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| CORE SWARTZ CENTER EVENTS, PROGRAM DEADLINES & ANNOUNCEMENTS
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Carnegie Mellon University Startup Week is a multiday celebration of entrepreneurship, innovation, and frontier tech. The diverse line up of events will highlight founders from all stages, researchers, and community partners across our entire ecosystem.
This year's event is part of StartUP PGH 2026. Check out the StartUP PGH website for more information about the week-long event being put on by fifteen regional partners.
Lab to Market
A high-energy evening connecting Carnegie Mellon students with startups and emerging companies hiring across technology, design, product, and business.
Register
AI & Robotics Venture Day
A curated showcase of CMU-affiliated and Pittsburgh-region most investment-ready AI
and robotics startups.
Register
CMU SPARK 2026
High-energy evening connecting Carnegie Mellon students with startups and emerging companies hiring across technology, design, product, and business.
Register
CMU S4
A showcase of earliest stage student startups.
Register
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Don't Miss Lab To Market Keynote Speakers
Tuesday, September 15!
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|  | Sujal Shah, Founder, Juvia Group and former President & CEO of CymaBay Therapeutics, in conversation with Laurence Ales, Dean of the Carnegie Mellon Tepper School of Business.
| |  | Andrew Moore, Co-Founder and CEO, Lovelace AI, Former Dean, Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science, in conversation with Martial Hebert, Dean, CMU School of Computer Science.
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CMU SPARK 2026 Keynote Fireside Chat
Thursday, September 17
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|  | CMU SPARK will open with a keynote from Boris Sofman, Co-Founder and CEO of Bedrock Robotics and former leader at Waymo and Anki, with Damion Shelton, Associate VP & Executive Director, CMU Swartz Center.
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| Don't Miss Other CMU Startup Week Events Focused on Deep Tech and more!
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|  | 9/14
CMU Deep Tech Venture Ready Program
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Faculty PI Matchmaking
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Intro to Corporate Venture Capital
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Filmmaking hackathon and showcase
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PearX Info Session & AMA
| |  | 9/16
Beyond the Lab by E14 Fund
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AI in Drug Discovery Talk
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|  | 2025-27 Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellows
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CMU First-year Graduate Students!
Apply to the 2026-28 Swartz Fellows Program by Sunday, October 4
Are you a CMU first-year graduate student passionate about entrepreneurship with goals to build a successful startup? Interested in joining a strong network of startup-minded students and alumni? Applications for the next cohort of James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellows are currently open.
The Swartz Fellows program is a two-year opportunity that fast-tracks the careers of CMU's graduate students who are passionate about entrepreneurship. Students must currently be working on a startup idea to be considered for this highly selective program. The program focuses on hands-on experiences, networking, mentoring and courses in entrepreneurship, as well as a mentored summer internship with a top-tier VC-backed startup, preferably within the high-tech, high-growth environment of California's Silicon Valley and San Francisco (Bay area encouraged but not required).
Applications will be accepted through Sunday, October 4 at 11:59 PM ET.
Virtual Info Session:
Find out more about the program and hear from current Swartz Fellows.
Wednesday, September 9 ~ 12:30 PM ET (Via Zoom)
Register
Students must currently be working on a startup idea to be considered.
Early applications are encouraged.
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Rare Ventures Rings NYSE Opening Less than a Month After Launch
Less than a month after being unveiled, Rare Ventures rang the bell at the New York Stock Exchange.
The philanthropic venture-focused nonprofit was announced in August, with a $25M backing from the Richard King Mellon Foundation and support from Pearl Jam musician Eddie Vedder, along with his wife Jill Vedder. The Pittsburgh-based effort aims to transform the way rare disease treatments get developed and funded by building out an infrastructure platform of patient data and support development efforts, including research, regulatory strategy and commercialization.
The organization brings together a number of local stakeholders, including the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and the UPMC Vision Institute.
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|  | CorePower Magnetics tech (Courtesy)
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CMU Spinout CorePower Reports $14.3M in Fresh Funding
CorePower Magnetics raised $14.3M as it works to scale its electric vehicle and power grid tech.
The round remains open as the company seeks an additional $220K to meet its $14.5M goal, according to a new Form D filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
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STARTUP JOB OPPORTUNITIES
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CMU Alumna Seeks CTO for New Startup
Nadia Susanto, CMU alumna and former Innovation Scholar with the Swartz Center, has recently left her role as an investor to go all-in on founding. She is currently looking into the performance coaching space and invites anyone who has used a coach before (i.e., career, life, mental, etc.) to chat with her about your experience.
Nadia is also looking for a CTO who could be interested in this space, and is also open to exploring other directions if there is a good match! If interested, feel free to reach out at nasusanto@gmail.com.
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Tuesday, September 15
Time: 5-6 PM ET
Location: Avenu: Meyran, 122 Meyran Ave, Pittsburgh
Agilow, co-founded by VentureBridge Fellows Shiv Panjwani and Antonio Bojorges, is hosting a working session on the robotics development lifecycle and project management in the AI era. Panel guests Grant Wilkinson, Co-founder and CEO of Hermes Vision, and Rishabh Devgon, Forward Deployed Engineer
at Gather AI.
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Date: Monday, October 5
Time: 6-8 PM PDT
During SF Tech Week, join fellow CMU founders, entrepreneurs and alumni for an evening of connection and conversation focused on the resources available to help you build, launch and grow. Hear from leaders across CMU’s entrepreneurship ecosystem and Bay Area network, including perspectives on funding, mentorship, community and founder support.
Whether you’re just getting started or scaling your venture, come connect with the people and resources that can help move your entrepreneurial journey forward.
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| CONNECTS/START SMART LEGAL 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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| START SMART LEGAL SEMINAR
**All Sessions are Virtual ~ 5:00-6:15 PM ET**
Date: Tuesday, September 15
Introduction to Startup Law
In this session, our startup law team will present a lightning round of the key legal needs and issues for a startup: founders’ agreements, equity splits, company formation, handling IP, raising capital, building a team, etc.
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CONNECTS SEMINAR
Date: Thursday, September 24
Meet the Swartz Center's Entrepreneur-In-Residence with Q&A
Meet some of the Swartz Center EIRs, Indrani Halder (left), Laura Ohlund (center) and John Voytko, learn more about their expertise and find out how to get connected.
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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 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.
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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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