Stormwater World Episode 075: The Invisible Industry with Matt Fishbune, CEO of Duke’s

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Key Topics

• Collecting data isn't the same as using it. Matt cites a Black & Veatch survey: 70% of utilities collect operational data, only 19% use it well, and 71% of those blame staffing and skills.
• Map first. You can't prioritize what you haven't identified, and many storm systems still live on paper maps or in one veteran's head.
• Select sourcing: when the GIS "department" is one overloaded person, a partner can handle mapping, basin studies and inspections so in-house crews can stay proactive.
• AI speeds up the work but doesn't replace it. AI-assisted camera inspection lets operators focus on getting in and out of the pipe and on QA/QC of defect codes.
• The workforce gap is widening. Matt says utilities run about a 10% vacancy rate and a third of the workforce could retire in the next 5 to 10 years. The skilled trades are a career, not a fallback.
• Your skill times your clarity equals your AI leverage, but you're still the judge. Verify what the tool gives you.
• Make it actionable: one page, green, yellow, red. Fix the red first, then the yellow.
• Growth means getting local: more "dots on the map" so crews are close to the customers and the funding.

 

In this episode, host Ty Garmon sits down with Matt Fishbune, CEO of Duke’s. Most people only think about stormwater when it's coming through their front door. Matt calls it the invisible industry with an invisible workforce: underground infrastructure nobody sees until something fails. Matt has tripled Duke's in revenue, EBITDA and headcount, to $100M+ in annual revenue, 400 employees and 2,500 customers nationwide. Matt traces Duke's from a 1940s HVAC shop in Syracuse, NY to a national sanitary sewer maintenance company, and how customers pulled the team into stormwater as funding grew. He and Ty get into why stormwater still earns the worst grades on the ASCE infrastructure report card, why so many systems still aren't mapped, and why AI won't replace the skilled labor it takes to inspect, maintain and rehab pipe underground. They also cover recruiting into the trades, the "skill × clarity = AI leverage" line on the sticker on Ty's monitor, and Matt's green-yellow-red approach to making data something decision makers can act on.

 

The views expressed are that of the individual and do not represent the opinions of any companies past, present or future.

 

Connect with Matt Fishbune:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattfishbune/

Duke's: https://www.dukes.com/

Careers at Duke's: https://www.dukes.com/careers/

 

Connect with Ty Garmon, LEED AP:

Connect with Ty on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tygarmon/

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