Going Deep with Aaron Watson – Details, episodes & analysis

I love meeting people who beat the odds. Anthony Vennare was supposed to be a “dumb jock”. He wasn’t supposed to open a gym and find profitability within 2 months. He wasn’t supposed to raise millions of dollars to get more people working out. He wasn’t supposed to sign deals with massive healthcare companies and turn the world of digital content writing on its head.

Luckily, no one told him.

Today, Anthony is the co-founder and CEO of Fitt – a media and technology company that connects people to local health and fitness activities. They’ve got big plans for the future and anyone in the content & branding game needs to study what they’re doing.

I got him for 40 minutes over the weekend and hustled to get this episode out ASAP because it got me so fired up. Hope you enjoy it.

Attend my one-day conference January 27th in Pittsburgh. Learn more here.

Anthony’s Challenge; Leave behind everything in your life that is stuck in the status quo. Write down a plan and execute on one step every month in the new direction.

Resources

Voice Dream

In this episode, Aaron Watson speaks with Dale Copeland  about the likelihood of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. 

Dale Copeland, a professor at the University of Virginia, specializes in trade, war, and economic interdependence. Known for his theory of trade expectations, he explores how future trade expectations shape war and peace, challenging conventional views in works like Economic Interdependence and War.

Copeland argues the risk is lower than some believe, citing military, economic, and geopolitical constraints on Xi Jinping. We explore how trade dependencies shape global security and why China’s economic vulnerabilities serve as a key deterrent.

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Kevin Kelly co-founded Wired magazine in 1993, served as its Executive Editor for its first seven years, and was a pioneer from the early days of the internet. He is an author of several bestselling books and is a return guest on this podcast.

Kevin’s book Excellent Advice for Living is a small book of wisdom, in a pocketable format with 450 tweetable bits of advice that he wished he had known earlier. Kevin was prompted to collect these thoughts after a recent birthday caused him to reflect on which lessons he could pass to his children.

In this episode, Aaron and Kevin talk about aphorisms, why it was important for him to write this book now, and the impact he hopes he has on his family.

Kevin Kelly’s Challenge; Think about how to be a good ancestor. Work on one good thing that you think your future generation will thank you for, or thank your great grandparents for something that they have done that you’re proud and thankful for.

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Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I'd Known Earlier

If you liked this interview, check out our episode about Four Huge Startup Exits w/ Jason Wolfe

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Jonathan Steckbeck is the founder of Peptilogics, a biotechnology platform company that develops best-in-class novel peptide drugs for unmet medical needs. He also has a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics from the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Medicine.

Amongst other problems, his company Peptilogics is focused on developing a new category of antibiotics. It has been 20 years since there was a genuinely new class of antibiotics, yet bacterial cells have continued to evolve and develop into drug-resistant infections.

In this interview, Jonathan and Aaron discuss the founding of Peptilogics, why they’re focused on this new modality of medication, and the FDA approval process.

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Jonathan Steckbeck’s Challenge; If there’s something that you want to do that doesn’t exist, go do it.

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Peptilogics Website

If you liked this interview, check out episode 456 with Pete DeComo where we discuss the long, arduous process of developing a medical device and episode 443 with Blake Dube where we talk about better oxygen tanks.

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Euan Guttridge is the Director of Technical Program Management at Waymo and previously held the same position with Uber’s self-driving car division.

Between these two roles, Euan developed an angel investing syndicate under the banner Reinforced Ventures. The syndicate differentiates itself for the technical proficiency of its limited partners, bringing a fresh perspective to the companies it invests in.

Euan’s portfolio includes a number of past Going Deep podcast guests including; Gridwise, Locomation, UpContent, Fifth Season, Edge Case Research, and Honeycomb Credit. While not geographically exclusive, Reinforced does focus on Pittsburgh because of its over $10 billion of academic research funded and $6.6 billion of private funding in technology over the past decade.

In this conversation, Euan and Aaron discuss a career developing autonomous vehicle technology, how an AngelList syndicate works, and how to do thorough due diligence.

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Euan Guttridge’s Challenge; Follow your curiosity.

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Reinforced Ventures Website

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If you liked this interview, check out some of Euan’s portfolio companies like Locomation’s Çetin Meriçli, Edge Case Research’s Mike Wagner, and Gridwise’s Ryan Green.

Text Me What You Think of This Episode 412-278-7680

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Steve Muck is the CEO of Brayman Construction, a heavy civil and geotechnical contractor that builds bridges, dams, and other large infrastructure. Steve is also the cofounder of construction-related robotics startups TyBot and Advanced Construction Robotics.

Steve has started or acquired twenty businesses and currently operates a portfolio of entities that in construction-related endeavors alone runs approximately $200 million in revenue annually.

Steve acquired the company over 28 years ago in a leveraged buyout and has since acquired a number of companies as he has expanded his business empire. 

In this episode, Steve and Aaron discuss how Steve got started in construction, the company’s ‘Dragon Slayer’ ethos, and how he has upskilled his team in order to escape competition.

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Stephen Muck’s Challenge; Take a risk.

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Brayman Construction Website

If you liked this interview, check out episode 412 with Jake Loosararian where we discuss industrial robotics and raising one of Pittsburgh’s biggest Series A financings.

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Jon Pastor is the SVP for Consumer Solutions at RealPage, a leading global provider of software and data analytics to the real estate industry. RealPage was trading publicly at over $10 billion market capitalization before being taken private by Thoma Bravo.

Jon’s entrepreneurial career started when he cofounder RentJungle with previous guest Geng Wang. That company was acquired in 2014 and Jon chose to stay on and lead the acquiring company as President.

Four years later, that company was acquired by RealPage.

In this conversation, Jon and Aaron discuss the lessons from all these acquisitions, the challenges facing the real estate industry, and the incentives that guide successful organizations.

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Jon Pastor’s Challenge; Create a list of ideas for projects or businesses that you could start. 

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If you liked this interview, check out episode 474 with Geng Wang where we discuss three startups, social enterprise, and where to find motivation.

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Jorge Mazal is the Chief Product Officer for Duolingo. Duolingo is a free language-learning website and mobile app with over 500 million downloads, 40 million monthly active users, and a valuation of over $1 billion.

Jorge previously worked on the product for Zynga, MyFitnessPal, and Kleiner Perkins. Today he blends skills in design, gamification, and leadership to manage a product team that has 10xed in size since he joined the company.

In this episode, Jorge and Aaron discuss how Duolingo makes product decisions, the importance of interpersonal skills, and how Jorge’s background has prepared him to excel in this role.

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Jorge Mazal’s Challenge; Find some time to go help someone, with no expectation of anything in return.

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Duolingo Website

If you liked this interview, check out our conversation with Jason Wolfe where we discuss tech products, leadership, and entrepreneurship.

Text Me What You Think of This Episode 412-278-7680

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Marko Papic leads the strategy team at Clocktower Group, an alternative investments firm. Clocktower offers long-term strategic investment strategies to their clients, investment managers and institutional allocators.

Marko brings his constraints framework, outlined in his book Geopolitical Alpha, to analyzing the geopolitical trends of the day. His ability to accurately forecast major political events has enormous ramifications for portfolios.

In this episode, Marko and Aaron discuss how the future of China-US conflict, Turkey’s geopolitical prospects, and how to break into the geopolitical analysis field.

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Marko Papic’s Challenge; Spend time around people with the opposite political and cultural perspective of you.

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Geopolitical Alpha book

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If you liked this interview, check out our interview with Mike Green where we discuss Bitcoin and index funds.

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Andy Norman is a researcher focused on studying how ideologies short-circuit minds and corrupt moral understanding.

His studies have led him to develop a toolkit of methods for improving reasoning and share them in his book, Mental Immunity.

His hope is that a collection of academic research can be lassoed together to serve as the foundation of a new scientific field, Cognitive Immunology. Cognitive immunology would explore the ability of researchers to develop a mind vaccine to inoculate individuals against dangerous ideas.

In this conversation, Andy and Aaron discuss the dangers of loneliness, the importance of dialogue, and the future of viral ideas.

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Andy Norman’s Challenge; Learn to treat your ideas as houseguests. Perhaps one day they will depart, and you will be glad.

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Andy’s Website

CognitiveImmunology.Net

Books Mentioned

Mental Immunity: Infectious Ideas, Mind-Parasites, and the Search for a Better Way to Think by Andy Norman  

Tribe by Sebastian Junger

The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt

The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins

If you liked this interview, check out episode 472 with Demetri Kofinas where we discuss epistemic truth, geopolitics, and.

Text Me What You Think of This Episode 412-278-7680

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