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| CORE SWARTZ CENTER EVENTS, PROGRAM DEADLINES & ANNOUNCEMENTS
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| CMU Startup Week Presents: Lab to Market!
Join us for CMU Lab to Market on Sep 15, 2026, in Pittsburgh. A curated gathering of investors for an exclusive look at Carnegie Mellon University’s most promising research-driven startups. This day-long event spotlights breakthrough ventures emerging from CMU labs, including those led by CMU faculty, PhDs and postdocs—advancing the frontier in AI, robotics, cybersecurity, healthcare, and beyond. Meet the next wave of deep tech founders translating world-class research into transformative companies.
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Appy by August 1!
Fall 2026 CSL Project Course and CSL Fellows Program
The Corporate Startup Lab at Carnegie Mellon University works with companies to foster greater innovation, entrepreneurship and future readiness. Through partnerships with CMU graduate students, CSL helps organizations explore real-world challenges, identify new opportunities and bring the latest thinking in technology, innovation and startup methods into their companies.
For Students: Applications are now open for the Fall 2026 CSL Project Course and CSL Fellows Program. These incredible opportunities give Carnegie Mellon University graduate students the chance to gain valuable hands-on experience, build meaningful professional connections, and expand their networks while working on impactful projects.
The CSL Fellows Program is a paid position that offers students the opportunity to be compensated while developing skills to support their academic and career goals.
Both programs are open to Carnegie Mellon University graduate students. Please note that the CSL Project Course is restricted to Pittsburgh campus students.
For Corporate Partners: Organizations interested in engaging CSL graduate students to help address a real-world challenge are encouraged to connect with the CSL team. This is a unique opportunity to collaborate with talented CMU graduate students, gain fresh perspectives and explore innovative approaches to meaningful business, technology and societal challenges. Reach out to Jim Jen if interested, jjen@andrew.cmu.edu.
Students, click the links below to learn more about each program and apply by August 1!
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Advertising Agency Brunner Acquires AdSkate
AdSkate, a VentureBridge '21 participant and AI-powered creative analytics platform led by CEO Akaash Ramakrishnan and CTO Shreyas Venugopalan, has been acquired by Brunner, a Pittsburgh-based independent advertising agency. Shreyas is a Carnegie Mellon University alumnus and helped build the platform’s core AI and computer vision capabilities. AdSkate helps brands and agencies understand which creative elements drive campaign performance and supports smarter decision-making across creative, media, and campaign strategy.
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Gecko Robotics to Open New Manufacturing Facility in Sewickley Focused on Defense
Gecko Robotics has announced plans to open a new 10,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Sewickley, PA expanding its presence in the region beyond its Nova Place headquarters. The robotics unicorn utilizes a suite of robotics to perform inspections of things that would be difficult or dangerous for a human to complete.
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CMU Startups Bring Energy Innovation to Market
Startups launched out of Carnegie Mellon University are stabilizing the power grid, bringing climate tech solutions to market and preventing household utility service shutoffs before they happen.
“At Carnegie Mellon, we do not leave the implementation to others. We spin off companies that can move research forward in ways that directly benefit society,” said Larry Pileggi, professor of electrical and computer engineering and co-founder of CMU startup Pearl Street Technologies.
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STARTUP JOB OPPORTUNITIES
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Shelfmark is hiring! Shelfmark is a Pittsburgh, PA-based team of engineers, designers, and entrepreneurs with a mission to solve problems for the bedrock industries that power our global economy. Their innovative AI computer vision technology is solving problems for the world's largest manufacturers and they are hiring.
Open positions:
Deployment Manager - Physical AI
Embedded Software Engineer
Machine Learning Engineer
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Brighton Business Analytics is seeking a go-to-market sales partner to launch a financial
analytics service that helps small businesses improve profitability, pricing, and cash flow. The
product has paying clients and opportunities in both direct sales and reseller partnerships.
Bookkeepers, fractional CFOs, and professionals interested in building an advisory practice can
expand their services and create recurring revenue by offering financial analytics to their clients.
Jonathan Brighton is a 2026 graduate of the CMU Tepper School of Business Master of Science in Business Analytic (MSBA) program.
Contact jonathan@analyticcfo.com to learn more.
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Cruitical is an AI-native hiring platform built by CMU grads Shubham and Yash (Heinz '25) that replaces resumes and low-signal screens with deeply enriched candidate profiles and virtual work trials that showcase how people actually think, work, and use AI.
We're working with startups hiring for Applied AI, ML Research, Forward Deployed, GTM Engineering roles and everything in between. One profile, and we match you as new roles open up.
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gBeta Pennsylvania Spring 2026 Showcase
Meet 10 promising Pennsylvania startups as they pitch their companies and connect with investors, founders, mentors, and ecosystem leaders. Whether you're looking to discover emerging startups, expand your network, or support the region's innovation ecosystem, we'd love to have you join us.
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Why Most Startups Can't Explain What They Do
A GTM Strategy Workshop with FinStrat Management:
For VentureBridge and CMU Startup Founders
Date: August 7, 2026
Time: 1:00 - 2:00pm ET | Online Webinar on Zoom
Presented by CMU VentureBridge and FinStrat Management, this online session will break down the two languages every founder needs: external messaging that converts customers, and internal language that aligns your team and guides product decisions. Adam Chen, Chief Revenue Officer at FinStrat Management will walk through how to build a specific, actionable Ideal Customer Profile, craft a value proposition that answers "why should I choose you," and write a behavioral statement that defines the exact behavior change your product is trying to create.
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Brandon Rosas (TPR 2010)
Founder and Managing Partner, FOHRT Consulting
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Patrick Colletti
Adjunct Professor, Tepper School of Business
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From Startup to Scale-Up:
The Headcount Thresholds That Will Change Your Company
Date:September 2, 2026
Time: 12:00 - 1:00pm ET | Virtual on Zoom
Presented by the CMU Alumni Association, this session is designed to provide founders and operators a practical framework for what happens when you hit the key staffing milestones of 15, 50 and 100 employees: Which laws apply, what states have strict legislation you need to keep an eye on and what your HR infrastructure should look like.
Drawing on years of HR and operational leadership across Private Equity-backed and founder-led businesses, Brandon Rosas brings real-world experience helping companies navigate exactly these moments and knows firsthand the costs when you are not prepared, whether that is government penalties or enhanced consultant expenses.
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OTHER APPLICATION DEADLINES
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| Apply to the Pear Fellows Program by August 9!
If you're a current or aspiring CMU undergrad, MBA, or PhD founder who wants to learn how VC actually works, apply to the Pear Fellows program. Past Fellows have gone on to start massive companies, work at top-tier funds like Sequoia, and take leadership roles at Anthropic.
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| Applications open for 5050 (deadline Aug 12)
5050 is a free, 12-week program by Fifty Years that helps great scientists and engineers become great founders and start deep tech startups. Alumni have started 115 companies, including Boltz, Electroflow, Medra, and Plasmidsaurus, with a 96% raise-success rate among those who fundraise. No deck, co-founder, or polished idea required, and it's built to fit around your PhD or job until you gain conviction to go full-time. 100% free: no equity, no fees, no weird clauses.
Got questions? Email Alvaro Borda, alvaro@50y.com
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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/START SMART Legal Seminars will resume in the
Fall 2026 semester.
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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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Join the CMU Tech & Entrepreneurship Community
on August 6!
Meet fellow CMU founders, operators, investors, and innovators for drinks, conversation, and a chance to mingle with the people building what's next. Come with a startup idea, a side project, a challenge you're working through. Or just come for the company! You never know who might have the introduction, expertise, co-founder, customer, or insight you've been looking for.
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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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