Blake Anderson - Transforming the World of the Small Utility Operator

Water systems don't exist in a vacuum. Systems are human endeavors run by operators, and the great majority of America's roughly 90,000 water systems with under 1,000 connections are really small ones run by crews of one, maybe two or three people. Blake Anderson knows that world better than almost anyone. A certified operator who has spent 14 years running water systems, Blake is the founder of Mogollon Water Management, which operates and maintains community water systems across the White Mountains of Northern Arizona. He now also lends that operator's eye to Ziptility, the asset management platform built for small utilities that acquired his platform last year. I loved this conversation. It is a trip into the weeds of what it takes to run a small system and, crucially, how it can be better. He knows what it is like to be responsible for a system and the lives that depend on it, from operating a backhoe to fix a leak in the middle of the night all the way to explaining budget trade-offs to an untrained community system board. This is a view of the heart of our industry we don't get often enough, and Blake is the perfect person to bring the operating practicality to Ziptility's platform that will be transformational to the vast majority of America's water systems. Please enjoy my conversation with the excellent Blake Anderson. Subscribe to The Fundamental Molecule here: https://www.burntislandventures.com/the-fundamental-molecule For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-fundamental-molecule/id1714287205 \----------- Blake Anderson is Ziptility’s VP of Strategic Operations and Founder of Mogollon Water Management (MWM). A Grade 4 operator with 14 years of experience, Blake professionalizes rural water systems. He built MWM into Northeastern Arizona’s largest O&M provider by rescuing micro-systems and securing capital. Since Ziptility acquired MWM in 2025, he has focused on scaling a nationwide model that pairs local crews with field-first utility software. 00:00 - Introduction 02:32 - What Water System Operators Actually Do 07:07 - How Modern Tech Is Transforming Small Utilities 10:06 - Building a Water Utility Management Business 18:23 - Designing Better Software for Water Operators 22:49 - How to Fix America's Small Water Systems 32:47 - Why Ziptility Acquired Mogollon Water Management 37:14 - Creating the Future Operating System for Utilities 39:13 - Solving the Water Industry's Workforce Crisis 41:28 - Policy Changes That Could Save Small Utilities 44:25 - Customer-First Advice for Water Entrepreneurs **Links:** Burnt Island Ventures: https://www.burntislandventures.com/ Blake Anderson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blake-a-0553702b6/ Mogollon Water Management: https://mogollonwater.com/ Ziptility: https://www.Ziptility.com/ **Key Takeaways:** "A good operator can walk into a room and tell if a pump's been running too long just by the temperature and the smell of the bearings." "Software needs to be driven by your thumbs in a trench with a shovel right next to you. If they won't use it in the field, it doesn't do anything." "If you are crazy about your customer and you really love their problems, you're going to be successful. Seek the welfare of the communities you serve."