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| IMPORTANT EVENTS & DEADLINES!
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Attending to Oneself: A Workshop for CMU Startup Founders Focused on Mental Health
Tuesday, November 19, 2024 | 12:30 - 1:30 PM | CMU Swartz Center
Join us for a workshop for CMU startup founders focused on mental health, wellness, and battling burnout. The session will be available in person and remotely via Zoom.
Presented by CMU Counseling & Psychology Services
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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!
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|  | Mach 9 team: Alexander Baikovitz, Co-founder and CEO, pictured second from left
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Quiet Capital Announces $12M Seed to Support Mach9
Quiet Capital has just announced a $12M seed to support Mach9, co-founded by CMU alumnus and CEO Alex Baikovitz, in their mission to automate geospatial data production. Led by Quiet Capital (Michael Bloch, Matt Humphrey), other new and existing investors include Overmatch Ventures (Evan Loomis), Kyle Vogt (founder of Cruise), Amar Hanspal (former CEO of Autodesk), Scott Belsky (CPO of Adobe), Gokul Rajaram (former executive at DoorDash), Flexcap Ventures (Andrew Vigneault), Terrence Rohan and Badrul Farooqi (early Figma).
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Mill Selected As a 2024 Good Housekeeping Kitchen
Gear Award Winner
Mill, the oderless food recycler founded by CEO Matt Rogers, was recently selected for the 2024 Good Housekeeping Kitchen Gear Award in the Next Wave Kitchen Innovations category.
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|  | 2024-26 James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellows (missing from photo: Anthony Edwards)
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| The 2024-26 James R. Swartz Fellows and Innovation Scholars Are Ready to Take on the World!
The newly selected graduate Swartz Fellows and undergraduate Innovation Scholars participated in the annual photo shoot during their weekly Proseminar on Friday, November 1, 2024. The students will visit California's Bay Area for the annual Entrepreneurship Trek the week of January 6, where they will meet various CMU alumni founders, visit venture capital firms, participate in alumni networking events and search for summer internships.
We think this bunch is ready to solve the world's most pressing issues, one idea at a time!
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|  | 2024-26 Innovation Scholars (missing from photo: Timothy Brown; Ekaterina Demenkova (CMU Qatar); Simran Jolly and Aaryan Lalwani)
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Project Olympus Announces Three New
Entrepreneurs-in-Residence
After a careful search for experts who could advise in AI, Robotics and Life Sciences, three experienced CMU alumni were chosen to join Project Olympus as the newest EIR's.
Clockwise from Left: JJ Xu, CEO and founder of TalkMeUp, an AI-powered SaaS platform transforming communication training for the workforce through personalized, scalable coaching solutions. With a background in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), as well as business administration, JJ—also an EIR at the Swartz Center and an adjunct professor at CMU's Tepper School of Business—bridges technical innovation with business acumen to deliver high-impact solutions in the real world.
Matt Spettel is the CEO and founder of trainwell, a Pittsburgh-based remote personal training and nutrition coaching startup. A CMU alumnus with a robotics engineering background, Matt specializes in building and scalable innovative consumer products.
Laura Ohlund, an alumna of CMU'sTepper School of Business, co-founded a virtual reality medical imaging system which many local and other medical professionals used in their training. As a global strategy consultant, Laura worked with clients such as Disney, DuPont, Prudential and Louisville Slugger to define and execute change on a large scale with returns of $40M+. As an elected public official and Board President of multiple organizations, she was responsible for budgets of over $65M and had direct governance responsibility for policy.
Welcome to the Project Olympus team JJ, Matt, and Laura!
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R.K. Mellon Foundation Awards Combined $1.4M
to Four CMU Startups at Social-Impact Pitch Competition
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| Korion Health Takes Fourth Place and $200K Investment
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TravExp Launches Its New Android and iOS Apps!
Founded by CMU MBA alumnus Sai Harish Balijepalli, his company TravExp has launched its
new Android and iOS apps. Now, with collaborative planning tools and rewards for sharing experiences, TravExp makes it easier than ever to plan your next adventure and share unforgettable moments with fellow travelers.
TravExp is actively seeking talented full-stack developers, machine learning engineers and investor partners to join its mission. Connect with Harish and discover TravExp today—your journey awaits!
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As part of a research study through the NSF I-Corps Hub, we are recruiting participants to play an online simulation game called The Incubator. The Incubator is designed for participants to explore the decisions involved in building a successful startup, like customer discovery, securing funding, and product design. Participants will need to complete a pre-study survey that takes 10-15 minutes and the game itself lasts 15 minutes.
Recruiting is open to those who identify as startup company founders both from and external to the NSF I-Corps program. Your participation in the study would be appreciated.
Please visit the direct link to the survey and simulation. Direct questions related to the study
to Cynthia Letting.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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| CONNECTS/START SMART LAW SEMINARS
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Note: The CONNECTS Seminars have ended for the Fall semester and will resume in January, 2025.
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| Can't make a CONNECTS? Watch on our YouTube channel.
Find out more and see the full schedule.
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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.
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CMU ENTREPRENEURSHIP CLUBS
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| Click the images to see upcoming Club events!
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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!
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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 for office hours outside of these regular hours.
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| 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.
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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. Find out more.
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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.
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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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