Somewhat Frank - By Frank Gruber

#0007 – Innovation Opportunity on the USAF Fixed Wing Helmet Through AFWERX

Innovating at a large corporation or at a government agency can be difficult. It means doing things differently, introducing new concepts and embracing failure. The larger you are, the harder it can be to change the way you do things – even if it’s for the better. To combat that, the U.S. Air Force decided to create a new program dedicated to solving some of the toughest problems it faces via collaborations between the nation’s top intrapreneurs, industry experts, academic professionals, entrepreneurs, and non-traditional contributors. It’s called AFWERX.

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#0006 – 99 Problems and a Perfect Shoe is One, with special guests Think Global

When you travel, especially by air, you have to make some tough packing choices. Usually my hardest decisions come down to which shoes I’ll bring – because you can’t bring them all, and they take up a ton of space in my carry on bag. When picking the perfect shoe or shoes to pack you have to weigh such factors as weather, length of trip, purpose of the trip, and travel destination.

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#0005 – Tackling Chronic Pain & Social Media Overload with Jason Shellen

Over the past couple weeks (and I’m sure many others) I have had to fight the urge to send out tweets expressing my opinions on the latest happenings. While I support “freedom of speech” some of these tweets may have been offensive, so I went with the age-old saying:

“If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”

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#0004 – How to Blaze Your Own Path with Tony Hawk supported by Chase Ink

As a kid growing up in the rural Midwest surrounded by cornfields, I was well supplied with lumber and the tools necessary to create things with that lumber. So, as soon as I saw Marty McFly in Back to the Future turn a handmade wooden scooter into a skateboard, I was hell-bent on creating my own skateboard by hand. I spent countless weekends carving a 1×6 board into the right shape for a skateboard and hours searching for the right rollerskate to disassemble and add to the bottom of my platform. It didn’t quite work as expected. I was not a very good skateboard maker or skateboarder, but I enjoyed the process and created my own product from scratch with “Skate or Die” as my battle cry.

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#0003 – Let’s Save Amazon Reviews ft. Matt Hirschmann

Sometimes I feel like we are living in a Neal Stephenson novel with companies like Amazon making it’s so darn easy to flip through their app on your phone, ordering whatever you need and having it arrive almost instantly (or at least within a few hours). It’s amazing. Remember, it was not too long ago that you’d have to run from store to store searching for an item! Now your “wild goose chases” can happen right from your glowing 4 inch screen. That said, when I’m shopping and there are a bunch of similar products out there I find myself relying heavily on reviews as my guide to finding the best product. I’ve spent hours looking at reviews and deliberating.

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#0002 – The Exception Not The Rule ft. Lakshmi Shenoy

Sunshine and beaches might be first thing you think of when you think of the Tampa Bay, Florida region. And rightly so, it’s gorgeous and has a handful of the top beaches in the country if not the world. But there’s more than crystal clear ocean water in the upcoming startup community.

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#0001 – Serious Siri Opportunity ft. Jen Consalvo and Joe Corbett

Have you ever asked Apple’s Siri for a hand with something only to find yourself doing more work to try to get what you’re looking for? We’ve all have been there.

On this episode of Somewhat Frank, host Frank Gruber sits down over breakfast in Tampa Bay, Florida with the Established team of Jen Consalvo and Joe Corbett to discuss the serious Apple’s Siri and how it works or sometimes doesn’t work the way we all expected.

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