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| IMPORTANT DEADLINES & ANNOUNCEMENTS!
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| Announcing the CMU Deep Tech Venture-Ready Program!
The Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship is excited to launch the CMU Deep Tech Venture-Ready Program—a new, selective, 6-month cohort program built for CMU researchers who want to understand how deep-tech companies are formed and funded.
This program will combine VC-led lectures, hands-on workshops and peer learning, culminating in a live Investment Committee simulation where investors will run diligence and debate funding decisions on your company.
The program will be conducted in person at the CMU Swartz Center in Pittsburgh, in partnership with Alpha Intelligence Capital, with a final Investment Committee simulation in New York City (travel stipend available upon successful completion of the program).
Program dates: February - June 2026 | Cohort <20
You’ll learn:
• How VCs evaluate technical risk
• Which early milestones truly matter
• How research becomes an investable company
If you are a CMU Faculty, PostDoc, Graduate student, or alumni working on a deep tech idea, this program is for you.
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McGinnis Venture Competition & Social Enterprise Prize Final Round Celebration ~ Tuesday, March 17!
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Join us as we celebrate the McGinnis Venture Competition & Social Enterprise Prize Final Round Celebration on March 17! Help cheer on the final round graduate and undergraduate teams to victory and attend the award ceremony and networking reception. Enjoy opening remarks from Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O’Connor, County Executive Sara Innamorato, and U.S. Senator Dave McCormick.
NEW THIS YEAR! We are excited to introduce a new prize structure totaling over $125K! See the prize breakdown here.
Tuesday, March 17, 2026
2:00 - 4:45 p.m. | Final Round Team Pitches
5:00 - 6:30 p.m. | Award Ceremony & Networking Reception
Where to go:
Final Round Team Pitches
Carnegie Mellon University
McConomy Auditorium
Jared L. Cohon University Center, 1st Floor
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Award Ceremony & Networking Reception
Carnegie Mellon University
Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship
Tepper Quad, 3rd Level
4765 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Visitor parking information found here.
**Win a pair of AirPods! Register & attend the Final Round Team Pitches in person where three pairs of Airpods will be raffled off at the event by Dentons. You must be present to win!**
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Gather AI Raises $40M Series B to Scale Physical Intelligence Platform for Global Supply Chain
Gather AI (VentureBridge '18 startup), the leader in Physical AI for logistics, has raised $40 million in Series B funding led by Smith Point Capital Management. The investment includes participation from Bain Capital Ventures, Tribeca Venture Partners, Bling Capital, Dundee Venture Capital, XRC Ventures, and new investor The Hillman Company. To date, the company has raised $74 million.
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| CMU Swartz Center's Steven Guo Selected to the
2026 Class of the Pittsburgh 30 Under 30
The Pittsburgh Business Times 2026 class of 30 Under 30 honorees has been selected. Among the honorees is Steven Guo, Program Manager, Student & Alumni Founder Pipeline at the CMU Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship.
This year's class of honorees will be honored in a series of profiles in a special edition of the Pittsburgh Business Times on March 20. They will also be honored at an awards celebration in April.
Congratulations, Steven!
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Carnegie Mellon MBA Team Wins First Place and $7K at The Bringham Young University Faith & Belief at Work Case Competition
On February 4-7, an enthusiastic group of MBA students from the Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Business including Yule (YJ) Lin (James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellow 2025-27) Barakissa Gakou, Tarsh (Tarshish) K, and Jessica Figard (Innovation Scholar and JD/MBA candidate at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and Tepper School of Business) represented CMUTepper at The Brigham Young University's Faith & Belief at Work Case Competition.
The team took first place, winning $7K for their response their assigned problem: How do you build culturally trained AI agents that support people's religions, cultures and preferences in a cost-effective and scalable way? The team suggested a RAG Architecture that incorporated human feedback through an App they designed to help create workshops for EBG's/ERG's/BRG's to create experiences to learn from each other, while doubling as an interface to train AI on culturally nuanced data.
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CMU Startup Lunon Announces Pre-Seed Round
Lunon, co-founded by Carnegie Mellon students Dhruv Shajikumar (CEO), Ryan Hyatt (COO) and Connor Hyatt (CTO), have announced via LinkedIn Lunon’s pre-seed round, led by General Catalyst and including SV Angel, Genius Ventures and their phenomenal angels Shuo Wang, Cory Levy and Menelaos Mazarakis. The team also gives special thanks to their first investor Joshua Browder, CEO at DoNotPay, for being their first believer.
Lunon is a secure AI workspace designed specifically for consulting firms. It brings research, analysis and client-ready outputs into one system, with strict client-by-client data isolation and enterprise-grade controls, all built around how consulting work actually happens. To accelerate development, the founders are relocating to San Francisco to work side by side with consulting teams.
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Several Carnegie Mellon Startups Selected to Join AlphaLab 2026 Cohort
AlphaLab has announced the companies joining its 2026 cohort. This year’s cohort includes 20 startups, making it the largest AlphaLab has supported at once. The companies span AI-driven software, health innovation, robotics, energy and advanced manufacturing, with a shared focus on embedding intelligence into systems and products used in real-world environments.
Several startups from CMU made the list including: ClearSolar, Precision Neuroscopics, Power 3D, Mimetic, Sealion Energy and SpoilSafe.
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Pear Prime -- Founding Engineer Application
There’s more than one path after graduation.
Introducing Pear Prime, a highly selective program for technical graduates who do NOT want to work in Big Tech.
We’re looking for people who:
• Learn by doing
• Want responsibility early
• Care more about growth and ownership than titles or logos
Get real responsibility, deliver real outcomes and own decision making, from day zero.
Apply, get selected and matched with some of the most innovative founders who are hiring!
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Join HAX Ventures and the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship for an exclusive summit connecting founders, investors, and defense innovation leaders at the forefront of dual-use technology. This half-day summit brings together the defense innovation ecosystem—from government program managers to startup founders to academic researchers—for candid conversations about commercializing
dual-use technologies.
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Date: February 25, 2026
Time: 4-6 PM | ET
RSVP to: jaimel@swanko.com
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| Special Talk: Financial Tools for Tech Business
Startups and Beyond
Hosted by Financial Executive International Pittsburgh
Date: Tuesday, March 10, 2026
Time: 12:30 - 1:30 p.m. EST
Location: Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship, Tepper School of Business, 4765 Forbes Avenue, 3rd Floor
Learn crucial financial knowledge that will help your startup businesses and growing businesses. Speakers will include Chrissy O' Hara, CFO and Ben Taylor, Owner, from SoftLedger, as well as a Q&A panel from FEI.
FEI Pittsburgh Panel Guests:
-Joshua Bergman, CPA, CGMA
-Matt Cheyne (HIKE2 & formerly with Amazon)
-Jennifer Dittmar (Powercast Corp.)
-Mary Margaret Shangraw, CPA (Catalyst Connection)
Moderator:
-K. Battle-Yonek, MBA ( FEI Pittsburgh Board Director & Mentoring Committee)
This event is hosted by Financial Executives International Pittsburgh - The Mentoring Committee.
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Search, Buy, Build: Entrepreneurship Through
Acquisition (ETA) Seminar
Date: Saturday, March 14, 2026
Location: Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship, Tepper School of Business, 4765 Forbes Avenue, 3rd Floor
Join us for this curated and practical intensive for professionals ready to acquire and operate their own business. This seminar is built for anyone interested in learning how to acquire and run a small business. You will accelerate your path into ETA through panel conversations with experienced acquirers, investors and acquisition experts.
Led by Chris Cynkar and Len Caric, the audience will learn the key phases of the acquisition process and hear about searchers’ real-world experiences, get advice from experts in the field and engage in candid discussions about key acquisition topics.
For questions, reach out to Timothy Watts at timothy.watts@scottiefetch.com.
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| Pear VC is coming to CMU | Wednesday, March 18!
Pear VC is a pre-seed and seed-stage VC firm that was an early backer of DoorDash, Dropbox, Gusto, Vanta, Listen Labs and more. Pear typically invests pre-traction and go deep on company-building: GTM, hiring, fundraising, etc.
PearX, their exclusive small-batch accelerator program, provides funding of $500K-$2M, office space in the heart of SF and hands-on mentorship from their Partners, who have started and sold over a dozen companies.
Reach out to jiyag@andrew.cmu.edu with any questions!
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CMU Energy Week | March 17-20!
The Scott Institute for Energy Innovation at Carnegie Mellon University would like to extend a personal invitation to you to be a part of our energy innovation ecosystem by participating in CMU Energy Week 2026, which will be held March 17-20, 2026, in CMU’s Cohon University Center.
With participation from academia, industry, and government leaders, the theme Reinventing the Grid for Our Electrified Future seizes on the momentum of innovation and research that surrounds the United States’ power grid as its infrastructure ages, contends with extreme weather events, and supports new energy demands from artificial intelligence and electrified buildings, vehicles, and factories.
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STARTUP JOB OPPORTUNITIES
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Design at Beacon Social, a Social App startup
that makes it easier to hang out with your friends!
Beacon is a social app that makes it easier to hang out with your friends. We connect people where they are and show them where they want to be, with fine-tuned customization, visibility, sharing, and community management settings.
We are hiring Short-Term Freelance Design Engineers. This person will own the transitions, micro-interactions, and design polish to achieve a premium feel within our core journeys and user flows.
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Apply to the Gebhardt Sandbox Fund by February 20!
Calling all current CMU undergraduate and graduate students! Apply to the Gebhardt Sandbox Fund to receive a $1K grant towards your startup!
Email questions to apetkov@andrew.cmu.edu.
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| Apply for 2026 VentureBridge Funding!
Are you a CMU Founder working full-time on your venture? Apply to VentureBridge (VB), CMU's pre-seed fund and flagship accelerator for founders building bold, technical companies.
Acceptance to VB provides funding, access to 1:1 support, founder roundtables, weekly talks with VCs and introductions to mentors and advisors.
Learn more and apply for funding for the 2026 cycle. Feel free to attend the next info session on
March 6th to hear from the team directly.
If you know a CMU Founder working on something exciting, let us know with this brief referral form!
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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!
The CONNECTS Seminars will resume in the Fall 2026 semester.
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**SPRING 2026 START SMART LEGAL SERIES (Virtual)**
ALL virtual sessions held at 5-6:15 PM | ET
February 24
Starting a Business with an F-1 Student Visa
March 24 & April 7
How to Structure Your Capital Raise | Part 2 Workshop
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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.
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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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