Going Deep with Aaron Watson

Jay is COO of The Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing Institute (ARM). ARM is an independent non-profit that won an $80 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to become the leading catalyst of robotics innovation and expertise to accelerate growth in US-based manufacturing and the high value careers.   It is also supported by an additional $173 million in commitments from more than 100...

Stephen Warley teaches people the life skills that matter for business.   My mission is to relieve people of their work anxieties by empowering them to design their own work.   The evolutionary fear of losing the acceptance of others is often more powerful than the desire to strike out on our own. He sees his job as empowering his readers to stop living up to the ideals of others and to start livi...

Instead, he’d prefer to offer his perspective. He’s built a $40,000,000 real estate portfolio through hard work, persistence, and patience. Being raised by a single parent in a two bedroom, low income apartment in Mt. Oliver doesn’t usually breed success, but Joe Calloway’s story is anything but usual. Joe went from those unfortunate circumstances to being the largest single family home buyer in P...

Dinesh is a self-professed technophile, in addition to a speaker, mentor, and entrepreneur. He has taken part in three separate companies getting acquired, the third for over $200 million dollars. These days he stays busy investing, mentoring, and sharing wisdom.   He initially went to university for sciences, which lead him to a career in software. It wasn’t long before he realized that his pay w...

Bill Laboon is currently teaching Software Quality Assurance, Software Engineering, and the Computer Science Capstone course at the University of Pittsburgh. In addition, he advises numerous students for projects, independent research, and their academic and professional careers.   He prepares students to develop high-quality software in a "real-world" environment. That real world is fast includin...

Self-driving cars are coming. Ford is betting $1 billion dollars over five years that Argo Ai can make it happen.   CEO Bryan Salesky calls upon his experience leading the software engineering for Tartan Racing, Carnegie Mellon’s winning entry in the DARPA Urban Challenge as he tries to build the future.   He also was on the Google self-driving car team. While at Google, Bryan was director of hard...

Wendy Downs is an artist who learned to be an entrepreneur. Her company, Moop, was founded in 2007 in western Massachusetts. She has since moved to Pittsburgh, where her small team design and manufactures every waxed canvas bag.   In a 35-minute conversation, we cover her expertise in e-commerce, design, small batch manufacturing, and textile manufacturing.   Never miss one of our best episodes by...

Pittsburgh has been in the news recently for robots and restaurants. But it’s still a blue collar town.   In a sweeping discussion, Aaron & Neil Ashbaugh discuss the opportunities for good pay and consistent work offered by roles in manufacturing. The industry is facing a cliff over the next ten years as Baby Boomers continue to retire, leaving companies hungry for talent.   New Century Careers is...

Niche.com generated 50,000,000 unique visitors last year. They announced a $6.6M Series B round of fundraising in February 2018. They've come a long way from their humble beginnings in 2002.   In my interview with Luke Skurman, the Founder & CEO of Niche.com, we discuss the challenges of raising venture capital as an established company, the marketing & business development talent in Pittsburgh, a...

Jake Wheatley joined the United States Marine Corps in 1989. He needed more discipline and that’s exactly what her got.   He has since translated the skills and lessons he learned serving in the Gulf War into a career in public service.   Jake Wheatley is a Democratic politician from the state of Pennsylvania. He represents the 19th district in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives which inclu...

Rich, President & CEO of Innovation Works, leads one of the nation’s most active early-stage investors. In this conversation, we discuss a recent report IW authored with Ernst & Young that detailed the last decade of venture investing in the region.   Some highlights of recent activity include the $225 million acquisition of security awareness trainer Wombat Security by California-based Proofpoint...

From an early age, Hannah developed a love for art and creating, and has grown those passions into hard skills that could build a business.   She started HPMedia in 10th grade and was dedicated to growing it part-time throughout high school. After graduating in 2016, she started an apprenticeship/entrepreneurship program called Praxis. After apprenticing at a digital marketing agency, Hannah found...

Lisa is the the President and CEO of the Pittsburgh Leadership Foundation. She calls upon over 20 years of experience in the marketplace in sales and marketing and senior management roles, as well as ministry leadership experience, to coach leaders in her day-to-day work.   Lisa provides executive leadership for business development and donor relationships and evaluates and develops new initiative...

David Cristello had no background in accounting. He’s not a coder. Yet, he is the founder of a fast-growing accounting software startup called Jetpack Workflow.   How’d that happen? David diligently interviewed business owners until he found an untapped opportunity, then struck with full force.   He’s driven to solve painful problems with smart, passionate, and empathetic people and is building hi...

RE2 Robotics CEO & founder Jorgen Pedersen is responsible for the strategic direction of the Company, developing partnerships and alliances, and overseeing the day-to-day operations.   Jorgen has contributed to the growth of the unmanned systems market for the past 20 years, beginning his career at Carnegie Mellon's National Robotics Engineering Center.   Jorgen is the 2016 Carnegie Science Start-...

We want to talk about what we're learning. If you like this, please let us know in the comments. We appreciate Solomon, Paul, and Michael for submitting questions :) Send questions you have to hannah (at) pipercreative (dot) co  Want to work with us?  www.pipercreative.co  Shot and Edited by Hannah Phillips  https://www.instagram.com/hpmedia/

Nisha Blackwell is the founder & lead design curator of Knotzland Bowties. Founded in 2014, Knotzland specializes in custom handmade bow ties made from repurposed and reclaimed materials.   Driven by her passion for the environment and reducing waste, Nisha began Knotzland to create distinctive, fashionable goods that speak to the individuality of her customers. Dedicated to sourcing high-quality,...

Michael is an ethicist, writer, artist, educator, and concerned citizen based out of Pittsburgh, PA. He received his PhD from CU-Boulder's Department of Computer Science in Fall 2017. He wrote a thesis focused on the use of socio-technical narrative as a way of communicating, comprehending, teaching, and debating the ethics of new and near-future technologies. His research spans topics such as des...

Search funds are a distinct style of private equity firm that raises a small amount of capital to go find a business to buy. Generational Transfer Entrepreneurs is a private investment firm that works with a group of entrepreneurial operators (Operators-in-Residence) that are looking to individually acquire, operate and grow a privately held businesses. GTE provides business owners with a unique t...

Todd Bishop the is co-founder and managing editor of GeekWire, a leading technology news site based in Seattle. His company recently completed a one-month residence in Pittsburgh and learned about the burgeoning tech scene and the likelihood of Amazon setting up their HQ2 in town.   Bishop has covered Microsoft, Amazon, and the technology industry for more than a decade in Seattle, most recently a...

Pittsburgh is well-known for the robotics and maker movements popping up around town. The software companies have been a bit lacking.   So, I wanted to feature Ryan Green, founder & CEO of Gridwise. Gridwise provides insights into events and activities around your city, so rideshare drivers can drive smarter, increase their daily trips and make more money.   We discuss finding a technical co-found...

Key Terms CAC - Customer acquisition cost LTV - Lifetime Value ARR - Annual Recurring Revenue MRR - Monthly Recurring Revenue Churn Rate - % of customers that stop paying for your product/service   Ned is one of two founding partners at Birchmere Ventures, which is primarily focused on seed SaaS and marketplace investments. He led Birchmere’s investment in Cvent and served on its board for 11 year...

This is part two of our series on Instagram Chance will be speaking at our April 12th Instagram seminar in Pittsburgh. Get your tickets now.   Chancellor Humphrey is one of the most promising young creators in Pittsburgh. Even though he calls himself out for “sounding old” in this interview, he’s really just at the beginning of a very promising career.   In addition to top-notch photography skills...

This is part one of a two-part series on Instagram.  Erin will be speaking at our April 12th Instagram seminar in Pittsburgh. Get your tickets now.     Erin Bachman is a wife and mother of two.  At her website, Caffeine & Cuddles, she documents the trials and tribulations of being a new mom.   Her content and career, through brand deals and sponsorship, represents the brave new world of niche infl...

I don’t think I have ever been this excited about a professional project in my entire life. My new company, Piper Creative, is a a digital agency that provides strategy, delivery, and analysis. We specialize in a few key service offerings.   Instagram Content Production & Account Building Podcast Production, Strategy Consulting, and Guest Acquisition Documentary-as-a-Service (Vlogging 2.0)   You d...