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April 21, 2023
Finding Opportunity In Disruption
By Adam Burroughs
Defiant Capital Group Founder Jonathan Dane on launching the firm, his perspective on how the investor mindset has changed over the years since, and offers tips on post-business investment life.
January 27, 2023
Serial Entrepreneur Gabriela Isturiz Turns Investor with The Fund XX
Serial entrepreneur and early-stage investor Gabriela Isturiz, who founded two high-growth technology companies that she sold to Fortune 500 companies, recently co-founded The Fund XX, which makes
November 4, 2022
Pitch perfect: The need for newbie entrepreneurs to improve their talk track
Project Olympus' Kit Needham on the areas where fist-time entrepreneurs stumble when seeking their earliest funding rounds.
August 12, 2022
Engineered From Personal Need, Nollapelli Is Ready To Grow
Nollapelli founder Allison Howard talks with the Smart Business Dealmakers Podcast about how she created Nollapelli and prepared the company for early-stage investing.
July 14, 2022
Ascender Lifts Early-Stage Entrepreneurs
Nadyli Nuñez, executive director, Ascender, has guided hundreds of early-stage entrepreneurs through her incubator, co-working programs, and numerous early-stage investments to position them for add-on capital as part of their growth journey from scale-up to the middle market. She has a detailed, hands-on approach to ensure the success of her clients.
June 17, 2022
Founders helping founders
Ilana Diamond on launching 412 Ventures, its investment thesis, and how their collective experience as founders might give them an advantage.
June 11, 2021
Ryan Green continually adjusts his model to find success
Gridwise co-founder Ryan Green continues to evolve his business, using customer feedback and adjusting to the market to find success.
April 16, 2021
BlueTree Allied Angels’ Sreekar Gadde urges entrepreneurs to see IP differently
BlueTree Allied Angels’ Sreekar Gadde urges entrepreneurs to stop think about IP only in terms of protection, and instead create a holistic strategy to maximize long-term value.
April 24, 2020
Jake Loosararian bets on himself — and Gecko Robotics
Jake Loosararian turned down an offer for Gecko Robotics in 2015 and stuck with the principles of why he started the company. He shares how that decision has paid off.
December 17, 2019
Jessica Gibson on raising capital from inside a health-tech startup
Pittsburgh’s efforts to grow its regional health-tech and life science startup sector haven’t paid off as much or as quickly as city and business leaders would like. But Ariel Precision Medicine CEO and co-founder Jessica Gibson believes there’s still a path forward with more collaboration.
November 21, 2019
Pitt Ohio spinoff Idelic iterates quickly, including during fundraising
Hayden Cardiff approaches raising capital the same way he approaches building a product — with a lean startup methodology of build, measure and learn. The Idelic CEO discusses the company's growth and how he's applying what he's learned.
October 22, 2019
Fifth Season expands its vertical farming, stays focused on capital efficiency
Vertical farming is capital intensive, which is why Fifth Season co-founder and CEO Austin Webb relies on his financial analyst and investment banking background to help manage the funding for the startup, which has raised over $35 million to date.
October 2, 2019
Angel Investing: The Power Of Group Intelligence
Former American Eagle President Don Morrison, who now mentors entrepreneurs as chairman of deal flow for BlueTree Allied Angels, talks about angel investing, scaling startups and what entrepreneurs should be looking for when it comes to investors.
September 19, 2019
As Gus Gear grows, Sarah Palya eyes taking on investors
Sarah Palya had limited business experience when she started Gus Gear. She’s had to learn as she goes, and now she feels her medical device startup is ready to jump to the next level, including possibly taking on investors.
August 21, 2019
Pitt's Big Idea Center guides first-time entrepreneurs
Babs Carryer, director of Pitt's Big Idea Center talks about Pittsburgh’s startup ecosystem, raising capital and the Big Idea Center.
July 23, 2019
Mark DeSantis steers RoadBotics through rapid growth
RoadBotics CEO Mark DeSantis shares his experience building RoadBotics from the ground up, including rapid two-year growth since it got its first customers.
June 20, 2019
UPMC Enterprises invests in its own disruption
Officially created five years ago to create health care innovations that improve the lives of patients in meaningful ways, UPMC Enterprises encompasses the $130 million a year that UPMC lays out for corporate venture investments and R&D.
May 21, 2019
Diamond Kinetics swings for the fences with sensor technology
CEO C.J. Handron talks about how he brought Diamond Kinetics from the lab to the ball diamond with the help of Pittsburgh’s early-stage community.
April 23, 2019
Honeycomb Credit expands crowd financing model beyond Pittsburgh
How CEO George Cook is blending crowd funding and community banking to change the way small businesses get loans.
April 9, 2019
Corporates join VCs to fill pipeline for Pittsburgh tech investment
Pittsburgh’s tech startups attract the lion’s share of funding and attention, says Innovation Works’ Gary Glausser. We spoke with him about trends in tech investing, including highlights from Investment in Pittsburgh’s technology sector report, and the upcoming the AI & Robotics Venture Fair.
February 6, 2019
The rise of corporate venture funding
Pittsburgh’s old industrial companies are paying attention to startups and Idea Foundry CEO Mike Matesic thinks the surge in corporate venture funding bodes well for local M&A activity. We spoke with Matesic about how corporations and startups are working together to grow Pittsburgh’s economy.
