Though Pittsburgh is still an emerging tech hub, the founders of some of its leading companies have been at the entrepreneurship game for a while.
To better understand the genealogy of the local startup and tech ecosystem, Technical.ly reached out to InnovatePGH, which recently launched ASTRI — a comprehensive database on just that. Though anyone can use the database to find recent news on local startups, some information, like the number of companies a given founder has launched, are right now only accessible to the InnovatePGH team.
Across a range of industries, founder backgrounds and company stages, below is a small sampling of the serial entrepreneurs behind some of Pittsburgh’s best and brightest tech companies. The good news is that many of them are still in the region today, even if they’ve changed up the work they’re doing.
But this list is by no means comprehensive, and there are certainly many more companies and people to include in a full family tree of Pittsburgh tech. There’s the grandfather of robotics and autonomous vehicles, researcher Red Whittaker, along with the vast number of medical researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC who have helped grow that industry as well. Not to mention the number of companies that have come out of the National Robotics Engineering Center. Still, the following is a glimpse into just how active Pittsburgh’s entrepreneurship scene has become.
Know of more companies and founders we should add to this list? Let us know by sending an email to pittsburgh@technical.ly.
Aurora
- Founders: Chris Urmson, J. Andrew Bagnell, Sterling Anderson, Vadim Savelyev, Sankar Viswanath
- Bagnell is also the cofounder of NavPrescience
Better Work Ventures
- Founders: Lynsie Campbell, Nathaniel Minto
- Campbell is also the founder of LaneSpotter and cofounder of Showclix
- Minto is also the cofounder of New Ambit
Bito Robotics
- Founders: Zhongqiang Ren, Howie Choset
- Choset is also the cofounder of the Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing Institute, cofounder of HEBI Robotics and cofounder of Medrobotics
Carmell Therapeutics
- Founder: James Burgess
- Burgess is also the founder of Surgeoneering
CivicScience
- Founder: John Dick
- Dick is also the founder of GSP Consulting Corporation
Cognition Therapeutics
- Founders: Gilbert M. Rishton, Susan Catalano
- Catalano is now the current chief scientific officer of CODA Biotherapeutics
- Hank Safferstein, former president and CEO of Cognition Therapeutics, is now the current CEO of Generian Pharmaceuticals
Duolingo
- Founders: Severin Hacker, Luis von Ahn
- von Ahn is also the founder of reCAPTCHA
Edge Case Research
- Founders: Philip Koopman, Michael Wagner
- Wagner is also the cofounder of Mesh Robotics and cofounder of 18th Street Innovations
ESTAT Actuation
- Founder: Stuart Diller, Randy Eager, Carmel Majidi
- Eager is also the cofounder of ResTec Solutions, cofounder of Chement, founder of the Founder Institute Pittsburgh, founder of Aqualibrium and cofounder of DesignAdvance Systems
Gridwise
- Founders: Brian Finamore, Ryan Green
- Green is also the cofounder of FXConnection
Idelic
- Founders: Hayden Cardiff, Nick Bartell, Andrew Russell
- Cardiff is also the cofounder of Hyliion and cofounder of Nebulus Audio
IraLogix
- Founders: Joe Hipsky, Lowell Smith, Luis Burgos, Pete Littlejohn, Tim Haluszczak
- Burgos is also the cofounder of SteelBridge Labs, cofounder of Exchangelodge, cofounder of NuMoola, founder of the WinJet Company and founding partner of Advue Technologies
KaliVir Immunotherapeutics
- Founders: Kurt Rote, Stephen Thorne
- Thorne is also the current chief scientific officer at Western Oncolytics
- Rote is also the founder and current CEO of Western Oncolytics
LyGenesis
- Founders: Michael Hufford, Eric Lagasse, Paulo Fontes
- Hufford is also the cofounder of Harm Reduction Therapeutics, cofounder of NQ Oncology, cofounder of e-Nictoine Technology and cofounder of MindApps
Metafy
- Founder: Josh Fabian
- Fabian is also the founder of Kitsu
ModCloth
- Founders: Eric Koger, Susan Gregg Koger, Adil Wali
- Wali is also the founder or Hiiro, founder of FoxCommerce, founder of Crowd Interactive and founder of Merit Foundation
Niche
- Founders: Christina Koshzow, Luke Skurman, Joey Rahimi
- Koshzow is also the cofounder of Branding Brand
- Rahimi is also the cofounder of Branding Brand
Noveome Biotherapeutics
- Founders: George Sing, William Golden
- Golden is also the cofounder of Lancet Capital Health Ventures
OThot
- Founders: Andy Hannah, John Abbatico, Jeremy Garvey
- Hannah is also the cofounder of Plextronics
RoadRunner Recycling
- Founder: Graham Rihn
- Rihm is also the cofounder of Sequoia Waste Solutions and cofounder of YourRooster.com
RobotWits
- Founder: Maxim Likhachev
- Likhachev is also the cofounder of TravelWits
This editorial article is a part of Evolution of a Tech Scene Month of Technical.ly's 2022 editorial calendar.
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