Industry Dive co-founders Sean Griffey, Ryan Willumson on 'Dare to Disrupt' | Penn State University
The latest episode of Invent Penn State’s Dare to Disrupt podcast features Industry Dive co-founders and Penn State alumni Ryan Willumson and Sean Griffey. Industry Dive is a digital media company delivering business news and original analysis through targeted newsletters. Credit: Provided by Sean Griffey and Ryan Willumson. All Rights Reserved.
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The latest episode of Invent Penn State’s "Dare to Disrupt" podcast features Industry Dive co-founders and Penn State alumni Ryan Willumson and Sean Griffey. Industry Dive is a digital media company delivering business news and original analysis through targeted newsletters. Covering sectors like healthcare, energy, transportation, retail, and more, Industry Dive serves over 14 million North American users and partners with major clients including Amazon, Salesforce, Uber, IBM, and American Express.
In this episode, Willumson and Griffey discuss how they met while working at FierceMarkets, a B2B e-media startup, and what inspired them to launch Industry Dive. They share how they bootstrapped the company, built a loyal audience, and grew the business to $100 million in revenue before its acquisition by Informa in September 2022.
“There were three of us on the day we launched, and we launched five publications,” Griffey said on the podcast. “The idea was that, they’re not going to be good on day one, but the trap we saw a lot of people fall into was, we’ll launch one publication and as soon as it’s great, we’ll launch the second one. But then people never get out to launch the second one because the first one is never good enough.”
Griffey graduated from the Penn State Smeal College of Business with a bachelor's degree in economics and received an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.
Willumson graduated from the Smeal College of Business with a bachelor's degree in finance and international business.
Listen to Willumson and Griffey's story on "Dare to Disrupt."
Later in the episode, Lucy Bickel — an incoming senior majoring in advertising with minors in entrepreneurship and innovation: new ventures and digital media trends and analytics — joins the conversation. Bickel, Griffey and Willumson explore how Industry Dive developed its code of ethics, its approach to advertising, and the secret behind the co-founders' enduring relationship.
Students interested in being featured on the show can apply or be nominated.
"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.
Past episodes include interviews with Garry Gilliam, David Rusenko and Jess Weiner. New episodes are released monthly. Subscribe on YouTube Music, Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Invent Penn State is a commonwealth-wide initiative to spur economic development, job creation and student career success.
The "Dare to Disrupt" podcast is made possible by the support of the Penn State Smeal College of Business.
