“What Next?”

It’s a common question facing successful entrepreneurs who “cash out”, or otherwise enjoy startup success beyond their wildest imagination.  Some entrepreneurs prefer to lay low and settle in to a life of comfort and retirement, putting the fast-paced entrepreneurial lifestyle in the rearview mirror. Others use the passion and determination they deployed in starting and growing their ventures to seek new challenges, especially when it comes to “paying it forward”, giving back time, effort, and resources in order to support new ideas and foster new entrepreneurial ventures.

On this Sunday’s edition of “Your American Story” radio, Raja, who himself forged a second act by way of political aspirations, and through launching the “Your American Story” program, talks to two fellow successful entrepreneurs-turned-thought leaders who parlayed their entrepreneurial success into means by which they could empower the masses to work towards a more productive business climate, and thus, a more productive society, one person at a time.

-There may not have been a more optimal year to launch a web-based tech venture than 1995, which was the year that Harvard University graduate-turned-Gulf War Veteran Glen Meakem started Pittsburgh-based FreeMarkets.  Under Meakem’s leadership, the software company, which facilitated the automation of the sourcing process for many Global 1000 companies, enjoyed rapid growth, en route to a record-setting IPO in 1999.  Five more years of growth followed, before Glen and his team sold the company for $500 million in 2004.  Glen tackled the “What Next” conundrum head-on soon after, starting a successful VC fund, Meakem Becker Venture Capital, just one year later.  In addition, he also started his own radio talk show, The Glen Meakem Program, a spirited blend of political, policy, and business discussion with the stated purpose of making individuals, businesses, states, and our nation more successful.  The weekend morning program can currently be heard in over a dozen markets, including Pittsburgh, where it can be found as part of the same weekend mix as “Your American Story” on FM News Talk 104.7.

On Sunday, Glen discusses his story, what drives him to be successful, and why he decided to throw his hat back into the entrepreneurial ring with his new venture, Forever Inc., the world’s first social storage company.

-Want to know what “saving up a couple of dimes” can do?

For Harrisburg’s John Kennedy, it can enable a track laborer in the railroad industry to start his own company, Kennedy Railroad Builders in 1965.  Fifteen years later, it enabled him to take a break from running his company in order to run for, and be elected to, the first of four terms in the Pennsylvania General Assembly. In enabled him to return to the business eight years later, as a model of personal and professional integrity, having taken the seemingly unheard of step of declining to receive a government pension upon leaving office.  And it enabled him to re-emege as a government watchdog in 2006, on the heels of the infamous Pennsylvania General Assembly self-imposed pay raise that left many Pennsylvania voters up in arms. This outcry led to Kennedy’s formation of CAP (Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania), an organization dedicated to the advancement of the ideas of limited state government, economic freedom, and personal responsibility, in order to ultimately raise the standard of living throughout the state.

This week, Raja talks with John Kennedy about his remarkable journey, how his time in business prepared him for his time in politics (and vice versa), and how his exposure to how Pennsylvania State government REALLY works led to the formation of CAP, and whether or not the Pennsylvania State Government’s ability to serve the needs of its constituents has improved or gotten worse in the past eight years.

Taking Their Companies To the Next Level: How Did They Do It?

For many entrepreneurial ventures, the leadership and guidance of the startup’s founder is more than enough to propel the company to heights greater than he or she could have ever imagined.  But in some cases, sometimes it takes a call to a special kind of business leader to be the catalyst needed in order to take the company to the oft-elusive “next level”.  On this edition of Your American Story Radio, Raja talks with two such leaders who, when they got that call, immediately went to work in order to get the most out of their organizations.

-In 2003, Dick Corporation, a Pittsburgh-based construction company, brought Stephen D’Angelo on board as the company’s new CEO.  It was a match made in heaven….and out of necessity.  Stephen had earned a long-standing reputation as an executive mastermind when it comes to company turnarounds, and Dick Corporation, a firm that had enjoyed considerable success throughout the 1990′s, had hit a rough patch, thanks to the downturn in the power market from which it attained much of it’s client base (a base that included, among other firms, Enron).  Since the point Stephen took over, nobody, except maybe Stephen himself, could have predicted the remarkable success the company would enjoy over the next 11 years. Stephen engineered the necessary steps to bring Dick back from the brink, including a rebrand to “dck worldwide“.  Now the company has reclaimed its rightful spot among the elite construction firms in America, as well as throughout the globe.

Today, Stephen talks with Raja about this turnaround, where dck worldwide is today, and the plans that Stephen has laid out for further growth and development going forward.

-If you take a look at the calendar, you’ll see that it’s been just over six weeks since the start of 2014.  And if you’re one of countless Americans whose New Year’s resolutions include weight loss or other indicators of an improvement on overall fitness, how have you done so far?  If you’re not sure, a Pittsburgh-based company may have the solution.

Since its inception in 1999, BodyMedia has emerged from the Pittsburgh tech landscape as a pioneering technology in the area of real-time, quantitative analysis of the overall fitness of the human body, and not just tried and true measures such as body weight or even BMI.  While this company enjoyed much success in this space for the first 10 years of its life, it was when they called on Christine Robins to be their CEO in 2009 that things really took off.  Under her leadership, BodyMedia’s growth has been even more exponential, including a featured appearance on NBC’s smash fitness reality show, “The Biggest Loser”, and culminating in the company’s sale to Jawbone, one of the nation’s premier manufacturers of audio and fitness technology, in April of 2013, for a reported sum in excess of $100 million.

Christine joins Raja to discuss her role as leader of BodyMedia, the growth the company has enjoyed under her watch, the impact that the Jawbone acquisition has had on the operation of the company, and what is in store for BodyMedia going forward.

On this edition of  Your American Story radio, Raja welcomes a pair of local business leaders onto the show to discuss the contributions they’re making to improving the overall climate for businesses, both large and small, in Western Pennsylvania.

-When a person typically thinks about a greenhouse, he or she thinks of a safe, controlled environment, where plants are given the proper nurturing in order to grow and prosper, and in turn, provide a positive, sustainable impact on their environment.

In 2001, thanks to the collaborative efforts of the State of Pennsylvania, Carnegie Mellon University, The University of Pittsburgh, UPMC, and local foundation partners throughout Western Pennsylvania, the greenhouse concept came to life for the Pittsburgh business community, through the formation of the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse (PLSG).  Under the leadership of President and CEO John Manzetti, the PLSG aims to provide organizational support, educational resources and capital funding for biosciences companies throughout the region, in order to set them on an unwavering path of growth and sustainability that will lead to job creation and economic growth that will lift the region for decades to come.  The results over the past 12 years have been mind-boggling, as the PLSG has made over 180 investments in over 75 companies, a total investment in excess of $20 million that has leveraged over $900 million in additional capital, creating over 1,800 jobs along the way.

On this edition, John Manzetti talks with Raja about the mission of the PLSG, the results the organization has enjoyed thus far, and where they go from here.  You won’t want to miss this exceptional discussion.

-If you look at the traits that make up a successful entrepreneur, “determination” is one that is near, if not AT, the top of the list.  And few, if any, entrepreneurs come more determined than Don Charlton.

Having lived in poverty until he was 18, Don had developed a passion for computer programming, a love of art, $75 and a bus ticket to start his journey at the Rochester Institute of Technology, en route to a career as a software developer before hitting his home run in 2009, with the development of The Resumator.  The Resumator takes much of the guesswork out of the hiring process, streamlining the mounds of resume data that employers must wade through once a job opening is posted, and organizing the data so that the strongest candidates emerge to the forefront dynamically, saving employers countless hours and wasted interviews along the way.  Since its launch in 2009, The Resumator has been used by over 2,000 employers, including such leading edge companies as Warby Parker, Mashable, Instagram, MLB.com, and both the Obama and Romney 2012 Presidential campaigns.

Here, Raja talks with Don Charlton about his remarkable journey, the unbelievable success he has enjoyed thanks to the Resumator, what his plans are going forward, and what drives him to continually strive for bigger and better outcomes on a daily basis.

Women in Business

On this edition of Your American Story radio, Raja returns live to the airwaves, in order to take a special look at the impact that women have in the world of business, as he talks with a pair of the most prominent female business leaders in Western Pennsylvania.

-Over the past few years, one of the organizations in Western Pennsylvania that has experienced a pretty significant decline has been the Port Authority of Allegheny County.  As the region’s public transportation organization endured a very public multi-faceted battle of increased fuel costs, cuts in the labor force and cuts in routes, things had been looking more and more grim.  Enter Ellen McLean, the former CFO of the Port Authority who stepped into the role of the Port Authority’s Interim CEO in February of 2013.  Over the past few months, things have been looking up for the Port Authority under her leadership, and after an extensive search to determine a permanent CEO, it was decided that there was no better candidate to fill the bill than McLean herself, in a move that was announced last week.

With the hopes of an actual INCREASE in service metrics on the horizon for the Port Authority for the first time in years, Ellen McLean talks with Raja about her role as head of the Port Authority, and what she plans for the future to continue this promising trend.

-”How do we get the most out of training processes?”

It’s a question facing business, both large and small, across the country, and it’s a question that Pittsburgh-based entrepreneur Jessica Trybus has tackled first hand.  Using many of the resources available to her during her time at Carnegie Mellon University, Jessica started Etcetera Edutainment, a leading-edge company that specializes in software-based solutions to help businesses train their workforce in a manner that reaches beyond the tried-and-true employee handbook. Etcetera works with businesses to customize game-based simulation software to help companies put their workforce in “virtual” situations they would commonly face, in order to provide an interesting, unique perspective as to what the employee can expect going forward.  Jessica talks with Raja about the story of her company, how her experience at Carnegie Mellon University has shaped the way she approaches workforce training and development, and what the future holds for the way in which our workers train and develop.