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 6,000+ product pages on Amazon to ensure that they rank high.
This translates into lots of sales. Thrasio is profitable 🤯🤯🤯
In this conversation, Casey and Aaron discuss the Thrasio business model, how they acquire companies in less than 45 days, and the philosophy behind selling online.
Sign up for a Weekly Email that will Expand Your Mind.
Casey Gauss’s Challenge; Listen to audiobooks and increase the speed that you read them.
Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain by David Eagleman
On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins
If you liked this interview, check out episode 413 with Dr. Gordon Vanscoy where we discuss building a Billion Dollar company selling rare pharmaceuticals, and episode 414 with Glen Meakem where we discuss FreeMarkets being a unicorn during the DotCom boom.
Text Me What You Think of This Episode 412-278-7680
Underwritten by Piper Creative
Piper Creative makes creating podcasts, vlogs, and videos easy.
How? Click here and Learn more.
We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
Follow Piper as we grow
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 helped Khalifa create one of the most successful and consistent summer tours for the last 7 years. He’s also been one of the executive producers on Khalifa’s last three full-length releases.
Together, Wiz and Will have built Taylor Gang Entertainment, invested in the e-sports team Pittsburgh Knights, and much more.
In this conversation, Aaron and Will discuss the early days of Wiz’s career, their new restaurant Hotbox by Wiz, and the marketing strategies that they’ve been early to embrace.
Sign up for a Weekly Email that will Expand Your Mind.
Will Dzombak’s Challenge; Start a second hustle.
If you liked this interview, check out episode 358 with Jamilka Borges where we discuss the restaurant business, and episode 450 with Brian Scott where we discuss better planting soil.
Text Me What You Think of This Episode 412-278-7680
Underwritten by Piper Creative
Piper Creative makes creating podcasts, vlogs, and videos easy.
How? Click here and Learn more.
We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
Follow Piper as we grow
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 an angel investor, and took over the company when the founder moved on for family reasons.
In this episode, Brian and Aaron discuss leading a company through growth, the negative environmental impact of peat moss, and the company’s fundraising history, including money from Mark Cuban.
Sign up for a Weekly Email that will Expand Your Mind.
Brian Scott’s Challenge; Let’s make Pittsburgh the first peat-free city.
Text Me What You Think of This Episode 412-278-7680
Underwritten by Piper Creative
Piper Creative makes creating podcasts, vlogs, and videos easy.
How? Click here and Learn more.
We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
Follow Piper as we grow
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 lunar rovers for Red Whittaker, autonomous scientific robots that explored Antarctica, and self-driving technology for tackling harsh off-road terrain.
In this episode, Michael and Aaron discuss the origins of the company, how to translate ideas across organizations, and the multitude of industries that will be impacted by autonomous vehicles.
Sign up for a Weekly Email that will Expand Your Mind.
Michael Wagner’s Challenge; Go see the lunar rover seminar.
If you liked this interview, check out our interview with Argo Ai founder Bryan Salesky about autonomous cars and the episode with Locomation CEO Çetin Meriçli where we discuss self-driving semi-trucks.
Text Me What You Think of This Episode 412-278-7680
Underwritten by Piper Creative
Piper Creative makes creating podcasts, vlogs, and videos easy.
How? Click here and Learn more.
We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
Follow Piper as we grow
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 learnings to helping others exit their business in a way that is simple, focused, and financially advantageous. You can see the companies that are currently for sale through Barney on their website.
When she's not working, you can find Amanda with her husband and daughter at the beach or watching Frozen for the 1,000th time.
In this episode, Amanda and Aaron discuss how digital businesses get valued, why you shouldn’t share your customer list during due diligence, and what she learned selling her own businesses.
Sign up for a Weekly Email that will Expand Your Mind.
Amanda Dixon’s Challenge; Make a stranger smile this weekend.
If you liked this interview, check out episode 269 with Brent Beshore where we discuss selling family businesses and the unique models of private equity.
Text Me What You Think of This Episode 412-278-7680
Underwritten by Piper Creative
Piper Creative makes creating podcasts, vlogs, and videos easy.
How? Click here and Learn more.
We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
Follow Piper as we grow
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 style of fundraising was made available by the JOBS Act, which was signed into law in 2012.
In this conversation, Dawn and Aaron get into a deep discussion of the stairstep approach to entrepreneurship. By starting as a consultant, graduating to a product business, and then moving on to software, Dawn has been able to build upon the knowledge, reputation, and capital she earned in each business.
Sign up for a Weekly Email that will Expand Your Mind.
Dawn Dickson’s Challenge; Hop on an equity crowdfunding platform and
Follow PopCom
If you liked this interview, check out episode 445 with Pierre Laguerre where we discuss how he is using technology to improve the lives of truck drivers.
Text Me What You Think of This Episode 412-278-7680
Underwritten by Piper Creative
Piper Creative makes creating podcasts, vlogs, and videos easy.
How? Click here and Learn more.
We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
Follow Piper as we grow
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 funding.
In this episode, Amira and Aaron discuss why podcasters can make more money from subscriptions, Amira’s experience selling ads, and how startup life compares to the Hillary State Department.
Sign up for a Weekly Email that will Expand Your Mind.
Amira Valliani’s Challenge; Reconnect with someone you haven’t talked to in a while.
Text Me What You Think of This Episode 412-278-7680
Underwritten by Piper Creative
Piper Creative makes creating podcasts, vlogs, and videos easy.
How? Click here and Learn more.
We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
Follow Piper as we grow
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 million in revenue and raised more than $1.8 million. Additionally, Pierre became the first black man to ever max out a crowdfunding campaign by raising the $1.07 million SEC max, via Republic.
In this conversation, Pierre and Aaron discuss how he got into trucking to escape poverty, the forces changing the trucking industry, and the harsh conditions that drivers deal with on a regular basis.
Sign up for a Weekly Email that will Expand Your Mind.
Pierre Laguerre’s Challenge; Look at the world like you only have 24 hours left.
Book Referenced
What the CEO Wants You To Know by Ram Charan
If you liked this interview, check out our past interviews covering trucking and logistics. Cetin Mericli talks about building self-driving semi-trucks. Kristy Knichel talks about building a 3rd party logistics company to over $80 million in revenue. Hayden Cardiff talks about saving lives with software.
Text Me What You Think of This Episode 412-278-7680
Underwritten by Piper Creative
Piper Creative makes creating podcasts, vlogs, and videos easy.
How? Click here and Learn more.
We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
Follow Piper as we grow
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 assembles its devices in Pittsburgh, PA.
In this conversation, Gene and Aaron discuss how he’s gone from selling 4-gigabyte units to multiple petabyte units for clients and how the business of hardware has evolved.
Sign up for a Weekly Email that will Expand Your Mind.
Gene Leyzarovich’s Challenge; Set a weekly goal and commit to achieving it.
sales@acnc.com
If you liked this interview, check out episode 361 with Jason Wolfe where we discuss building multiple software companies in the gift card space.
Text Me What You Think of This Episode 412-278-7680
Underwritten by Piper Creative
Piper Creative makes creating podcasts, vlogs, and videos easy.
How? Click here and Learn more.
We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
Follow Piper as we grow
Check out the Expand Your Mind newsletter
https://www.goingdeepsummit.com/expand-your-mind
Watch the Piper Rundown & Vlog on YouTube
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 clinics around the country.
In this conversation, Blake and Aaron discuss the origins of the company, how Blake found the right manufacturing partner, and the ongoing improvements that are made to their product.
Sign up for a Weekly Email that will Expand Your Mind.
Blake Dube’s Challenge; Treat customer service representatives with kindness and respect.
If you liked this interview, check out episode 340 with Craig Markovitz where we discuss spinning a company out of a university, selling a company for $300 million, and finding purpose in your work.
Text Me What You Think of This Episode 412-278-7680
Underwritten by Piper Creative
Piper Creative makes creating podcasts, vlogs, and videos easy.
How? Click here and Learn more.
We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
Follow Piper as we grow
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 conversation, Mike and Aaron discuss how Mike got started with Craiglist customers, how Mike has implemented processes for everything, and why he moved the company to Pittsburgh.
Sign up for a Weekly Email that will Expand Your Mind.
Mike Cleary’s Challenge; Try something new that makes your uncomfortable.
If you liked this interview, check out episode 438 with Ben Wilson where we discuss commercial real estate, digital agencies, and grit.
Text Me What You Think of This Episode 412-278-7680
Underwritten by Piper Creative
Piper Creative makes creating podcasts, vlogs, and videos easy.
How? Click here and Learn more.
We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
Follow Piper as we grow
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-agnostic, which comes with two benefits. First, they aren’t selling a specific solution regardless of its relevance. Second, they are accustomed to evaluating a dynamic collection of tools to identify the primary point of weakness.
In this conversation, Aaron and David discuss how to seel cybersecurity to any firm, why nonprofits need to keep their data secure, and the
Sign up for a Weekly Email that will Expand Your Mind.
David Kane’s Challenge; Find a way to build someone else up.
Mentioned
Underwritten by Piper Creative
Piper Creative makes creating podcasts, vlogs, and videos easy.
How? Click here and Learn more.
We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
Follow Piper as we grow
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 gold or silver, Brent expects a massive devaluation of currencies across the board. Because of the U.S. is a relatively safer, stronger economy, he expects capital to flood into its domestic markets.
There are a lot of implications to the theory.
In this interview, Brent explains to Aaron what the Dollar Milkshake Theory is, how Brent’s career has unfolded, and the implications of a rising dollar for business owners and entrepreneurs.
Sign up for a Weekly Email that will Expand Your Mind.
Brent Johnson’s Challenge; Find someone you vehemently disagree with and have a conversation with them.
If you liked this interview, check out all of our past interviews with finance thinkers, investors, and advisors.
Text Me What You Think of This Episode 412-278-7680
Underwritten by Piper Creative
Piper Creative makes creating podcasts, vlogs, and videos easy.
How? Click here and Learn more.
We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
Follow Piper as we grow
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 and precise advice through specific moments of a home buyer's journey and fulfills the buyer's mortgage.
He was part of the Techstars accelerator in 2020.
In this conversation, Aaron Watson and Dan Green discuss how he generated an enormous number of leads with a blog, why mortgage lenders don’t think long-term, and why private mortgage insurance is not the boogeyman.
Sign up for a Weekly Email that will Expand Your Mind.
Dan Green’s Challenge; If you think you will buy a house, reach out to a mortgage loan officer and get a preapproval.
dan@homebuyer.ai
If you liked this interview, check out episode 361 with Jason Wolfe where we discuss starting multiple companies in the gift card space and building off of past successes.
Text Me What You Think of This Episode 412-278-7680
Underwritten by Piper Creative
Piper Creative makes creating podcasts, vlogs, and videos easy.
How? Click here and Learn more.
We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
Follow Piper as we grow
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 building a team, what makes for good QA, and the markets that Rivers Agile sells into.
Pittsburgh’s best conference to Expand your Mind & Fill your Heart happens once a year.
Ben Wilson’s Challenge; Challenge your vendors to find better deals.
Connect with Ben Wilson
If you liked this interview, check out our collection of interviews with Pittsburgh’s top entrepreneurs and leaders.
Text Me What You Think of This Episode 412-278-7680
Underwritten by Piper Creative
Piper Creative creates podcasts, vlogs, and videos for companies.
Our clients become better storytellers.
How? Click here and Learn more.
We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
Follow Piper as we grow
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 how Tyrone has never taken a vacation.
Pittsburgh’s best conference to Expand your Mind & Fill your Heart happens once a year.
Tyrone Ross’s Challenge; Find our leaders. Mold the next generation of young minds.
Connect with Tyrone Ross
If you liked this interview, check out our back catalog of finance-focused podcast interviews.
Text Me What You Think of This Episode 412-278-7680
Underwritten by Piper Creative
Piper Creative creates podcasts, vlogs, and videos for companies.
Our clients become better storytellers.
How? Click here and Learn more.
We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
Follow Piper as we grow
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 and CEO of F.N.B. Capital Corporation, a wholly-owned merchant banking subsidiary of FNB.
Stephen currently serves on the board of directors for Western Allegheny Capital, Gibraltar Cable Barriers, Uncle Charley’s Sausage Company, Auburn Gear, Inc., Oberg Industries, and the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Association of Corporate Growth.
In this podcast, Aaron and Stephen discuss launching the firm, how they allocate debt and equity investments, and Stephen’s interpretation of current market dynamics.
Pittsburgh’s best conference to Expand your Mind & Fill your Heart happens once a year.
Stephen Gurgovits’s Challenge; Make your bed and read the Wall Street Journal every day.
Connect with Stephen Gurgovits
If you liked this interview, check out episode 269 with Brent Beshore where we discuss private equity investing in the lower middle market.
Text Me What You Think of This Episode 412-278-7680
Underwritten by Piper Creative
Piper Creative creates podcasts, vlogs, and videos for companies.
Our clients become better storytellers.
How? Click here and Learn more.
We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
Follow Piper as we grow
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 conversations about diversity at ADP.
Aaron and Brian also cover the rise of Juneteenth into the national conversation and effective ways to market & message these important ideas.
Pittsburgh’s best conference to Expand your Mind & Fill your Heart happens once a year.
Brian Burley’s Challenge; Go learn something new about someone else’s culture or experience. Try to put yourself in their shoes.
Connect with Brian Burley
If you liked this interview, check out episode 418 with Marco Marandiz where we discuss hip hop, branding a B2B company, and the future of online commerce.
Text Me What You Think of This Episode 412-278-7680
Underwritten by Piper Creative
Piper Creative creates podcasts, vlogs, and videos for companies.
Our clients become better storytellers.
How? Click here and Learn more.
We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
Follow Piper as we grow
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 recruits.
In this episode, Henry and Aaron discuss bootstrapping the company to $25 million, the IPO roadshow during a pandemic, and Henry’s skills as a sales trainer.
Pittsburgh’s best conference to Expand your Mind & Fill your Heart happens once a year.
Henry Schuck’s Challenge; The professional you are today, isn’t who you need to be to accomplish your goals. Take an inventory of where you need to improve and go execute on it.
Connect with Henry Schuck
henry.schuck@zoominfo.com
If you liked this interview, check out episode 361 with Jason Wolfe where we discuss building multiple businesses that earned 8-figure and 9-figure exits.
Text Me What You Think of This Episode 412-278-7680
Underwritten by Piper Creative
Piper Creative creates podcasts, vlogs, and videos for companies.
Our clients become better storytellers.
How? Click here and Learn more.
We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
Follow Piper as we grow
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 Hipsky’s Challenge; If you’re looking for investors, study the investment process and how venture capitalists make decisions.
Connect with Joe Hipsky
If you liked this interview, check out episode 231 with Andy Rachleff where we discuss how he identified the opportunity to build Wealthfront.
Text Me What You Think of This Episode 412-278-7680
Underwritten by Piper Creative
Piper Creative creates podcasts, vlogs, and videos for companies.
Our clients become better storytellers.
How? Click here and Learn more.
We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
Follow Piper as we grow
Charlie Dolan is the founder of Sequoia Waste Solutions, a technology company aimed at modernizing waste management.
When Charlie first looked at the waste management industry, he saw business still being run on paper with enormous inefficiencies needing to be addressed. So, he started building.
Today, the firm employs more than a dozen people and offers a suite of software and hardware solutions that drastically reduce costs associated with billing for and hauling away garbage.
In this conversation, Aaron and Charlie discuss the evolution of the company, the benefits of bootstrapping, and when to ‘build’ vs ‘buy’.
Pittsburgh’s best conference to Expand your Mind & Fill your Heart happens once a year.
Charlie Dolan’s Challenge; Realize most of the world around you was designed by another human. Use that to build confidence in your own ability to make an impact.
Connect with Charlie Dolan
If you liked this interview, check out more interviews with entrepreneurs and leaders that have vision, patience, and work ethic.
Text Me What You Think of This Episode 412-278-7680
Underwritten by Piper Creative
Piper Creative creates podcasts, vlogs, and videos for companies.
Our clients become better storytellers.
How? Click here and Learn more.
We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
Follow Piper as we grow
John Feghali’s technology startup blends augmented reality, digital media, and animation to enable a new style of storytelling.
Most animated videos take thousands of hours of work and come with hefty price tags. For example, Frozen 2 cost $150 million and Toy Story 4 cost $200 million.
John’s company, Toaster Pets Cartoons, allows children and adults to make their own animated cartoons by recording cardboard cutouts and using artificial intelligence to translate the live action into a digital cartoon.
In this episode, Aaron and John discuss how he found this market opportunity, the technology powering the service, and the enormous potential of the Intellectual Property.
Pittsburgh’s best conference to Expand your Mind & Fill your Heart happens once a year.
John Feghali’s Challenge; Create opportunity for others.
Connect with John Feghali
If you liked this interview, check out episode 361 with Jason Wolfe where we discuss his string of enormously successful technology startups.
Text Me What You Think of This Episode 412-278-7680
Underwritten by Piper Creative
Piper Creative creates podcasts, vlogs, and videos for companies.
Our clients become better storytellers.
How? Click here and Learn more.
We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
Follow Piper as we grow
Luke Glass is building a digital marketplace for land rights in the US. That means that any property owner can list their property’s rights to timber, solar, wind, or oil & gas for sale.
Luke’s company, RealX is aiming to unleash the trends of digitization, globalization, and virtualization on a marketplace that still operates on postcards and paper contracts.
As vice president and general manager of ListHub, which was purchased by Move in 2010, Luke Glass grew the platform into the nation’s largest online real estate listing syndicator.
In this podcast, Luke and Aaron discuss how this platform allows landowners to identify more buyers, why Luke believes solar will be more dominant over the next 20 years, and why he’s not the Garbage King of West Virginia.
Pittsburgh’s best conference to Expand your Mind & Fill your Heart happens once a year.
Luke Glass’s Challenge; Find a local Food Bank and donate.
Connect with Luke Glass
If you liked this interview, check out our interview with Matt Wieszczyk where we discuss natural gas land rights.
Text Me What You Think of This Episode 412-278-7680
Underwritten by Piper Creative
Piper Creative creates podcasts, vlogs, and videos for companies.
Our clients become better storytellers.
How? Click here and Learn more.
We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
Follow Piper as we grow
Luke Skurman is the CEO and Founder of Niche.com. Niche is an informative website that provides insight and analysis from experts and neighbors to help people choose colleges, K-12 schools, and places to live.
Niche, formerly College Prowler, was founded in 2002 and recently raised $35 Million to expand its client base and grow its team. This Series C funding was led by the New York-based Radian Capital and San Fransisco-based Salesforce Ventures.
Luke has been at the helm of this college resource dynamo since its founding and has led it through tremendous years of growth. In 2019, Niche grew its client-base by 60% and increased annual recurring revenue over 100%.
In this episode, Aaron and Luke discuss the Series C funding, how to grow a tech business in Pittsburgh, and the future of remote work in lieu of COVID-19.
Pittsburgh’s best conference to Expand your Mind & Fill your Heart happens once a year.
Luke Skurman’s Challenge; Increase your level of empathy for others.
Connect with Luke Skurman
If you liked this interview, check out episode 303 with Luke Skurman where we discuss the origins on Niche.com and the first large raise.
Also, listen to Glen Meakem talk about his billion-dollar valuation after a 1999 IPO.
Text Me What You Think of This Episode 412-278-7680
Underwritten by Piper Creative
Piper Creative creates podcasts, vlogs, and videos for companies.
Our clients become better storytellers.
How? Click here and Learn more.
We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.
Follow Piper as we grow