Dare to Disrupt Archives - Page 4 of 5

Delivering Empathy at Scale Using AI and Data with Mario Ciabarra

Dare to Disrupt

Delivering Empathy at Scale Using AI and Data with Mario Ciabarra

00:00 / 00:41:08

Mario Ciabarra is the CEO and founder of Quantum Metric, a customer-centered digital analytics platform for today’s leading enterprise organizations. Since its founding in 2015, Quantum Metric’s approach to in-depth customer understanding has seen rapid adoption from Fortune 500 companies. The world’s largest airline, telco, retailer, healthcare, bank, and more have adopted the Quantum Metric platform.

In this episode, Mario shares valuable lessons on integrity and communication learned during his college years. He discusses launching and exiting his first startup in just 11 months, a success that allowed him to briefly retire and travel the world. Mario also explains how Quantum Metric enhances visibility into customer friction points for major industry leaders and how the company integrates generative AI into its solutions. Finally, he reflects on how he approaches building his legacy.

Episode Chapters

0:00 – 3:14
Family Roots and Immigrant Influence

3:14 – 7:14
Switching to Science and Founding YourNotes at Penn State

7:14 – 12:23
Lessons in Integrity, Coding, and Startup Life

12:23 – 14:46
Selling a Startup and Searching for Purpose

14:46 – 19:16
Finding Meaning: From Photography to App Innovation

19:16 – 21:25
Enterprise vs. Consumer Companies

21:25 – 26:28
Quantum Metric: Improving Digital Experiences

26:28 – 29:40
Funding Growth and Capital Decisions

29:40 – 32:48
Generative AI Driving Business Success

32:48 – 36:29
Legacy, Focus, and Advice for Students

Building Weebly with Founder David Rusenko

Dare to Disrupt

Building Weebly with Founder David Rusenko

00:00 / 00:36:51

David is the Head of eCommerce at Square and founder of Weebly, which was acquired by Square in 2018 for $365M. He graduated from Penn State in 2007 with a degree in Information Sciences & Technology.

Making a Deal on Shark Tank with FlexScreen Inventor Joe Altieri

Dare to Disrupt

Making a Deal on Shark Tank with FlexScreen Inventor Joe Altieri

00:00 / 00:51:27

Joe Altieri is the president, CEO, and inventor of FlexScreen, the world’s first and only flexible window screen, as seen on season 11 episode 10 of ABC’s Shark Tank.

In this episode, Joe talks about how he started his career as an independent sales representative in the window industry and quickly became frustrated with the flimsy aluminum frames found in traditional screens. He shares his experience pitching FlexScreen on ABC’s Shark Tank, and how he walked away with a deal with American television personality, inventor, and entrepreneur, Lori Greiner, “Queen of QVC”.

At the end of the episode, recent Summer Founders Program participant Kevin Harris joins the conversation. Kevin is the founder and CEO of WaveBreaker Technologies, a veteran owned and operated business making kayaking more accessible with its top-mounted storage well. Kevin talks to Joe about the challenges of manufacturing physical products and how to make tough decisions about your business as an entrepreneur.

LIVE from The Nittany Lion Inn: Scholar Hotels Founder Gary Brandeis

Dare to Disrupt

LIVE from The Nittany Lion Inn: Scholar Hotels Founder Gary Brandeis

00:00 / 00:45:33

Gary Brandeis is the CEO and Co-Founder of Scholar Hotels, a hotel ownership and management group with a focus on properties close to major college and university campuses. Gary acquired his first hotel in 2006 and has since been directly involved in the hospitality business as an investor, developer, and manager. Scholar Hotels made its State College debut in March 2017, when it opened the 165-room Hyatt Place State College. Since then, the group has expanded its State College properties to include the Scholar Hotel, the Courtyard by Marriott, the Residence Inn by Marriott, The Penn Stater Hotel & Conference Center, and, of course, The Nittany Lion Inn. Gary graduated from the Penn State Smeal College of Business with a degree in accounting.

In this live episode recorded in the 1855 Lounge at The Nittany Lion Inn, Gary shares how his background in accounting prepared him for the real estate industry, the details of the Inn’s renovation, as well as how he thinks about and manages risk.

*Please excuse some of the lower quality audio present in this episode – live events can be unpredictable!

Episode Chapters

0:00 – 3:52

Early life, working first jobs in restaurant industry

3:52 – 8:44

Studying accounting, finding love for real estate at Pricewaterhouse

8:44 – 13:44

Gaining experience, building a network, and forming a track record

13:44 – 17:16

Finding a business partner, developing first property

17:16 – 19:57

The draw of the hotel sector

19:57 – 24:14

Developing the Fraser Center in downtown State College

24:14 – 27:43

Developing the Scholar Hotel

27:43 – 38:10

The Nittany Lion Inn purchase and remodel process

38:10 – 45:30

Audience questions

Disrupting the Mattress Industry with JT Marino

Dare to Disrupt

Disrupting the Mattress Industry with JT Marino

00:00 / 00:45:46

JT Marino is the Chief Disruption Officer at Serta Simmons Bedding and the co-founder of Tuft & Needle, which merged with Serta Simmons in 2018. He studied math and computer science at Penn State.

Anticipating the Waves of Change with Google’s Global Director of Solution Sales Ash Ashutosh

Dare to Disrupt

Anticipating the Waves of Change with Google’s Global Director of Solution Sales Ash Ashutosh

00:00 / 00:40:58

Ash Ashutosh is a serial entrepreneur and the Global Director of Solution Sales at Google. His data management startup, Actifio, achieved a valuation of over $1B and was acquired by Google in 2020.

In this episode, Ash talks about anticipating and advancing alongside what he calls the waves of change, in reference to the surges in innovation and technology that occur over time. His entrepreneurial journey reflects those technology surges – he started out in the silicon industry, then moved on to data storage software development. His most recent startup, Actifio, was in the business of managing and securing data. Ash talks about how he had the opportunity to work with some of the largest organizations in the world to better protect and manage their data while at Actifio.

At the end of the episode, third-year student Bianca Wisekal joins the conversation. She is an agribusiness management student who holds a leadership role within the Nittany Entrepreneur Society, Penn State’s student entrepreneurship club. She is also an administrative operations intern within Invent Penn State, and she is a technician and lab monitor at OriginLabs, Invent Penn State’s all-new fabrication space. She talks to Ash about how he stays motivated to keep innovating, as well as his predictions for where technology is heading.

Electrifying Urban Mobility with Revel Co-founder Paul Suhey

Dare to Disrupt

Electrifying Urban Mobility with Revel Co-founder Paul Suhey

00:00 / 00:42:04

Paul Suhey is the Chief Operating Officer and co-founder of Revel, where he drives the company’s mission to accelerate electric vehicle adoption in U.S. cities by focusing on fast-charging infrastructure.

In this episode, Paul shares Revel’s journey from its beginnings as an urban electric moped sharing startup to a company focused on building the EV charging infrastructure for the largest cities across the US.

At the end of the episode, current Penn State student Michael Slesarevich joins the conversation. Michael is a first-year mechanical engineering student and the founder of Shade Shift, an electrically controlled variable tint film for vehicles. He recently participated in the Happy Valley LaunchBox powered by PNC Bank Idea TestLab, and is a member of the Penn State Car Club. Michael and Paul discuss overcoming the challenge of securing that first investment, as well as how Revel views would-be competitors as potential future customers.

Episode Chapters

0:00 – 3:43 Growing up a “glorified nerd,” attending boarding school

3:43 – 8:14 Embracing the bigness of Penn State, Gravitating towards the hard thing

8:14 – 11:30 Getting into the complexities of the energy sector

11:30 – 14:41 From pinball in a corporate machine to big picture discussion leader

14:41 – 16:50 Choosing launching Revel over grad school

16:50 – 18:02 Revel’s mission: electrifying urban mobility

18:02 – 21:50 Evolving methods of sourcing capital

21:50 – 22:29 Handling the frenzy of launching a startup

22:29 – 26:44 Pivoting from electric mopeds to EV charging and rideshare

26:44 – 31:05 Addressing the challenge of novelty in building EV infrastructure

31:05 – 32:36 Seeing a lot more blue in the future

32:36 – Start of Student Section

32:36 – 35:40 Understanding the value propositions to drivers and riders

35:40 – 36:15 Prioritizing charging stations vs. Rideshare service

36:15 – 37:31 Viewing competitors and customers

37:31 – 40:30 Getting that first investment

40:30 –41:35 The importance of the blue

About Paul Suhey

Before co-founding Revel in 2018, Paul worked at Gerson Lehrman Group in New York City and ExxonMobil in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He graduated with honors in chemical engineering from the Penn State College of Engineering and the Schreyer Honors College in 2014.

Revolutionizing the Real Estate Industry with Sean Black

Dare to Disrupt

Revolutionizing the Real Estate Industry with Sean Black

00:00 / 00:49:40

Sean Black is the Co-founder & CEO of Knock.com, and he was part of the founding team for the online real estate marketplace site Trulia. He graduated from Penn State in 1996 with a degree in international business management.

Special Commemorative Episode – Daring to Disrupt with Ryan Newman and James Delattre

Dare to Disrupt

Special Commemorative Episode - Daring to Disrupt with Ryan Newman and James Delattre

00:00 / 00:55:31

This is a special crossover episode of Dare to Disrupt and Following the Gong, a show that features conversations with Penn State Schreyer Scholar Alumni sharing advice on how to make new connections with a strong network of Scholar Alumni that blazed the trail before you. Following The Gong host Sean Goheen interviews Goldman Sachs Managing Director and Dare to Disrupt host Ryan Newman, ’01 and Associate Vice President for Research and Director of the Office of Entrepreneurship & Commercialization James Delattre, ’97, both Scholar Alumni, about the entrepreneurial scene at Penn State. This episode commemorates Dare to Disrupt passing 50,000 total downloads.

Ryan and James briefly share their background and time at Penn State. The conversation then covers the origin of Invent Penn State and the incredible resources available for not only students but alumni and community members looking to start, build, or scale a business. Ryan and Katie DeFiore, producer of Dare to Disrupt, share how the Dare to Disrupt podcast came to be, favorite stories, and lessons learned from both the guests and the production process. Ryan and James’ bios and a full breakdown of topics discussed are available below.

Guest Bios:

Dr. James L. Delattre serves as Associate Vice President for Research and Director of the Office for Entrepreneurship and Commercialization where he leads entrepreneurship program development for the Invent Penn State initiative and leads commercialization strategy, resources and support for Penn State’s startup pipeline and LaunchBox & Innovation Network. He is an alumnus of the Professional Fellows Program of the American Councils for International Education. James is the principal investigator for Penn State’s National Science Foundation I-Corps Program, a member of the advisory board of the Center for Medical Innovation at the Penn State Hershey College of Medicine and serves as secretary of the Penn State Research Foundation. Prior to joining Penn State, Dr. Delattre worked in nanomaterials and semiconductor startups in central Pennsylvania and Silicon Valley. Dr. Delattre earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, and completed postdoctoral work at the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche at the University of Bari, Italy. Dr. Delattre received his BS with honors in Chemistry from Penn State, where he studied inorganic chemistry and the Russian language.

Ryan Newman is a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs, where he co-founded and co-leads a private wealth management team, managing in excess of $13 billion on behalf of Fortune 500 executives, Forbes 400 families, entrepreneurs, family offices and foundations and endowments. Ryan is a member of the PWM Top Advisors and PWM Advisors Council, representing the top 10% of advisors globally at Goldman Sachs. He joined Goldman Sachs as a financial analyst in 2001 and was named a Managing Director in 2019. Ryan earned his Bachelor of Science in Economics with Honors 2001, and served as Student Marshal for Economics during graduation. Ryan is the host of the Invent Penn State podcast, Dare to Disrupt, which he helped launch, and has achieved over 50,000 downloads (as of September 2023). He also serves on the External Advisory Board of the Schreyer Honors College and the Principal Gifts Committee in Development at Penn State. Ryan is also a volunteer with the Smeal College of Business. He was awarded the Alumni Achievement Award in 2011 and the Alumni Fellow Award in 2023.

Episode Topics:

Getting to know Ryan and James as they share their Penn State origin stories and the value of the honors thesis in industry, graduate school, and entrepreneurship
Pursuing an industry route rather than an academic route with a STEM PhD
How Invent Penn State came to be and how it helps bring the University’s Land Grant mission to life in the 21st century for all citizens of the Commonwealth
How to get plugged in with the incredible programs and resources available from Invent Penn State
How and why to get involved as an alumni volunteer and/or donor, especially in the entrepreneurial space
The origin story of the Dare to Disrupt podcast and how it gets made
Leveraging success and momentum into more success and momentum
Lessons learned from hosting Dare to Disrupt
Handling rejections or failures