Going Deep with Aaron Watson

Pete DeComo is the chairman and CEO of ALung Technologies. ALung is developing an artificial lung for patients suffering from Acute Respiratory Failure and has raised over $100 million to bring their product to market.    ALung’s Hemolung Respiratory Assist System is a dialysis-like alternative or supplement to mechanical ventilation that works by removing carbon dioxide directly from the blood. T...

Michael Mayer is the co-founder and CEO of Bottomless, a company that uses wifi connected weight sensors to do automatic home restocking. Their first, and only, offering is fresh roasted coffee.   Every customer pays an annual fee (like an Amazon Prime membership) and receives a coffee scale. The scale measures the amount of coffee remaining in your bag and automatically sends you the next one whe...

Teresa Whalen is the CEO of CytoAgents, a startup focused on the development of solutions to combat persistent and potentially deadly strains of Influenza, COVID19, and other viruses.   Teresa’s career spans 20 years in the healthcare industry, including health technology executive, life sciences investor, and clinical pharmacist. She has brought multiple successful life-changing healthcare produc...

Brock Blake is the founder and CEO of Lendio, a marketplace for small business loans. Lendio offers borrowers access to loan options from more lenders than any other marketplace in the industry.    Brock has been building his company for nearly a decade and raised more than $100 million in venture capital. 2020 has stretched his team and tech to new heights, as they’ve facilitated over 100,000 PPP...

Casey Gauss is the VP of Amazon SEO at Thrasio. Thrasio is one of the most interesting companies I’ve come across in years.   Thrasio was founded in 2018. It has gone on to raise $520.5 million and be valued at over $1 billion. The companies has acquired more than 70 businesses that sell products on Amazon.   By bundling the companies together, they aim to build the CPG powerhouse (think Unilever...

Will Dzombak is a Pittsburgh native and one of the entertainment industry’s top music managers. He’s helped guide the career of Grammy-nominated rapper Wiz Khalifa and cofounded Taylor Gang Entertainment.   As a student at Penn State, Will co-founded an events company, where he booked Wiz Khalifa will he was still just a rising Pittsburgh rapper. After the first show’s turnout exceeded expectation...

Planting soil hasn’t changed much in the last 50 years. Brian Scott wants to change that.   Brian is the CEO of PittMoss, a Pittsburgh startup that creates a recycled/upcycled substitute for peat moss.    Pittmoss has been proven in greenhouse trials to outgrow all current peat-based potting soil products when mixed with these products or when plants are grown in nutrient-enriched Pittmoss alone. ...

Michael is the CEO and co-founder of Edge Case Research, a company focused on making autonomy safer. Edge Case Research’s ECR’s products and services are geared for customers who build autonomous systems.    The company’s offerings include software that tests for gaps in computer vision systems and consulting focused on prioritizing safety into an engineering department’s culture.   Michael’s expe...

Amanda Dixon is the cofounder of Barney, a mid-market M&A firm that helps entrepreneurs buy and sell digital businesses. They boast a database of more than 15,000 buyers and a dynamic portfolio of past mergers and acquisitions.    Before starting Barney, Amanda had previously started and sold two businesses. After successfully selling both businesses, Amanda became painfully aware of the challenge...

Dawn Dickson is a serial entrepreneur that has launched four successful cash flow positive companies since 2002. Most recently, she splits her time between Flat Out of Heels (rollable flats for women to get relief from painful heels) and PopCom (a software solution to make vending machines more intelligent).   Dawn has an expertise in raising traditional and non-traditional business capital. In 20...

In 2017, Amira Valliani created Backyard Cambridge, a podcast about the City Council election in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She interviewed the candidates, produced the episodes, and built a small audience.   When she attempted to turn the show into a viable business, she found that there was no easy solution for collecting subscription revenue from listeners willing to pay for content.   So, she f...

Pierre Laguerre is the founder & CEO of Fleeting, a startup building a digital platform to increase flexibility, dynamism, and efficiency for trucking companies and commercial truck drivers.    Pierre previously built two successful trucking companies operating trucks and staffing for other trucking companies. He’s been involved in trucking for nearly two decades and has learned the industry insid...

25 years ago, Gene Leyzarovich came to Pittsburgh as a refugee from Russia. Within two years, he founded Advanced Computer & Network Corporation to build data storage systems for clients.   Decades later, AC&NC has installed their JetStor RAID (redundant array of independent disks) systems for over 4,000 clients around the world. Those clients include NASA, the US State Department, and a majority...

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Blake Dube is the founder and CEO of Aeronics and the inventor of Pawprint Oxygen. Pawprint Oxygen is the world's first rescue oxygen supply for pets.   Blake studied oxygen as a chemical engineer at the University of Pittsburgh and expected to develop products for human medical applications. However, a chance encounter with his landlord revealed an exciting market opportunity to bring an oxygen t...

Mike Cleary is the co-founder and CEO of Huemor, a Web Design Agency that helps B2B and DTC brands communicate more clearly, connect with their target audiences, and generate revenue. His company has helped some serious brands, including Revlon, Live Nation, GEICO, United Nations, Centivo, Net2Phone, Briogeo, Glow Recipe, Square One Justice.   Mike has been in business for nearly a decade and has...

Over a decade ago, David Kane realized that there was a painful gap in cybersecurity. He built Ethical Intruder to fill that gap.    Today, Ethical Intruder helps clients across financial services, DoD, healthcare, and nonprofits reproduce vulnerable paths a hacker may take, so they can shore up their defenses. David’s ethical hacker teams conduct simulated malicious breaches of a wide variety of...

Brent Johnson is a wealth manager at Santiago Capital and a General Partner of the IceCap Strong Dollar Fund. Brent has had a multi-decade career in finance and has been responsible for managing billions of dollars.   Brent is well-known for his Dollar Milkshake Theory, where he expects a rapidly appreciating US Dollar over the next few years, relative to other world currencies.   Because the worl...

Dan Green is the founder and CEO of HomeBuyer, a mortgage lender designed for first-time homebuyers. It’s his 3rd company he’s built in the mortgage industry.   Dan previously founded the consumer-friendly mortgage education company "The Mortgage Reports", which was later acquired in 2014 by Full Beaker.   Dan Green is a 17-year mortgage lending veteran and was a multi-year, number-one loan office...

Ben Wilson founded Rivers Agile in 2008, in the eye of the Great Financial Crisis. The software consulting firm started focusing on advanced quality assurance and expanded to offer custom software development.    Now, Ben is leading his team through the pandemic, an office change, and a shifting marketplace for software solutions. He believes he’s poised to take advantage of a trend of onshoring a...

Tyrone Ross is a financial consultant, community builder, and entrepreneur.   He has been named to Investment News 40 under 40 (2019) and a top ten advisor set to change the industry by WealthManagement.com.   Tyrone has focused on pushing a conservative, stodgy industry forward by focusing on young professionals, embracing financial technology startups, and acknowledging the role crypto assets pl...

Stephen Gurgovits is the Managing Partner and co-founder of Tecum Capital, a $750+ million private investment firm based in Pittsburgh, PA. Tecum’s committed capital is deployed as mezzanine debt, subordinated notes, and private equity into lower middle market businesses across the US.   During his career, Stephen has been directly involved in over $1 billion of aggregate financial transactions, b...

Brian Burley is the founder of YNGBLKPGH, a book and community of talented black professionals in and around the city of Pittsburgh.   Brian came on Going Deep to discuss the absolute necessity of cities and corporations adopting more empathetic and diverse approaches to attracting and retaining talent.   He has a distinct perspective that he has earned through writing his book profiling over 100...

Henry Schuck founded his company, originally named DiscoverOrg, in 2007 at the age of 23. The company IPO’d on June 4th, 2020.   After acquiring ZoomInfo in 2019, they took the new name and consolidated their position as one of the leading sources of business information and now drive the go-to-market initiative of over 15,000 companies worldwide.    Henry sees ZoomInfo changing the way every comp...

Joe Hipsky’s long career in financial services have allowed him to identify and develop a solution to the pipes of the financial system.   His company, iraLogix, is aimed at reducing the administrative burden placed on financial service providers.    In this conversation, Joe and Aaron discuss fundraising, why the financial services industry has been slow to adapt, and the regulatory climate for f...