Sandra Mau is the founder & CEO of TrademarkVision, a startup doing visual brand protection. She and her team of machine learning engineers are developing a top visual search engine for trademarks and logos. In this conversation, we talk about why she has another office in Australia, how the algorithm simplifies work for IP lawyers, and shares stories of scrappy startups at events. Prior to starting TrademarkVision, Sandra was a Senior Computer Vision Research Engineer at NICTA doing R&D...
Oct 03, 2018•26 min
Dr. Gina Marchando is the executive director at DreamLife Recovery, a new addiction treatment program in Donegal, PA. Gina has been treating patients for trauma, PTSD and the full spectrum of dissociative disorders for more than a decade and came back to Pittsburgh to after losing her nephew to an overdose. In this conversation, we talk about addiction, psychotherapy, and the small steps we can all take to care for others. Gina is particularly excited about the wide array of evidence-based treat...
Oct 01, 2018•31 min
Traffic sucks. Luckily, smart people are looking into making cities smarter and reducing congestion. Rapid Flow Technologies was spun out of Carnegie Mellon University with the goal of introducing new Intelligent Transportation Systems technologies into the marketplace. Rapid Flow was created to commercialize the Surtrac adaptive traffic signal control technology developed in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon. I spoke with CEO Griffin Schultz, who was brought in to lead business developm...
Sep 26, 2018•23 min
Please go give us some love and let me know your favorite TD celebration. Steelers Fans' TD Celebrations
Sep 24, 2018•2 min
Norma Nieto was the President of PIVOT, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Impellia through mid-2017, and is currently working in multiple capacities for Impellia as a consultant. She currently has her own strategy and analytics consulting company, N-Squared Strategic Consulting, which helps clients harness the power of data and analytics to develop innovative strategies. Impellia is a sports software and sensor-based technology company co-founded by former Pittsburgh Steelers QB Charlie Batch. We dis...
Sep 19, 2018•32 min
Idea Foundry has invested in over 200 companies and generated $1B in direct economic impact for the region. The Pittsburgh-based, non-profit economic development organization focsues on creating living-wage, high-opportunity jobs by investing in and working alongside entrepreneurs to grow. Previously, Mr. Matesic was Chief Executive Officer for two start-up companies and Chief Financial Officer for MetalSite, Inc., participating in the rapid growth of the company and public registration process....
Sep 17, 2018•30 min
Craig Markovitz co-founded Blue Belt Technologies, a spinoff from the Robotics Institute at CMU, in 2003 and thirteen years later was a key member of the deal team that led to a $275,000,000 acquisition. During his years in business, Craig has launched companies, raised capital, and managed operations in businesses spanning from pre revenue and 18 employees to multi-million in revenue and 150 employees. Today, he is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence in the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship and an As...
Sep 11, 2018•52 min
Startups are always a distinct journey, but the DeCicco brothers have been on a particularly wild ride. I trekked into Manhattan to interview Kitu Life Super Coffee CEO Jim DeCicco about founding a beverage company with his brothers, getting investment from founder of WeWork, and building a distribution system. He left a job on Wall Street in August of 2015 and has been on a hell of a ride ever since. Jim appeared on Shark Tank with his brothers in a February 2018 episode seeking a $400,000 inve...
Sep 06, 2018•30 min
Underwritten by Piper Creative A digital agency that provides strategy, delivery, and analysis specializing in a few key service offerings. Documentary-as-a-Service (Vlogging 2.0) Instagram Content Production & Account Building Podcast Production, Strategy Consulting, and Guest Acquisition If you aren’t creating or curating content regularly, your clients and customers might forget you’re open for business. YouTube Instagram Subscribe on iTunes | Stitcher | Overcast | PodBay ...
Sep 04, 2018•38 min
The Shop Local Movement is gaining steam, while our banks have gotten even more impersonal. How do things change? George Cook believes he may have an answer. His company, Honeycomb Credit, is building a platform for small businesses to borrow directly from their own community and loyal customer base. This creates affordable credit lines entrepreneurs and competitive returns to community members. In this conversation, we discuss how George’s background in community banking informs his startup and...
Aug 27, 2018•32 min
Eight years ago, 100,000s of people died in the Haitian earthquake. Many people donated money, but Ian Rosenberger was compelled to do more. Ian co-founded Thread International, which has shipped nearly 200,000 lbs of recycled plastic out of Haiti to be processed into fabric. This has also created jobs for Haitian families and represents a forward thinking solution to issues of poverty.. Currently, the Thread Team is busy running a kickstarter campaign for a line of backpacks and other workweek ...
Aug 22, 2018•42 min
It’s estimated that 50% of the population will be working independently by 2020. If this comes to fruition, the demand for shared space will continue to rise at a fast pace in the next year. According to some estimates, there could be up to 37,000 Coworking spaces worldwide by the end of 2018. I sat down to discuss with Zach Ciccone, Principal & Head of Growth for the Beauty Shoppe. Beauty Shoppe is an urban coworking company centered on a culture of service excellence and the belief that cr...
Aug 20, 2018•36 min
Alison Alvarez knows a lot about a lot. In just 30 minutes, she taught me about Charleston, West Virginia, the power of geo-tracking, and how she does market research. We didn’t even get into Japanese literature. Alison is the CEO and co-founder of BlastPoint. She has spent years building big data tools for large companies and became convinced that more affordable and accessible solutions should exist. She has emerged as an expert consultant regarding large geospatial data systems, lecturing aro...
Aug 15, 2018•33 min
Ingrid Cook is SHzoom’s CEO. The company is an insurance-tech startup with a patented technology focused on automotive repairs. SHzoom was designed to revolutionize the way the industry handles minor fender benders. Rather than driving from shop to shop or waiting hours for a single estimate from a claims adjuster, SHzoom allows the end user to point and click for multiple repair cost estimates from nearby shops! Aaron & Ingrid discuss the arduous patent process, the importance of a strong n...
Aug 13, 2018•37 min
Media and marketing people are all making big deals about video and audio. Not enough people are paying attention to the impact of maps. Emily Mercurio’s is perfectly poised to help companies utilize the modern form of this old technology. She is an expert in geology, geospatial technology, 2D/3D mapping, and remote sensing and helps her clients through her company CivicMapper. We discuss the entrepreneurial skillset she's developed, her time in the oil & gas industry, and how powerful maps ...
Aug 08, 2018•33 min
Adhithi Aji is applying her strong technical skills to deliver consumer insights & data to the CPG world. Her company Adrich is a Pittsburgh-based company that connects brands and retailers through product usage data and analytics. In this conversation, we discuss iterating on digital products, the fundraising environment in Pittsburgh, and how Adhithi’s product scales. Every aspiring tech entrepreneur should listen to this conversation and take note of how precise Adhithi is in her thinking...
Aug 06, 2018•36 min
Lou Camerlengo founded fivestar*, a custom technology design, development, and consulting firm, in 1997. Lou leads fivestar*’s business development and client retention efforts, driving company performance while maintaining a deep involvement in higher education, workforce, and nonprofit projects. In this podcast, we discuss starting the business, building a cohesive team, and how Lou has been forced to evolve over the life of the company. fivestar* has been twice ranked as an INC 5000 company, ...
Aug 01, 2018•42 min
I went to the offices of Deeplocal, an innovation studio that boasts clients like Nike, Netflix, Spotify, Lyft, and Google, to interview Director of Business Development Josh Corcoran. Josh Corcoran is the creator of Spare Change, a video series that connects communities and causes with music by inviting bands to busk for their favorite charities. The project began in February of 2017 when Josh & a friend were performing their music on the streets. They soon found themselves with a guitar ca...
Jul 31, 2018•41 min
Chris Edwards and his siblings grew up in a chocolate factory and he is the CEO for Edward Marc Brands, based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Upon taking the reins, Chris and his siblings transformed the 104-year-old company from regional prominence into a respected national corporation. Edward Marc Brands consists of Edward Marc Chocolatier, The Milk Shake Factory, and Snappers Crafted Snacks. Prior to working at Edward Marc Brands, Chris worked for the United States government in the Office of th...
Jul 27, 2018•36 min
Ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft aren’t ideal for long distances. They cost too much. However, trains and airlines aren’t always practical. Bharath Krishnamoorthy believes his company, Axle Travel, is the solution. Axle is a ride-hailing service for long-distances that's focused on providing fast and affordable transportation to the airport. In this conversation, Aaron and B discuss the inspiration behind the company, the strategy behind launching in a new city, and why the team came to ...
Jul 23, 2018•31 min
The Restaurant Industry was due for a new idea, and that’s exactly what Tyler Benson and Benjamin Mantica delivered when they co-founded Smallman Galley . Their food hall restaurant accelerator is the first of its kind in the United States. The space incubates four restaurant concepts at a time and drastically lowers the startup costs of a new culinary venture. Tyler and Ben are Navy Veterans who were inspired by world travels to bring innovative food and beverage concepts to the United States. ...
Jul 16, 2018•30 min
LegalSifter is on a mission to bring affordable legal services to the world by empowering people with artificial intelligence. Kevin Miller joined the startup to help prove the business model and scale the company. Previously, Kevin has served as Chief Operating Officer Industrial Scientific Corporation, helped launch an online version of Argosy University, and spent half a decade at FreeMarkets, in the global sourcing and procurement software space. In this podcast, we discuss artificial intell...
Jul 11, 2018•35 min
Skycision is on a mission to help the global agriculture industry grow more efficiently. Food production has to increase by 70% by 2050 to feed the anticipated 2 billion person increase in the global population. Skycision offers a solution to help the global agriculture industry grow more efficiently by identifying crop stress earlier in the growing season, and optimizing field inputs to enhance crop production. We spoke with Brendan about building a remote team, the commercial applications of d...
Jul 09, 2018•26 min
Tucker Max is an American author and public speaker. He chronicled his drinking and sexual encounters in the form of short stories on his website TuckerMax.com ,which has received millions of visitors since Max launched it as the result of a bet in 2000. I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell was a New York Times #1 Bestseller and made the Bestseller List each year from 2006 to 2012. It has sold over one million copies worldwide, including 400,000 copies in 2009 alone. In 2010, he released a book titled...
Jul 02, 2018•35 min
After the fireside chat with Anthony Freeze, we took questions from the audience about Instagram, podcasting, and running kickass events. Some video from this event is at the end of Episode 015 of This Is Piper.
Jun 27, 2018•34 min
Over the course of a 90-minute conversation, at Industrious Coworking space, we discussed Instagram, podcasting, and running kickass events. We also discussed the genesis of Piper Creative and our plans for the future. Super grateful to Anthony Freeze for conducting a great interview. LinkedIn
Jun 25, 2018•43 min
Mark DeSantis is currently CEO of RoadBotics, an AI-based product that monitors and manages roadway infrastructure. Previously, he has co-founded an energy hedge fund, a GE Ventures-backed energy predictive analytics company, and a venture-backed online tutoring company. Why build a company focused on road maintenance? There is a desperate need to efficiently and effectively monitor and maintain the world's civil infrastructure. His company, RoadBotics, uses smartphone sensors to inexpensively m...
Jun 20, 2018•42 min
A decade ago, very few people thought a blog could be a business. Today, it’s common knowledge. Nicki Zevola Benvenuti hopped on the trend very early, starting her website, FutureDerm.com, in 2008. It now helps more than 500,000 people a month discover hard-to-find scientific information on skincare, to make sense of marketing claims, and to find what is best for their skin a plethora of products in a crowded marketplace. Now, she is leveraging her fluency in digital media to help other brands g...
Jun 18, 2018•32 min
This episode was an opportunity to pester one of my good friends, Brad Driscoll, with questions 😏 In addition to co-founding Think Big Marketing, Brad has generated 10 million views on YouTube and amassed one of the 1,000 largest audiences on Twitch. He’ll be talking about building a YouTube account at an event we are holding August 1st. RSVP to the Facebook event for updates or buy a ticket right now . In this episode, we primarily talk about building his Twitch audience and building his busin...
Jun 13, 2018•43 min
Halima Tammy Thompson's moved to Pittsburgh as a child and was faced with homelessness, loss and countless obstacles. Years later, she has fused 20+ years of experience in the Real Estate Industry and 8 years of working in the nonprofit sector as a Credit Counselor. Tammy is a Poverty Expert, Nationally Sought After Speaker, Executive Producer of We Wear The Mask, a documentary released in 2017 highlighting the stigma associated with women in poverty. She provides counseling services with integr...
Jun 11, 2018•41 min
