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McGinnis/Social Enterprise Prize ~ Round 1 Submission Deadline January 13!
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Calling All Current CMU Student Entrepreneurs!
Announcing the 2026 McGinnis Venture Competition
& Social Enterprise Prize
Applications are now open for the 2026 McGinnis Venture Competition and Social Enterprise Prize!
The McGinnis Venture Competition is a platform exclusively for Carnegie Mellon University’s global community of student entrepreneurs, bringing together the best and brightest to compete for $60K in investments. All participants receive coaching, valuable feedback and an opportunity to raise capital.
This multi-round competition begins with two virtual rounds and will culminate in a final live-round celebration on March 17, 2026.
Social Enterprise Prize/Hult Prize
Ready to create a company that makes an impact on the world's biggest challenges? The Swartz Center's Social Enterprise Prize is designed to empower students to develop entrepreneurial solutions for social and environmental challenges.
Path to the $1M Hult Prize!
Compete for a chance to automatically advance to the U.S. Nationals of the prestigious Hult Prize – the ultimate global competition for student social entrepreneurs!
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Apply to the VentureBridge 2026 Accelerator!
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Are you a CMU alumni working on a startup? Apply to the CMU VentureBridge 2026 accelerator in Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and New York for funding, 1:1 support, founder roundtables, weekly talks with VCs and introductions to mentors and advisors.
Attend the next information session on January 23rd at 2pm ET.
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Akeil Smith (TPR '25), Innovation Scholar,
founder of Basics receives The 2025 Most Disruptive
Undergraduate Startup Award from Poets & Quants
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Akeil Smith, founder of Basics, Tepper 2025 Alum and Swartz Center Innovation Scholar, was recently honored by Poets & Quants with The 2025 Most Disruptive Undergraduate Startup Award.
Basics is an AI-native learning layer that helps the new workforce and companies build the skills needed to thrive in the age of AI.
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CMU's Scottie Ventures to Host Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC) on January 31
Are you about to raise a round for your startup? CMU's Scottie Ventures is hosting the VCIC Regional Finals on Saturday, January 31, 2026. VCIC is an investment competition where undergraduate students from various universities compete and practice their VC startup evaluation skills. Startup founders get an opportunity to practice pitching, practice mock DD sessions with VCs and receive feedback. Students also perform detailed DD/research on the startup a few days before the competition, simulating DD that a real VC would do! This is a great opportunity to practice VC interactions and receive feedback.
Contact jiyag@andrew.cmu.edu if you are interested!
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| Bridging Discovery to Clinic: How AI and Digital Technologies
Are Transforming Therapeutics
Date: Sunday, January 11, 2026, 2-4 PM | PT
Location: San Francisco, CA
Are you innovating in biotech, pharma, medtech, or healthcare services—and heading to the 44th Annual J.P.M. Healthcare Conference in January?
Join the CMU Swartz Center for a special fireside chat on how AI and digital technologies are transforming drug discovery, reducing development risk and cost and opening new pathways from lab to clinic. Hear from founders, researchers and investors at the forefront of this shift.
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STARTUP JOB OPPORTUNITIES
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Join Skintuition, an early-stage
AI Powered Skincare App startup!
Skintuition is an early-stage startup building an AI-powered skincare app for people who feel stuck in trial-and-error acne care. Instead of guessing with products and routines, we help users understand their skin, track progress, and adapt routines over time based on real signals.
Skintuition is looking for someone excited about early-stage startups and growth to help us figure out how this product reaches the people who need it most. If you’re motivated by impact, interested in startups, and excited by the intersection of tech, skincare, and human-centered problems,
reach out to aimee@skintuition.ai.
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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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Build at Coral, a startup
at the intersection of climate and fintech!
Coral is a startup at the intersection of climate and fintech that makes sustainable building upgrades like heat pumps, batteries, and EV chargers more affordable and accessible. Our mission is to accelerate the electrification of the built environment through innovative financing solutions.
We’re seeking a full-stack engineer to join our team, building products and features to increase sales of energy-efficient solutions. This role is based in our NYC office (hybrid) and we’re open to leveling, Senior to Principal.
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2026 Flagship Pioneering Fellowship!
Apply by January 12!
Flagship Pioneering invents and builds platform companies that change the world, including Moderna, Indigo Agriculture and Lila Sciences. The Flagship Pioneering Fellowship is a paid, full-time summer Fellowship (June-August) that provides an unparalleled opportunity for creative, entrepreneurial scientists and technologists to immerse themselves in Flagship’s unique approach to inventing and building disruptive science and technology companies.
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Apply to the LifeX Accelerator by January 26, 2026!
Find out more here.
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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!
The CONNECTS Seminars have ended for the Fall semester and will resume in the Spring.
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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 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!
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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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