|
|
|  | Meredith Grelli with George Tong, CEO, Gemini Foods
| |
| | |
The Swartz Center Hosts Family Business Speaker Series Talk with George Tong, President, Gemini Foods
| |
A student of demography and anthropology, George Tong, Tepper MSIA'90 and CEO of Gemini Foods, recognized the US's changing demographics and settlement patterns early. This insight enabled him to radically scale his family's Food Distribution company into one that has carried Asian food brands across the country and into our homes.
George gave an exceptional UBS Family Business Leadership Talk last week, led by Tepper School of business Faculty and EIR Meredith Grelli—where he talked through the importance of having a BIG vision, inspiring a packed house of entrepreneurs at the Swartz Center, fueled by a Build Your Own Boba bar.
This UBS Family Business Leadership Series talk was the second of this academic year. The third and final speaker of the year will be Helen Hanna Casey, CEO of Hanna Holdings on
Wednesday, March 13, 2024. Find out more and register.
| |
Advanced Optronics and Carnegie Mellon University Awarded $650K NSF Grant to Develop Bio-Inspired
Medical Instruments
Advanced Optronics Inc, a medical sensor technology startup, has been awarded a $650K National Science Foundation Convergence Accelerator Phase-I grant, along with Carnegie Mellon University. The convergence research will develop medical instruments that sense their own shape
changes during complex surgeries to provide real time tactile feedback to surgeons.
Carnegie Mellon alumnus Jay Reddy is the CEO of Advanced Optronics, which was a participant in the Swartz Center's 2022 VentureBridge program.
| |
Carnegie Mellon University Team Wins First Place at
VCIC Mid-Atlantic Regional Finals
| |
| Congratulations to our Carnegie Mellon team that won first place last weekend at the VCIC (Venture Capital Investment Competition) Undergraduate Mid-Atlantic Regional Finals. The team is composed of members of Scottie Ventures, CMU's undergraduate venture capital club based in the Swartz Center. For the first time, CMU will be moving on to the VCIC Global Finals at UNC-Chapel Hill in April!
Team members (left to right): Pratyay Didwania (Innovation Scholar), Saaketh Chennaiahgari, Ethan Yeo, Aditi Shimpi, Darren Grendi, Meher Sujay Kaky
| |
Edulis Therapeutics Wins Pre-Seed Funding at The
Future of Capitalism Startup Competition
| |
James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellow and Innovation Fellow Spencer Matonis, co-founder of Edulis Therapeutics, announced that Edulis has won pre-seed funding at the first The Future of Capitalism Tech Startup Competition held in London last week.
Co-founded by Dr. Vladimir Lamm, Edulis is modernizing gastrointestinal medicine with an innovative drug-delivery implant. The endoscopic procedure is a totally new approach for targeting gastrointestinal diseases with sustained, localized small molecule therapeutics.
Watch the video.
| |
Date: Tuesday, February 20, 2024
Time: 12:00 - 12:50 PM ET
Location: Tepper School of Business (Tepper Quad), Simmons A
Join the Tepper School of Business for a discussion with Niraj Shah, CEO and Co-Chairman of Wayfair, for its next W.L. Mellon Speaker Series event. Moderating the fireside chat will be Professor Dave Mawhinney, Executive Director, Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship; Executive Director, Donald H. Jones Center
for Entrepreneurship.
| |
| Apply to the VentureBridge Summer Accelerator
by February 29!
| |
The VentureBridge Summer Accelerator is a 12-week summer program that helps CMU startups by providing funding ($25K investment from CMU), speakers, workshops, 1:1 support, and introductions to mentors and advisors.
Eligible startups must have at least one Carnegie Mellon University affiliated alumni founder that is full time on the company. All applications must include a pitch deck and a two-minute pitch video. The early application deadline is February 29, 2024 and the final deadline is March 29, 2024. Send questions to Aleks Petkov, Program Manager.
Register for the next information session on March 4, 2024.
| |
|  | 2023 Innovation Scholars visiting BCV Labs during the 2024 Silicon Valley Trek
| |
| | |
Applications for the 2024-26 Undergraduate Innovation Scholars Program are Open!
The CMU Swartz Center has opened applications for the next cohort of undergraduate Innovation Scholars. This prestigious program fosters innovation and entrepreneurship aimed at increasing the number of successful startups initiated by or involving Carnegie Mellon University’s undergraduate students from across campus. Students in their junior year are eligible to apply.
Innovation Scholars complete a two-year program integrating academic coursework, networking, mentorship—given as well as received—and are required to attend a weekly Proseminar in Entrepreneurial Leadership class. Students with their own startup are eligible to apply for a $6K stipend to work on their startup over the summer.
Applications will be open through April 5, 2024. Early applications are encouraged. Find out more.
Register for a virtual info session:
February 27 | 12:30 PM ET - Register
March 21 | 12:30 PM ET - Register
| |
| CONNECTS/START SMART LAW SEMINARS
| |
Can't make a CONNECTS? Watch on our YouTube channel.
Find out more and see the full schedule.
| |
|  2/20
REGISTER
CONNECTS: Revolutionize Your Coding Workflow (Alfredo Deza, Principal Cloud Advocate, Microsoft)
| |  2/21
REGISTER
CONNECTS: Early-Stage User Acquisition and Marketing (Matt Spettel, John LaGue, CoPilot)
| |  2/22
REGISTER
CONNECTS: How To Design for Production (Elijah Wiegmann, Spruce Pup)
| |
| | |
Upcoming Events and Deadlines - CMU Undergraduate
Entrepreneurship Association
| |
|  UEA (net) Working Hours at the Swartz Center
Find out more about the Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Association (UEA)
and (net)Working Hours!
| |  CMU Venture Challenge
Apply by February 23!
| |  UEA Startup Career Fair
February 21, 2024 | 5-7 PM
CMU Cohon Center, Rangos Auditorium
Register
| |
| | |
|
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.
| |
CMU ENTREPRENEURSHIP CLUBS
| |
Date: Thursday, February 29, 2024
Time: 6-8 PM | PST
Register
| |
Deadline Extended to February 29!
Entrepreneurship Rebrand Design Competition
The CMU T&E has announced a brand design competition to refresh the its visual identity for the growing CMU T&E community. Open to everyone, the competition closes on February 29, 2024
at midnight.
| |
| 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!
| |
The following companies help directly support our programming and entrepreneurs.
| |
| 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.
| |
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 currently 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.
To sign up for a 30 minute session with Matt, complete the Signup Form by the Thursday prior to your desired appointment. If you need to schedule an office hour outside of these regular hours,
contact Daria Stokes.
| |
Legal Services Weekly Office Hours
Sign up for weekly office hours.
| |
| PATRON SPOTLIGHT
PwC
PwC: Building trust for today and tomorrow.
Our purpose—to build trust in society and solve important problems—is at the core of everything we do. It guides how we serve our clients, our people and the world. To help our clients build trust and deliver sustained outcomes, PwC provides professional services across two segments: Trust Solutions and Consulting Solutions. Within these segments we bring 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 our global network of over 295K professionals in 156 countries, we are committed to advancing quality in everything we do.
| |
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. Find out more.
| | |
| |
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.
| | |
COMMUNITY OPPORTUNITIES/RESOURCES
| |
| | |
The VentureBridge program is an initiative of the Swartz Center exclusively focused on helping Carnegie Mellon alumni founders succeed in their entrepreneurial ventures. The program provides seed funding, office space, access to a large network of mentors and innovators and help with startup growth and future larger scale fundraising rounds. Find out more.
| | |
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 |
|
|
|
