10-Minute Tech Talks: Business Insights and Growth Hacks for Time-Crunched Entrepreneurs

Tune in to TechVibe Radio to hear Acting Principal Deputy National Cyber Director Jake Braun who addressed the Pittsburgh Technology Council's membership to discuss the White House's recently released National Cybersecurity Strategy. 

Plus, listen to Itha Cao, Director of Digital Inclusion and Innovation, talk about Neighborhood Allies' priority initiatives that improve resident access to the three critical pieces of achieving a high quality of life in the 21st century: computer literacy skills, computer ownership and high speed internet. 

Jim Chen is a shareholder in the Transportation Technology and Energy, Emerging Technologies groups. 

In this podcast, Chen details some of the latest trends in the transportation and energy industries and overviews what challenges companies are facing in this revolution.

Chen’s clients are entities in the transportation and energy industry focusing on alternative fuel powertrains, energy storage, energy delivery systems and semi-autonomous and autonomous driving technologies. In addition, he has experience in business development matters including leading commercial deals for new sites/facilities.

If you have any questions about developments in new transportation technologies or sustainable energy, please contact Jim Chen at 202.853.3469 or [email protected].

BirdBrain Technologies’ mission is to inspire deep and joyful hands-on learning in all students.

BirdBrain Technologies cultivates creativity and makes abstract concepts hands-on by providing flexible and inspiring classroom tools: the Finch Robot, the Hummingbird Robotics Kit, and the new Owlet Math Tools collection.

BirdBrain Founder Tom Lauwers and Learning/Community Manager Sarah FitzHenry step up to the One Mic Stand to detail BirdBrain's growth, products and impact. Plus BirdBrain offers grant assistance to get its products into any classroom.

Founded at the CREATE Lab at Carnegie Mellon University in 2010, BirdBrain is a research-based company that promotes gender equality and diversity in STEM, with a focus on computer science, engineering, math, and robotics.

Jordan Joltes, Founder and CEO of TruSummit Solutions, is building one of Pittsburgh's top Salesforce consultancies.

For four years, Jordan has been helping enterprise-scale companies get the most out of their Salesforce implementations. Jordan steps up to the One Mic Stand to talk about TruSummit's specialization in manufacturing and healthcare. Plus, she details how TruSummit is starting to develop its own custom technology solutions for Salesforce.

She's expecting dramatic growth in 2024. We couldn't be more stoked for Jordan and her team. Listen and learn how Jordan is building her company and solving tough problems.

Tune in to TechVibe Radio this Sunday (12/17) for a deep dive on Management Science Associates with its founder Dr. Alfred Kuehn.

A Pittsburgh headquartered research, analytics, informatics and consulting firm, MSA has created a new corporate ownership structure to secure continuity of its 60-year history of answering questions, identifying opportunities, and solving real-world problems for businesses, institutions and government, helping them put their data to work.

Dr. Kuehn was at the forefront of big data analytics in 1963 and continues to lead the way. Tune in and geek out with us!

Neighborhood Allies' North Star Goal is to expand its resources to Accelerate, Scale and Sustain the work of our community partners to create healthy neighborhoods of opportunity and move 100,000 low-income Pittsburghers up the socio-economic ladder, over the next 10 years. 

Itha Cao, Director of Digital Inclusion and Innovation, steps up to the One Mic Stand to talk about Neighborhood Allies' priority initiatives that improve resident access to the three critical pieces of achieving a high quality of life in the 21st century: computer literacy skills, computer ownership and high speed internet. 

She details how the formal launch of Community Learning Centers in Homewood through Level Up 412  and the continuation of the Beyond the Laptops program will provide community members of all ages with the tools they deserve to learn, work and live.

Prior to her role at Neighborhood Allies, Itha served the City of Pittsburgh as a Senior Civic Innovation Specialist for the Department of Innovation and Performance, managing PGH Lab, the city’s urban incubator for startups to test their products and services with local government, and pivoted the program to focus and prioritize local startups owned and benefiting women, minorities, and disabled individuals.

She also served as a Policy Analyst for Mayor Peduto’s Office of Equity, managing digital inclusion initiatives like Rec2Tech, the city’s STEAM/STEM after school learning program, and ConnectHome, a national digital inclusion initiative from former President Obama to connect public housing residents with digital skills training, devices, and high speed internet access.

Sketch Development Services began in 2015 when founder John Krewson had a realization: That everything he knew about leading software development projects came not from corporate trainings or his MBA, but from his time in entertainment—particularly, from sketch comedy.

John steps up to the One Mic Stand to not only tell us about Sketch and some of the latest developments in the world of Agile, but detail how Saturday Night Live is one of the longest running Agile institutions in the world.

For decades SNL has developed and delivered small batches of comedy in weekly intervals. As Krewson explains, the practices and principles SNL employs are quite agile. From welcoming changing requirements to maintaining technical excellence, there's a lot we can learn from how they deliver. 

Listen, laugh and learn! 

Management Science Associates, Inc. (MSA), a Pittsburgh headquartered research, analytics, informatics, and consulting firm, has created a new corporate ownership structure to secure continuity of its sixty-year history of answering questions, identifying opportunities, and solving real-world problems for businesses, institutions and government, helping them put their data to work.

MSA was founded in 1963 by Dr. Alfred A. Kuehn after ten years on the faculty of Carnegie Mellon University’s GSIA, now known as the Tepper Business School, based initially on his ground-breaking work studying dynamics of consumer purchasing behavior. While available data analytic tools and techniques and the IT computing fabric have exploded by orders of magnitude since then, the principles behind looking for solutions to unstructured problems and extracting them from data using informatics has not.

On November 9, 2023, Dr. Kuehn transferred all MSA ownership to the MSA Purpose Trust and the Dr. Alfred A. Kuehn Innovation Institute. With this innovative ownership structure, MSA and Dr. Kuehn have built a framework for others to pursue his efforts, and preserved MSA’s ability to continue in perpetuity his life-long passion for innovation and quantitative approaches to problem solving.

Listen to the story of MSA's growth and how it is looking to be a leader in the emerging cannabis industry.

December 31, 2023 is the deadline for submission of the inaugural Section 201 Gag Clause Prohibition Compliance Attestation to the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and the Treasury.

The federal government passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act in 2020 (CAA) with the goal of improving price and quality transparency in healthcare. Specifically, Section 201 of the CAA prohibits employers/plan sponsors from entering into contractual arrangements that contain “gag clauses.”

To ensure compliance, Section 201 requires that plans submit an annual attestation that the plan did not enter any agreements that contain gag clauses.

Jennifer Malik, Shareholder at Babst Calland, provides practical insight to ensure that your company is compliant.

Malik’s healthcare benefits administration practice includes counseling firm clients on a wide array of federal and state health laws and regulations, including compliance under HIPAA, the Affordable Care Act, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, and the Public Health Services Act. She also assists Firm clients in providing comprehensive coverage analyses under commercial liability, property, professional liability, and fiduciary policies.

Acting Principal Deputy National Cyber Director Jake Braun addressed the Pittsburgh Technology Council's membership to discuss the White House's recently released National Cybersecurity Strategy.  This visit is occurring as part of White House’s recent designation of Pittsburgh as a National Workforce Hub. As such Braun detailed the need and plan to build our nation's cyber workforce. 

Braun stepped up to the One Mic Stand for a synopsis of his address and thoughts on Pittsburgh leading the way in cyber.