Everything in Observer
Energy
Business Description
Digital Wildcatters, a Houston-based media and technology company founded in 2019 by Collin McLelland and Jake Corley, operates Collide, a generative AI platform and professional community serving more than 9,000 vetted oil and gas professionals across 122 countries.
The company launched the *Oil and Gas Startups* podcast in 2019 to connect upstream founders and investors, then expanded into a multi-show network. Its roster includes *Chuck Yates Needs a Job* (subsequently renamed *Chuck Yates Got a Job*), hosted by Chuck Yates (formerly Co-Head and Managing Partner of the energy private equity group at Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors), alongside *Big Digital Energy* and *What the Funk*. McLelland, Corley, and Yates serve as the platform's co-founders.
Collide launched as a vetted mobile and web community in fall 2023, targeting petroleum engineers, geologists, operators, C-suite executives, and startup founders. The platform indexes Digital Wildcatters' full podcast and video catalog into a searchable content engine, hosts Power Hour programming and open AMAs (recent guests have included EQT CEO Toby Rice and Formentera Partners founder Bryan Sheffield), and operates a gamified contribution system called The Doghouse, where members earn Watts currency redeemable for merchandise and experiences. A paid subscription tier, DW Insight, adds a curated energy startup database and premium research capabilities. Core membership is free to approved applicants, with access limited to professionals active in oil and gas or adjacent energy sectors.
Funding history spans three rounds. Digital Wildcatters raised $2 million in angel seed capital in 2021, then closed a $2.5 million seed-plus round in late 2023 backed by Diamondback Energy, ProFrac, and Chuck Yates. In April 2025, Collide announced a $5 million seed round led by Houston's Mercury Fund, with participation from Bryan Sheffield, Billy Quinn, and David Albin. The round brings total disclosed funding to approximately $9.5 million. The company reported 11% month-over-month membership growth at the time of the April 2025 announcement.
Partnership activity expanded through 2024. Digital Wildcatters and the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) signed a memorandum of understanding in May 2024, granting Collide non-exclusive access to SEG's data repository for integration into the platform. In October 2024, Collide embedded its AI tooling directly into AI Driller's drilling and completions platform under a separate integration agreement.
The April 2025 seed financing is directed toward scaling Collide's enterprise generative AI product, with the platform targeting upstream operators, energy investors, and oilfield services companies as its next customer segment.
