by Helen Sluder, September 1, 2020
Pitchwerks, is a podcast about sales, marketing, and everything startup-related, hosted by the witty and engaging Scot MacTaggart. If you haven't listened to it, you are missing a lot of great interviews with the Pittsburgh region's best and brightest in entrepreneurship. In this blog compilation, we highlight the many Pitt-connected founders, alumni, and mentors that have been on the show. Hail to Pitt!
photos by Buzzy Torek
The New Frontier of Clinical Education
Topics Covered in the Podcast: Product demos, Navigating the healthcare industry, Education facilitated by automation
Best Quote: “My other co-founder Joe Samosky, an engineering professor at Pitt, he often says ‘It’s not practice that makes perfect, it’s perfect practice that makes perfect.’ Even though you feel confident at doing something in healthcare, in treating patients, you might be confident in doing it incorrectly.”
-Doug Nelson, Lumis CEO
Doug Nelson’s original plan was to be an academician for life, but he was bit by the entrepreneurial bug after completing his PhD in Bioengineering at Pitt. Nelson, CEO of Lumis, describes the trials and tribulations of navigating the heavily regulated, bureaucratic medical industry. Lumis is an immersive medical training platform that serves as an alternative to the resource-intensive healthcare simulators currently on the market. By automating the process, Lumis’ interface allows learners to practice 24/7, on demand, any time, anywhere.
Episode Link: https://www.pitchwerks.com/podcast/previous/3
Putting the Power Back into Homeowners’ Hands
Topics Covered in the Podcast: Connected climate control, Trade Show product demos, Networking, Mentoring
Best Quote: “It doesn't matter what your role is in a company. You build your network, you meet people, you be nice to them, and you figure out how to help them, because that comes back around to you at some point in time.” - Bob Fields, CRO of HiberSense
As a startup, entering an industry with well established players can be daunting. That didn’t stop Pitt Alum, Jacob Kring. In 2016, Jacob founded HiberSense, a connected climate control solution for homes with forced air heating and cooling; his company would soon go on to win the CTA Mark of Excellence Award for energy efficiency Product of the Year, beating out LG Electronics. HiberSense’s unique system empowers homeowners to have control like they’ve never had before.
Episode Link: https://www.pitchwerks.com/podcast/previous/7]
Where Technology Meets Biology
Topics Covered in the Podcast: Customer Discovery, Mentorship, Investment Opportunities, Staying True to Your Brand
Best Quote: “It’s hard developing an idea, it’s even harder to get that idea across the finish line.” -Noah Snyder, CEO of Interphase Materials
How can we use technology to make things better? Pitt Alum Noah Snyder set out to answer this question when he founded Interphase Materials, an advanced materials company. Interphase Materials specializes in “products that change the way the surface reacts to the environment;” simply put, how technology interacts with biology. In this podcast, Noah touches on the importance of finding the right investors, mentors, and customers. He reminds Pitchwerks listeners to stay true to their roots, and to remember why you got started in the first place.
Episode Link: https://www.pitchwerks.com/podcast/previous/7
Thrive, Don’t Just Survive
Topics Covered in the Podcast: Dealing with Failure, Technology’s Role in Healthcare, Entrepreneurship Pitches
Best Quote: “Capitalize and learn from failure; otherwise, you’ve failed twice.” -Dr. Rasu Shrestha, Atrium Health CSO
Industry thought leader, Dr. Rasu Srestha, recently left UPMC to join Atrium Health as their Chief Strategy Officer. Prior to leaving UPMC, Dr. Shrestha sits down with Scot to discuss how “innovation, if done right, will make technology invisible.” Dr. Shrestha examines the power of data to transform insights; specifically, data that acts as social determinants of healthcare. He delves into the current state of the healthcare industry, and how leaders should shift their focus to thriving, not just surviving. His final message for listeners is the importance of embracing failures with pride and dignity and learning from mistakes.
Uniting the Pitt Scientific Community
Topics Covered in the Podcast: Commercial Translation, Data Interpretation, Transdisciplinary Research, Science Communication
Best Quote: “That’s our job, in part, to understand the science we have at the University of Pittsburgh best we can...what we aim to do is to take this inventory and pull it together into a story, and be able to express the significance of this research and communicate that out to the right industry partners at the right time.” - Don Taylor, Executive Director, SciVelo
Research coming out of the the University of Pittsburgh health sciences community has reached an unparalleled level of achievement. One problem facing Pitt researchers, however, is translating their findings to the rest of the community. Don Taylor and Alyssa Lypson join Scot in the studio to discuss how a particular program in partnership with Pitt’s Innovation Institute, sciVelo, is solving that problem. sciVelo facilitates commercial translation by working across academic disciplines to address unmet needs in healthcare. The team at sciVelo has developed a database for faculty across all schools of health sciences, with the ability to query across the database. The overall goal of sciVelo is to generate knowledge and disseminate knowledge throughout the Pitt scientific ecosystem.
Episode Link: https://www.pitchwerks.com/podcast/previous/10
Reinventing Responsible Retail
Topics Covered in the Podcast: Responsible Consumerism, Community Partners, Marketing Best Practices for your Startup, Angel Investment Opportunities in Pittsburgh
Best Quote: “Pittsburgh has become the epicenter of responsible consumerism. I am very proud of that. I think we need to defend it. That is our turf. We are the epicenter of startups with a conscience.” -Scot MacTaggart, host of The Pitchwerks Podcast
In this episode, Scot sits down with Matt Vendeville, a 24-year old entrepreneur who recently founded an innovative company based on responsible consumerism. Matt’s company, Circa City Apparel, showcases the historical integrity of Pittsburgh’s architecture. Circa City focuses on connecting with the people who are helping revitalize Pittsburgh landmarks, while also contributing a portion of the profits back to those community groups. Matt’s entrepreneurial journey is especially interesting, as his apparel company is a foundation for a more capital-intensive startup that he plans to launch down the road.
Episode Link: https://www.pitchwerks.com/podcast/previous/12
Set Your Business Vision into Motion
Topics Covered in the Podcast:
App Ideation and Commercialization, Startup Outsourcing, Getting Bit by the Entrepreneurial Bug
Best Quote: “If you can go out there, map out all the mistakes that you can possibly learn from other people, from yourself, from every time you do a thing, it’s like practicing a sport... And eventually if you don't give up and you have dedication to putting 100% effort every single time, you become great. That’s how greatness is created. It’s based on repeated action that you do.” -Jackson Wang, Queble Technologies CEO
Launching a startup can be extremely tedious, difficult, and complex. Jackson Wang explains how his boutique web design agency, Queble Technologies, can help small startups get on their feet. Queble Technologies specializes in outsourcing help to tech startups and high growth companies, with a team composed of full time technicians that are solely dedicated to one client. Queble Technologies offer many activities, such as website redesign, new channel creation, app development, and much more. Every action taken is focused on the goal of increasing the ratio between value and price.
Episode Link: https://www.pitchwerks.com/podcast/previous/13
Supporting Civic Action, one SMS at a Time
Topics Covered in the Podcast:
Civic Engagement, SMS Signable Petitions, Political Activism
Best Quote: “We want people to have those conversations with their members of congress. We want to teach people who they are. We’ve got so many people coming into this who have never written congress ever, and they do it and they’re like, ‘oh my god, that was really easy’, and then they engage more.” -Jason Putori, co-creator of Resistbot
Scot travels to San Francisco to chat with Jason Putori, a renowned tech designer and innovator, about his newest endeavor called Resistbot. The specialized chatbot is simple: text “Resist” to 50409. Within 2-3 minutes, Resistbot turns your text into a letter, and delivers it to your chosen elected representatives. Focused on civic engagement and education, Jason’s approach to Resistbot is frictionless and convenient, allowing anyone and everyone to get involved. In contrast to traditional modes of communication coming into political offices that are often ignored, personalized letters sent via Resistbot receive media coverage which impact voters. The “north star” of Resistbot, as described by Jason, is to ultimately increase voter participation and civic action.
Episode Link: https://www.pitchwerks.com/podcast/previous/14
Pioneering a New Era of Powerful Women in the Workplace
Topics Covered in the Podcast: Women in Entrepreneurship, Consumer Trend Analysis, Brand Promise, Market Research
Best Quote: “I think we as women, and along with some good men, are changing those relationships and the way the workplace is. But I also think we have a ways to go. I am very excited when I see young women really involved in entrepreneurship, and moving forward, and leading companies, and creating their own companies… I think those are huge steps we’re taking.” -Yvonne Campos, founder of Campos Inc.
In this special Pitchwerks episode, Scot MacTaggart sits down with female industry leader Yvonne Campos to discuss her road to success, gender bias in the workplace, market research, data analysis, and more. As founding CEO of Campos Inc., President of Next Act Fund LLC, Founder of Next Act Capital LLC and Next Act Fund LLC, President of multiple Pittsburgh chapters of Women Presidents’ Organization, Yvonne has risen to be one of the most well-renowned businesswomen in all of Pennsylvania.
Episode Link: https://www.pitchwerks.com/podcast/previous/15
The Perfect Pod: Convenience meets Sustainability
Topics Covered in the Podcast: Sustainability, Edible Dissolvable Packaging, Product Demos, Accelerator Programs
Best quote: “A lot of people think, ‘Sustainable… This is either going to be worse than what I have now, or it’s going to be harder, or more expensive’. But it doesn’t have to be. You get value out of the product that makes it easier, but is also consciously designed so that it’s better for the environment.” -Jared Raszewski, founder of DisSolves
Pitt Alumnus Jared Raszewski is at the frontier of packaging innovation in the food industry. In 2017, Jared founded DisSolves, a company specializing in all natural, edible, dissolvable packaging for powdered food products. Jared began his entrepreneurial journey as a chemical engineering student at the University of Pittsburgh, where he created a prototype of the pod in a product design class. After going through Blast Furnace, Pitt’s student accelerator, Jared decided to shift his focus to the pod’s sustainable packaging rather than its contents. DisSolves’ pre-measured food packaging offers a sustainable and convenient solution to single use plastic used in many consumer packaged goods.
Episode Link: https://www.pitchwerks.com/podcast