Today, I had the pleasure of meeting with two business professionals here in Pittsburgh. The first one was for a lunch meeting with Joe Pietropola, who used to work at DICK’S Sporting Goods, but now is a full time EIR and teacher. He talked about his experiences in different fields of work as he held various titles such as Senior Vice President eCommerce, Vice President Of Product Management, and Divisional Merchandise Manager in Fitness & Bikes. One of the things I found interesting was his different job positions. One of the first jobs he worked at, he was younger in age but had seniority over other people in his job. This was an interesting time in his life and reminded me of our trip to Carrigart. We are students traveling as educational tourists who are trying to learn about the seaside town of Carrigart. Our experience is unique as we are presenting to the locals about their hometown, so it is a fine line between helpful suggestions to improve aspects of their town and patronizing them. Joe also talked about his fast innovation when COVID-19 hit. He quickly implemented a car pick up system for people to order online and call the store they are at, before developing an app shortly after. His business endeavors and constant innovations are really inspiring and I’m glad I got the chance to meet him today!
Later today, we visited Chef Nima Sherpa, the owner of Grapow for dinner. Chef Sherpa is originally from Nepal and went into finance, but after having an office job, he realized constantly moving and interacting with people was his passion. Aside from the amazing food, it was fascinating to learn about Chef Sherpa’s business. His restaurant has only been up and running for about a year and is currently facing a shortage of customers during the summer months when there are less students from CMU that come to get food. This is almost the reverse of Carrigart Ireland, as they have tourists in the summer, but not winter months. Mr. Sherpa has a lot of ideas on how to improve his marketing for next year by painting a mural in the vacant space on the side of their restaurant, partnering with influencers to promote their food, and also accepting panther funds to appeal to Pitt students.
