pittsburgh-startup
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The Robot That Picks a Tomato Better Than You Can
Two Pitt engineers spent months living in greenhouses to learn why picking a tomato is so hard for a machine. Their answer, the GR-100, now harvests faster than the humans it works alongside.
The Recipe App That Wants to Pay the People Who Actually Cook
Bill and Hayley Staley spent a decade turning a Paleo food blog into cookbooks and a spice line. Now they are building the marketplace they wish they'd had - one where creators, brands and home cooks all get a cut of the table.
The Recruiter Who Went Rogue for Women in the C-Suite
Tracy Saunders spent two decades placing executives for Google, Amazon and Cisco. Then she flipped the model - and built a discreet network that gets senior women hired, paid and promoted without the noise.
RoadRunner
RoadRunner (RoadRunner Modern Waste + Recycling) is a Pittsburgh-based, technology-driven waste and recycling company that helps commercial and enterprise businesses cut costs, divert more material from landfills and report on their environmental impact. Founded in 2014 by Graham Rihn, it pairs a managed-services model with proprietary software and AI-powered smart cameras (via its 2022 acquisition of Compology) to meter, monitor and optimize waste streams. The company serves 14,000+ customers across all 50 states and has raised roughly $150M in venture funding.
Profitmind
Profitmind (operated by Netail, Inc.) is a Pittsburgh-based retail decision-intelligence company that builds agentic AI to help merchandising teams make faster, more profitable pricing, assortment, inventory, promotion, and marketing decisions. Founded by retail veteran Dr. Mark Chrystal and incubated inside Andrew Ng's AI Fund/Landing AI ecosystem, its platform unifies a retailer's strategy, internal data, and external competitive signals into prioritized, explainable recommendations - serving retailers from $20M to $100B in revenue across three continents.