Pilot Wave https://pilotwave.podbean.com Pilot Wave is a podcast at the intersection of artificial intelligence and private markets, exploring how production-grade AI is transforming industrial businesses from the inside out.

Pilot Wave Holdings is a private equity firm purpose-built for AI rollups. The firm leads majority buyouts of manufacturing, infrastructure, and essential services businesses and transforms them with production-grade AI. The strategy has delivered market-leading realized returns and venture-backed AI spinouts incubated directly from portfolio operations.

Founded by Afsheen Afshar, MD, PhD (Stanford), former Chief AI Officer at Cerberus Capital Management and Chief Data Science Officer at JPMorgan, Pilot Wave brings institutional-grade AI expertise to Main Street businesses.

]]> Thu, 21 May 2026 09:35:41 -0400 https://podbean.com/?v=5.5 en Copyright 2026 All rights reserved. Technology 1440 episodic Pilot Wave is a podcast at the intersection of artificial intelligence and private markets, exploring how production-grade AI is transforming industrial businesses from the inside out. Pilot Wave Holdings is a private equity firm purpose-built for AI rollups. The firm leads majority buyouts of manufacturing, infrastructure, and essential services businesses and transforms them with production-grade AI. The strategy has delivered market-leading realized returns and venture-backed AI spinouts incubated directly from portfolio operations. Founded by Afsheen Afshar, MD, PhD (Stanford), former Chief AI Officer at Cerberus Capital Management and Chief Data Science Officer at JPMorgan, Pilot Wave brings institutional-grade AI expertise to Main Street businesses. Pilot Wave Pilot Wave No false https://feed.podbean.com/pilotwave/feed.xml https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/22325835/PilotWave_podcast_logo_2048x2048.png Pilot Wave https://pilotwave.podbean.com 144 144 AI Rollup Case Study: From LBO to Exit and VC-Backed Spinout with John MacKinnon, President of CAUS AI Rollup Case Study: From LBO to Exit and VC-Backed Spinout with John MacKinnon, President of CAUS https://pilotwave.podbean.com/e/ai-rollup-case-study-from-lbo-to-exit-and-vc-backed-spinout-with-john-mackinnon-president-of-caus/ https://pilotwave.podbean.com/e/ai-rollup-case-study-from-lbo-to-exit-and-vc-backed-spinout-with-john-mackinnon-president-of-caus/#comments Thu, 21 May 2026 09:35:41 -0400 pilotwave.podbean.com/a36157d9-f5bb-3678-b6f3-cccbd2b0bae0 Most AI investing stories are theoretical. This one has receipts. In this episode, Afsheen Afshar sits down with John MacKinnon, President of Connect Atlantic Utility Services (CAUS), a Nova Scotia-based high voltage transmission and distribution contractor that grew into one of Atlantic Canada's most sought-after infrastructure businesses under Pilot Wave ownership. Together they walk through the entire arc of a majority buyout that produced a cash-flowing infrastructure business, an AI spinout built for less than one percent of revenue, and ultimately a realized return.

John doesn't sugarcoat it. He was skeptical at the start, the ERP rollout nearly confirmed every doubt, and the decision to build Detect from scratch after every platform on the market came up short felt like a serious gamble. What changed his mind wasn't the pitch. It was watching the flywheel actually spin: Connect's cash flow funding the technology, the technology compounding the value of the business, and the data eventually making the exit decision obvious.

If you're an investor trying to understand what the AI rollup model looks like when it actually works, or an operator wondering whether any of this translates to the real world, this is the episode to hear.

What We Got Into:

  • Closing a majority buyout during COVID with a seller Afsheen had never met in person
  • Why a battle-scarred operator with plenty of scar tissue was skeptical from day one
  • The ERP rollout that went sideways and nearly proved every doubt right
  • Running dozens of ideas through the "9 out of 10 are dumb" filter before zeroing in on asset inspection
  • Why every drone and inspection platform on the market failed and the decision to build from scratch
  • How Detect evolved from a drone company into a data and algorithms platform with a dataset that didn't exist anywhere in the world
  • The flywheel: how Connect's cash flow funded Detect's development for less than 1% of annual revenue
  • The live demo that changed everything: flying over a customer's own assets in real time from a boardroom 500 miles away
  • A buy-and-hold-forever firm that sold when the data said to and why that was the right call

 

Resources Mentioned:

Detect: https://detectinspections.com/ 

Connect with Connect Atlantic Utility Services: Website: https://centuri.com/connect-utility-services/  

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-mackinnon-a3267b13 

Connect with Pilot Wave: Website: https://www.pilotwaveholdings.com 

X: https://x.com/pilotwaveai 

Host/s:

Afsheen Afshar

https://x.com/snaff 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/afsheen-afshar-9a924b 

]]> Most AI investing stories are theoretical. This one has receipts. In this episode, Afsheen Afshar sits down with John MacKinnon, President of Connect Atlantic Utility Services (CAUS), a Nova Scotia-based high voltage transmission and distribution contractor that grew into one of Atlantic Canada's most sought-after infrastructure businesses under Pilot Wave ownership. Together they walk through the entire arc of a majority buyout that produced a cash-flowing infrastructure business, an AI spinout built for less than one percent of revenue, and ultimately a realized return.

John doesn't sugarcoat it. He was skeptical at the start, the ERP rollout nearly confirmed every doubt, and the decision to build Detect from scratch after every platform on the market came up short felt like a serious gamble. What changed his mind wasn't the pitch. It was watching the flywheel actually spin: Connect's cash flow funding the technology, the technology compounding the value of the business, and the data eventually making the exit decision obvious.

If you're an investor trying to understand what the AI rollup model looks like when it actually works, or an operator wondering whether any of this translates to the real world, this is the episode to hear.

What We Got Into:

  • Closing a majority buyout during COVID with a seller Afsheen had never met in person
  • Why a battle-scarred operator with plenty of scar tissue was skeptical from day one
  • The ERP rollout that went sideways and nearly proved every doubt right
  • Running dozens of ideas through the "9 out of 10 are dumb" filter before zeroing in on asset inspection
  • Why every drone and inspection platform on the market failed and the decision to build from scratch
  • How Detect evolved from a drone company into a data and algorithms platform with a dataset that didn't exist anywhere in the world
  • The flywheel: how Connect's cash flow funded Detect's development for less than 1% of annual revenue
  • The live demo that changed everything: flying over a customer's own assets in real time from a boardroom 500 miles away
  • A buy-and-hold-forever firm that sold when the data said to and why that was the right call

 

Resources Mentioned:

Detect: https://detectinspections.com/ 



Connect with Connect Atlantic Utility Services:
Website: https://centuri.com/connect-utility-services/  

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-mackinnon-a3267b13 



Connect with Pilot Wave:
Website: https://www.pilotwaveholdings.com 

X: https://x.com/pilotwaveai 



Host/s:

Afsheen Afshar

https://x.com/snaff 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/afsheen-afshar-9a924b 

]]> Pilot Wave false No 2571 2 full The Pilot Episode: AI Meets the Real Economy The Pilot Episode: AI Meets the Real Economy https://pilotwave.podbean.com/e/the-pilot-episode-ai-meets-the-real-economy/ https://pilotwave.podbean.com/e/the-pilot-episode-ai-meets-the-real-economy/#comments Tue, 12 May 2026 17:39:37 -0400 pilotwave.podbean.com/7fb65d63-32ac-3916-af6e-ba6877a82845 Welcome to PilotWave -- the podcast at the intersection of AI and the real economy. We talk to the researchers, builders, acquirers, and investors pushing this industry forward. In this pilot episode, we turn the mic inward. Founder and Managing Partner Afsheen Afshar, Senior Partner Arik Oganesian, and Director Calvin Cooper introduce the firm and the thesis behind it.

Seven years in, PilotWave has learned that buying industrial businesses and transforming them with AI demands something most firms can't fake -- a rare hybrid of private equity discipline, venture-style risk tolerance, deep technical expertise, and enough EQ to work with sellers who've never thought about an AI strategy. The three dig into the origin story, the hard lessons, and what the OpenClaw moment reveals about where autonomous AI is actually headed.

What We Got Into:

  • The origin of the firm and why the AI rollup model was considered a dumb idea until it wasn't
  • Why "AI rollup" is a misnomer -- and what PilotWave actually does
  • The hybrid capability stack that makes or breaks this model
  • EQ as an operational edge when working with traditional business owners
  • OpenClaw and what fully autonomous AI exposes about risk, liability, and human intuition
  • Why human instinct degrades when AI does everything -- and why that matters for portcos
  • The ownership model as the only structure that gives you real leverage
  • The North Star principle and how it clarifies every tough decision

 

Connect with PilotWave: Website: https://www.pilotwaveholdings.com 

X: https://x.com/pilotwaveai 

Hosts:

Afsheen Afshar

https://x.com/snaff 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/afsheen-afshar-9a924b 

 

Arik Oganesian

https://www.linkedin.com/in/arik-oganesian 

 

Calvin Cooper

https://x.com/cooper_nyc_ 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/coopernyc

]]> Welcome to PilotWave -- the podcast at the intersection of AI and the real economy. We talk to the researchers, builders, acquirers, and investors pushing this industry forward. In this pilot episode, we turn the mic inward. Founder and Managing Partner Afsheen Afshar, Senior Partner Arik Oganesian, and Director Calvin Cooper introduce the firm and the thesis behind it.

Seven years in, PilotWave has learned that buying industrial businesses and transforming them with AI demands something most firms can't fake -- a rare hybrid of private equity discipline, venture-style risk tolerance, deep technical expertise, and enough EQ to work with sellers who've never thought about an AI strategy. The three dig into the origin story, the hard lessons, and what the OpenClaw moment reveals about where autonomous AI is actually headed.

What We Got Into:

  • The origin of the firm and why the AI rollup model was considered a dumb idea until it wasn't
  • Why "AI rollup" is a misnomer -- and what PilotWave actually does
  • The hybrid capability stack that makes or breaks this model
  • EQ as an operational edge when working with traditional business owners
  • OpenClaw and what fully autonomous AI exposes about risk, liability, and human intuition
  • Why human instinct degrades when AI does everything -- and why that matters for portcos
  • The ownership model as the only structure that gives you real leverage
  • The North Star principle and how it clarifies every tough decision

 

Connect with PilotWave:
Website: https://www.pilotwaveholdings.com 

X: https://x.com/pilotwaveai 



Hosts:

Afsheen Afshar

https://x.com/snaff 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/afsheen-afshar-9a924b 

 

Arik Oganesian

https://www.linkedin.com/in/arik-oganesian 

 

Calvin Cooper

https://x.com/cooper_nyc_ 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/coopernyc

]]> Pilot Wave false No 2378 1 full