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| CORE SWARTZ CENTER EVENTS, PROGRAM DEADLINES & ANNOUNCEMENTS
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Join us Next Friday, August 28!
The Swartz Center is excited to invite all CMU students to this year's Entrepreneurship Bootcamp, a one-day glimpse into entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon University and around Pittsburgh. Join us on Friday, August 28 to learn more about what CMU has to offer regarding entrepreneurship, funding and programming, while enjoying snacks, networking and a keynote speaker.
View the full schedule.
All registrants will receive a Swartz Center t-shirt!
Co-sponsored by the Carnegie Mellon Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship, Graduate Entrepreneurship Club, Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Association, Scottie Ventures, ScottyLabs and Sigma Eta Pi.
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Carnegie Mellon University Startup Week is a multiday celebration of entrepreneurship, innovation, and frontier tech. The diverse line up of events will highlight founders from all stages, researchers, and community partners across our entire ecosystem.
This year's event is part of StartUP PGH 2026. Check out the StartUP PGH website for more information about the week-long event being put on by fifteen regional partners.
Lab to Market
A high-energy evening connecting Carnegie Mellon students with startups and emerging companies hiring across technology, design, product, and business.
Register
AI & Robotics Venture Day
A curated showcase of CMU-affiliated and Pittsburgh-region most investment-ready AI
and robotics startups.
Register
CMU SPARK 2026
High-energy evening connecting Carnegie Mellon students with startups and emerging companies hiring across technology, design, product, and business.
Register
CMU S4
A showcase of earliest stage student startups.
Register
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|  | 2025-27 Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellows
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CMU First-year Graduate Students!
Applications Open for the 2026-28 Swartz Fellows Program
Are you a CMU first-year graduate student passionate about entrepreneurship with goals to build a successful startup? Interested in joining a strong network of startup-minded students and alumni? Applications for the next cohort of James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellows are currently open.
The Swartz Fellows program is a two-year opportunity that fast-tracks the careers of CMU's graduate students who are passionate about entrepreneurship. Students must currently be working on a startup idea to be considered for this highly selective program. The program focuses on hands-on experiences, networking, mentoring and courses in entrepreneurship, as well as a mentored summer internship with a top-tier VC-backed startup, preferably within the high-tech, high-growth environment of California's Silicon Valley and San Francisco (Bay area encouraged but not required).
Applications will be accepted through Sunday, October 4 at 11:59 PM ET.
Virtual Info Session:
Find out more about the program and hear from current Swartz Fellows.
Wednesday, September 9 ~ 12:30 PM ET (Via Zoom)
Register
Students must currently be working on a startup idea to be considered. Early applications are encouraged.
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Gray Swan AI Moves to Larger Bakery Square Office
Gray Swan AI, the artificial intelligence safety startup founded by CMU researchers, has quadrupled its PIttsburgh footprint securing space in Bakery Square. The startup raised a $40M Series A round earlier this year and had previously been based in a 4,200-square-foot space in Shadyside.
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Hermes Vision Featured in Pittsburgh Startup News
Hermes Vision, an autonomous agriculture technology company founded by CMU Mechanical Engineering student and CEO Grant Wilkinson, addresses the critical gap in vegetation management for pasture and rangeland. Grant was recently featured in a video released by Pittsburgh Startup News, where he explains the technology behind Hermes Vision and how the company's autonomous drones map landscapes and plan optimized flight paths alllowing for treatment with surgical precision.
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Tepper School of Business MBA Alexander DesPois Featured in Poets & Quants' Class of 2027
Tepper School MBA and 2025-27 James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellow Alexander DesPois was featured in Poets & Quants last month. Described as an "Empathetic, resilient servant-leader, Army veteran, husband, passionate about exploring cultures and global perspectives", Alexander is also a dedicated, hard working entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of DesPois, a company focused on helping artists transform an album's sonic mytholoy into an immersive experience.
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Join us on Tuesday, August 25!
Most founders fail before they even start by picking the wrong idea. In this talk, Scott Phoenix, Partner at Fifty Years and former co-founder and CEO of Vicarious AI (acquired by Alphabet in 2022), shares his insights on choosing what to build as we race toward AGI.
Scott raised ~$250M for Vicarious, one of the first successful AI startups before selling it to Alphabet and Google DeepMind in 2022. He has published peer-reviewed research in Science, ICML, and NeurlP, designed award winning digital art and games, and authored multiple patents, while serving as an investor and advisor to many unicorns and deep tech startups.
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|  | Brandon Rosas (TPR 2010)
Founder and Managing Partner, FOHRT Consulting
| |  | 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 for 5050 by August 23
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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| CONNECTS & START SMART LEGAL seminars are back for the
Fall semester!
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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 9/1
REGISTERCONNECTS: Design Thinking (Ming Ming Chapman, CMU/Tepper)
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REGISTER
CONNECTS: Business Model Canvas: *A Practical Guide (Craig Markovitz, EIR, CMU Swartz Ceneter)
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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 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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