Joshua Lisec has been a ghostwriter for a decade. Public figures hire him to write compelling books, newsletters, and tweets in their voice, so that they can build their media platform. He has helped to write best selling and critically aclaimed books and teaches the best practices publicly online. Joshua coaches his clients to offer higher-ticket services, courses, and products in conjunction with book sales to build a sustainable business. In this podcast, Joshua and Aaron discuss the business...
Jan 18, 2021•39 min
Patrick Colletti is the founder of Net Health a $100M+ cloud-based provider of specialized software that serves specialized medical facilities like wound centers, senior care, and occupational therapy. When Patrick began his tenure as company president in 2001, Net Health was experiencing significant financial turmoil resulting in laying off all but 2 employees. By utilizing a Refounder mindset as a framework for success, Patrick was able to spur rapid business growth and cultivate a flourishing...
Jan 11, 2021•36 min
Alex Berman is an actual serial entrepreneur. Before the age of 30, he has built a 7-figure agency, completed multiple movie projects, and built a 50,000 subscriber YouTube channel. Most folks feel content to throw that title in their bio as a way to summarize some half-finished projects. Alex, on the other hand, builds systems in a focused and brutally efficient way. He has delegated leadership of his agency, Experiment 27, to someone else and has now set about acquiring more companies for his ...
Jan 04, 2021•39 min
When Mark Marmo took over as the CEO of Deep Well Services, the company was losing $2 million per year on $9 million in revenue. Six years later, Deep Well Services was making $30 million in net income on $110 million in revenue. Mark accomplished this by focusing on bringing an innovative & efficient service to the market, building a healthy company culture, and trusting his data analysts to make good decisions. In this conversation, Aaron and Mark discuss the standard he has implemented, t...
Dec 28, 2020•31 min
Frank Augustine is the founder of ILLEGAL apparel. Frank and his brother created the brand, and associated company, in their parent's basement back in 2013. He has spent the last 7 years scaling production, opening a store on the South Side of Pittsburgh, and learning many lessons about entrepreneurship. He’s gotten the business off the ground via a relentless commitment to sales and a willingness to experiment with designs. Not bad for someone still in his early 20s. In this episode, Aaron and ...
Dec 21, 2020•35 min
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. The medical device, which has been approved for use in 35 countries outside the U.S., has proven relevan...
Dec 14, 2020•45 min
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 when you’re running low. Over time, Bottomless learns your coffee preferences and sends you personalized ...
Dec 07, 2020•50 min
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 products to market. She currently leads a team of clinical drug development experts and scientific advisory ...
Nov 30, 2020•34 min
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 loan approvals and the issue of $8 Billion in funds. In this conversation, Aaron and Blake discuss why...
Nov 16, 2020•45 min
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 or Procter & Gamble) of the digital age. Casey leads the team’s efforts in optimizing Thrasio’s 6,00...
Nov 09, 2020•40 min
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 expectations, Khalifa sought out Dzombak’s help with booking more shows for him. Within a few years, Dzombak has ...
Nov 02, 2020•37 min
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. He is currently leading a company pivot to the retail market. Brian originally invested in the company as...
Oct 26, 2020•51 min
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 experience with autonomous vehicles started twenty years ago at Carnegie Mellon University where he built lun...
Oct 19, 2020•36 min
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 challenges associated with selling a business worth less than $20 million. Now, Amanda leverages her learnin...
Oct 12, 2020•39 min
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 2019, Dawn became the first female CEO globally to raise over $1 million using equity crowdfunding. This...
Oct 05, 2020•35 min
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 founded Glow. Glow makes building podcast memberships easy and has raised more than $2 million in seed fu...
Sep 28, 2020•32 min
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 inside and out. Since launching Fleeting in June 2019, Pierre and the team have generated over $1.5 mill...
Sep 21, 2020•47 min
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 of the United Kingdom’s police force. Now, ACNC does over $10 million in annual revenue and as...
Sep 14, 2020•33 min
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Aug 31, 2020•5 min
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 tank product to market for animals. Now, his tanks are manufactured in the US and sold in veterinary cl...
Aug 24, 2020•37 min
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 learned a lot about the systems of business and how to implement them as you grow. In this conversatio...
Aug 17, 2020•37 min
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 business applications and web-accessible entry points. David has built his firm to be technology-agnost...
Aug 10, 2020•33 min
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 world is completely run by fiat currencies, cash whose value is not backed by some physical good such as gol...
Aug 03, 2020•44 min
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 officer before starting HomeBuyer. His current company utilizes intelligent personalization to deliver timely ...
Jul 27, 2020•56 min
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 and digital reinvention that the circumstances will demand. In this podcast, Ben and Aaron discuss build...
Jul 20, 2020•39 min
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 play in a portfolio. Aaron and Tyrone talk about fighting financial jargon, why advisors fear crypto, and ...
Jul 13, 2020•39 min
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, both public and private. Prior to spinning Tecum Capital out of First National Bank, he was President a...
Jul 06, 2020•39 min
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 black professionals, working in economic development for the Pittsburgh region, and leading conversation...
Jun 29, 2020•45 min
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 company goes to market, the way sales reps engage with buyers, the way marketing targets, and the way HR recr...
Jun 22, 2020•48 min
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 fintech. Pittsburgh’s best conference to Expand your Mind & Fill your Heart happens once a year. Joe H...
Jun 15, 2020•30 min
