Why Dispo’s co-founder made the leap from social media to steelmaking

Daniel Liss, co-founder of the social network Dispo and the dating app Teaser AI, has shifted his focus from social media to steelmaking, driven by concerns about U.S. supply chain vulnerabilities highlighted during a National War College war game exercise. The exercise underscored the lack of domestic shipbuilding capacity and steel production critical for national defense, inspiring Liss to found Nemo Industries. Nemo aims to modernize the outdated steel industry by using AI to optimize pig iron production, moving beyond traditional, manual methods. Unlike typical industrial software firms, Nemo plans to build and operate its own furnaces, leveraging AI from the ground up to gain a significant margin advantage. Nemo’s approach includes using natural gas-fired furnaces, which emit less carbon dioxide than the coal commonly used in steelmaking, and exploring carbon capture technologies supported by tax incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act. Liss’s partner, Michael DuBose, brings expertise from the natural gas sector, which is critical for scaling operations.