Swartz Shorts: Recent Episodes
Rob Miller, Pat O'Donnell
Welcome to Swartz Shorts, the pod all about the entrepreneurial ecosystem at CMU and the larger Pittsburgh community.
We interview local founders, innovators, and community leaders to bring awareness to entrepreneurial successes at CMU, expose students to the CMU alumni network, and give local innovators a platform to promote their projects to a broad audience.
Tyler Gilcrest https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylergilcrest/
Brian Feldman https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-feldman/
Pat O’Donnell https://www.linkedin.com/in/pat-o-donnell-78993267/
Brian Feldman https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-feldman/
Tyler Gilcrest https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylergilcrest/
Chelsie Hall https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelsie-hall/
Brian Feldman https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-feldman/
Tyler Gilcrest https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylergilcrest/
John McElligott https://www.linkedin.com/in/jrmcelligott/
(0:17) Rob introduces Mathew Polowitz, Co-Founder of Equa Health. (1:04) Mat discusses his journey from a startup in San Francisco that was acquired to Carnegie Mellon for his graduate degree and launching his own startup. (3:59) Rob asks Mat about his decision to strike out on his own. (4:22) Mat shares that his failures were a major influence on his decision. He originally pursued the consulting path and then pivoted to create Equa Health. (8:27) Equa Health is really a personal mindfulness coach in your pocket, it’s all about personalizing the mindfulness journey for each user. (10:04) Pat comments on the importance of a personalized, interactive mindfulness app and asks Mat what a more mindful company or community looks like. (10:29) Mat delves into his vision of a more mindful community and how you get there by focusing on starting at the individual level. New changes can be difficult to navigate and mindfulness is about shifting from a reactive mindset to a proactive one. (14:08) Rob notes that more companies are adopting Equa and asks about some of the best use cases for corporations. (14:42) Mat comments on their customers across industries and how Equa is impacting their employees and customers. (16:42) The power of the CMU and Pittsburgh community is that we’re all about helping each other grow. Tell our listeners what they can do to help you. Mat shares that they are always looking for new users and clients as well as searching for new talent to hire.
Pat O’Donnell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pat-o-donnell-78993267
Rob Miller: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-miller-b4177b82/
Mathew Polowitz https://www.linkedin.com/in/mathewpolowitz/
Peter Attia Drive Podcast: https://peterattiamd.com/podcast/
(0:17) Rob introduces Ken Hicks, Founder of Broadwing. (1:17) Ken shares a bit about his journey from the Marine Corps to Broadwing, which was inspired by a desire to interact with others while having freedom from rigid regulations. (5:24) Rob comments on how the freedom from rigid regulations must have been an influence in choosing to recruit in the tech space in comparison to another industry like healthcare. (5:50) Ken jokes about how tech recruiters have become unobtanium over the last few years, but it wasn’t always like that. (6:38) Pat asks Ken for specific examples of how tech recruiting has changed in 2022. (7:06) Ken discusses that culture is changing for everyone in the tech space, companies are having to adapt to attract talent. Those companies still have projects that they need to get done and right now they are having to positively improve to find great tech talent because talented people have plenty of options in the current market. (9:00) Pat asks Ken what advice he would give to those in the CMU community who are just getting into their career. (9:11) Ken comments that talent is winning right now, and if you have that you’ll be able to find a job. But those who can differentiate themselves by presenting their skillset in an unscripted conversation are excelling. The market has changed and you’re doing good if you can keep a person in the same position for 2-3 years. After 18 months in a role, most of your employees start getting bombarded by recruiting companies looking to pull them into another position. (11:30) Pat asks what Ken is listening to and reading. (11:39) Ken shares that he has been trying to listen to more pods in his space, but has been a long-time listener of Gary V. From a reading perspective he focuses on LinkedIn’s trending topics as they tend to be focused on what’s going on in the professional world. (15:37) The power of the CMU and Pittsburgh community is that we’re all about helping each other grow. Tell our listeners what they can do to help you. Ken shares that they really enjoy helping those in the local community and beyond grow their careers so they offer free help in shaping resumes and preparing you for your interviews.
Pat O’Donnell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pat-o-donnell-78993267
Rob Miller: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-miller-b4177b82/
Ken Hicks: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenyan-hicks-48263774/
(0:17) Rob introduces Matt Spettel, Co-Founder and CEO of CoPilot. (1:02) Matt discusses his journey from early videogame and robotics development to attending CMU where he worked on a few different startup ideas. (2:45) Rob asks Matt what led him from videogame and robotics development to fitness. (3:04) Matt shares that he attended an engineering camp in high school where he met his long-term fitness coach and future Co-Founder at CoPilot, Gabe Madonna. (5:40) Pat comments on Matt's journey and asks him about raising a Series A and what his plans are after having done so. (6:10) Matt delves into the importance of willingness to pivot and iterate on ideas until you find an idea that people care about. Once you have an idea that people care about and the metrics to back your idea up then you can go raise funding. But once you do it doesn’t really change the fundamental problem you’re trying to solve for your customers, it just gives you more resources to reach your goals and objectives. (10:09) Pat comments on geography and how it can impact raising rounds. (10:25) Matt discusses that their investors have a huge geographic spread as they are located all across the US. He mentions that pitching to investors really doesn’t change too much by location, they all want to see numbers, metrics and know that you can scale the idea though some areas tend to have investors who are more open to risk. (12:28) Rob comments on how Pittsburgh is generally the home of B2B focused startups and asks Matt why he chose to stay in Pittsburgh when starting his consumer-based startup. (13:10) Matt delves into how the CoPilot idea is different than others who have generally lived in the same fitness space. Most startups in the fitness space seem to be focused on making fit people more fit, but CoPilot is unique in that it’s addressing the core problem of unhealthy lifestyles by encouraging people of all fitness levels, especially those who are inactive, to make changes. That uniqueness seems to fit in well with Pittsburgh. (15:18) The power of the CMU and Pittsburgh community is that we’re all about helping each other grow. Tell our listeners what they can do to help you. Matt shares that they are always looking for new users on the CoPilot platform as well as searching for new talent to hire.
Pat O’Donnell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pat-o-donnell-78993267
Rob Miller: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-miller-b4177b82/
Matt Spettel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-spettel/
(0:17) Rob introduces Dane Pieri, Product Manager at Benchling. (1:02) Dane shares that he attended CMU and was involved with local Pittsburgh startups until he graduated and moved to Silicon Valley after graduation. Since then he’s been involved with a few startups but product management has been a major focus of his throughout his career. (2:51) Rob comments on Dane’s decision to get involved in the startup community instead of diving into the corporate world and asks about the factors that influenced him. (3:50) Dane shares that it isn’t an easy decision and you never really know if you’re making the right decision. But the startup community has allowed him to dive into the problems that he’s wanted to solve and given him more freedom than his friends who have gone into the corporate world. (5:21) He discusses that what he really cares about is working on problems that he’s passionate about and that will make a difference in people's lives. That’s one of his motivators for working at Benchling where they are using biotech to influence the advancement in the pharmaceutical space. (7:33) Pat asks Dane what advice he would give to CMU students who are looking into product roles at startups. (8:04) Dane delves into his recipe for success, which is to find something that you genuinely care about working on and then get to work on that thing. Startups are unique in that depending on the size you have a lot of freedom to pick the problems that you want to work on and then focus on solving those things. (10:20) Rob comments on how clear the career path is when looking at the corporate world versus the startup world. (11:12) Dane discusses that he got involved in the startup community through his network and the CMU network. He mentions that if you know how to code then there is a place for you in the startup community as everyone is always searching for talent. (13:40) The power of the CMU and Pittsburgh community is that we’re all about helping each other grow. Tell our listeners what they can do to help you. Dane shares that he’d love advice from Rob and Pat on how to organize and track long-term goals and short-term tactics without losing focus. Pat advises Dane on how he uses a combination of tools like Trello and Miro to ensure he keeps focus his long-term outcomes while meeting short-term objectives.
Pat O’Donnell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pat-o-donnell-78993267
Rob Miller: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-miller-b4177b82/
Dane Pieri: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danepieri/
(0:17) Rob introduces Daniela Osio, CEO and Founder of Kloopify. (1:05) Daniela delves into her journey into starting Kloopify and how it was influenced by her background as a first-generation American who had always wanted to make the leap of becoming an entrepreneur. (2:15) Rob asks about her motivations and what inspired her interest in the supply chain. (2:33) Daniela shares that what attracted her to a career in the supply chain was that it is the middle man for so many different departments which is fascinating because she’s gotten to dip her toes in so many different spaces. (3:16) Rob comments on how Daniela has lived all over the world in incredible places and asks why she chose to come back to Pittsburgh. (3:32) Daniela explains that Pittsburgh is unlike any other place she’s been and it has remained home to her. She wants to be a part of shaping the bright future of Pittsburgh while maintaining what makes it unique. (4:06) Pat comments on the name Kloopify and asks Daniela to explain the name. (4:18) Daniela discusses how right now people make and dump most of the world's resources and that we need to move to a more sustainable model. Kloopify is here to help close that loop so we can live in better harmony with the world. (4:55) Pat mentions that sustainability is really the greatest challenge that still needs to be solved and asks how Kloopify is benefiting from the green-tech investment trend and what Pittsburgh can do to build a sustainable ecosystem locally. (5:23) Daniela explains that most organizations are starting to make very public announcements of sustainability goals. That showcases it is becoming a conversation in nearly every board room where they want to see the sustainability data of their organization and those in their supply chain to inform and help them reach their goals. (7:50) Access to the data is needed to form a baseline to help these organizations set their target goals and select long-term partnerships that are aligned with their sustainability objectives. (8:48) Pat raises the question of how Kloopify is addressing funding, a core component for any start-up. (9:03) Daniela discusses that Kloopify has bootstrapped everything so far and intends to keep it that way for now. It has forced the company to come up with creative solutions while maintaining a laser focus on high-priority items. (10:45) Pat comments on the local community and how many resources it offers for founders like Daniela who need help but are not ready to give an equity stake, like Ascender. (11:20) The power of the CMU and Pittsburgh community is that we’re all about helping each other grow. Tell our listeners what they can do to help you. Daniela shares that Kloopify is looking to hire new people and find early innovators in procurement to get involved in the Kloopify platform.
Pat O’Donnell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pat-o-donnell-78993267
Rob Miller: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-miller-b4177b82/
Daniela Osio: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniela-osio-4a947394/
(0:17) Rob introduces Nadyli Nuñez, Executive Director of Ascender. (1:01) Nadyli shares how she got involved in the local entrepreneurial community and how she started to help local founders grow. (3:00) Rob comments on how she is involved in nearly all aspects of the Pittsburgh founder community and asks her to share what motivates her to be so involved. (3:42) Nadyli explains that her motivations stem from her childhood. Her mother used to say that whatever you do, you should do your best and that’s stuck with Nadyli her whole life. Now she loves helping founders grow and being part of their journey. (5:01) Pat mentions that Ascender is one of the OG Pittsburgh incubators and asks her how she intentionally builds out her own network. (5:40) Nadyli explains that she tries to avoid falling too heavily into any one networking routine. She purposefully chooses to go to new networking events and shake them up to meet new founders. (7:12) Pat asks how she cultivates her list of mentors for the founders at Ascender. (7:35) Nadyli describes her process. It’s influenced by those she already knows both by their referrals and by observing how they interact with new mentors to decide if they should be added to their roster and in what capacity. (8:58) The power of the CMU and Pittsburgh community is that we’re all about helping each other grow. Tell our listeners what they can do to help you. Nadyli shares that Ascender is always looking for new ways to help their founders grow whether that's by helping them get plugged in with great salespeople or finding new founders and mentors. You can get connected by joining their newsletter at the bottom of Ascender's home page, linked below.
Ascender: https://ascenderpgh.com/
Pat O’Donnell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pat-o-donnell-78993267
Rob Miller: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-miller-b4177b82/
Nadyli Nuñez: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nadyli/
(0:17) Rob introduces Alex Baikovitz, Co-Founder and CEO of Mach9 Robotics. (1:08) Alex delves into his journey into robotics and how they can be used to monitor critical infrastructure following a tunnel collapse. (3:10) Rob asks Alex about his motivation and how that one tunnel collapse led him to start an intelligent mapping startup. (4:00) Alex explains how the situation was very surreal as he suddenly had to advise others on infrastructure mapping and became the local expert in monitoring critical infrastructure. (5:28) Pat comments on the local infrastructure in Pittsburgh and how timely Mach9 is. (6:10) Alex discusses the lack of infrastructure monitoring that has been ongoing, and how humans really need assistance to be able to monitor these critical structures better. (7:55) Alex explains that gathering more accurate and frequent information to individuals who need them most is vital for human safety and structure longevity. (9:35) These recent examples of infrastructure failure are not the first time it has happened and they certainly won’t be the last. (11:15) Pat delves into recent local infrastructure failures and how those are impacting and bringing awareness to the community. (12:30) The power of the CMU and Pittsburgh community is that we’re all about helping each other grow. Tell our listeners what they can do to help you. Alex shares that Mach9 is looking to build itself by filling its engineering roles with great people.
(0:20) Rob introduces Asha Banks, Founder of CheerNotes. (0:55) Asha delves into her journey so far and how she moved away from a career in chemical engineering to creating greeting cards. (2:23) Rob asks, “...from chemical engineering to greeting cards,” what brought you to that level of creativity and motivated you to perform that career switch? Asha begins to explain how certain communities are underrepresented in commercial products like greeting cards. Engineering is all about problem solving and she feels like that is essentially what she’s doing now - solving underrepresentation through inclusive design. (4:40) Asha explains that when she started down this path she actually started out with a completely different business idea. But through involvement in Carnegie Mellon's entrepreneurial ecosystem her original idea was invalidated and she pivoted her passion into CheerNotes. (6:50) Pat shares that CMU is often associated with tech start-ups, and while CheerNotes isn’t a tech company it’s very much so a tech-enabled company. Asha notes that while her business type was unusual for CMU, being in that environment led to her thinking about how to leverage technology, and having the resources to do so and help the CheerNotes' brand grow. (9:00) The power of the CMU and Pittsburgh community is that we’re all about helping each other grow. Tell our listeners what they can do to help you. Asha shares that word of mouth is one of the key ways that the brand is discovered and all word of mouth helps.
Pat O’Donnell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pat-o-donnell-78993267
Rob Miller: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-miller-b4177b82/
Asha Banks: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashabanks/
(0:20) Rob introduces Asha Banks, Founder of Cheernotes. (0:55) Asha delves into her journey so far and how she moved away from a career in chemical engineering to creating greeting cards. (2:23) From Chemical Engineering to Greeting Cards.
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Pat O’Donnell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pat-o-donnell-78993267
Rob Miller: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-miller-b4177b82/
Asha Banks: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashabanks/