
Dare to Disrupt
This podcast is about Penn State alumni who are innovators, entrepreneurs, and leaders, and the stories behind their success.
Latest episodes

Oct 24, 2022 • 52min
Empowering Patients with Ro Founder Rob Schutz
Rob Schutz is the Chief Growth Officer and Co-founder of Ro, a direct-to-patient healthcare company providing high-quality, affordable healthcare without the need for insurance. Rob guides Ro's growth, marketing and communications functions to tell Ro’s story of putting patients in control of their health. He applies his extensive experience in consumer marketing to ensure Ro is resonating with patients by directly addressing their healthcare concerns. Under Rob’s leadership, these functions have helped propel Ro into one of the fastest growing companies in the country, achieving unicorn status in 2020. Rob earned his B.S. in Management Information Systems from Penn State University.

Sep 22, 2022 • 55min
Rejecting the Label of Disabled with Susan Robinson
Susan Robinson is a speaker, consultant and leader making an impact on the world in a truly unique way. Through her corporate and conference keynote, commencement addresses, workshops, client initiatives and writing, she masterfully blends over 25 years of multi-sector leadership with her experiences being legally blind to shift thinking, elevate potential and inspire action. She has worked with global firms and Fortune 500 companies, top not-for-profit organizations, leading universities and the United Nations. She presented a TED Talk in 2017 entitled “How I Fail at Being Disabled,” which has over 1.5M views.

Aug 25, 2022 • 35min
Innovating the Environmental Insurance Business with David Rosenberg
David Rosenberg is the former Executive Vice President and Principal at Environmental Compliance Services (ECS). David and his two partners grew ECS from a small 12 person, $5 million in annual written premium agency to a 500 person, $200 million in annual written premium agency and a leader in the environmental insurance business. ECS was sold to XL Capital Inc., a publicly held company in 1999.

Jul 26, 2022 • 54min
On the Forefront of Digital Advertising with Infolinks Media CEO Robert Regular
Robert is a serial technology and media entrepreneur with 25 years of experience in digital media and marketing. Robert received his bachelor's degree in communications and business from Penn State.

Jun 27, 2022 • 52min
Gaming your Health with Litesprite Founder Swatee Surve
Swatee Surve is the founder of Litesprite. She received her MSME in Control Systems and Biomechanics from Penn State.

May 31, 2022 • 50min
Revolutionizing the Real Estate Industry with Sean Black
In this episode of Dare to Disrupt, we speak with Sean Black, the Co-founder & CEO of Knock.com, and part of the founding team for the online real estate marketplace site Trulia.

Apr 25, 2022 • 46min
Disrupting the Mattress Industry with JT Marino
In this episode of Dare to Disrupt, JT Marino describes how he and his co-founder determined all the pain points of buying a mattress to create their customer-first, mattress-in-a-box solution called Tuft & Needle, which they grew to over $250M in sales.

Mar 28, 2022 • 37min
Building Weebly with Founder David Rusenko
In this episode of Dare to Disrupt, we speak with David Rusenko, the Head of eCommerce at Square and founder of Weebly, which was acquired by Square in 2018 for $365M. He graduated from Penn State in 2007 with a degree in Information Sciences & Technology.

Mar 7, 2022 • 45min
Connecting Consumers and Local Businesses with Bruce Aronow
In this episode of the Dare to Disrupt podcast, Penn State Smeal College of Business alum Bruce Aronow shares how he built eLocal, a leading performance-based advertising company.

Nov 29, 2021 • 49min
Shaping Cultural Change with Jess Weiner
Jess Weiner is a cultural expert and creative who has spent 26 years researching and educating on cultural trends in order to help people feel seen, heard + understood. She is a bestselling author, podcast host and speaker who has connected with audiences from the White House to Wall Street. In this episode, Jess discusses […]