This week, familiar face Greg Coticchia (Pitchwerks #47) brings Randy Eager into the Epicast Studios to talk about upcoming free seminars in Pittsburgh from the Founder Institute, an idea-stage accelerator program that originated in California’s Bay Area. Greg and Randy have both been successful as entrepreneurs, and host Scot MacTaggart takes advantage of their visit to pick their brains for some insight that Pitchwerks listeners can apply in the new year. If you’re in the Pittsburgh area, be sure to check out the Founder Institute event on January 10 at 6pm, in the Truefit offices at 500 Grant Street. The event is free and the topic is the first step, ideation.
So here’s a puzzle for you sales, marketing and startup lovers: How do you launch an Indian fast-casual restaurant, similar to Panera or Chipotle, in an area that doesn’t have much Indian food at all? This is the main question this week. Our guest is Raji Sankar, Co-CEO of Wholesome International, who set out years ago to launch what has now become Choolaah Indian Barbecue. An engineer by training, Raji has worked to develop a nearly-frictionless system that allows guests who have never eaten an Indian dish to walk into a Choolaah location and order with confidence.
Zak Slayback may loathe the way the educational system typically works, but he has legions of educators that love him. Scot MacTaggart invited Zak to come into the Epicast Studios because of his charming, tireless efforts as a successful author, speaker and general “re-thinker”. This week, Zak and Scot sit down and discuss ways to rethink how you send emails, how to overcome a lack of willpower, and how a King Slayback would decree that education should be changed.
Some of our fans in Pittsburgh asked for us to have these ladies on the show - and we’re delivering! Adhithi Aji is the founder of Adrich (adrich.io), and Janelle Aslam is the company’s Chief Marketing Officer. Both of these women are well-educated product managers with hands-on experience in major companies you’ve heard of. Now they’re here in the Epicast studios, speaking with Scot MacTaggart about their automated tool for the collection and analysis of real-life usage data, bringing consumer packaged goods closer to online industries in terms of understanding the buyer.