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Going Deep with Aaron Watson

Aaron Watson is the CEO of Piper Creative. On this show, you'll hear thoughtful, focused conversations with entrepreneurs, executives, and innovators. Guests include Nathan Chan, Kevin Kelly, Bill Peduto, Morgan Housel, Noah Kagan, Tucker Max, and Barry Ritholtz. This is the biggest business podcast in Pittsburgh.
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Now displaying: August, 2017
Aug 30, 2017

Darrin Grove, Truefit’s Founder and CEO, is a native Pittsburgher with a passion for innovation, technology, and values-based leadership.

 

Since its bootstrap beginnings in 1997, Truefit’s experience with new, disruptive technologies has positioned the company as a leader in helping entrepreneurs and organizations bring new software products to market quickly. Using their proprietary Idea Launch™ process, Darrin and the Truefit team guide clients through a proven path to create new and next generation software products. By involving a broad cross-section of company stakeholders, end users, and subject matter experts, Truefit helps product teams reduce risk and build confidence. Their principled approach and “start-up” mentality have proven to be an invaluable asset to companies looking for an entrepreneurial approach to software product development.

 

In addition to his work at Truefit, Darrin is dedicated to sharing his insight in innovation and entrepreneurship with the Pittsburgh community. He leads the Deal Flow Team for Software and Technology at BlueTree Allied Angels and advises start-up companies at the AlphaLab tech accelerator. He is also active on several non-profit boards to promote leadership, education, and urban renewal, and is a regular panelist and judge at events related to innovation.

 

Darrin’s Challenge; Think small. Focus on the small executions, pivots, and iterations that will move your work forward.

 

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Resources Mentioned

Lean Startup by Eric Reis

Prospect The Sandler Way by John Rosso

Good to Great by Jim Collins

Agile Manifesto

 

Connect with Darrin

LinkedIn

Twitter

Instagram

Website

 

If you liked this interview, check out my other interviews with Pittsburgh entrepreneurs.



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Aug 28, 2017

“If the rust belt has come to define the hollowed out industries of the Midwest, in the next ten years the paper belt will come to define the paper-based industries from Washington DC to Boston. In DC, they print money, visas, and laws on paper. In Delaware, companies incorporate on paper. In NYC, they print media on paper. And in Boston Harvard and MIT print diplomas on paper. I am dedicated to lighting the paper belt on fire.”

 

That’s straight from Michael’s profile.

 

Before co-founding 1517 Fund, Michael Gibson was vice president for grants at the Thiel Foundation and a principal at Thiel Capital. For nearly five years working for Peter Thiel, he has contributed research to Peter’s global macro hedge fund, assisted in teaching a course at Stanford Law School on sovereignty and technological change, and helped run the Thiel Fellowship.

 

He serves on the board of the Seasteading Institute. Before his academic apostasy, he was working towards a doctorate in philosophy at the University of Oxford.

 

Attend my one-day conference January 27th in Pittsburgh. Learn more here.

 

Michael’s Challenge; 2017 is the 500th anniversary of the 95 theses. Write you own declaration and post it somewhere in public.

 

Connect with Michael

Twitter

LinkedIn

Website

info@1517.com

 

If you liked this interview, check out our most popular interviews.


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Aug 23, 2017

Kenny Chen serves as the Program Director of Ascender, where he focuses his attention on curating and delivering innovation programs and building collaborative relationships with people and organizations throughout Pittsburgh, as well as nationally and internationally.

This culminates each year with the Thrival Innovation + Music Festival, which brings together local and international influencers for multiple days of innovation-focused programs followed by a two-day outdoor music experience. On the side, Kenny is the co-founder of involveMINT, and serves on the boards for the Pittsburgh Entrepreneurs Forum and Social Venture Partners.

Kenny was born in Madison, WI, raised in Las Vegas, NV, and graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Social Psychology. He has worked in several places around the world, including San Francisco, Washington DC, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. He came to Pittsburgh in 2014 for the Coro Fellowship in Public Affairs, a transformative experience that quickly gave him a wide breadth of knowledge and a deep love for the city.

 

Attend my one-day conference January 27th in Pittsburgh. Learn more here.

 

Kenny’s Challenge; Intentionally seek out opportunities to interact with and learn from someone who doesn’t share your beliefs, views, or background.

 

Connect with Kenny

LinkedIn

Twitter

Website

 

If you liked this interview, check out all my interviews with the people shaping the future of Pittsburgh.



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Aug 21, 2017

Erik Voorhees, CEO of leading digital asset exchange ShapeShift.io, is among the top-recognized serial Bitcoin advocates and entrepreneurs, understanding Bitcoin as one of the most important inventions ever created by humanity. Erik's former project, the groundbreaking gaming phenomenon SatoshiDICE, was, at its peak, responsible for more than half of all Bitcoin transactions on Earth and popularized the concept of "provable fairness."

 

You should attend my one-day conference January 27th in Pittsburgh. Learn more here.

 

Erik’s Challenge; Get some Bitcoin and learn how to use it. Block explorer

 

Like my crypto episodes? Support the work!

Ethereum: 0x1c5f5da1efad45078c41bceb18eb777099138e6b

Bitcoin: 13RcQZnZM4Lx6bw37YVdiv6Uc2X5b7anF3

 

If you liked this interview, check out all of my blockchain and crypto related interviews.



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Aug 14, 2017

Mark joined WebKite in the summer of 2016 out of his excitement for the advertising technology space and the powerful products WebKite has developed to date. Machine learning and language technologies can do so much still to connect consumers to the products they need, and WebKite will continue to be a major player in that work.

 

When not at work, Mark can be found serving as his neighborhood’s borough councilman, an advisor to small and family-owned businesses, a sous chef for his lovely wife’s kitchen creations, and the kooky uncle to his cute niece Lindsey.

 

Mark is a Carnegie Mellon University graduate who has been working as the CEO of early-stage software companies for about five years. His first company, Student InTuition, merged to form Imagine Careers, Inc., a first-of-its-kind career discovery and engagement platform in the human capital space.

 

WebKite, Inc. is an advertising technology company leveraging machine learning to create the most efficient and specific advertising campaigns on the web. With PPC, Remarketing, and Display products across a number of sectors, we make your inventory soar!

 

Mark’s Challenge; Find a business in your local community and find a skill or service that could be useful to them.

 

Resources

Google Adwords Certification

 

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Connect with Mark

Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Website

 

If you liked this interview, check out all of our interviews with the most influential people of Pittsburgh.



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Aug 9, 2017

Barry Rabkin has over a decade of success founding, growing, and selling technology companies. An operational and strategic business leader, Barry's experience ranges from high growth, venture backed startups to Fortune 500 companies. He has also contributed to the development of over 100 successful physical and digital products.

 

Barry is proud to serve as Chief Marketing Officer of Identified Technologies, President of Hackers & Founders - PGH Chapter, Board Director of Jewish Family & Children's Services, He is also a guest Professor at Carnegie Mellon University and Strategist at Barry Brands Consulting where he advises and invests in many of the region's fastest growing start-ups.

 

Barry’s Challenge; Write out your do list for the day and systematically eliminate everything getting in the way of your primary goal.

 

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Connect with Barry

Twitter

LinkedIn

Website

 

If you liked this interview, check out episode 43 with Dick Zhang where we discuss Identified Technology for the first time, drone innovation, and entrepreneurship.


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Aug 7, 2017

Today’s episode is a conversation about Truth and Love. Both are often missing from our daily interactions, and Kim Scott wants to fix that.

 

Here NYT and WSJ bestselling book Radical Candor covers the leadership and communication lessons she learned while working for Sheryl Sandberg & Sergey Brin and Google and with Steve Jobs at Apple.

 

Whether you are a leader, consultant, or employee, you will benefit from injecting more radical candor into your meetings and discussion.

 

Kim’s Challenge; Focus on soliciting radical candor from someone you works with

 

Book

Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity by Kim Scott

 

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Connect with Kim

Twitter

Website

 

If you liked this interview, check out our other most popular episodes.

 

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Aug 2, 2017

Risk is a word with numerous definitions. Riskalyze helps investors negotiate the risks they face.

 

Aaron Klein is the quintessential entrepreneur, spending his entire career working with entrepreneurial businesses at the intersection of finance and technology. He’s led companies or teams working on business operations software, payments technology for political candidates and causes, and mobile strategies for trading tools.

 

He co-founded Riskalyze in 2011 and has led the company through the building of its core technology. The company has grown to support over $2 billion in portfolios and twice been named one of The World’s Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Finance by Fast Company Magazine.

 

Aaron’s Challenge; Find an apprenticeship to gain experience before starting your first business.

 

Resources

Nick Murray


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Connect with Aaron

Twitter

Website

 

If you liked this interview, check out my interview with Wealthfront CEO Andy Rachleff and all of our other finance-related episodes.



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