Episode 9: Quick Hits - Grabbing Hope from Others' Stories with Abhishek Motayed

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How do we maintain hope while facing growing environmental threats? Abhishek Motayed, founder and CEO of N5 Sensors, offers compelling insights into this question during our candid conversation about wildfire resilience and community protection.

Abhishek's company develops critical technology that provides real-time information to protect communities from environmental hazards, with a special focus on wildfire detection. But what drives him goes beyond technology—it's the stories of people directly impacted by these disasters that fuel his optimism. From dedicated firefighters to grassroots innovators and community organizers, Abhishek finds inspiration in how ordinary people respond to extraordinary challenges with creativity and determination.

We discuss the remarkable success of community-driven solutions like WatchDuty, which has become an essential resource for wildfire information. Abhishek emphasizes that even when facing overwhelming problems, taking small actions today matters: "This is too big of a problem, and we are all getting affected, so we have to do something. We have to do it today, even if we take small steps." This practical approach offers a blueprint for resilience—breaking down massive challenges into manageable actions.

The conversation takes a personal turn as Abhishek reflects on balancing his new role as a parent while running a company. He shares a universal truth that resonates deeply: "Have you met anyone whose life is not affected by some kind of personal adversities? Everybody faces something." His philosophy that resilience is both a personal journey and collective effort reminds us that finding hope isn't about denying challenges but facing them together with creativity and shared purpose.

Join us for this thought-provoking conversation about innovation in crisis, community strength, and how the brightest solutions often emerge from our darkest challenges. Subscribe to hear more stories of resilience and forward-thinking approaches to our most pressing environmental issues.

Shared Ground is produced by Sean Knierim and Allan Marks. Thanks to Cory Grabow, Kara Poltor, Corey Walles (from The Recording Studio) for your support in launching this effort.

For more stories of resilience & rebuilding, kindness & generosity: visit shared-ground.com and subscribe to Sean's substack. We invite you to share your own stories of resilience at the Shared Ground website - whether in response to the January fires in LA or other situations.

Follow us at seanknierim.substack.com, Instagram, or wherever you listen to podcasts (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc).

Episode Transcript

Sean Knierim (00:00):
Thanks for talking .
So who are you?

Abhishek Motayed (00:02):
Hey, my name is Abhishek Mattad.
I'm the founder and CEO of N5Sensors.

Sean Knierim (00:08):
And what's N5 Sensors doing?

Abhishek Motayed (00:10):
So at N5, we provide accurate, real-time
information to keep people,businesses and communities safe
and protected from all kinds ofenvironmental threats and
hazards.
Namely, most importantly rightnow is protection of communities
, people, lives and buildings,homes from threat of wildfires.

Sean Knierim (00:33):
Right on.
We were just on a paneltogether talking about different
experiences of fires.
So, as you think aboutresilience in the communities
that you're trying to support,how do you stay hopeful about
the future in the communitiesthat you're trying to support?
How do you stay hopeful aboutthe future?
You guys are looking and tryingto actually find bad stuff
that's happening, at least badstuff for communities.
So how do you stay hopeful?

Abhishek Motayed (00:52):
So I guess you know meeting people like you
and hearing their stories and wehave met so many passionate
people from technologydevelopers to firefighters, to
community.
You know fire safe councilpeople, like hearing their
stories and how these you knownews clips actually they mean

(01:14):
very different.
When you're hearing theirstories, right, it becomes real
personal, like how, in face ofadversities, how people are
still kind of going on andthinking how can I make my life
better, safer my children, myfamily and then community?
Right, what can we do so thatthis does not happen?
You know, tomorrow again, andmaybe going one step forward,

(01:38):
maybe developing some solutionsthat we can kind of.
You know scale, like give it toother people Like we have met.
You know scale like give it toother people Like we have met.
You know the WatchDuty founderamazing story, and I meet people
like that all the time.
And how can you not be hopeful?

Sean Knierim (01:52):
I mean, this is WatchDuty.
Has randomly come up, notrandomly.
Has come up on every single oneof our podcasts.
Hopefully this becomes one ofour first sponsors for the
podcast.
That app became such animportant resource for everybody
.

Abhishek Motayed (02:04):
And we meet people like that all the time,
trying to do something, evenit's kind of like really, really
hard and with not a lot ofsupport, but you know, you just
don't give up.
I mean, this is too big of aproblem, right, and we are all
getting affected, so we have todo something.
We have to do it today, even ifwe take small steps.
So I guess, going back to your,you know the question.
This is how, by being connected, listening to the stories and

(02:30):
seeing people what they're doing, I mean we think we have a big
job to do here.

Sean Knierim (02:35):
And that's where the hope's coming from as you
think about resilience in thesecommunities?
As individuals or as groups.
Is there anything you've seenor looked to for yourself to
stay resilient or to carry onwhen things get hard, or people
that you look to?
Or examples, any tools thatyou've seen that seem effective
in helping in these difficulttimes?

Abhishek Motayed (02:56):
Yeah.
So going back to you knowpeople's innovativeness and
willing to kind of roll up theirsleeves, whether it's like
raising a fund or helpingcommunity raise some money like
charity, or even figuring outlike fire safe councils, how we
can actually help homeownersthink about these things so that
next time something happenseverybody's prepared.

(03:18):
So seeing how all of thesepeople are coming together
trying to make the communitybetter and make the community
safer, resilient, I think thisis kind of I draw inspiration
and kind of hope from that.
And some of the things that hasbeen kind of coming back to us
over and over again is howpeople, in the face of these

(03:41):
kind of adversitiesities, comeup with the brightest solutions.
Right, and this is I think it'simportant lesson in life.

Sean Knierim (03:50):
You've got a newborn, you're running a
company.
Sleep is probably somethingthat's challenging to get right,
so anything else yourselfpersonally, to keep yourself
going Like stories will get youso far.
How are you?

Abhishek Motayed (04:03):
Personally also right.
Our lives are constantlychanging.
And are you Personally alsoright?
Our lives are constantlychanging.
So and this is where you shineright and have you met anyone
whose life is not affected bysome kind of, you know, personal
adversities?

Sean Knierim (04:17):
Everybody faces something.

Abhishek Motayed (04:19):
And this is the reality of life and how you
handle it and how you find hope,peace, resiliency and try to
build back, and that's, that'sall we got.

Sean Knierim (04:30):
I am so glad I got a chance to meet you today.
Thanks for agreeing to talk fora little bit.

Abhishek Motayed (04:34):
Thank you, Sean.
Thanks for your time.