10-Minute Tech Talks: How Tech Entrepreneurs Fail & How You Can Avoid It

Can having more fun actually help build a more serious company? In this episode of Growth Code: How to Crack the Inc. 5000 , Dan Desko, Founder of Echelon Risk + Cyber, explains two of the values that make Echelon's culture stand out: more cowbell and turning pro. Dan talks about why teams doing intense cybersecurity work need room to celebrate, laugh and stay connected. He also shares why "turnin...

How do you build a high-growth company without hiring a team full of clones? In this episode of Growth Code: How to Crack the Inc. 5000 , Dan Desko, Founder of Echelon Risk + Cyber, shares why one of Echelon's key growth values is hiring people with personality. For Dan, technical talent matters, but so does curiosity, character and the ability to work with people when the pressure climbs. He also...

What does it really take to build a company that clients trust when the stakes are sky-high? In this first episode of Growth Code: How to Crack the Inc. 5000 , Jonathan Kersting talks with Dan Desko, Founder of Echelon Risk + Cyber, about the first value that helped power Echelon's rise to number 433 on the Inc. 5000: being truly client-centric. Dan explains why Echelon does not think in terms of...

We are officially at the halfway point of the year, which makes this a perfect time to pop the hood on the economy and see what is really driving the engine. For entrepreneurs, business builders and tech leaders, the economy can feel like a dashboard full of blinking lights. Inflation. Interest rates. Consumer spending. AI investment. Hiring. Global uncertainty. Every one of those indicators can c...

What if the next great engineer, roboticist or AI innovator is already here in Pittsburgh, but just hasn't been discovered yet? On this episode of 10 Minute Tech Talks, we're featuring Damola and Wole Idowu of TOYZ Electronics, a Pittsburgh-based company blending AI, gaming, storytelling and STEAM education to help students see new futures for themselves. This clip, ripped from TechVibe, gets righ...

What if the leftovers from lunch could become fertilizer, data and a climate solution? On this 10 Minute Tech Talk, we're digging into one of the coolest circular economy stories growing right here in Pittsburgh. Dylan Lew, Co-Founder of Ecotone Renewables, walks us through Zeus, the company's automated biodigester built inside a reused shipping container. Zeus takes food waste from schools, hospi...

On this episode of 10 Minute Tech Talks, we're diving into the fast-moving, slightly chaotic and very real world of AI and cybersecurity with Isabelle Syring and Robert Ragan of CUSTOS IQ . Everyone is using AI. Employees are testing tools. Teams are dropping company data into large language models. Copilot, ChatGPT and browser-based AI tools are showing up inside workflows before policies, securi...

Cybersecurity is not just an IT issue. It is now a core business discipline. In this episode of 10 Minute Tech Talks , Jonathan Kersting talks with Richard Evanchec, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Pittsburgh Field Office , following his keynote at Cyburgh 2026 . Evanchec shares practical guidance for business and technology leaders on how to strengthen cyber defenses before an incident occurs....

What makes a company worth buying? Most people think it's revenue. Or technology. Or market share. But after spending more than 30 years building Pittsburgh-based engineering firm IQ Inc., founder Barbara VanKirk believes the answer starts somewhere else entirely: People. In this episode of 10 Minute Tech Talks , you'll hear how VanKirk built a company culture around growth, curiosity, and leaders...

What if the best hire for your company isn't the most experienced… but the most AI-enabled? In this quick hit from the Pittsburgh Technology Council's TechVibe Radio interview with Sandesh Sukumaran, founder of Outcome Logix, we dig into a major shift happening right now: companies are rethinking experience—and leaning hard into talent that knows how to use AI tools to move faster and smarter.  Th...

What happens when you stop treating technology like overhead and start using it to give people their time back? In this episode, we talk with  Monica Fletcher of Auberle , a nonprofit leader who's thinking like a startup operator. She's finding friction, digitizing clunky processes, using data to make smarter decisions, and rolling out AI in a way that supports people instead of replacing them. A...

What happens when building a product gets radically easier? You're about to find out. Today's featured voice is  Dan Olsen , author of The Lean Product Playbook and keynote speaker for ProductCamp Pittsburgh . In this excerpt, Dan dives into the fast-rising world of vibe coding and why it matters a whole lot more than just writing code faster. He explains how AI tools are making it easier for non-...

What if the biggest breakthrough in robotics is not the robot itself, but the time you save building it? In this episode of 10 Minute Tech Talks, we sit down with Bob Raida and Dave Rollinson of HEBI Robotics and they explain how modular design can help engineers move faster, cut development friction, and avoid reinventing the wheel, while also showing how that same approach is opening doors for a...

What happens when a company starts with one cool idea, then realizes the real business is hiding in the pieces they built along the way?  In this episode of 10 Minute Tech Talks, Bob Raida and Dabe Rollinson of HEBI Robotics share how it evolved from snake robots to a modular robotics platform designed to help people build faster, test sooner, and get real tools into the real world. Their idea is...

How do you build a business that can stand the test of time and keep your soul intact? In this episode of 10 Minute Tech Talks , Lou Camerlengo of fivestar* shares the kind of hard-earned insight entrepreneurs rarely get from a playbook. Rather than chasing growth for growth's sake, Lou explains how fivestar* has stayed relevant by building deep client relationships, staying adaptable, and creatin...

AI is transforming everything — but some of the most powerful applications are happening in places most people never see. In our Techvibe interview with Woolpert CEO Neil Churman, he explains how AI, lidar, and geospatial data are turning maps into machines that can detect landslides, monitor infrastructure, and help prevent disasters before they happen. It's a fascinating look at how real-world A...

Pittsburgh is often called a comeback city. But Woolpert CEO Neil Churman sees something deeper. As discovered in his Techvibe interview, Neil believes the same industrial DNA that built America's steel industry is now powering the region's rise in AI, robotics, and infrastructure technology. In this short conversation, Neil shares a personal story about his great-grandfather working in the steel...

AI is everywhere right now, and there's a lot of fear about what it means for jobs. And Woolpert CEO Neil Churman sees it differently. He believes AI won't replace experts — it will make them better. Woolpert is a global architecture, engineering, and geospatial technology firm that uses advanced tools like AI, lidar, and digital twins to design infrastructure, map the world, and help organization...

 Are you building technology or are you building results? In this episode, you are going to hear why some leaders believe AI has been massively overhyped and massively undersold all at the same time. And why? The companies that win aren't just chasing trends. They are chasing outcomes. Pittsburgh Technology Council CEO Audrey Russo interviewed Jonathan Jungk of Palantir and Chris Johnson of TeleTr...

 Here's a quick question for you. If your software can make decisions for your customers, should it, or should it simply make them smarter?  In this episode of 10 Minute Tech Talks, you will get a front-row seat at the Pittsburgh Technology Council's 2026 Think! AI Summit. You're going to hear why some of the most advanced AI leaders in healthcare believe technology should recommend not rule. And...

What does it really take to scale a startup when early traction turns into real momentum? In this episode of 10 Minute Tech Talks , Jonathan Kersting of the Pittsburgh Technology Council and TechVibe Radio breaks down a powerful segment from his TechVibe interview with Wendy McSparren and John Mihalik, co-founders of Admirra, a fast-growing mental health technology startup. You'll learn how they:...

Building a startup is hard. Building a startup with your spouse? That's a whole different level of difficulty. Today on 10 Minute Tech Talks , we're exploring how Wendy McSparren and John Mihalik built Admirra together, not just as co-founders, but as partners in life. Admirra provides software and service solutions for private mental health practices to help them onboard new clients and efficient...

What you're about to hear isn't just a conversation about healthcare. It's a masterclass in how modern organizations use technology to scale expertise, reduce friction, and make better decisions at speed. In this episode, we excerpted a segment from the Pittsburgh Technology Council's Health Care Reinvented Podcast featuring  Highmark leaders Maria Baker and Mari Vandenburg as they talk about how...

AI is everywhere right now. It can write code, generate content, fix bugs, and give you a starting point in seconds. But if you're an entrepreneur building a real product, you've probably already realized something important: AI alone isn't enough. In this 10 Minute Tech Talk , we are joined again by Greg Lutz from Mescius, a Pittsburgh-based software company that's spent decades building tools fo...

You're building something. You're moving fast. And at some point, the code starts slowing you down. Today's 10 Minute Tech Talks is for founders and entrepreneurs who are doing some of their own development and wondering if there's a smarter way to build without reinventing every wheel. Greg Lutz from Mescius, a Pittsburgh-based company that's been helping developers save time for more than two de...