JUNE 2021 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 23
PRESS BUSINESS
PANDEMIC ENTREPRENEURS BUILD BIZ FROM PICKS TO PERSONAL TRAINING FROM THE ASHES L. to R.: Michael DePietro, chairman & CEO of Acoustik Attak, Inc. (Photo by Darlene Santiago DePietro) and Pulse by Julie D founder Julie Dermer. (Photo by Matteo Photography)
BY CLAUDE SOLNIK
Michael DePietro played a few riffs on his Gibson guitar one recent afternoon as the sound
coursed through a Supro Black Magick reverb amp, first with the help of a traditional pick and
then with a premium pick his company makes.
“These picks brighten the tone that you get,” DePietro, a 46-year-old Manhasset resident,
said. “And they add a little percussive effect.”
DePietro, CEO of Karate Combat, a professional sports league, and Mark Labbe, the company’s
chief technology officer, joined forces during the pandemic to launch Acoustik Attak, a new
company that makes ridged, not flat, guitar picks.
“It really brings this brightness and this aura to my reverb amp when I play on my Gibson,”
DePietro said. “If you can change the tone at your fingertips, that’s when the art gets conveyed
in the music.”
While the pandemic may be a tough time for longstanding businesses and startups,
DePietro is among a plethora of entrepreneurs who started businesses even as
Covid-19 complicated nearly everything. WHAT’S INSIDE continued on page 24
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