Breaking the Mold: Engineering a Different Future - Marlon Tesla

What we talked about.

In this episode of the Sunny Ray Show, host Sunny Ray talks with Marlon Tesla, an offshore oil and gas engineer based in Houston, Texas. Marlon began his career as a subsea controls engineer at BP, where he learned as much about corporate structures as about engineering. He explains why he left to build his own company, and how an early insulation resistance alert on a subsea umbilical convinced him of the value of condition monitoring. He describes the path from Tesla Solutions, which became an engineering firm of one, to the separate Tesla SubC entity that holds the technology and patents. The conversation covers self-funding instead of taking investor money, winning a first operator through years of small commitments, and why he refuses to sell fear when discussing leak detection. Marlon also shares how he builds a team culture around a shared bullpen, why he is cautious about delegating customer relationships, and what his team is building next: subsea data acquisition hardware that will sit on the seafloor for the first time.

A former BP subsea engineer explains why he cut the corporate chain, self-funded his company, and is now putting hardware on the seafloor.

The questions, and the answers.

What did working on live deep water systems at BP teach you that an engineering degree never could?

The most important things I learned in a big oil and gas organization had little to do with engineering. I learned how large corporations work, how management hierarchies work, and what it takes to bring new ideas through those structures. Over time I realized that being a good engineer and being successful in a corporate organization are two different things.

What was the first deep water problem you couldn't stop thinking about?

Early in my career I was doing condition monitoring with spreadsheets, pressing F5 every day to refresh a data feed. One day I got a hit showing low insulation resistance on the Dorado subsea umbilical. The insulation was degrading. Instead of reacting to a problem, we predicted it and planned for it, which reinforced my belief in condition monitoring.

You built the company on customer work rather than outside money. What did that choice cost you?

It probably cost us a lot in speed, but speed wasn't the focus. Quality was. Staying separate from investor money let us stay afloat long enough to find paying customers. Outside investment might have accelerated development, but it would have brought investors' opinions into our decisions. Self-funding kept the freedom to do what was right for us and our customers.

Why did the work need two companies, Tesla Solutions and Tesla SubC?

Tesla Solutions was the first company, meant to be what Tesla SubC is today. When income didn't come, I took a job, then went independent, and Tesla Solutions became an engineering firm of one. To bring my technology in without it becoming work for hire, I founded Tesla SubC. All patents sit there, and the two entities work independently.

What did the first operator need to see before trusting you on a live asset?

It starts small and builds. They needed to believe we could deliver what we said, and that came from years of smaller commitments completed for them. The other piece was that they had a need, we had a solution, and they had no other alternative. That combination got us through the door.

What are you building that nobody outside the company has seen yet?

We are building subsea hardware for data acquisition. Until now our systems were condition monitoring software, surface tools, and data acquisition systems. This is the first time we're putting hardware below the water line, on the seafloor. It will include sensors and control electronics, and eventually we will be able to operate valves as a full integrated system.

Leak detection stakes are high. How do you talk about them without selling fear?

We choose not to sell fear, because it feels like a slimy sales tactic. Instead we focus on how fast we can detect a leak and on giving operators confidence to shut in their system if they think there's one. That means avoiding false alarms. Our first clients are responsible operators who want to do the right thing.