Like it becomes almost existential when we think about industry and the economy and capitalism, really, like at end of the day. Soula Chronopoulos (35:52) Yeah. Yeah, and you know, I think it's important for all your listeners out there when I say water, right? I don't necessarily mean just water. I mean energy. And I'll give you an example. I had a wonderful chemist, brilliant. She came up with a way to harness algae that is choking a lot of our water and turn it into energy. And you know, she thought that was cute. She thought that was great. It was a good project until she realized that this could transform the energy sector. This could transform the oil and gas. Leslie Youngblood (36:03) Mmm. Wow. Mmm. Soula Chronopoulos (36:24) industry and sometimes you know when we think about water you've got to think about it as you know manufacturing, cosmetics, food. ⁓ We talked about energy but you got to think about it as housing. If we don't have water we can't build houses. ⁓ Leslie Youngblood (36:31) Mm-hmm. Mmm. Soula Chronopoulos (36:41) You look at Jasper Park that burned down, that was a huge catastrophe in Canada, right? Our entrepreneurs are cleaning up the soil in Jasper Park that ⁓ had toxins in it following the fire due to the gas breaks, et cetera, because we're preventing that from going into the water that's gonna affect the water that comes out of our taps. So water's everywhere. You have nothing without water. And I think that when we realize that, Leslie Youngblood (36:45) Hmm. Mm-hmm. Bye. Mm-hmm. Soula Chronopoulos (37:09) I think we are kind of like a big tent. I don't care how old you are. Half of my entrepreneurs are over the age of 50. You can bring your brilliance to solve problems that we have out there. And we're launching our aqua hacking. If I could do a quick little plug to Leslie. February 2nd, our big, bi-national Great Lakes Aqua Hacking Program. We're expecting a thousand participants of all ages to solve the problems, including AI and data centers. Leslie Youngblood (37:26) Yes. Hmm. Soula Chronopoulos (37:39) So if you've got an idea, this is the place to come. We're going to help you bring that idea to fruition, test it, and bring it to the market. We're not stopping at that cohort. And today, you know, this whole ecosystem... in water is everywhere from municipalities to hotelry to ⁓ travel to food and they're generating over 200 million dollars a year in annual revenue. It's no no ⁓ no chopped liver so there's opportunity. Leslie Youngblood (38:09) Right. my goodness. Of course. that's February 2nd and it's the Aqua hacking. And so we'll drop all the links to and it's going to be in Detroit. And so if you're in the area or just come to Detroit, if you're listening, you're not local here. But even like you said, Sula, if you have just an idea, right, that's on a napkin or on a, on a notepad, right. You don't have to come with something fully formed, like tell us like two. So people realize I don't have to have a business plan or a deck or Soula Chronopoulos (38:17) We're going to be in Detroit. Yeah. Leslie Youngblood (38:38) of this or that to come and participate. Soula Chronopoulos (38:38) not at this stage. Tell me how you think you can solve it. I've got a caterer who figured out how to recycle water in infrastructure. He's got 14 projects and municipalities here in Quebec. I've got another gentleman in Detroit, right, who I believe he studied religious studies. In fact, he had an idea on how to use bioengineered ⁓ mushrooms to destroy PFAS and soil before it gets into our water. So he's recycling or restoring brownfields. And we're looking at projects with the Port of Detroit, the airport of Detroit, for example, to run these things. Come in with your idea. I don't care who you are. We are recruiting. We're going to be at the UTX. Leslie Youngblood (39:00) 11. Soula Chronopoulos (39:24) I believe it's February 2nd, we're having a recruiting event. But even if you miss that, go to our website, go to the Aqua Hacking program, register, come in. It might change your life and it might save the planet. Leslie Youngblood (39:37) Oh my gosh, I mean, what more is there to say? I mean, you be a hero, save the world. I mean, truly save the world. An awkward hero, yeah. And like you said, like this isn't just here's an idea and we'll help you develop it. Like, no, you've helped drive adoption in 60 plus municipalities, you know. Soula Chronopoulos (39:45) You could be a hero, could be an Aqua hero. Correct. Leslie Youngblood (39:59) And so it's like, it's not just the idea or the creation. It's like the implementation. It's the relationships because when it's like within municipalities, that's a lot of relationship driven work there. But tell us and also to what have you seen that convinces utilities to take a chance on that new tech? And are there proof points, you know, anything that you've learned about navigating, you know, the founders and the individuals and it's all innovation. It's so exciting. But you've also had the success of bringing it to market, which is probably the most important thing. So tell us a little bit about that too, Sula. Soula Chronopoulos (40:31) Yeah, mean, we're talking a lot about utilities ⁓ because that is a hard market to get into, but it's also a gold card. when you think about the entrepreneur journey, it's a scary journey. could be lonely, you know, but I think the turning point, and I know we want to talk a little bit about the Death Valley that everybody talks about, the famous Death Valley, but... Our goal with the municipalities and how we get them in there is that they want certainty. They don't necessarily want innovation, but they just want to be more efficient. Yet they don't have the manpower, they don't have the funding, and they're kind of stuck in many ways doing things the way they've always done them because it's always an underfunded ⁓ sector, unfortunately. So I think what we do is that we'll go in when we have a technology that we feel, you know, has legs, we've de-wristed, we've tested it, we've gotten an MVP. We knock on those doors and we say, look, we're gonna do this and the outcomes are gonna be this if this works. And we show them the impact of that. We manage it, we oversee it, we evaluate it. So then it's easy for the municipality, they don't have to put manpower into it. We find funding if we require to fund that pilot. So we'll get funding, we raise those funds and we make it happen. get one project in a municipality, then that entrepreneur gets 50. Because any time a municipality takes that chance, does something amazing, every municipality, every utility thing knows about it. And so our biggest success stories have done that, you know, and there's an incredible success story in Detroit right now. And it's called Mott Mott, if you want to see an example, right? They were environmental engineers. ⁓ They came into our program. They didn't even win. You know, the program. Leslie Youngblood (42:19) Cool. I love that. You have to win to do this, Soula Chronopoulos (42:28) You don't have to win, right? You don't because you're part of the community. And they came in with an incredible idea. had these underwater robots ⁓ and they were measuring quality and looking for for cracks in the infrastructure of the municipality because 30 percent of our water up to 30 percent that is treated is lost due to cracks. So you can imagine now retreating that water, carbon, et cetera. So these guys came in and this incredible idea and slowly but surely, you know, they are at New Lab. Leslie Youngblood (42:33) Mmm. Soula Chronopoulos (42:58) If you want to visit them, but they managed to open up the doors through a brilliant method. They had a price point that was low enough for the municipality to say, okay, and he's got, you know, about 40 or 50 pilots right now. And in fact, he's come to Canada. We even got a pilot now happening here in Quebec. He is so good that, you know, he's about to open up his next seed, his next funding round. And we think that's going to be the next unicorn I mean he's got a formula he's got a solution it's de-risks municipalities of you know minute the first one did it I think that he's kind of getting it into everywhere his challenge right now is having the hands to do all of these pilots that's a good problem Leslie Youngblood (43:30) and. Right, keep up with the demand. Right, sure. Yeah, to have the boots on the ground or the hands to help you meet that demand. Yeah, so amazing. Yes. Soula Chronopoulos (43:50) Yeah. Yeah. It's a local success story to Detroit. He's an amazing human being. Elliot Smith, if anybody wants to talk to him. Elliot, I'm putting you out there. But he's an example of the grit, you know, and the future ⁓ blue economy that we're very excited that's going to be built. Leslie Youngblood (44:01) Mm. Yes. Now you mentioned the Death Valley, that many founders get lost in the Death Valley. What does that mean, Sula? Tell us about the Death Valley. Soula Chronopoulos (44:20) Yeah, the Death Valley is really the place that ⁓ you've got your idea, you've built your MVP, and now you're struggling with, you your clients getting it out there or struggling with the manufacturing side. Maybe you need to scale. And entrepreneurship is a very, very lonely place. And I would say that half the battle is mental at this point. Leslie Youngblood (44:44) I would say 75 % myself. yeah, ballpark, at least 50, at least at the very least, yes. Soula Chronopoulos (44:47) maybe 75 percent. maybe 75 percent and I would say that you know for a lot of these organizations who reach that point you know it can feel very ⁓ stifling suffocating because you got maybe got a family maybe you got loans maybe you got all kinds of things happening and you're scared and You know, what we do is we address the Death Valley ourselves. We've created ⁓ the ability, I mean, most of my entrepreneurs have my phone number. They call me directly, they call my whole team, and we sit there and we listen. We help them think about new places to go, connect them with right people. Sometimes it's just listening to them cry. That's all they need. They don't want to show their teams, they don't want to show that vulnerability, but it's so important to have somebody to talk to, number one. Leslie Youngblood (45:30) Mm-hmm. Soula Chronopoulos (45:39) Number two, though, ⁓ more concretely, we ourselves have embraced AI, like I mentioned earlier. And now what we've done is we've created AI agents and are gathering a water tech network across North America that we can tag to different ⁓ entrepreneurs. we can match entrepreneurs to pilots, to contracts, to opportunities, like quickly. And so this ability for us to match to real world projects and grants, we help them get over that death. Leslie Youngblood (46:03) . Soula Chronopoulos (46:09) Valley. I think that connections are important, talking to people is important, having those resources for them is important, but you know... ⁓ It's, it's, we treat loneliness like a leading indicator in the Death Valley. We treat that first, then we can overcome the rest because getting those opportunities is important. Giving them the confidence to know they can do that and they're not failures is important. And sometimes if it is a failure, it's also a place where they can learn. ⁓ And we give them strategies to move forward, maybe to pivot that technology, but we, we, we really doubled down on them in that Death Valley. Leslie Youngblood (46:23) Mm-hmm. Soula Chronopoulos (46:49) Because for us, that is where we see success in helping them turn it around and moving past that. And you can overcome that. Everybody goes through it. I went through it six times. Leslie Youngblood (46:49) Mm-hmm. Yes. ⁓ Right. And it makes you feel better because I think so many of them and I've even seen like you feel like you're the only one nobody's gone through this before. don't nobody will understand what a silly, ridiculous thing. But we just do that to ourselves. And I think one of the most beautiful things that I've even learned and what I love so much is that even in this age of technology, AI Soula Chronopoulos (47:10) Nobody. Everybody. Yeah. Leslie Youngblood (47:27) virtual, etc. The thing that changes the game for probably 90 plus percent of entrepreneurs is other people, community, a network, that person, the human to human connections that I'm going to catch you this person have a conversation or join this pod or have, you know, you know, right back. I mean, it's it's just kind of incredible. ⁓ Right. And it's so true and powerful because at the end of the day, you are just a person trying to figure this out. And Soula Chronopoulos (47:35) Yes. Leslie Youngblood (47:56) You're not the first one to try to figure it all out. And so what a gift to have, you know, the network that Aqua Action provides them and to help get them through that death valley because a lot of people won't make it like through that. And I think that's sad because we lose those innovations. Soula Chronopoulos (48:08) now. You know, I'll give you an example. When you say community, I have an incredible colleague. He works for us in Detroit. His name is Will Kitchen. And in Northwest Michigan College, where we began, they were our first partners in the region. They started something called the Office of Possibilities. And Will and this incredible team at Grove, Grove Incubator out there, started creating these Tuesday mornings where you can come in as an entrepreneur and you have 60 seconds to give, ⁓ share something, you have an ask or you have a give. Leslie Youngblood (48:46) Mm. Soula Chronopoulos (48:47) That community has grown to hundreds of people that show up every Tuesday and they could be entrepreneurs that are Death Valley or they've hit a wall or they wanna give back or they want something to share. And he's created with the team over at Grove such an incredible community. We're bringing that to Detroit. And my friend Will is gonna start that in Detroit because we started something called Aqua Nation simply because Leslie, Leslie Youngblood (49:09) amazing. Soula Chronopoulos (49:17) wants that community. So we've created this aqua nation and again I encourage everybody who touches water or has something that is anything to do with water which means mostly everything. Leslie Youngblood (49:18) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Soula Chronopoulos (49:30) Seriously reach out, join these communities. They don't cost you anything. We don't take a dollar from everybody, anybody. We don't take equity from anybody. We're truly a mission-based organization. We care about impact and we care about the success of these innovators who have these ideas that are going to solve these major problems we're going to have with water. So ⁓ I just want to share that with your listeners because you know we could do something beautiful in the region and there's Leslie Youngblood (49:54) less. Thank Soula Chronopoulos (50:00) so many amazing partners in the region that are ready to help. Leslie Youngblood (50:03) Yes, definitely. And we'll put all of those links in the show notes too for anybody listening too, because yes, they need to know, they need to participate and the opportunity is just there, right? And so why not get involved? I love that. As we wrap up, Sula, tell me, what are you excited about right now? Soula Chronopoulos (50:17) Yeah, exactly. Give me a call. You know, ⁓ can get caught up in the new cycles, I think, and just get pretty upset with where we are in society, but I don't know that we've ever not been in turmoil as a global entity. ⁓ Leslie Youngblood (50:33) Mm. Mm-hmm. True. Soula Chronopoulos (50:44) I think what I'm excited about is taking all the negative and turning it into an amazing positive. And I see the hope that we have so many young innovators and innovators in general of all ages coming into the fold and saying, I want to solve this. I'm excited about the economy we're building. I'm excited to turn that region around and create a new Silicon Valley of water tech. Right. I'm excited at Leslie Youngblood (51:11) I know. Soula Chronopoulos (51:14) what we're going to discover to ⁓ make life better and to ensure the continuity of our national security, our economy, our family's health, our community health. I'm excited every day when I wake up and I hear of a new pilot, a new success story. And ⁓ I'm excited to help these people because I've done my time personally. I've run companies, I've been private and public corporations, I've had my own organizations I've bought and sold, but I have never been so inspired as I am right at this moment because I feel we're on the cusp of something amazing. And I think that this is going to turn around a lot of things, turn around a lot of people's lives. And ⁓ everybody that we turn into a success story is meeting our mission. So I'm excited. Every day I wake up hopeful because you can't let the opposite take over. So we can do it. Humanity is its best, like we said, when we're in a corner and we're in a corner. So now let's use all our might and we have a lot more tools today to make that exciting and fruitful and something great for the leaders of tomorrow, our planet, our families and our health. Leslie Youngblood (52:24) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Soula Chronopoulos (52:40) I don't know if that answers your question, but I get more pumped the news gets. I get more pumped. Leslie Youngblood (52:41) I love it. I'm amazing. Let's go. Yeah, right. What a ⁓ fantastic reframe, right? As we wrap up too, where it's like all this insanity and it can be overwhelming and to don't let that win, like push back with your light and your energy and your hope and your innovation to do good and to impact and to build and contribute to a community that is doing important things. And so I think that is such an important lesson for us now and for us. every single day, surely moving forward to the end of time. Bring it. Let's go. Let's go, baby. You can reach out to me and Sula anytime about it too. We'll pep talk, y'all. We'll be here. We'll need it too. So yeah, Sula, before we go, would you please share where our listeners can connect with you and follow up ⁓ with you in Aqua Action? And we'll also drop these links in the show notes. Soula Chronopoulos (53:16) That's right. That's right. You can do it. Bring your light. Bring your passion. We want it. Anytime. You bet and you can count on it. ⁓ Absolutely, look they can reach me at Sula, S-O-U-L-A at aquaaction.org two ways in the middle. They can reach us on AquaAction.org to see what we're all about, to see the kind of programs that are opening up that you can join. ⁓ If you don't remember my email, info at AquaAction.org, but don't hesitate. Just do that outreach even if your idea is insane, even if you think you can't do it, everybody can do it. You have it in you. And you know, let's turn that confidence into impact. And that's where you can reach me. And I think we're going to put that information in your show notes too, Leslie. So, excited to help anybody who's listening out there that wants to make a difference. Leslie Youngblood (54:22) I love it. Fantastic. Thank you so much for joining us today, Sula. What an incredible, inspiring conversation. So excited to see all the incredible work that you and Aqua Action are continuing to do in Canada, the United States, Detroit. We're just so honored to have you here today. Thank you so very much. no, I'm a Spartan, Sula. Uh-oh, I gotta say, don't. ⁓ Soula Chronopoulos (54:45) Go blue. That's true. I love the Spartans too. So you know what? I love Detroit. Everything about it. Leslie Youngblood (54:54) But you know what, I'm right. Like that's like the fun thing is you can say that and be like, oh, I just everything. Yes. Thank you so much. What a blast. I love it. Cheers. Bye. Thank you. Soula Chronopoulos (55:01) Thank you too. All right. Thank you, Carol Leslie. Thank you so much, everybody.