Our day started with class with Dr. Jones, in which we discussed our upcoming midterm as well as our assignment from the night before. After class, we had a lunch in learn with Joe Pietropola. During this lunch, we learned how Joe Pietropola brings decades of experience in both the corporate world and the startup ecosystem. His professional path is built on strategy, mentorship, and innovation. As an EIR, Joe advises students on multitude of different topics using his deep understanding of market trends, operations, and investment strategies. What makes his journey compelling is his ability to pivot, from working within large organizations, Kaufman’s and Dick’s Sporting Goods, to mentoring smaller, startups as a consultant. His role shows the value of analytical thinking, problem-solving, and long-term planning. He emphasized the importance of developing a clear business model, understanding the competitive landscape, and building strong professional relationships. His story reminds us that business success often stems from preparation, adaptability, and strategic decision-making as well as the ability to make important connections. From Joe we can learn a multitude of different things related to our consulting project in Ireland, but the one main takeaway I got from the conversation was that he found success even when being the boss of people older than him due to the fact that he simply listened and learned from them to make key decisions instead of trying to do what he thinks is best. We can especially use this in Carrigart because we do not know the day to day connections that the business owners know so we should carefully listen to them so we can make recommendations that the town might actually use. This is because we will not be running our idea and istead the business owners will be so they need to have a reason to do them and if it does not suit the town or businesses it is no use to them and we want to make sure we leave them with something useable.

On the other hand, Chef Nima Sherpa’s path is one of passion, resilience, and cultural authenticity. Originally from Nepal, Nima created Grapow to introduce Thai street food to a broader audience, blending culinary art with a strong personal narrative. What’s powerful about his journey is how he turned a personal vision into a growing business, despite the challenges that come with starting something new, especially in a competitive food industry. His approach to entrepreneurship is grounded in heart: he cares deeply about the quality of food, the story behind each dish, and the community he’s serving. Nima’s success illustrates how being genuine and consistent in your mission can resonate with customers and create lasting impact. He creates some of his success to being raised in a hospitality focused community in Nepal near Mount Everest base camp which is a huge tourist destination as well as the connections he makes with customers. We can take his idea of making connections with his customers and turn that into making connections with businesses because Nima said that connects are part of why his business is successful and if the businesses in Carrigart can become connected they can aid each other and make the whole town more successful. All in all both peoples career experience can aid us bys simply showing how there is no right path to your career and that change is ok and something you have to adjust to which goes well beyond our project and is simply just good advice for the future.