|
|
| CORE SWARTZ CENTER EVENTS, PROGRAM DEADLINES & ANNOUNCEMENTS
| |
| Corporate Startup Lab Hosts ROAI Event, April 16
CMU’s Corporate Startup Lab is excited to invite you to the next event, ROAI on April 16, 2026 at the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship. Sponsored by Deloitte, this in-person event will explore how companies are translating AI investments into meaningful business outcomes. ROAI brings together leaders from industry, venture and academia to share what’s working, what’s not and what’s next.
Find out more, including the upcoming speaker announcements.
Email Sean Mawhinney, smawhinn@andrew.cmu.edu with questions.
| |
| 2026-28 Undergraduate Innovation Scholars Program
| |
Powering the Future of Sport:
A Draft WeekShowcase on April 22
The Swartz Center will host a $1.55M national pitch competition during the NFL Draft week in partnership with the NFL, Pittsburgh Steelers and AI Strike Team. “Powering the Future of Sport: A Draft Week Showcase and Pitch Competition,” will highlight startups at the intersection of sports and tech on Wednesday, April 22 at the new Carnegie Mellon Robotics Innovation Center.
A panel of high profile judges, including Mark Cuban, Dallas Mavericks owner and Shark Tank investor; Ed Stack, Chairman of Dick's Sporting Goods and Foot Locker; Will Allen, former Pittsburgh Steeler and Partner at Magarac Venture Partners; Troy Demmer, co-founder and General Parter of First Order Fund and Deap Ubhi of AWS Startups, will decide the top pitches from around the country and the world.
The prize pool is made possible through major investments including $1M in cloud compute credit from AWS for Startups and $250K in investment from Magarac Venture Partners, $250K from First Order Fund and $50K from Innovation Works.
| |
Help Rename CMU Startup Week!
(Save the date: Week of September 14)
We're amping up CMU Startup Week! This year's event will be an even bigger Pittsburgh tech + innovation + investment week, with the help of fourteen partners (state, county, city, University of Pittsburgh and just about every tech/innovation shop in the region.) Now we need a name and we’ve narrowed it to seven.
Please help us decide by taking a two minute survey. Strong opinions welcome!
| |
NVIDIA Co-founder Jensen Huang Among 2026
CMU Honorary Degree Recipients
Carnegie Mellon University will award honorary degrees to four individuals at its 2026 Commencement ceremony set for Sunday, May 10 in Gesling Stadium. Jensen Huang, the electrical engineer, philanthropist and business executive who co-founded NVIDIA, will be the Commencement speaker and receive an Honorary Doctor of Science and Technology degree in recognition of his extraordinary contributions as a visionary founder and technology leader.
| |
BlastPoint, Inc. CEO Alison Alvarez to Receive Tepper Recent Masters Alumni Award
Tepper School of Business alumnus Alison Alvarez (MS/CS, 2007, MBA 2016), CEO and co-founder of BlastPoint, is among the recipients of the 2026 Tepper School Alumni Awards. She will receive the Tepper Recent Masters Alumni Award at a ceremony to be held on May 2, 2026 during the Reunion 2026 celebration dinner.
BlastPoint, Inc., is a B2B provider of customer intelligence and analytics solutions that companies across sectors rely on to optimize revenue growth.
| |
Founders Capital Spotlights Portfolio Company
Beyond Reach Labs
Beyond Reach Labs, co-founded by CMU's Mitchell Fogelson, PhD, is building deployable solar arrays that expand from the size of a dining table to a football field in orbit, giving satellites 10x more usable power without increasing launch mass or volume. Their patented deployable truss architecture enables this while maintaining structural rigidity.
The company is targeting a first in-space demonstration flight for Q2 2027 and has already secured multiple LOIs from space companies totalling over $175M.
| |
| Connect with Sustainable Filmmakers in Berkeley, Sat, April 4th
Are you interested in sustainable filmmaking? Join Erosion Co-Founder Tracy Held (VentureBridge 2023 Cohort) and HIKING BUDDIES Feature Film Director Katherine Vondy for two free special events in Berkeley, CA on Saturday, April 4th. Tracy is a 2026 Tartans on the Rise honoree and is helping to increase the conversation about conservation through comedy TV and film. Learn more about Erosion and its film projects at a casual hike in the Berkeley Marina on Saturday, April 4th at 10am, or over coffee at Berkeley Espresso at 2pm.
Learn more at Hike RSVP and Coffee RSVP, or email Tracy at tracy@erosionmade.com.
| |
STARTUP JOB OPPORTUNITIES
| |
| CMU Startup Seeks Business Minded Co-Founder
CollAI, an early-stage CMU startup building an autonomous AI Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) tool, is looking for a business minded co-founder to join the team. If you have a good understanding of dev tools, B2B SaaS, Enterprise Sales and have experience with GTM, feel free to reach out to siddharthav2601@gmail.com (Siddhartha Vanjari).
| |
OTHER APPLICATION DEADLINES
| |
| Apply by April 21!
Apply for this summer’s Patient Safety Fellowship, focused on advancing the blueprint for an Ambition Health System—an ideal yet feasible health system that prevents harm before it occurs.
| |
CMU Innovation Institute Webinar: Monday, April 13
Join Meredith McDermott (Human Experience Lead at Gray Swan AI) and Susanna Zlotnikov (CMU Professor & Design Practitioner) for a candid conversation about career resilience. Susanna and Meredith will share experiences from their own career journeys with a focus on the habits, behaviors and tangible skills that have made change and uncertainty easier to face.
| |
| CONNECTS/START SMART LEGAL SEMINARS
| |
| 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.
| |
**SPRING 2026 START SMART LEGAL SERIES (Virtual)**
ALL virtual sessions held at 5-6:15 PM | ET
April 7,2026!
How to Structure Your Capital Raise | Part 2 Workshop
| |
CMU ENTREPRENEURSHIP CLUBS
| |
| Click the images to find out more about each of the Clubs!
| |
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.
| |
The following companies help directly support our programming and entrepreneurs.
| |
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
| |
|
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.
| |
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.
| |
| HOW TO WORK OUT OF THE SWARTZ CENTER
| |
|
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.
| |
COMMUNITY OPPORTUNITIES/RESOURCES
| |
FIND OUT WHAT OUR PARTNERS ARE DOING
| |
|
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.
| |
|
|
|
Carnegie Mellon University Swartz Center For Entrepreneurship
5000 Forbes Avenue | Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890 |
|
|
|
