EP 75: Rudy Lacovara from PetroBricks

Rudy Lacovara is on a mission to untangle the messy data spaghetti that runs through oil and gas. He built PetroBricks to be the “Zapier for energy”, a way to connect clunky systems, automate the repetitive stuff, and make workflows actually make sense. We got into the pain points everyone in the industry knows too well: outdated data standards, SCADA headaches, and the constant struggle to automate without breaking things. Rudy shared how his aerospace background shaped the way he approaches energy tech, why MQTT matters, and how low-code platforms could finally change the game for operators. If you’ve ever wished your data systems would just talk to each other, this one’s for you. Click here to watch a video of this episode. Join the conversation shaping the future of energy. Collide is the community where oil & gas professionals connect, share insights, and solve real-world problems together. No noise. No fluff. Just the discussions that move our industry forward. Apply today at collide.io Click here to view the episode transcript. 00:00 - Intro 00:44 - Houston Energy and Climate Week 02:56 - PetroBricks Overview 06:36 - What is PetroBricks? 09:58 - PetroBricks Location 12:45 - Sparkplug B Overview 14:07 - Common Integrations 17:02 - Data Acquisition from Service Companies 19:12 - Journey into Tech 24:34 - Inspiration for PetroBricks 28:05 - Entry into Oil and Gas 31:15 - Issues with Frac Data 34:55 - PetroBricks Insights 38:58 - Tools Used by Matt 41:18 - Akka Framework 43:58 - AI Coding Tools Overview 46:04 - PetroBricks Technology Stack 48:49 - Understanding Containers 51:01 - Benefits of Containers 54:33 - Speed Round 59:30 - Favorite Vacation Destination 59:35 - Preferred LLM for Problem Solving 01:01:09 - Houston Insights 01:01:29 - Book Recommendation 01:03:54 - How to Connect with Rudy https://twitter.com/collide_io https://www.tiktok.com/@collide.io https://www.facebook.com/collide.io https://www.instagram.com/collide.io https://www.youtube.com/@collide_io https://bsky.app/profile/digitalwildcatters.bsky.social https://www.linkedin.com/company/collide-digital-wildcatters