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|  | From left: Ed Engler, Jim Swartz, Dave Mawhinney, Craig Markovitz and Bill Flanagan
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CMU Swartz Center's Dave Mawhinney Awarded the PVCA Impact Award
The Pittsburgh Venture Capital Association (PVCA) hosted its 28th annual awards dinner on Thursday, April 20, 2023, recognizing CMU Swartz Center Executive Director Dave Mawhinney with the Impact Award. Jim Swartz, Accel Partners, attended the celebration and presented the award to Dave, who was also introduced by Craig Markovitz, EIR and distinguished service professor at Carnegie Mellon University.
Among the awardees included Rich Lunak, Innovation Works, awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award, and Jorgen Pedersen, Sarcos Technology and Robotics Corp, who received the Outstanding Entrepreneur Award. The event was moderated by Pittsburgh's Bill Flanagan.
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Leaficient Wins First Place and $15K at Duquesne
New Venture Challenge
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Leaficient, developers of technology to reduce energy costs and increase LED light efficiency within Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA), wins the 2022-2023 Duquesne New Venture Challenge. The company is co-founded by CMU ECE alumnus and CEO Brian Stancil, and Tepper MBA
Andrew Rape, Ph.D.
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| Planmeca Expands AI Capabilities with Pearl Integration
Pearl, founded by CMU alumnus and CEO Ophir Tanz, and Planmeca have partnered to bring enhanced AI-based image analysis services to Planmeca Romexis users. Pearl was founded on the notion that artificial intelligence can be the dental practitioner’s always-on assistant and the patient’s most trustworthy friend.
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Project Olympus Show & Tell Returns Emphasizing Opening Pittsburgh's Innovation to All
Kit Needham wants to see all of Pittsburgh's emerging entrepreneurial talent coalesce together to better diversify a budding sector of the city's economy. During the 26th iteration of the event held at CMU's Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship last Thursday, a dozen CMU-related startup founders identified the challenges or problems they're looking to address and how they plan to commercialize those solutions.
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Commercialization & Innovation Workshop Spotlight:
Disconnect Pilot Event
Date: Sunday, April 23, 2023
Time: 1:00 - 2:30 PM | EST
Location: CMU Swartz Center
Disconnect, founded by Tepper School of Business MBA Jason Chan, is a cafe concept that provides a new way to hang out with your friends or just yourself. The Disconnect team is looking for individuals and groups to participate in their pilot event, which will take place at the CMU Swartz Center on
Sunday, April 23, 2023.
Participants can arrive anytime between 1:00 pm and 2:30 pm, and stay for as little or as long as desired. Free coffee, refreshments and snacks will be provided. No advance signup is necessary. Just show up!
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Graduate Entrepreneurship Club Startup Spotlight: ZeroWheel
ZeroWheel, co-founded by CMU Ph.D. candidate Brian Singer, along with CEO Neil Singer and COO David Ettenson, takes your training to the next level with the first motorized wheel that offers endless workouts on a device that fits in your bag.
If you are a founder of a startup and would like to be featured in future publications, please fill out the form here.
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Apply for the Innovation Commercialization Fellows Program by Monday, May 1!
Carnegie Mellon graduate and Ph.D. students, post doctoral fellows and research assistants currently working with faculty on CMU research-based startups are eligible to apply for the Innovation Commercialization Fellows program. Well-qualified candidates will display a strong interest in driving the startup's commercialization efforts.
The Innovation Commercialization Fellows is a year-long, entrepreneurial program that begins on
July 1, 2023. Along with cohort-based educational workshops and expert one-on-one mentoring, Fellows will receive $50K from the Swartz Center—contingent upon a $50K match from another source—to assist with working on their commercialization.
Find out more and apply by Monday, May 1, 2023 at midnight ET. Send questions to Melanie Simko,
Program Manager.
Register for an Info Session on April 11 and April 20.
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Apply for the Customer Discovery Kickstart Program
The Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship’s Project Olympus Incubator announces the Customer Discovery Kickstart program, designed for early-stage startups to explore the feasibility of their business ideas. There are two four-week cohorts. The first begins on May 10 and the second begins on June 14, 2023. This program helps startup founders to determine product-market fit by connecting them with potential customers and industry stakeholders. CMU students, staff and alumni are eligible to apply.
Apply for the May 10 - May 31 cohort by April 28, 2023.
Apply for the June 14 - July 12 cohort by May 31, 2023.
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CONNECTS/START SMART LAW SEMINARS
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| See the full Spring 2023 schedule here.
Can't make a CONNECTS? Watch on our YouTube channel.
The CONNECTS seminars have ended for the Spring semester and will resume at the start of the Fall semester in September.
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Corporate Startup Lab Public Demo Day
Date: Tuesday, April 25, 2023
Time: 5-6 PM | ET
Location: Tepper Quad, 5th Floor, 4765 Forbes Avenue, Suite 5700
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Join the CSL and its sponsors for a celebration of this year's student teams and their successful semester. The diverse teams of graduate students represent all six CMU Colleges.
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RustBuilt Investor Day
Date: Thursday, April 27, 2023
Time: 9:00 AM - 8:00 PM | ET
Location: AlphaLab, Pittsburgh
As a part of this year's inaugural XchangeInnovation Week, twenty+ venture funds, family offices and other investors are coming to Pittsburgh for the RustBuilt Investor Day—a full day of curated, one-on-one meetings, investor-led workshops and the RustBuilt Startup Showdown pitch competition for startups from Pittsburgh, Detroit, Buffalo, Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati with some traction and
<$1.5 Mil raised to date.
Founders are encouraged to apply!
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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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The CMU Tech & Entrepreneurship group connects the CMU community, alumni and students, to build an entrepreneurial culture and provide resources to help the community succeed. There are multiple region-based chapters within the group. Find out more and join the CMU T&E blog,
the CMU Tech Entrepreneur!
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The following companies help directly support our programming and entrepreneurs.
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| Pwc and Steptoe & Johnson, PLLC are holding in person office hours at the CMU Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship, Tepper Quad, 4765 Forbes Avenue, 3rd Floor. The office hours are for any interested CMU graduate, undergraduate or alumni interested in entrepreneurship or connecting with members of the Swartz Center network.
Walk-ins accepted. Registration NOT required!
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| Trust & Consulting Solutions
When: Weekly on Wednesdays
12-5 PM | ET: Upcoming dates: May 3, 2023, June 7, 2023
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Legal Services Office Hours
When: Weekly on Thursdays
1-4 PM | ET
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PATRON SPOTLIGHT
PwC
PwC builds trust in society and solves important problems—which is at the company's core. This guides how the company serves its clients, people and the world. To help its clients build trust and deliver sustained outcomes, PwC provides professional services across two segments: Trust Solutions and Consulting Solutions. Within these segments, PwC brings a range of capabilities to help organizations solve faster, solve more and realize more value. These capabilities include cloud and digital, deals, ESG, cybersecurity and privacy, governance/boards, risk, transformation, tax services and more. Across its global network of over 295K professionals in 156 countries, PwC is committed to advancing quality in everything it provides.
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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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Project Olympus Incubator Program
Want more help with finding product/market fit, developing your business model, making connections and attracting funding? Project Olympus will team you up with a business coach to develop a personalized ‘roadmap. Find out more.
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COMMUNITY OPPORTUNITIES/RESOURCES
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The Innovation Scholars program fosters innovation and entrepreneurship and seeks to increase the number of successful startup companies initiated by or involving Carnegie Mellon University’s undergraduate students.
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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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