"Dare to Disrupt" is a podcast from Invent Penn State about Penn State alumni who are innovators, entrepreneurs and leaders, and the stories behind their success.
The podcast is hosted by alumnus Ryan Newman, a graduate of the Smeal College of Business and a Schreyer Scholar alumnus who is now a managing director at Goldman Sachs.
In the fourth episode, Newman interviews Bruce Aronow, a 1987 Smeal College of Business graduate. He describes how he went from being a “middle of the pack” high school student to a 4.0 Penn State graduate who founded eLocal, a performance-based advertising company at the forefront of a changing industry.
He discusses how his strong work ethic, developed as a student at Penn State, pushed him to succeed in his accounting career at PricewaterhouseCoopers right out of college. At the height of his career, he felt the entrepreneurial itch to do something different and decided to plunge into the startup world with his brother. They founded eLocal, an advertising company with the mission to connect consumers to local businesses, which became one of the leading performance-based advertising platforms in the US and was acquired by HomeServe in 2019.
Listen to this interview to learn more about Bruce Aronow’s journey.
At the end of each "Dare to Disrupt" episode, a current Penn State student is given the opportunity to speak with the successful Penn State alumnus and ask questions specific to the student’s startup and career goals. In Episode 4, Jake Grim, a senior studying business administration and founder of Table Rock Markets, which bridges the gap between farmers and digital business by directly linking consumers with local producers, joins the episode to talk to Aronow about how to pivot a business and get through times of doubt as a startup founder.
Students can apply or be nominated to be on the show here.
Past episodes of "Dare to Disrupt" include interviews with Matt Brezina, Mo Bhende and Jess Weiner.
New episodes of "Dare to Disrupt" release monthly. Learn more at invent.psu.edu/dare-to-disrupt and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Play.
Invent Penn State is a commonwealth-wide initiative to spur economic development, job creation and student career success.