Podcast by Sean O'Brien
Today I am here with the University of Pittsburgh’s 18th chancellor, Pat Gallagher. He oversees a community of more than 34,000 students and 13,000 faculty and staff members across five distinct campuses, all working to advance Pitt’s mission to make the world a better place through knowledge, learning and scholarship. Chancellor Gallagher holds a bachelor’s degree in physics and philosophy from Benedictine College in Kansas and a PhD in physics from the University of Pittsburgh. I might be bias, but today's episode is definitely a good one.
Today I am here with the super insightful, former Microsoft employee turned Entrepreneur in Residence, Ryan Philips. I met Ryan as a University Innovation Fellow back in early 2017 and caught up for the first time since then here on episode 11. I am excited to have Ryan on the podcast to discuss career moves, the balance between a deep understanding of one topic in comparison to a shallow understanding of many topics, and the transition between a hobby and a hobby that makes you money and so much more. Can’t wait for you to hear Ryan drop some knowledge on today’s episode.
Today I am here with Alex Lee , who has joined me at the Nissan Research Center in the bay area as a fellow intern. Alex is a summer associate for the Alliance Venture capital group, a former Boeing engineer, and now turned MBA student at Columbia. On this episode we talk about our first impressions of silicon valley, the nuances within startups in 2018, the mentality of industry game changers, and so much more. You’re not going to want to miss this one.
Made popular by the infamous vine app, Eric has continued his successes through various brand deals, moving his large following from Vine to Instagram, starting his own apparel company (Eric Dunn brand), and joining a partnership with the founder of QuickTutor, an online platform launching in the next couple of weeks that connects industry experts to those willing to learn. Listen in to this weeks podcast to learn about Eric Dunn’s come up on vine, his views on the social media ecosystem, and what he’s got in store for the coming years.
This week I talk to Andrew Witchey, the owner and brewer at Dancing Gnome Brewery in Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania. We talk about the early stages of starting a brewery and some of the complications that Andrew had faced. If you like beer, you'll love this episode!
This week I sit down with multi-franchise 1-800-GOT-JUNK? owners Eric Blum and Alan Klug to discuss the trials and tribulations of buying into an early-stage franchise. We talked about the importance of building the right team from the start and how an employee has the capability of making a real impact, at ANY level.
Today I talk to Robert Schlueter, Vice President and CMO at Saddleman and Co-Founder of American Cargo, two very successful motorcycle and lifestyle brands. He is very deep in the social media space, not only with the two companies previously mentioned, but with his personal brand @ robert1117, where he has gained nearly 30 thousand followers in a little over a years time. Much like episode 3 with Andre Wyze, I met Rob in the Instagram DMs, and we discuss how valuable the Instagram DM can be.
This week, we talk to Babs Carryer, of the University of Pittsburgh's Innovation Institute, about what the Innovation Institute's role on campus consists of, as well as the upcoming programming available. Also a special announcement is made! You don't want to miss this one! [apologies for the poor audio].
This week we talk to poet, storyteller, and film maker Andre Wyze. We dive into the importance of positivity and self love, and how to create sustainable progress while blocking out the noise of other people and negativity.
This episode is an introduction to MakerHUB with Sean O'Brien of the Pitt Makerspace and Eric Zhang of Design Hub.