How Two Tech Entrepreneurs Turned a Startup Dream into a $10.6M Reality
10-Minute Tech Talks: Business Insights and Growth Hacks for Time-Crunched Entrepreneurs
Release Date: 10/13/2025
What Every Entrepreneur Should Know About Scaling a Technology Venture
10-Minute Tech Talks: Business Insights and Growth Hacks for Time-Crunched Entrepreneurs
What does it really take to scale a startup when early traction turns into real momentum? In this episode of 10 Minute Tech Talks, Jonathan Kersting of the Pittsburgh Technology Council and TechVibe Radio breaks down a powerful segment from his TechVibe interview with Wendy McSparren and John Mihalik, co-founders of Admirra, a fast-growing mental health technology startup. You’ll learn how they: Scaled from early customers to national growth Built a strong startup team without losing focus Kept their SaaS product simple and competitive Used customer feedback to guide development ...
info_outline
Love, Leadership, and Launching a Technology Startup
10-Minute Tech Talks: Business Insights and Growth Hacks for Time-Crunched Entrepreneurs
Building a startup is hard. Building a startup with your spouse? That’s a whole different level of difficulty. Today on 10 Minute Tech Talks, we’re exploring how Wendy McSparren and John Mihalik built Admirra together, not just as co-founders, but as partners in life. Admirra provides software and service solutions for private mental health practices to help them onboard new clients and efficiently manage business workflows. This is a story about trust, boundaries, leadership, and learning how to win together. Wendy and John remind us that startups aren’t just built on code and...
info_outline
Why Entrepreneurs Should Pay Attention to How Healthcare Uses Technology
10-Minute Tech Talks: Business Insights and Growth Hacks for Time-Crunched Entrepreneurs
What you’re about to hear isn’t just a conversation about healthcare. It’s a masterclass in how modern organizations use technology to scale expertise, reduce friction, and make better decisions at speed. In this episode, we excerpted a segment from the Pittsburgh Technology Council's Health Care Reinvented Podcast featuring Highmark leaders Maria Baker and Mari Vandenburg as they talk about how artificial intelligence and predictive analytics are transforming healthcare by synthesizing massive amounts of data and turning it into clear, actionable insights for clinicians. For...
info_outline
The Fast Lane for Entrepreneurs Who Code: AI Is the On-Ramp, Not the Destination
10-Minute Tech Talks: Business Insights and Growth Hacks for Time-Crunched Entrepreneurs
AI is everywhere right now. It can write code, generate content, fix bugs, and give you a starting point in seconds. But if you’re an entrepreneur building a real product, you’ve probably already realized something important: AI alone isn’t enough. In this 10 Minute Tech Talk, we are joined again by Greg Lutz from Mescius, a Pittsburgh-based software company that’s spent decades building tools for developers who need to move fast and build things that actually work in the real world. In this clip, Greg shares a grounded, practical perspective on where AI truly adds value, where it can...
info_outline
Save Time and Frustration: Every Tech Entrepreneur That Codes Needs This Resource
10-Minute Tech Talks: Business Insights and Growth Hacks for Time-Crunched Entrepreneurs
You’re building something. You’re moving fast. And at some point, the code starts slowing you down. Today’s 10 Minute Tech Talks is for founders and entrepreneurs who are doing some of their own development and wondering if there’s a smarter way to build without reinventing every wheel. Greg Lutz from Mescius, a Pittsburgh-based company that’s been helping developers save time for more than two decades, joins Host Jonathan Kersting to detail Code Clinic. Greg breaks down Code Clinic, a free, approachable learning resource designed to help developers solve real problems, learn...
info_outline
How a Tech Entrepreneur Turned Broken Networking into Scalable Opportunity
10-Minute Tech Talks: Business Insights and Growth Hacks for Time-Crunched Entrepreneurs
Why do so many promising business conversations quietly disappear after a handshake? In this episode of 10 Minute Tech Talks, we explore a problem every tech entrepreneur knows too well. You meet the right people. You have great conversations. And somehow… nothing happens next. ConfirmedApp.com Founder David Radin breaks down why networking isn’t broken because of people, but because of systems. And how recognizing that gap led to him building Confirmed Meet & Greet to solve it. If your business depends on relationships, sales, or partnerships, this insight could change how you think...
info_outline
A Tech Entrepreneur’s Wake-Up Call: When Your Product Is Just a Feature
10-Minute Tech Talks: Business Insights and Growth Hacks for Time-Crunched Entrepreneurs
What if the thing you’re most proud of building… is the thing holding your business back? Today on 10 Minute Tech Talks, we’re digging into a moment every tech entrepreneur eventually faces. You’ve got momentum, a smart team, and something that looks polished and impressive, until you realize it doesn’t actually solve the problem. Host Jonathan Kersting interviewed serial entrepreneur David Radin of ConfirmedApp.com on the Pittsburgh Technology Council's TechVibe Radio Show to pull back the curtain on why David's team walked away from months of work, scrapped a “good” idea, and...
info_outline
The AI Mistakes Tech Entrepreneurs Keep Making
10-Minute Tech Talks: Business Insights and Growth Hacks for Time-Crunched Entrepreneurs
If AI is everywhere, why are so many companies still struggling to make it work? In Part One "Why Tech Entrepreneurs Can’t Treat AI as an Experiment Anymore", we talked about how AI crossed into the business mainstream. Now it’s time for the harder question: why do so many implementations stall, underperform, or quietly fail? In this episode of 10 Minute Tech Talks, we talk to Justine Kasznica and Chris Farmakis of Babst Calland to get into the real blockers, from data quality and security risks to leadership missteps and workforce anxiety — and what smart organizations are doing to...
info_outline
Why Tech Entrepreneurs Can’t Treat AI as an Experiment Anymore
10-Minute Tech Talks: Business Insights and Growth Hacks for Time-Crunched Entrepreneurs
When did AI stop being a fun experiment… and start becoming table stakes for running a business? In just a year, AI has gone from “interesting” to essential. But while nearly every company is talking about it, only a fraction are actually seeing real returns. In this episode of 10 Minute Tech Talks, you’ll hear from Justine Kasznica and Chris Farmakis of Babst Calland on why AI adoption has exploded, what’s driving CFOs a little crazy right now, and how the companies getting it right are separating themselves from the pack. This is the moment AI stopped being optional, and became...
info_outline
Why Every Tech Entrepreneur Needs to Rethink 5G Connectivity in 2026
10-Minute Tech Talks: Business Insights and Growth Hacks for Time-Crunched Entrepreneurs
What if the next breakout startup isn’t powered by better software… but by better connectivity? Today’s 10 Minute Tech Talk is all about removing the invisible limits that hold entrepreneurs back. We are joined by Jay Noschese from T-Mobile for Business, and this conversation flips the script on how founders should think about 5G. We’re not talking faster phones. We’re talking about new business models, new customer experiences, and entire industries being reshaped because connectivity can now be customized, optimized, and trusted for mission-critical work. Hit PLAY, and you’ll...
info_outlineWhat does it really take to build a tech startup from scratch — not in Silicon Valley, but in Pittsburgh — and grow it into a company that just landed $10.6 million in growth capital?
On this episode of 10 Minute Tech Talks, we sit down with Alison Alvarez and Tomer Borenstein, the co-founders of BlastPoint, a Pittsburgh-based AI company that’s spent nearly a decade perfecting how data can drive smarter business decisions. Their story is one of grit, patience, and the power of building something meaningful over time.
You’ll hear how Alison and Tomer:
- Turned a class project at Carnegie Mellon into a national AI success story, powered by sheer determination (and a few late nights with chickens watching from the windowsill).
- Balanced day jobs, family, and startup dreams for years before finally jumping in full-time — a masterclass in sustainable entrepreneurship.
- Navigated Pittsburgh’s unique startup ecosystem, proving that community support and local roots can be just as powerful as coastal capital.
As Alison puts it, “Starting a company is like chasing a crazy dream — but if we hadn’t done it, BlastPoint wouldn’t exist.”
Their reflections on resilience, growth, and staying grounded in Pittsburgh’s tech scene make this episode a must-listen for any entrepreneur who’s ever wondered if it’s still possible to build something great the hard way — with integrity, perseverance, and a love for where you live.
Hit PLAY now to hear how two tech entrepreneurs turned persistence into progress — and why their best chapters are just beginning. Listen to their entire interview on TechVibe Radio here.
This is a podcast for tech and manufacturing entrepreneurs exploring the tech ecosystem, from cyber security and AI to SaaS, robotics, and life sciences, featuring insights to satisfy the tech curious.