Interviewer:
One of the users from Reddit asked, Does Patrick have significant experience in these types of transactions? I know you mentioned commodities and
energy. Can you elaborate a little bit more about that?
Patrick Orlando:
Yeah. My first foray into energy was in South America. It was a US-based company, public company that was building a
biofuels plant refinery. This was back in around 2006. We also, because biodiesel is only a component of the fuel mix, we imported more traditional hydrocarbons and that gave me a good feel for the energy markets and energy demand in this particular
market. And I think that experience is very applicable to fuel marketing, right? I mean, fuels are a commodity, so really what it takes is being in a market, having the sales people, letting people know that you have a product available. And I think
that experience is very applicable to eCombustible and its growth.
Patrick Orlando:
On the financing side, obviously had to get financing for these businesses in the past, and what were doing a little differently now with the SPAC. The
SPAC has money and trust, and if we need further financing, we will access the capital markets and finance the businesses as correctly or appropriately as we can. So, the finance background, the structuring, some of the derivatives comes into play
also, as does the network.
Patrick Orlando:
No, I mean,
really, I have the luxury of having worked with some really great people over the past and I still call them. If Im looking at something energy, I call people from the energy business. And if Im looking at something in finance, Im
calling people from the finance business. So, its really nice to have built a great network of intelligent people over the years.
Interviewer:
Thats awesome. You seem to have both engineering side, basic sciences, finances, markets, derivatives. Thats honestly very rare in a mix of the
sponsors that Ive talked to, that Ive seen so far. Another user from Reddit asked, Will the new green measures in North America that are hopefully down the road going to be implemented beneficial to eCombustible in any way?
Patrick Orlando:
Once again, the US energy market is
actually wonderful for the consumer and the end user. Energy in the US is actually quite reasonably priced and also very accessible. The infrastructure is very solid. For a significant change to clean energy to occur, you need some real scale.
Weve seen wind, nuclear, some other options to hydrocarbons. I do think the initiatives will be put into place over time, but I think some of these smaller markets in Europe, for example, will move faster. Theyre denser. They have a
higher population density if you look across the country.
Patrick Orlando:
So, I think the regulation is really going to be driven by then by them. And the US will catch up. I mean, obviously you have California. You have a couple
regions where clean energy has a bigger advantage, taxes and regulatory issues. So, well probably see California and some of these kind of thought leaders on the clean energy side lead the way. And then we do expect some further adoption
across the United States. But once again, you have to be competitive on a cost basis, and the US is a competitive energy market.
Page 4 of 8