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The Swartz Center Hosts CMU Energy Week Reception
Carnegie Mellon University held its annual Energy Week event on campus March 25-27, 2025. This year's event, which tackled balancing sustainability goals with AI, began with Investor Day on Tuesday, AI & Energy on Wednesday and ended with Student Day on Thursday.
The Energy and Cleantech Networking reception was held at the CMU Swartz Center on
Tuesday, March 25.
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| New Scott Institute Award Boosts Entrepreneurship
The Scott Institute for Energy Innovation has launched its new entrepreneurship award to grow the Carnegie Mellon energy and climate startup community, making it easier to translate CMU cleantech innovations from research to the market. The inaugural winners come from disciplines such as business, robotics, and architecture and include faculty, master’s students and Ph.D. students.
Among the recipients are (in order of the image):
Waku Ken-Opurum, Ph.D. student, Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics,
School of Architecture
Ruben Quesada, Tepper School of Business MBA candidate, CEO and co-founder of Sabana and a 2024-26 James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellow
TJ Thomas, a Ph.D. student in mechanical engineering
Howie Choset, the Kavcic-Moura Professor of Computer Science
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| The Swartz Center Hosts Final Family Business
Leadership Speaker Series Talk for 2025
The final Family Business Leadership Speaker Series for 2025 was held at the Swartz Center on Friday, March 21 with special guest, Kristy Knichel, President and CEO of Knichel Logistics in Pittsburgh.
Kristy, a logistics industry leader, has a $100M dollar business under her belt and it continues to grow. She shared her incredible journey during the noon discussion, which was moderated by CMU MS Integrated Product Development student, Praneetha Pratapa. The event was in partnership with CMU's Engineering Design, Innovation and Entrepreneurship group (EDIE) directed by Distinguished Service Professor Mark Sanders, with the hope of encouraging more women in CMU's College of Engineering to consider leadership and entrepreneurial roles in heavy industry.
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Refiberd Named U.S. Winner of eBay x Council of
Fashion Designers of America
Refiberd, co-founded by CEO Sarika Bajaj, was recently named the U.S. winner of the eBay x Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Circular Fashion Fund. The winners were announced at an in-person pitch and final celebration with other businesses and a network of sustainability and fashion leaders in NYC. Also a 2020 VentureBridge participant, Refiberd empowers the fashion industry to achieve true circularity using hyperspectral imaging to ensure efficient and accurate sorting of textiles for recycling applications.
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| Nimble Among Fast Company's Ten Most Innovative Logistics Companies of 2025
According to Fast Company, consumers continue to amplify the e-commerce boom, pushing retailers, carriers and warehouses to find new technologies and platforms to meet demand while mitigating losses. Many of the top logistics companies this year met the moment by embracing breakthroughs in machine learning and automation, retooling their offerings with incredible prescience. Nimble, a startup that landed a $106M investment from FedEx last fall and is founded by Carnegie Mellon University alumnus Simon Kalouche, deploys fully autonomous warehouses that reduce the typical cost of picking, packing and sorting orders by 40%.
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| Tepper MBA Emily Torrealba Seeks Head of Engineering
for her Startup, Coachify
Emily Torrealba, '25 STEM, Tepper MBA and James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellow, is the founder of Coachify, an early-stage AI startup that empowers women through personalized coaching. She is seeking a technical lead to help build the company's platform from the ground up.
If you're passionate about AI, startups and making an impact and have experience in AI/ML, full-stack development, and cloud architecture (AWS, Firebase), connect with Emily at etorreal@andrew.cmu.edu.
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CMU Startup Agilow Hiring Cofounders!
Agilow, founded by Tepper School of Business MBA and James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellow Shiv Panjwani, is the world’s first voice driven project management platform created for Agile teams. The company's bot, Agilow, is the scrum master agent for your team. It updates your backlog, partakes in your agile ceremonies, retrieves information as requested and allows agile leaders to do what they enjoy most— nurturing their teams and facilitating human interactions.
Agilow has released its v0.1 Demo. Watch the video to find out more and learn how to join as a founding team member. The company is currently recruiting cofounders, advisors and exploring accelerators.
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| Help for a CMU Startup - Lint Scout
CMU student Parth Nagraj would like your help with his startup, Lint Scout, a smart sensor that detects lint buildup in dryer vents to help prevent house fires and improve efficiency. Parth would like your input to help shape this innovation. Please complete the survey here.
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Register for the Next Funders & Founders Talk!
Date: Friday, April 4!
Time: 12:30 PM ET
Location: CMU Swartz Center
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Corporate Startup Lab Presents Agent AI: Reimagining Work!
Date: Wednesday, April 23, 2025
Time: 1-7 PM | ET
Location: Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship, Tepper Quad, 3rd Floor
We are on the brink of a seismic shift in the way businesses operate, innovate and compete. With 2025 already shaping up to be the year of agent-based AI, the time to understand AI agents, differentiate the hype vs reality and harness its potential is now. Understanding AI agents, their capabilities and limitations, how they’re being used today is critical for any executive, entrepreneur and investor.
Join CSL, in partnership with Deloitte Consulting LLP, for AgentAI: Reimagining Work—a high-impact event exploring the transformative role of AI agents across industries.
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| Apply to the VentureBridge 2025 Accelerator by March 31!
Are you a CMU alumni working on a startup? Apply to the CMU VentureBridge 2025 accelerator in Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and New York for funding, 1:1 support, founder roundtables, weekly talks with VCs and introductions to mentors and advisors.
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CMU Pittsburgh Alumni Founders!
Apply to the Tartan Entrepreneurs Fund by April 11
CMU Alumni Founders based in Pittsburgh building startups with unicorn potential, apply to the CMU Swartz Center's new Tartan Entrepreneurs Fund to receive $100K in funding over 2 years along with mentorship and guidance. Apply by April 11, 2025 to be considered.
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CMU Student Founders!
Apply to the Gebhardt Sandbox Fund by March 31
The CMU Swartz Center is proud to announce the Gebhardt Sandbox Fund. Current Carnegie Mellon University undergraduate and professional master student founders are eligible to apply to this new fund and receive idea stage funding of $1K with opportunities for follow-on funding.
Applications will be open through March 31, 2025.
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Apply to the 2025-2026 Innovation Commercialization Fellows Program by March 31!
The CMU Swartz Center has opened applications for the next cohort of Innovation Commercialization Fellows. This is an exciting opportunity for CMU graduate students and postdoctoral fellows working with faculty investigators who are interested in driving the commercialization efforts for their Carnegie Mellon University research-based startups. Previous Fellows have collectively received nearly $70M in follow-on funding for their ventures.
Innovation Commercialization Fellows is a year-long program beginning July 1, 2025. Along with cohort-based educational opportunities and expert one-on-one mentoring, Fellows will receive a $50K contribution from the Swartz Center, contingent on a $50K match from another source, to support them while they explore the commercialization process.
Register for the next virtual information session on Monday, March 24 at 10:00 am ET.
Applications are due by Monday, March 31, 2025 at 12am ET. Send questions to Melanie Simko.
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|  | 2024-26 Innovation Scholars at Google Vetnures during the 2025 Entrepreneurship Trek
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| CMU Undergraduate Students!
Apply to the Innovation Scholars Program by April 5
The undergraduate Innovation Scholars program, open to rising juniors in any program at CMU, fosters innovation and entrepreneurship and seeks to increase the number of successful startup companies initiated by or involving Carnegie Mellon University’s undergraduate students. Innovation Scholars complete a two-year program integrating academic coursework, work experience at a startup company, networking and mentorship—given as well as received. Students are also eligible for a $6K stipend to work on their own startup over the summer of 2025.
Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until Saturday, April 5 at 11:59 PM ET. Due to the competitive nature of the program, early applications are encouraged.
Open to CMU sophomores going into their junior year.
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| Apply by March 31 for the NSF I-Corps
AI/Robotics Regional Cohort!
This special AI/Robotics focused NSF I-Corps Regional cohort is run by the CMU Swartz Center's Project Olympus and the Mid-Atlantic I-Corps Hub. The program is open to deep tech research and academic based teams/entrepreneurs who are looking into commercializing innovations in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. The cohort will integrate industry specific guidance and expertise for AI/Robotics with traditional I-Corps Training. All sessions are virtual and in eastern time.
Session 1: April 11th, 9am-12pm
Session 2: April 18th, 9am-12pm
Session 3: April 25th, 9am-12pm
The deadline to apply is March 31. Apply early, space is limited!
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| CONNECTS/START SMART LAW SEMINARS
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| Can't make a CONNECTS? Watch on our YouTube channel.
See the full schedule and register for ALL of the seminars here!
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|  4/3
REGISTER
CONNECTS: Digital Health and Healthcare Technology (Nick Shapiro, Principal, UPMC Enterprises)
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START SMART LAW SEMINARS (Virtual)
4/3
REGISTER
Startups vs. Investors: How to Structure your Capital Raise Part II: Negotiating the Term
Sheet Workshop
4/17
REGISTER
The Worst Mistakes Made by Startups
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The mission of 99 Tartans is to partner with the highest potential, early-stage CMU alumni companies and accelerate their success through access to capital and networks. Find out more.
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CMU ENTREPRENEURSHIP CLUBS
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| Click the images to see upcoming Club events!
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CMU T&E Bay Area: Founder's Salon!
Date: Wednesday, April 9
Time: 5:30 - 8:00 PM PDT
Location: Rho House
Join us for an exclusive Founders' Salon hosted by CMU Tech & Entrepreneurship and Rho, a leading financial services provider for startups. This intimate gathering at the Rho House will bring together founders from all stages for meaningful conversations, networking, and insights.
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Big News: We’re Moving to Substack!
Starting April 2025, the CMU T&E is transitioning from Mailchimp to Substack for their primary newsletter!
You can expect a welcome email—if you don’t receive it, you can manually subscribe at cmutechentrepreneur.substack.com.
We’re excited for this next chapter—see you there!
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| The CMU Tech & Entrepreneurship group aims to build a bridge between CMU students and alumni across the startup and tech continuum. With main chapters in NYC, Pittsburgh, and SF, we offer a range of in-person and online events and programming in the form of panels, workshops, founder/investor engagements, startup support, and socials to foster collaboration, innovation, and networking opportunities.
Join 7,000+ Tartans on our Slack workspace and mailing list for resources and updates on how you can engage in the community and CMU entrepreneurial ecosystem. Find out more and get involved!
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The following companies help directly support our programming and entrepreneurs.
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| Pillsbury and Steptoe & Johnson, PLLC are holding office hours for the CMU Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship. The office hours are for any interested CMU graduate, undergraduate or alumni interested in entrepreneurship or connecting with members of the Swartz Center network.
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Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
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Legal Services Weekly Virtual Office Hours with Matt Kirmayer
Mondays 1:00-3:00 PM ET (10-12 PT)
Matt Kirmayer of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, is offering office hours for newly established startup and emerging companies. Matt specializes in representing technology startups and emerging growth companies, assisting with entity formation, fundraising and overall growth needs. Startup companies with a founder who is a CMU graduate, undergraduate or alumni is eligible to register for
an appointment. Complete the Signup Form for a 30 minute session by the Thursday prior to your
desired appointment.
Contact Daria Stokes or Sean Mawhinney for office hours outside of these regular hours.
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Steptoe & Johnson PLLC
Steptoe & Johnson PLLC is a multi-jurisdictional, full-service law firm that takes a progressive approach to providing counsel at each stage of a client’s life cycle. Our dedicated team works closely with our clients to form entities, advise on the most advantageous entity type, and design and negotiate joint ventures and mergers and acquisitions. If a client has a dispute, Steptoe & Johnson has a team of business and product liability litigators and labor and employment lawyers to guide clients through these often stressful and disruptive situations.
Steptoe & Johnson brings a strong skillset for data privacy, cyber security and intellectual property matters which are frequent concerns for startups and technology companies. We offer competitive and flexible rates and aim to provide value to our clients.
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HOW TO WORK OUT OF THE SWARTZ CENTER
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Swartz Center Education and Resources
No matter what phase of the entrepreneurship cycle you're in, there are programs and resources at the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship that will take your idea to the next level. Find out more.
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Project Olympus Incubator Program
Want more help with finding product/market fit, developing your business model, making connections and attracting funding? Project Olympus will team you up with a business coach to develop a personalized ‘roadmap. Find out more.
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COMMUNITY OPPORTUNITIES/RESOURCES
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FIND OUT WHAT OUR PARTNERS ARE DOING
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Have startup news or opportunities to share? Have questions about the Swartz Center Weekly Bulletin? Send news, opportunities or questions to Sonya Ford, Program Manager.
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Carnegie Mellon University Swartz Center For Entrepreneurship
5000 Forbes Avenue | Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890 |
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