upstream
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Marco Veremis and the case for staying in the game
He helped build Upstream, watched new companies emerge from its orbit, and became an investor. Now Marco Veremis wants Greek founders to have the money - and the confidence - to keep building.
The Denver crew that buys land nobody wants, drills it, and sells the whole thing for a billion
Founded in 2019, Avant runs one play over and over: aggregate the acreage bigger operators skip, turn it into producing wells, and monetize at the top of the cycle. Two exits and a billion-dollar fund later, the formula is holding.
The Company That Pumps One of Every Nine Barrels on Earth
It struck oil at a well called Dammam No. 7 in 1938. Nearly a century later, Aramco still moves roughly one of every nine barrels the world burns - and is quietly betting billions that its next act runs on gas, chemicals and code.
GeoSplit
GeoSplit is a high-tech oilfield services company that monitors oil, gas and water flows inside horizontal wells using quantum-dot marker-reporters and machine-learning interpretation. Instead of running mechanical logging tools downhole, operators deploy tiny fluorescent markers during well completion and later collect fluid samples that reveal, phase by phase, how each section of a well is producing - delivering years of production data without well intervention. Founded in 2013 and now headquartered in Dubai, the company serves upstream oil and gas operators seeking lower-cost, longer-term well diagnostics.
Mark McClure
Mark McClure is the co-founder and CEO of ResFrac Corporation, a Palo Alto-based company building advanced physics-based simulation software for the energy industry. A Stanford PhD in Energy Resources Engineering, he spent time as an assistant professor at UT Austin before founding ResFrac in 2015. His research on hydraulic fracturing, induced seismicity, and enhanced geothermal systems has earned over 5,800 scholarly citations and an h-index of 38. Under his leadership, ResFrac has grown to serve 60+ exploration and production companies and secured a platform investment from Banneker Partners in 2026. He also advises Fervo Energy on geothermal development.