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Join Us Next Week!
September 23–26, 2025
We’re launching something big. Introducing CMU Startup Week—a three-day celebration of entrepreneurship, innovation and the unstoppable energy of the CMU startup ecosystem!
From AI and robotics venture showcases to a startup job fair, tech talks, talent connections and deep tech breakthroughs, this campus-wide extravaganza will bring together students, faculty, founders, investors and innovators from every corner of Carnegie Mellon University.
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More Great Events During CMU Startup Week!
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Tuesday, Septemer 23
PearX Info Session & AMA with Harris Stolzenberg, Pear Partner & Former Founder!
Join us for an info session & AMA with Harris Stolzenberg of Pear VC as he talks about all-things PearX!
PearX is our bespoke accelerator for early stage companies. We keep the batches small (~20 companies) and the quality high. 90% of the last batch raised seed rounds led by top-tier institutional firms, and over a third of the batch hit $1M in revenue by demo day.
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Wednesday, September 24
Unlocking Government Funding for Research Translation
Looking for government funding? Join for a morning of insights and strategies to win federal research funding. The program features a panel on Regional Collaboration & NSF Partnerships—highlighting the CMU–Lehigh NSF ART collaboration and RETI initiative—followed by a hands-on SBIR/STTR workshop with experts and past awardees. Learn how to strengthen proposals to NSF, NIH, and DoD and secure $250K–$1M+ in non-dilutive funding.
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Thursday, September 25
Commercializing Life Sciences Research
Are you an investor or industry partner looking for the next wave of biotech and health tech innovation? Are you working in a lab and wondering how your life sciences research can make a real-world impact? Join faculty, industry leaders, and ecosystem partners as they explore the barriers, IP strategies, and funding opportunities that shape the path from breakthrough research to impactful businesses. Come learn practical frameworks, connect with experts, and discover resources available.
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Agilow Finds New Home at the CMU Swartz Center
Agilow co-founders Shiv Panjwani, 2024-26 James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellow, and Antonio Bojorges, moved into one of the Swartz Center's startup garages this week to continue working on their voice-based management coaching agent. Agilow guides you on common entrepreneurial frameworks (EOS, Lean, 0 to 1, Good to Great) and executes for you using Scrum and Kanban.
Shiv is an aerospace engineer, turned Agile coach and entrepreneur, with a deep belief that management is not about control—it's about culture, clarity and continuous improvement. Shiv is also the founder of Panjwani Consulting Group. Antonio is a product innovator and startup builder who thrives at the intersection of Agile structure and creative disruption. He has co-founded startups to leading product operations at Lyft and Syniti.
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| Clear Solar Joins Techstars Columbus Accelerator Program
Clear Solar, co-founded by Tepper School of Business alumnus and CEO Michael Provenzano, has been accepted into the Techstars Columbus Accelerator Program, powered by the Ohio State University. Last week marked the official start of Clear Solar's journey in the program, one of the world's leading startup accelerators.
Clear Solar aims to solve one of the solar industry’s biggest challenges—soiling losses on solar panels.
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Three CMU Integrated Innovation Institute Alumni
Have Been Rocking the Startup Space
Three CMU Integrated Innovation Institute alumni founders have recently been in the news for their accomplishments with funding, being recognized in Forbes and Vogue Business.
• Sarika Bajaj of Refiberd was recognized as a Tech Innovator in the Vogue Business 100 Innovators Class of 2025 by Vogue Business
• Neha Suresh's startup, April (YC S25), received a mention in Forbes
• Hassan Azmat's startup, Candid Intelligence, completed a $5.5M seed round
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CMU's Caspian Emerges From Stealth With $5.4M
In international trade, one of the best-kept secrets is also the most expensive: over $10B in refundable tariffs goes unclaimed each year. Despite being legally entitled to recover these funds, companies fail to file duty drawback claims on an estimated 78% to 85% of eligible transactions.
Enter a new wave of AI-powered trade management companies that have collectively raised tens of millions in venture capital over the past eighteen months. The latest of these is San Francisco-based Caspian, which just emerged from stealth with $5.4M in seed funding led by Primary Venture Partners.
Caspian, which includes a founding team of seven—including Tepper School of Business MBA ('25) Abdur Rahman Muhammad and is co-founded by ex-Flexport engineers Justin Sherlock and Matt Ebeweber—is focused specifically on duty drawback—the process of reclaiming tariffs paid on imported goods that are later re-exported.
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CMU's Zico Kolter Gives Keynote at Recent AI
Horizons Summit
The second annual AI Horizons Summit was held at Pittsburgh's Bakery Square last week, which brought together global and local experts on artificial intelligence to discuss the technology that many see as defining Pittsburgh's future. The annual summit is now a two-day affair.
The event's opening keynote was given by CMU's Zico Kolter, board member of ChatGPT maker OpenAI and director of the Machine Learning Department. Kolter's keynote highlighted the rapid advancements of the technology in recent years and its impact on research.
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Innovation Scholar Deepti Aggarwal Calculates a Future in Finance
Deepti Aggarwal, Mellon College of Science, Computational Finance student, joined the Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Association (UEA) in her first year at CMU, becoming
president in the spring of 2025.
Her leadership skills, efforts with the UEA and strong participation with CMU Swartz Center events helped her earn a spot in the 2025-27 undergraduate Innovation Scholars program for her junior and senior years. As part of the program, Aggarwal will receive hands-on experience with startups and receive mentorship from founders to help give her the tools to launch her own venture in the future.
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| Join Juicy EV, Inc. to Help Build the Prototype!
Experienced in hardware prototyping? Join CMU founder and 2024-26 James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellow Ashwini Karanth and her team in reimagining EV charging—moving from fixed infrastructure to nimble, mobile solutions, and building out the Juicy EV product.
To learn more and join the team, contact akaranth@tepper.cmu.edu.
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CMU First-year Graduate Students!
Apply for the 2025-27 Swartz Fellows Cohort by October 5
Are you a CMU first-year graduate student interested in entrepreneurship, exploring a startup or working on your own while joining a network of startup-minded students? Applications for the 2025-27 cohort of James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellows will open on Sunday, August 17 at 11:59 PM ET. The Swartz Fellows program is a two-year program that fast-tracks the careers of CMU's graduate students who are passionate about entrepreneurship.
This highly selective program develops each Fellow's entrepreneurial potential and leadership skills through hands-on experiences, networking, mentoring and courses in entrepreneurship. At the program's core is a mentored summer internship with a top-tier VC-backed startup within the high-tech, high-growth environment of California's Silicon Valley and San Francisco (Bay area encouraged but not required) or another area of preference.
Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis through October 5 at 11:59 PM ET. Early applications are encouraged!
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Next Event Date: September 25, 2025
The Swank Special Projects Team Invites the CMU Swartz Center and CMU/Pittsburgh entrepreneurship community to a friendly game of Pickleball on August 28 and September 25 from 7:00-8:30 AM at Washington's Landing.
Email jaimel@swankco.com to RSVP!
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| CMU VentureBridge (VB) San Francisco Demo Day!
Tuesday, October 7, 2025
For the first time, Carnegie Mellon University is bringing its CMU VB Demo Day to San Francisco's Tech Week! Join us on Tuesday October 7, 2025 in San Francisco to meet CMU’s most promising pre-seed startups. Exclusive to investors and VIPs, this event is your chance to connect with founders and fellow backers shaping the next wave of innovation.
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2025 Corporate Innovation &
Entrepreneurship Fall Social
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Date: Thursday, October 16, 2025
Time: 5:00-7:00 PM | ET
Celebrate the Fall season with a evening hosted by Dentons! Join us for a networking event among the city's innovation and entrepreneurship community. Enjoy light hors d'oeuvres and engaging conversations while gathering to reconnect with old friends, forge new connections and immerse yourself in the dynamic spirit of innovation, entrepreneurship and technology.
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Register for the 2025 Corporate Startup Lab
Case Competition by September 20!
The Corporate Startup Lab (CSL) is excited to announce the 4th Annual Nationwide Case Competition to your graduate student programs. For the third year in a row, CSL is proud to be sponsored by PNC Bank, the 6th largest Bank in the country, and are offering $20,000! in prize money to the best teams to respond to the prompt around the theme of Trusted AI In Banking.
The competition is open to any graduate level student. Students with an entrepreneurial spirit are especially encouraged to apply! Teams of three or four students can register at the link below through September 20, 2025.
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Register to Attend!
7th Annual CSL Corporate Entrepreneurship Forum
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| Evening of Entrepreneurship: Sustaining the Resilience
of Innovation
Date: Wednesday, October 29
Time: 4-7 PM | PST
Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley warmly invites you to our signature Evening of Entrepreneurship, this year themed “Sustaining the Resilience of Innovation.”
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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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|  9/23
REGISTER
Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (Len Caric, CMU)
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REGISTER
Science vs. Art In Pricing and Revenue (Laura Forth, Go Further, LLC)
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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 find out more about each of the Clubs!
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The CMU T&E has a jobs board, available for people across the community to share and seek new opportunities in the startup and entrepreneurship ecosystem. Find out more and visit the website here.
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.
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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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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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