Hi all! My name is Matt Feinberg, a junior Marketing and Supply Chain major from Westfield, New Jersey. Coming from a small town in Northern New Jersey, I found myself always in search of the next best slice of New York-style pizza or a bacon, egg, and cheese on a toasted bagel. New Jersey was and always will be my true home but with such proximity to New York, the Big Apple was always a second home to me. With family and friends residing in Manhattan and Brooklyn, I found myself on a train destined for New York Penn Station at least once or twice a month during my teenage years. New York is a special place that aided in my growth and development as a teenager and young, adventurous businessman.

Something not many people know or would guess about me is that I own and operate a company that I founded in 2014. Buying and selling sneakers was never a hobby or business I pictured myself ever becoming involved in but thanks to a few friends from middle school, I was pushed to launch a business buying, selling, and trading sneakers. Six years later, I have traveled as near as my New Jersey neighbors’ front steps and as far as Guangzhou, China to network, grow and expand my business operations. In addition to running my own business, I have a full-time consulting job advising and strategizing for Sneaker Con, an event-based, sneaker trade show company with a growing online digital sneaker marketplace. A workplace job as such has allowed me to become comfortable communicating and interacting within a workplace environment which translates and relates directly back to course material and the ultimate objectives for Possehl and International Consulting Projects tasks. Pitt has enabled me to take knowledge from the classroom and apply it to the business that has aided me to grow as a businessman and entrepreneur. Pitt’s ability to have students learn in the classroom and then apply and test their knowledge in real-world situations was something extremely desirable that I was looking for when choosing a university.

Within the classroom, I am a driven student that enjoys gaining knowledge regarding various topics to then take in-class learning and be able to apply that towards hands-on (well now virtual) real-world projects. I am a strong and involved student that has a natural drive for learning and growth in and outside of the classroom. The University of Pittsburgh was the first school that delivered an acceptance letter to my New Jersey residence mailbox; the rest is history. The smile on my face, which was made up of happiness and a large relief of stress, was from ear to ear. I was only truly interested in attending a school in a city; after spending my first eighteen years in such proximity to New York City, I became dependent on the hustle and bustle environment a city offers. While Pittsburgh offers a city-like environment, it was a scale down from the enormous skyscrapers, yellow taxis, and 24/7 noise and lights in New York. Pitt offers a sense of neighborhood and community while engulfed in a city, an environment that was extremely desirable to continue my higher education.

The opportunity to work with a young startup, Possehl Online Solutions, a German-born company part of a larger conglomerate of companies across several industries is definitely a rare and exclusive offering not many young college students typically have access to in their undergraduate studies. Coming into Pitt Business, the one goal I had set for myself was to complete our slogan From the Classroom, To the City, To the World. After completing the consulting project at the end of the semester, I will have achieved this goal of branching out into the world of business and have completed an international consulting project for a German start-up firm with a group of classmates perusing similar aspirations as myself.

One of the main reasons why I wanted to be a part of this project was to put my learning and knowledge to the test. As of now, I am not too sure where I want to guide my career. I have strong interests in consulting, event and talent management, and supply chain logistics. With the ability to work with a new and exciting startup company on a consulting project, I am eager to hit the ground running and begin to get a grasp of what it is like working on real projects with real clients, deliverables, and timelines. Possehl Online Solutions is a startup company in Germany that thrives in optimizing B2B logistics for companies both within their larger conglomerate and also with outside clients. After our introductory meeting with fellows over at the University of Augsburg, our team learned that Germany is a manufacturing hub consisting of hidden champion companies that are dominant within the manufacturing industry. The Possehl conglomerate has a large competitive advantage due to its deep and rich industry knowledge, allowing for Possehl Online Solutions to optimize that advantage and aid companies in transforming their online business presence and marketplaces. Personally, I am stoked to be a part of this unique opportunity and be able to have a large impact on the future of Possehl and its success. I have already begun to network with my fellow team members and also with our clients at Possehl to turn the wheels on this project. I am extremely eager to meet and speak with Possehl Online Solutions CEO Alexander Wachter in addition to learning more about him, his team, and his aspirations and goals over the near future for Possehl Online Solutions. Our main objectives as consultants to the company are to determine what countries and other firms should be targeted to bring onboard Possehl, determine how to effectively market Possehl Online Solutions against its competition, and determine the optimal strategies for the company to pursue. At the end of the day, I am honored to be a part of this unique opportunity and have the ability to step into the consulting world with a fresh start-up company like Possehl. I am eager to put my classroom knowledge and acquired skills to the test and ultimately aid in producing solid and meaningful deliverables for our team and alongside Possehl Online Solutions.