Old Man Coffee
Unfiltered dispatches from Chuck Yates — energy PE veteran, Collide co-founder, and the self-proclaimed Galactic Viceroy. Pattern recognition from 30+ years in the energy business.
Chuck Yates
Co-founder, Collide · Host of Chuck Yates Got A Job
30+ years in energy private equity. Former Managing Partner at Kayne Anderson, where he helped raise ~$8B across 7 energy funds. Rice MBA. Self-proclaimed Galactic Viceroy. Currently building the future of energy AI at Collide and trying to get his plane back.
Dispatches
Forgive Me, Father
Forget "consortium." Meet the Wolfcamp — Collide's founding Deep Brain clients learning AI together, pack-style.
Old Man Coffee: The Boring Two-Thirds
He heard "share your secret sauce." I meant "stop building the same kitchen 40 times." Two rejection emails, one knowledge graph explainer, and the lesson the shale revolution already taught us.
There’s No Magic Black Box
AI isn’t a magic black box—it’s practical tools, connected data, and the hard work of making energy operations smarter with Collide.
Old Man Coffee: The Toll Booth
A Saturday-morning experiment with AI turns into an unexpectedly personal reflection on credibility, loss, fatherhood, and the emotional tolls we convince ourselves we have to pay.
Old Man Coffee: A Message to the Third Row
AI won't steal your job — but someone using AI will. Learn why the engineer in the third row is more valuable than ever, and how to use AI to amplify your judgment, not replace it.
Old Man Coffee: I'd Have to Be a Real Asshole to Say No
Chuck builds an AI version of energy investor Ken Hersh and discovers that capturing real expertise means knowing when the rules don't apply — and how that insight is reshaping the way Collide preserves company knowledge.
Old Man Coffee: How to Get Started
Chuck Yates built his career, his company, and his family through accidents — and argues that's exactly how you should approach AI. Stop waiting for the perfect plan. Download the app, hand it an annoying task, and see what happens. The first step doesn't have to be clean. It just has to happen.
Old Man Coffee: The 2AM Ledger
divorced dad's honest reckoning with the invisible losses of split custody: the unguarded moments, the kids who stop leaking, and the one sentence that changed everything. A raw, funny, and deeply practical piece on how to stay close to your kids when the calendar is working against you.
We Built a Deep Brain — And It’s Actually Scary Good
A Collide executive shares how building an internal AI "Deep Brain" compressed six months of document-parsing work into 72 hours and argues it will fundamentally re-engineer oil and gas workflows.
Wild Cards, Second Acts, and a 71-Year-Old Guy Who Still Can’t Sing
An inspiring personal essay about resilience, second acts, and staying true to yourself. The author parallels a nostalgic David Lee Roth concert with his own journey of learning to code at 57, bootstrapping his company to survive, and overcoming past industry criticisms to build something entirely new.
Why Most CIOs Are Quietly Praying for Retirement — And the Few Who Aren’t Are About to Get Very Rich
The Director of IT has the hardest job in the company — and we've spent twenty years making it worse by rewarding defense, then suddenly asking him to lead the AI charge.
I Thought My Ex-wife Hated Me Until I Started Selling Enterprise Software
Enterprise AI software has turned too many operators into jaded survivors wallowing in buyer's remorse. We're sick of the marketing bullshit. Here is our operational commitment to how we build with you, including data ownership, fair pricing, and zero AI fairy dust.
Out Over Your Skis
A veteran oil and gas executive argues that the same wildcatter mentality that built fortunes in the field is exactly what's needed to win with AI — and plays it safe at your peril.
I Do Not Like It… Until I Did
What if the thing you've been fighting hardest is exactly what you need? Part Dr. Seuss, part theology, all real talk. This week Collin breaks down why circumstances are the hardest of God's messages to read — and what a grumpy unnamed man in a children's book can teach you about getting out of your own way.
What If Your Marketing Stack Could Just Fix Itself
We've been building AI agents that monitor our own campaigns, find the gaps, and draft the fixes — then ask us before pulling the trigger. Here's what that looks like in practice.
I Finally Slept Through the Night (And It Only Took Two Years of Panic)
I spent months losing sleep over the AI arms race. Then a client said two words that changed everything, and made me realize what we actually built.
Holy Cow, We're Actually Doing It
Two years of grinding on AI for oil and gas, and this week it all clicked. Collide isn't just a tool anymore.
18 Months: AI’s Coming Divide—Haves vs. Have-Nots, and It’s Already Ugly
At a recent industry breakfast, Collin dropped a prediction that made the room go quiet. Eighteen months. That's all the runway E&P companies have before the gap between AI adopters and holdouts becomes impossible to close. Fresh data from Ramp's Eric Glyman backs it up, and the energy sector is next in line. The split won't be subtle.
The Shale Revolution 2.0: Why AI's About to Make You Look Stupid (Again)
How oil and gas operators can use AI to unlock the next wave of recovery gains, from clean data and context graphs to workflow automation and tribal knowledge capture.
The Three-Legged Stool That Lost a Leg
When I first started hawking enterprise software in the oil and gas world, I had this go-to metaphor: a three-legged stool. It was my way of breaking down the chaos of digital transformation without putting everyone to sleep.
I'm the Oldest Guy in the Room Now. And Honestly? It's Kinda Dope.
Listen up, kids. (See? Already doing the old-man thing)
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