|
|
Calling ALL Current CMU Student Entrepreneurs!
Registration opens today for the 2025 McGinnis Venture Competition, a platform exclusively for Carnegie Mellon University's community of student entrepreneurs. This competition brings together Carnegie Mellon's best and brightest student entrepreneurs to compete for $60K in investments. All participants receive crucial interaction with alumni entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, an opportunity to raise capital and valuable feedback about ventures.
New this year: Social Enterprise Prize Track!
Ready to create a company that makes an impact on the world's biggest challenges? The Swartz Center Social Enterprise Prize is a new competition at Carnegie Mellon University designed to empower students to develop entrepreneurial solutions for social and environmental challenges.
Learn more about the competition and hear from previous participants at an info session:
Info Session - January 8
Register
Register your team by December 3, 2024 to receive a coach!
| |
| Property Co-ownership Startup Fractional Raises $15M
Fractional, co-founded by CMU Computer Science alumna Stella Han, has raised our $15M Series A, bringing our total funding to $20.5M! This round was led by Fifth Wall, with notable participation from Left Lane Capital and others. This huge milestone will assist the company on its journey to empower real estate investors to build wealth and unlock new opportunities. Stella shares the news
via LinkedIn.
| | | |
Hack-a-Startup Kickoff: A Two-Week Journey of
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Begins!
This past weekend, Hack-a-Startup launched with an inspiring kickoff, bringing together 200 students from fields such as AI, healthcare, robotics and more. Organized by Graduate Entrepreneurship Club (GEC) members Amanda Manget (Swartz Fellow), Daniela Decoud and Nisarg Doshi, the event aims to accelerate student-led ideas through hands-on mentoring, workshops and pitching.
Over the next two weeks, participants will attend five specialized workshops, working closely with assigned industry mentors to refine their ideas and strategies. The journey will culminate in a final pitch to a panel of judges, with the top teams competing for nearly $10K in prizes. Twenty five startups were formed with fifteen teams advancing to the finals.
Event sponsors:
Accel, Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative's Patient Safety Technology Challenge, and InnovatePGH
Initial workshop leads:
Adam Paulisick, CEO at Skillbuilder and Tepper Adjunct Faculty; Alison Alvarez, CEO and founder of BlastPoint; and David Goyette, Associate Teaching Professor, Tepper.
Judges:
Adam Paulisick, Caiden Joseph Lukan, Arthur Sugden, and Zak Slayback
Event organizers: Amanda Manget, Daniela Decoud, and Nisarg Doshi
Volunteers:
Anika Halappanavar, Jahnavi Patel, Nidhisha Voonna, Shubhaa Chawla (Swartz Fellow), and
Lananh Doan.
The finals will take place on Saturday, November 16 and will be open to the greater Pittsburgh entrepreneurial community.
| |
|  | Student pitching, Hack-A-Startup kick-off weekend
| |  | Students arriving at Hack-A-Startup
kick-off weekend
| |
| | |
Galen Health a Finalist in the Patient Safety
Technology Challenge
Logan Nye, MD and Kushagra Agarwal, co-founders of Galen Health, pioneer of technological breakthroughs in the early detection and prevention of pancreatic cancer, have made it to the finals of the Patient Safety Technology Challenge Grand Awards.
Kushagra will be pitching in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) on January 9, 2025.
| |
Addy AI Founder and CEO Michael Vandi Featured in Silicon Valley Business Journal
Michael Vandi, founder and CEO of Addy AI, the 2023 VentureBridge startup that uses specialized AI models to reduce manual work for loan officers and make loan origination more efficient, was recently featured in the Silicon Valley Business Journal. In his recent post on LinkedIn Vandi shared that he was "followed by photographer Tomas Ovalle and that Tomas' story beautifully captures the true rollercoaster of building a startup—the highs, the lows, the yeses and the nos–it’s never a straight line".
| |
R.K. Mellon Foundation Awards Combined $1.4M
to Four CMU Startups at Social-Impact Pitch Competition
| |
| Troutwood Takes Third Place and $300K Investment
Another Carnegie Mellon University startup to win funding from the R.K. Mellon Foundation's recent Social-Impact Pitch Competition was Troutwood, founded by Tepper School of Business alumnus and CEO Gene Natali taking, winning third place at $300K investment. Troutwood seeks to empower individuals and institutions with conflict-free financial education and planning tools.
Additional CMU startup awardees will be featured in subsequent editions of the Weekly Bulletin.
| |
Niche Direct Admissions Named One of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2024
Niche—the website that allows students to rank and review schools—is trying to break down some of the barriers to college entry with its Direct Admissions platform. Instead of filling out and paying fees for separate applications for each college, students complete a free profile and colleges come to them—automatically offering admissions and even scholarships via the platform. Over 930,000 high schoolers have already received at least one admissions offer through Niche. “We want colleges going directly to the families saying, ‘We admit you,’” says Niche CEO Luke Skurman.
| |
CMU ScottyLabs Hosts NOVA on November 9!
ScottyLabs is hosting NOVA, CMU's first GenAI playground hackathon. NOVA participants build incredible projects over the course of just one day, and are provided with free, special access to top generative AI models (Open AI GPT 4o/o1, image models, vision models) through API credits to power their ideas. Participants can form teams of up to four students.
NOVA will be held on Saturday, November 9th, 2024 from 10:30am to 8:30pm and will take place in the Swartz Center for Etrepreneurship in the Tepper School of Business. Sponsors include Stripe, Jane Street, Sandia, and HRT. Lunch and dinner will be provided.
Check out the detailed schedule at nova.scottylabs.org. Follow @cmu.scottylabs on Instagram for Nova updates, or email hello@scottylabs.org with any questions you have prior to the event.
| |
|  Join CMU's Scotty Ventures Club for an engaging Fireside Chat on Thursday, November 14 with Troy Demmer and gain insights into innovation, technology and leadership. Register here.
| |  Join the UEA on Tuesday, November 12 for a talk with David G. Oberdick, Partner of Counsel at Meyer, Unkovic & Scott, LLP to learn the most common intellectual property mistakes made by entrepreneurs and startups. Food will be provided! Register here.
| |
| | |
CMU Students! Apply By November 22, 2024
The Hult Prize On Campus program serves as the first phase of the annual US $1,000,000 Hult Prize competition. Student volunteers, known as Campus Directors, organize training programs and community events at their universities focused on the Hult Prize challenge of the Year.
Email Leah Lizarondo if interested and for more information.
| |
Fireside Chat with Rohyt Belani and Mirza Baig
Date: Thursday, November 14, 2024
Time: 12:30 - 1:30 PM | ET
Location: Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship, Tepper Quad, 4765 Forbes Avenue, Pgh, PA 15213
Hot startups are often pursued zealously by multiple venture capitalists. The entrepreneur, in this case, has a difficult decision to make on choosing their partner. This fireside chat is with one such investor-entrepreneur pair that navigated and nurtured their relationship with care and respect. The outcome— a bumper 5x money on invested capital in three years.
Mirza Baig (the VC) and Rohyt Belani (the entrepreneur). The pair will discuss why they each chose to work with one another, how they navigated challenging times together and where they are now
in the relationship.
Sponsored by: Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship, Graduate Entrepreneurship Club, Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Association and Scottie Ventures.
| |
| Date: November 11, 2024
Time: 5-7 PM | EST
Location: Project Olympus, 4620 Henry Street, Pittsburgh, 15213
Join the CMU Graduate Entrepreneurship Club (GEC), Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Association (UEA) and Project Olympus for a Design Challenge on Monday November 11. This two hour competition will help participants hone their technical, business and pitching skills through rapid product ideation and development. This can also be great for job interviews and upcoming startup competitions like the McGinnis Venture Competition! Meet fellow entrepreneurs, engineers, designers and potential cofounders—this event is open to all colleges and degree programs on campus.
| |
Hult Prize Info Session
Date: Thursday, November 21, 2024
Time: 12:30-1:30 PM ET
Location: Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship, Tepper Quad, 4765 Forbes Avenue, 3rd Fl.
Join Swartz Center Entrepreneur-In-Residence Leah Lizarondo at this in-person information session to learn more about the Hult Prize.
| |
Business Owner Workshop: Personal Transition
Planning To Exit On Your Terms
Date: Thursday, November 21, 2024
Time: 11:30 am - 3:00 PM | ET
Location: Pittsburgh Marriott City Center, 112 Washington Place
Join nationally recognized business transition expert, Laurie Barkman for an interactive workshop exploring the practical and emotional aspects of business transition and how to avoid exit regrets.
| |
| CONNECTS/START SMART LAW SEMINARS
| |
|  11/13
REGISTER
Outcome and Impact Measurement
(Bob Blattberg, CMU Professor of Marketing)
| |
| | |
Note: This is the last CONNECTS seminar for the Fall semester. The CONNECTS will resume in January, 2025.
| |
| Can't make a CONNECTS? Watch on our YouTube channel.
Find out more and see the full schedule.
| |
|
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
| |
| Click the images to see upcoming Club events!
| |
| Date: November 9-10, 2024
Join Hack for Social Impact and tackle real-world challenges! We are teaming up with United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification and Chan Zuckerburg Initiative and other non-profit partners to present you with important, pressing, and well-scoped challenges.
| |
|
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. Find out more and
get involved!
| |
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 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 for office hours outside of these regular 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.
| | |
COMMUNITY OPPORTUNITIES/RESOURCES
| |
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 |
|
|
|
