Webinar
Distilling Oil: The Unseen Cost of the Strait Closure
Join Ryan Musto, Senior Associate at Alumni Ventures, for a clear-eyed look at why the Strait of Hormuz disruption was never just an oil story — and why the cascading effects across plastics, fertilizer, aviation, freight, and global supply chains reveal one of the most consequential venture opportunities of the decade.
In this session, Ryan Musto will walk through what actually happens when the Strait of Hormuz tightens — starting with the 150-foot distillation column at the heart of every refinery and following the cascade outward: from cooking gas and gasoline at the top, to naphtha (the building block of plastics), to jet fuel, diesel, heavy fuel oil for the ships that carry global trade, and asphalt at the very bottom. Ryan will show how a single supply shock ripples through agriculture, aviation, freight, plastics, and container flows worldwide — exposing the fragility of just-in-time supply chains and pointing directly at the categories the U.S. Strategic Tech Fund is investing in today.
Whether you’re a current Alumni Ventures investor sharpening your view of the strategic tech landscape, or an accredited investor evaluating the sector for the first time, this session will give you a grounded, investor-focused thesis on one of the most important shifts happening in venture today. Register to hear directly from the team building a portfolio around it — and bring your questions to the live Q&A.
Want to access our U.S. Strategic Tech Fund startup deals to see, evaluate, and optionally invest? No cost, no commitment.
Why Attend?
- HomeUnderstand why an oil supply shock is not an oil story — and how crude flows through plastics, fertilizer, jet fuel, diesel, heavy fuel oil, and asphalt into every corner of the industrial economy
- HomeSee how just-in-time supply chains, container imbalances, and refinery physics turn a diplomatic ceasefire into a months-long unwind — and what that reveals about structural fragility
- HomeHear how the U.S. Strategic Tech Fund is positioned across the energy resilience, industrial rebuild, and supply chain reshoring themes that this exposure makes newly urgent
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Alumni Ventures is America’s largest venture capital firm for individual investors.
About your presenter
Overview
Ryan is a macro-driven investor focused on HardTech and DefenseTech, backing frontier builders riding the tailwinds of global geopolitics and industrial transformation. He looks for companies tackling mission-critical challenges in national security, reindustrialization, and energy.
Prior to joining Alumni Ventures, Ryan co-founded and served as Chief Operating Officer of Cityline Technologies (acquired by RentButter), an AI underwriting software in the real estate space. He scaled the business across North America, spearheading all business operations and fundraising.
Ryan holds a MSc with Distinction from the University of Oxford, where his research focused on Saudi Arabian developmental economics, and a BA from Cornell University, where he double majored in Near Eastern Studies and History. He loves learning languages (fluent Arabic, intermediate Italian, and beginner Korean) and is an avid skier and guitar player. He is a Fellow at The Economic Club of New York.
Funds Actively Worked On
- Blue Ivy Ventures
- Nassau Street Ventures
- US Strategic Tech Fund
Investment Area Of Focus
At Alumni Ventures, Ryan leads efforts across advanced manufacturing, supply chain, and maritime technologies. In an era of seismic shifts in global trade, supply-chain realignment, and heightened great-power competition, he sees unprecedented opportunities for startups to modernize logistics, shipbuilding, and infrastructure—key pillars of resilience. As the world’s economic architecture stares down a once-in-a- generation makeover, he believes startups are indeed best positioned to act, react, solve, and ultimately benefit from the disorder.
Ryan led Alumni Ventures’ investment in HavocAI, a leading unmanned surface vessel (USV) manufacturer that is redefining naval warfare and fleet protection; Albacore, a cutting edge UUV (unmanned undersea vessel) manufacturer; and PDW, a category-defining defense drone business.