Going Deep with Aaron Watson

The Restaurant Industry was due for a new idea, and that’s exactly what Tyler Benson and Benjamin Mantica delivered when they co-founded Smallman Galley.

Their food hall restaurant accelerator is the first of its kind in the United States. The space incubates four restaurant concepts at a time and drastically lowers the startup costs of a new culinary venture.

Tyler and Ben are Navy Veterans who were inspired by world travels to bring innovative food and beverage concepts to the United States. They started in Pittsburgh and are laying plans to expand across the country.

In this conversation, Tyler & Aaron discuss the origin of the company, who gets free meals at a restaurant, and how time spent at one of the Galleys sets a restaurant up for success.

Resources Mentioned

Provision Pgh

Iron Born Pizza

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Tyler’s Challenge; Go somewhere you haven't been before and experience a fresh perspective or culture.

Connect with Tyler

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If you liked this interview, check out episode 68 with Whiskey expert Wes Shonk, where we discuss the best way to get into whiskey, elite bartending, and secret, invite-only whiskey schools or episode 146 with

LegalSifter is on a mission to bring affordable legal services to the world by empowering people with artificial intelligence. Kevin Miller joined the startup to help prove the business model and scale the company.

Previously, Kevin has served as Chief Operating Officer Industrial Scientific Corporation, helped launch an online version of Argosy University, and spent half a decade at FreeMarkets, in the global sourcing and procurement software space.

In this podcast, we discuss artificial intelligence replacing vs augmenting humans, how Kevin prepared to be a CEO throughout his career, and the climate for raising capital in and outside of Pittsburgh.

Kevin is also a licensed attorney in the state of Ohio.

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Kevin’s Challenge; Take 15 minutes to research artificial intelligence being applied to your industry.

Connect with Kevin

LinkedIn

Twitter

Website

Mentioned

The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future by Kevin Kelly

FreeMarkets - Glen Meakem

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If you aren’t creating or curating content regularly, your clients and customers might forget you’re open for business.

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If you liked this interview, check out  the previous episodes that led to this conversation.

Episode 85 with Sean Ammirati

Episode 306 with Bryan Salesky

Episode 290 with Ned Renzi

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Skycision is on a mission to help the global agriculture industry grow more efficiently. Food production has to increase by 70% by 2050 to feed the anticipated 2 billion person increase in the global population.

Skycision offers a solution to help the global agriculture industry grow more efficiently by identifying crop stress earlier in the growing season, and optimizing field inputs to enhance crop production.

We spoke with Brendan about building a remote team, the commercial applications of drone technology, and recruiting talent.

Today, 795 million people going hungry. I’m hoping Skycision can help change that.

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Brendan’s Challenge; Only check your email twice a day and see how that impacts your productivity.

Tools Mentioned

Jira

Boomerang

Zoom

Slack

Connect with Brendan

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Website

Underwritten by Piper Creative

A digital agency that provides strategy, delivery, and analysis specializing in a few key service offerings.

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If you aren’t creating or curating content regularly, your clients and customers might forget you’re open for business.

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If you liked this interview, check out previous drone conversations with Barry Rabkin and Dick Zhang of Identified Technologies.

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Tucker Max is an American author and public speaker. He chronicled his drinking and sexual encounters in the form of short stories on his website TuckerMax.com,which has received millions of visitors since Max launched it as the result of a bet in 2000.

I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell was a New York Times #1 Bestseller and made the Bestseller List each year from 2006 to 2012. It has sold over one million copies worldwide, including 400,000 copies in 2009 alone. In 2010, he released a book titled Assholes Finish First, and in 2012 marked the literary releases of both Hilarity Ensues and Sloppy Seconds: The Tucker Max Leftovers. He was a 2009 Time 100 finalist based on internet votes, although he did not make the magazine list

His new company is Book in a Box, a service for helping busy experts transfer their wisdom into a book format. The company interviews clients in a systematic way that properly structures their ideas. They then turn those words into a book. All clients need to do, as the author, is answer questions about what they already know. Everything else is handled by BIAB’s team of experienced publishing professionals.

Tucker’s Challenge; Ask yourself “Why” multiple times until you reach an irreducible answer.

Get a Free PDF of Tucker’s How-To-Guide

If you liked this interview, check out episode 118 with Kevin Kelly where we discuss the inevitable technological trends shaping our future.

After the fireside chat with Anthony Freeze, we took questions from the audience about Instagram, podcasting, and running kickass events.

Some video from this event is at the end of Episode 015 of This Is Piper.

Over the course of a 90-minute conversation, at Industrious Coworking space, we discussed  Instagram, podcasting, and running kickass events.

We also discussed the genesis of Piper Creative and our plans for the future.

Super grateful to Anthony Freeze for conducting a great interview.

LinkedIn

Mark DeSantis is currently CEO of RoadBotics, an AI-based product that monitors and manages roadway infrastructure. Previously, he has co-founded an energy hedge fund, a GE Ventures-backed energy predictive analytics company, and a venture-backed online tutoring company.

Why build a company focused on road maintenance? There is a desperate need to efficiently and effectively monitor and maintain the world's civil infrastructure. His company, RoadBotics, uses smartphone sensors to inexpensively monitor streets, roads, highways, sidewalks and bridges and to lower maintenance costs.

We discuss training machine learning algorithms, the career arc of an entrepreneur, and what Mark has learned from his past startups.

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Mark’s Challenge; Find the alternative viewpoint and empathetically consume it before arguing.

Mentioned

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

Connect with Mark

Facebook

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LinkedIn

Website

Underwritten by Piper Creative

A digital agency that provides strategy, delivery, and analysis specializing in a few key service offerings.

Documentary-as-a-Service (Vlogging 2.0)

Instagram Content Production & Account Building

Podcast Production, Strategy Consulting, and Guest Acquisition

If you aren’t creating or curating content regularly, your clients and customers might forget you’re open for business.

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If you liked this interview, check out two more interviews with Pittsburgh entrepreneurs. Episode 260 features a discussion with Anthony Vennare about the future of health and wellness, making a modern media company, and building a business in Pittsburgh. Episode 242 features a discussion with Darrin Grove about running a company for 20 years and constantly reinventing himself.

A decade ago, very few people thought a blog could be a business. Today, it’s common knowledge.

Nicki Zevola Benvenuti hopped on the trend very early, starting her website, FutureDerm.com, in 2008. It now helps more than 500,000 people a month discover hard-to-find scientific information on skincare, to make sense of marketing claims, and to find what is best for their skin a plethora of products in a crowded marketplace.

Now, she is leveraging her fluency in digital media to help other brands grow. At FutureDerm Media, her team has successfully guided brands to 500% traffic growth and accelerated sales over the course of six months.

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Nicki’s Challenge; Do something. Every Day.

Connect with Nicki

Twitter

LinkedIn

Website

Underwritten by Piper Creative

A digital agency that provides strategy, delivery, and analysis specializing in a few key service offerings.

Documentary-as-a-Service (Vlogging 2.0)

Instagram Content Production & Account Building

Podcast Production, Strategy Consulting, and Guest Acquisition

If you aren’t creating or curating content regularly, your clients and customers might forget you’re open for business.

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If you liked this interview, check out episode 36 with Sophia Berman where we discuss starting a lingerie company that uses 3-D printing and serves a distinct clientele.

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This episode was an opportunity to pester one of my good friends, Brad Driscoll, with questions 😏

In addition to co-founding Think Big Marketing, Brad has generated 10 million views on YouTube and amassed one of the 1,000 largest audiences on Twitch.

He’ll be talking about building a YouTube account at an event we are holding August 1st.

RSVP to the Facebook event for updates or buy a ticket right now.

In this episode, we primarily talk about building his Twitch audience and building his business.

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Brad’s Challenge; For the next 2-3 weeks, let someone know you like their content after you consume it.

Resources Mentioned

OBS Studio

ClickFunnels

Connect with Brad

Twitter

LinkedIn

YouTube

Twitch

Website

Underwritten by Piper Creative

A digital agency that provides strategy, delivery, and analysis specializing in a few key service offerings.

Documentary-as-a-Service (Vlogging 2.0)

Instagram Content Production & Account Building

Podcast Production, Strategy Consulting, and Guest Acquisition

If you aren’t creating or curating content regularly, your clients and customers might forget you’re open for business.

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If you liked this interview, check out episode 131 with Larry Gioia where we discuss why connecting is better than networking.

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Halima Tammy Thompson's moved to Pittsburgh as a child and was faced with homelessness, loss and countless obstacles.  Years later, she has fused 20+ years of experience in the Real Estate Industry and 8 years of working in the nonprofit sector as a Credit Counselor.    

Tammy is a Poverty Expert, Nationally Sought After Speaker, Executive Producer of We Wear The Mask, a documentary released in 2017 highlighting the stigma associated with women in poverty. She provides counseling services with integrity, inspiration, compassion and confidentiality.

In the episode, we discuss cycles of poverty, the impact of trauma over a lifetime, and the victims of the 2008 Financial Recession.

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Tammy’s Challenge; Step outside your comfort zone.

Connect with Tammy

LinkedIn

Website

Circlespgh.org

Underwritten by Piper Creative

A digital agency that provides strategy, delivery, and analysis specializing in a few key service offerings.

Documentary-as-a-Service (Vlogging 2.0)

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If you aren’t creating or curating content regularly, your clients and customers might forget you’re open for business.

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If you liked this interview, check out episode 187 with Grant Oliphant where we discuss the Heinz Endowment, how to strengthen communities, and Grant’s personal career path.

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