There are plenty of people that think they have a good chili recipe. Very few bet their careers on it. That’s what first caught our eye about Jordan Robarge.
After working in the startup world as a Venture for America fellow, Jordan started a food truck business called Revival Chili. He found success quickly and was profitable within three months.
Revival Chili’s business is simple: Sell delicious chili products to the people of Pittsburgh in a tiny house style food truck. What makes it different, is Revival’s focus on creating jobs for unemployed ex-offenders, a disadvantaged group often overlooked in U.S. Cities.
After proving his business chops, Jordan doubled down and bought a diner. The goal is to put even more people to work.
In this conversation, Aaron and Jordan discuss how he cold-called his way to early success, how you can buy a business for less than $100,000, and what the Revival brand represents.
Jordan’s food truck, Revival Chili, will be a lunch option at the 2019 Going Deep Summit.
Jordan’s Challenge; Go out and connect with 5 people from different background. Have a tangible take away from each conversation.
Connect with Jordan
If you liked this interview, check out episode 157 with Andrew Yang where we discuss the start of Venture for America, why more people need to work at startups, and how other cities will benefit from this focus.
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.
It takes guts, vision, and intelligence to see where things are going before everyone else and act upon it. Tracy Certo is the founder and publisher of NEXTpittsburgh, an online magazine about the people advancing Pittsburgh and the cool and innovative things happening in the region.
Tracy previously started the first online publication in Pittsburgh as editor and then publisher 11 years ago and left to launch NEXT in 2014.
In this conversation, Aaron and Tracy discuss how Tracy has grown as a business person, how she prepared the launch NEXT, and how her team finds their stories.
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Tracy’s Challenge; Diversify where you get your information.
Connect with Tracy
If you liked this interview, check out our enormous catalog of interviews with Pittsburgh’s biggest influencers, top entrepreneurs, and largest power brokers.
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.
Rachel Reid founded her cosmetics company, Subtl Beauty, to better serve women on the go. Her line of makeup products comes in compact, customizable stacks that can be easily thrown into a purse or bag.
Rachel first realized this need when she was consulting during the summer of 2016. Since she wasn’t even spending 2 nights a week in her own home, she needed a beauty solution that traveled well and could fit in a small clutch.
Now, she is challenging the status quo of lazy, bulky cosmetic design. In this conversation, Rachel shares how she does extensive A/B testing to get the most out of her ads, why she studies companies like Stitch Fix, and the goals she is pursuing.
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Rachel’s Challenge; Start your day with consuming good information.
Resources
Connect with Rachel
If you liked this interview, check out episode 352 with Kate Zarvis where we discuss running a nail salon, how to retain talent, and how to create a space where clients can relax.
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.
You gotta check out part One before listening to this one.
In Part Two, Jason discusses his current companies, how he invested in Glen Meakam's company (Forever.com), and how he thinks about giving back to others.
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Jason’s Challenge; Give more. Be Kind. Pull someone else up.
Connect with Jason
If you liked this interview, check out episode 263 with Audrey Russo where we discuss what the Pittsburgh Tech Council does, how Audrey progressed through her career, and some recommended reading.
Also, check out Going Deep Summit 2.0 speaker Gisele Fetterman.
Jason Wolfe is an entrepreneur through and through. After growing up in the Milton Hershey School, an orphanage founded by Milton Hershey, Jason found himself living out of his car.
He taught himself how to code by using books at the local library and CompUSA's 'Building the Perfect Web'. This led to building the first coupon website and launching his first internet business. From 1995 to 2000, Jason built the business, raising $500k in VC from Jupiter Media and garnering >$1 million in annual sales and 20 million page views per month.
MyCoupons.com sold for roughly $23 million in 2000, shortly before the DotCom bubble burst.
Jason rolled over his proceeds into successive wins with his companies Direct Response Technologies (acquired by Digital River for $22 million), Jambo Media (for $15 million) and Giftcards.com (by Blackhawk Network for $120 million).
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Connect with Jason