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| Get Ready for CMU Startup Week!
Date: September 24–26, 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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AI & Robotics Venture Day!
Thursday, September 24
Your front-row seat to market-defining innovation from the cradle of AI!
AI & Robotics Venture Day is an invitation only event and the intended audience is limited to “Accredited Investors” as defined in Regulation D under the Securities Act of 1922, as amended, and members of the press.
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| Joint Ai Secures $315K to Support Growing Demand for Orthopaedic Care
Joint Ai, an AI-powered triage platform designed to help automate the evaluation, diagnosis and treatment for patients suffering from knee and hip arthritis, has announced a $315K investment from the Richard King Mellon Foundation. The funds will be used to enhance the company’s technology, increase strategic partnerships, and expand access to orthopaedic surgeons nationwide.
Joint AI is founded by Carnegie Mellon alumnus and adjunct faculoty Dr. Tony DiGioia.
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Pittsburgh Startup Perforated AI Thinks the AI Field
is Due for an Update
Perforated AI, co-founded by CMU alumnus, neuroscientist and computer scientist Dr. Rorry Brenner, aims to bridge this difference. Its approach adds structures inspired by dendrites, the branching extensions of neurons, to standard neural networks. The company calls it Perforated Backpropagation, and says the method doesn’t just improve training speed. In tests, it cuts compute costs by as much as 38 times, without hurting accuracy.
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Conduit Raises $375K To Tackle Worker Scheduling Issues
Conduit, a Pittsburgh workforce management startup co-founded by Tepper School of Business alumni Anirudh Kapuria and Max Holmes, has secured $375K in funding from the Richard King Mellon Foundation to advance its artificial intelligence-powered scheduling platform. The investment brings the company’s total raised capital to $460K from various angel and institutional backers.
The startup addresses significant staffing challenges in service industries, where annual employee turnover can reach 150%.
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Bootcamp Happens Today!
Join us at 1PM ET at the Swartz Center for our annual Entrepreneurship Bootcamp.
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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.
Sign up to attend the next Info Session and hear from current Swartz Fellows:
September 11 | 12:30 PM ET
Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis through October 5 at 11:59 PM ET. Early applications are encouraged!
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| Strengthening the Future of Family Businesses
Join us for one of the sessions on September 5 or 12th!
The Family Business Symposium at Carnegie Mellon University brings together leaders from family-owned enterprises to share experiences, tackle complex challenges and build strategies for long-term success. Through peer learning, expert insights and a trusted network, the symposium supports succession planning, innovation and the preservation of family legacies for generations to come.
Join us for one of the brief, virtual info sessions to learn how you or your business can be part of this year’s cohort. Register at the QR code above!
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| Date: September 11-12, 2025
Location: Bakery Square and Hazelwood Green, Pittsburgh
The race for AI adoption, commercialization and market leadership is on. Join the world’s leading researchers, innovators and adopters and explore how AI is transforming healthcare, manufacturing, defense, finance, robotics and beyond!
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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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Announcing the 2025 Corporate Startup Lab
Case Competition!
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.
Sign up to attend the information session on September 11; 12:30 PM ET.
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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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|  9/9
REGISTER
Designing a Product Culture (Brad Eiben, Executive Dir, Master of Science in PM)
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REGISTER
Early-Stage User Acquisition & Marketing
Matt Spettel, Co-Founder/CEO & John LaGue, COO at trainwell
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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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Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub is a digital platform that provides free access to the latest AI tools and 1:1 guidance from experts to help founders solve challenges as they grow their business. We provide the right resources at the right time in a startup’s journey so founders can build faster and dream bigger. Sign up for Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub!
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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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