Startup Events in Pittsburgh

How many startups does Pittsburgh have? How much venture capital flowed into Pittsburgh last year — and where did it go? Who's building in Pittsburgh that nobody's talking about yet? Join ecosystem builders and partners in Pittsburgh as we prepare for StartUp PGH 2026. This session will provide an analysis of the startup landscape in Pittsburgh via data provided by Dealroom and roundtables of ecosystem builders. Roundtable participants include Ven Raju, Lindsay Fairman, Megan Shaw, Meredith Grelli, Charles Mansfield, Audrey Russo. Join us during lunch for an overview - leave with stats, talking points you can use throughout the week, and access to Pittsburgh's startup dashboard. Lunch is generously provided in partnership with UPMC Enterprises. StartUp PGH 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 including AI, Cybersecurity, Energy, Life Sciences, Robotics and more.

Join InnovatePGH and Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP for an in-person informative session about navigating visa pathways as an entrepreneur. This session will feature guidelines on appropriate temporary work visas and permanent-residence pathways for immigrant founders, as well as an explanation of which preliminary startup activities can and cannot take place before you have visa sponsorship in place. It will include both a presentation and a question-and-answer session. Whether you are a current student on an F-1 visa, a recent graduate on OPT, a faculty or staff member advising international students, or otherwise interested in learning about visa options for entrepreneurs, this session is a great opportunity to learn more.

Speed Dating with VCs Two hours, one room, and every founder in the incoming Foundry cohort. The night opens with a short panel on Foundry and what this cohort is building. The full incoming lineup gets introduced up front, so every investor in the room sees everyone before conversations start. At 6:30 the room breaks into 10 to 15 tables across the Swartz Center, each staffed by a VC. Founders rotate table to table with 3 to 5 minutes each to introduce themselves and pitch. Most of the cohort meets most of the room in a single sitting. Run of show 6:00 PM · Panel and cohort introduction 6:30 PM · Speed dating rounds 8:00 PM · Close and matching form What happens after Before anyone leaves the room, founders and investors both fill out a short form naming who they want to meet again. Where the interest runs both ways, Foundry sets up a group dinner around the match and schedules it within the same week, so nothing goes cold.

IP and Funding for University Research Commercialization Join University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University for two practical conversations on what it takes to move university research toward commercialization. Both panels will be moderated by Kelly Collier, Director of Ecosystem Development, LifeX. Doors open at 3:30 PM. Feel free to come, network, and get settled for the panels that will being at 4:00 PM. 4:00–4:30 PM | IP: Is Your Technology Commercially Meaningful? What makes a technology commercially meaningful, not just patentable? How do corporate and VCs evaluate emerging university technologies? What are the biggest gaps between invention disclosure and commercialization? Hear from experts who evaluate university technologies from licensing, investment, and industry partnership perspectives. Jacob P. Greenberg, Senior Manager, Business Development & Licensing, Carnegie Mellon University Maximilian von Poelnitz, GP, Foothill Ventures Scott Morley, Senior Director, Office of Industry & Economic Partnerships, University of Pittsburgh 4:30–5:00 PM | Funding: What Will Fund the Next Milestone? What types of funding are available to researchers? What evidence, validation, or milestones make a technology more fundable? How should researchers decide between grants, translational funding, and private capital? Hear from researchers who have raised funding and the decision-makers who evaluate and allocate funding: Dr. Carl Snyderman, Professor of Otolaryngology and Neurological Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Otolaryngology Director of the UPMC Center for Cranial Base Surgery Cindy Chepanoske, Director, Center for Technology and Enterprise Creation at Carnegie Mellon University Lauren Cantor Wright, Principal, Yosemite The discussion will include practical examples of what helped technologies move forward, what caused them to stall, and what researchers can do next.

Join Obvious Ventures, Construct Capital, and Alpha Intelligence Capital for drinks and light bites following CMU Lab to Market. Connect with fellow founders, researchers, investors, and industry leaders—and continue the day’s conversations about the breakthrough technologies moving from the lab into the world. Space is limited. Please RSVP to request a spot. We hope to see you there!

We have a lot to celebrate at this year’s member picnic. Not only is it during StartUp PGH Week, it’s also the first event with our new Executive Director, Anneliese Martinez, and the release of our collab beer with East End Brewing, “Founder’s Club Kolsch.” So we’ve done a little rebranding and created the Founder’s Flex Happy Hour! Open to all members, alumni, and family - plus anyone visiting for StartUp PGH Week! Join us at East End Brewing on Tuesday, September 15, from 5:30 to 8:30 pm to mingle with fellow members and innovators from across the country, welcome our new Executive Director, and try our beer! No pitches, no pressure, just new connections and celebrations! Date: Tuesday, September 15th, 2026 Time: 5:30 - 8:30 PM Location: East End Brewing Company, 147 Julius Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15206 RSVP today, and we look forward to seeing you there! If you can’t make it, please consider supporting Ascender by donating to the event here. Every dollar goes toward supporting entrepreneurs. Learn more at startuppgh.com and ascenderpgh.com #StartUPPGH

Join Foothill Ventures for a limited opportunity to connect one-on-one with the investing team during CMU Startup Week. These office hours are a chance for founders to share what they are building, get feedback, ask questions, and learn more about Foothill Ventures' perspective on early-stage startups and venture investing. Who you'll be meeting with: General Partner Max von Poelnitz: Max is a serial founder-turned investor; he has built and scaled health tech, payments, and food e-commerce businesses across the U.S. and Asia with a successful exit. He has spent a decade each in Europe and Asia and the past seven years in Silicon Valley. Most recently, he built a corporate venture fund for a single LP, establishing it as an active investor in photonics, energy, climate technology, and advanced materials. Previously, he managed investments for a family office and the minority holdings of a Dutch conglomerate, giving him experience across both founder and institutional investor perspectives. He holds an MBA from INSEAD, serves on the board of a child-development charity, and, after once aspiring to play golf professionally, still holds his own on the course. Software Investor Theresa Dai: Theresa is an investor at Foothill Ventures, where she invests in Seed and Series A companies in AI software infrastructure and applications. Before entering venture capital, Theresa started her career in consulting and worked as a product manager, building several SaaS products from 0 to 1. Her expertise spans B2B SaaS, agentic AI, healthcare technology, and both vertical and horizontal AI startups. Theresa holds a Mathematics degree from Northwestern University and an MBA from MIT. Both Max and Theresa flew in from San Francisco to meet with the CMU startup community. Availability is limited. Once your registration is approved, Foothill Ventures team will share a sign-up sheet for 20-minute meeting slots during the event window. We encourage interested founders to register early an

Pittsburgh is where AI, clinical data at scale, and world-class life sciences research share one square mile. Join us during StartUP PGH for a one-day summit that puts national investors and strategics in the room with the Pittsburgh companies and people driving human health innovation. Experience fireside chats with leading life sciences and healthcare investors, panels with the region's university and health-system leaders, company showcases, a networking lunch, and an evening reception. Agenda 8:30 – 9:30am · Registration & Breakfast Check-in and badge pickup open at 8:30am; breakfast is served at 9:00am. Find a seat before the program begins at 9:30am. 9:30 – 10:30am · Big Bets from Key Institutions These regionally anchored, globally influential institutions share the big bets they are making to discover, invest in, commercialize, and deploy human health innovation. Panelists: Theresa Mayer – Vice President for Research, Carnegie Mellon University Alistair Erskine – Chief Information Digital Officer, Highmark Health Evan Facher – Vice Chancellor for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Associate Dean Commercial Translation, University of Pittsburgh Matthias Kleinz – Executive Vice President, UPMC Enterprises Moderated by Megan Shaw, President and CEO, Pittsburgh Life Sciences Alliance 10:40 – 11:30am · Cozy Capital: Bio + Med Device Where life sciences investors are placing early-stage bio and medical device bets, and the signals they watch most closely. Panelists: Kevin White – Executive Director, Boehringer Ingelheim Deborah Palestrant – Partner, 5AM Ventures Jennifer Griffin – Partner, Strategy & Investor Relations, Mission BioCapital Moderated by Phil Jones, VP Science and Discovery, UPMC Enterprises 11:30am – 12:10pm · ARPA PGH TED-style talks from local ARPA-H awardees Panelists: Nick Nystrom – Chief Technology Officer, PeptilogicsDASH: Data and AI for Safety in Humans (CATALYST program) John Ash – Executive Vice Chair for Research and Professor in Ophthal

Find New Ideas for Your Hardest R&D Challenges in Unexpected Places Some of history’s biggest breakthroughs came from unexpected places: the Japanese bullet train borrowed from a kingfisher’s beak, the Wright brothers drew on bicycles, and NASA engineers used origami principles to solve spacecraft packaging problems. But these analogical breakthroughs still happen largely by chance. They depend on whether a team happens to encounter — and recognize — the right idea from another domain. When teams get stuck, they tend to search where they already know, while today’s AI often gives them more of the same. What if we could turn that serendipity into a repeatable, systematic process? Analogical Engines is building an AI platform to do exactly that: search distant domains for relevant mechanisms, map those mechanisms into new concepts, and help teams refine and test those concepts against real-world constraints. In a recent pilot on decade-old industrial R&D challenges, experts at a global material sciences company using Analogical Engines surfaced 30+ promising ideas that were rated 54% more novel, with no drop in feasibility, compared with just one promising idea using standard AI tools. In this interactive session, our team — researchers from Carnegie Mellon University’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute — will walk through the SMaRT framework for analogical innovation and show how we are turning more than a decade of research into a practical tool for solving hard R&D problems. You can learn more in our white paper: https://www.analogicalengines.com/research This won’t just be a talk. Bring a problem of your own. If you share an R&D challenge when you register, we can run it through Analogical Engines ahead of the session and create an account for you. During the event, you’ll be able to explore the unexpected inspirations and concepts the system finds for your problem and work through them with our team. Don’t have a problem to submit? Come anyway. Follow along w

Started at MIT, Beyond the Lab has been running for several years, the workshop is now coming to CMU to help scientists, researchers, and faculty think through what it takes to turn research into a company. Hosted by Calvin and Habib, managing partners at E14 Fund, this session draws on what we've seen helping scientists at MIT go from lab to founder, and works through the questions that come up along the way: How do you know if your research is far enough along to build a company around it? What can you start doing now, while still in the lab, to set yourself up to launch later? What roles can faculty actually take on, from advisor to board member to founder, and how do you know which one fits? What should you look for in a cofounder, and what should they look for in you? How have we seen faculty and researchers connect with the right cofounders, investors, and early support? Lunch will be served!

Looking for a quick creative reset during Startup Week? Join us for a design-focused gathering bringing together student designers, builders, and founders! Where? Tepper, PNC Rooms What to Expect No rigid presentations, just conversations about design, craft, and startup life. Whether you're crafting your first MVP, building a design system, or just want to unwind, swing by to connect with fellow Tartan creatives. Who Should Attend? Designers, researchers, product thinkers, founders, or anyone curious about design in tech. All majors and skill levels are welcome. Our Partners Figma Ventures supports early- to growth-stage founders working to close the gap between imagination and reality. Our portfolio companies rethink the way the world builds—putting craft at the center of collaboration, creativity, and product dev tools. Sachi Shah is a product manager at Figma representing Figma Ventures at CMU Startup Week. If you’re a founder, operator, or builder reimagining how products get made — from AI-native creative tools and the space between design and code to new ways for teams to collaborate together — come say hello and share what you’re working on!

Before the coffee, before the pitch decks, before the first meeting of the day, join us for a 3-mile run! StartUp PGH attendees know better than anyone: the best ideas don't wait for business hours. So instead of another session indoors, we're lacing up and hitting the streets of the neighborhoods where Pittsburgh's entrepreneurial community actually lives and works. This is a chance to start your day moving, breathe some fresh air, and connect with fellow founders, builders, and doers in a way that a conference room just can't offer. Whether you're a seasoned runner or just someone who likes a good excuse for an early morning walk-jog, you're welcome here. What to expect: A casual, all-paces-welcome run/walk through Pittsburgh's startup ecosystem Good company and better conversation A fresh way to kick off your day at StartUp PGH Bring your sneakers, bring your energy, and let's rise and grind together. We'll meet at Ascender at 6401 Penn Ave.

CMU Alumni Startups Hiring from CMU Talent CMU SPARK is back! The Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship in partnership with the Career & Professional Development Center (CPDC) is holding CMU's largest annual student networking event for startups and emerging companies. Event Details 4:45pm - Doors Open at McConomy Auditorium 5:15pm - Opening Remarks & Keynote Fireside ConversationFeaturing Boris Sofman (Co-Founder & CEO of Bedrock Robotics) and Damion Shelton (Associate Vice President & Executive Director of the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship) 5:45pm - Tech Talk Presentations with CMU Startups 7:00pm - Networking and Tabling in Rangos Ballroom with hiring startups. This is a flagship event of CMU Startup Week, a week-long celebration of entrepreneurship, innovation, and frontier tech across campus during September 14-18th, 2026.

This event will be held in a hybrid format.* *If you attend in person, the event will be held in the Swartz Center on the 3rd floor of the Tepper Quad. *If you wish to attend virtually, you can attend via zoom. Everyone will receive the zoom link when you register. Presenter: Kelley Lynch, Chief Financial Officer, sovaSage Inc. *This seminar is recommended for anyone participating in the McGinnis Venture Competition. Pricing is far more than setting a number—it is where finance, marketing, economics, psychology, and strategy intersect. In this seminar, we will review how organizations use data and analytics to optimize pricing while also understanding the behavioral factors that influence customer decisions. We will explore how organizations across industries use pricing to maximize revenue, enhance profitability, and create lasting customer value. The session will provide practical frameworks and real-world examples that can be applied across industries.

Event Details 99 Tartans Alumni Angels will be hosting Severin Hacker, co-founder and CTO of Duolingo, for a live in-person fireside chat on October 8 from 5:30-6:30 PM ET at the Carnegie Mellon University, Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship. A live Zoom feed will be available for virtual attendees as well. Please register accordingly. For those attending in person, please plan to arrive at 5:00 PM ET, as the event will begin promptly at 5:30 PM ET. Registrants are welcome to submit questions in advance for our moderator to consider. We look forward to seeing you at the event! Venue The Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship is located on the third level in Suite 3700 within the Tepper School of Business on the Carnegie Mellon University campus in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Walking Directions From the East Campus Garage, exit to Forbes Avenue and turn left. Follow Forbes Avenue past the Cohon University Center. Cross the street at the intersection of Forbes Avenue and Morewood Avenue. Continue to the left. Walk through the quad to enter the main doors of the Tepper School building (on floor 2). The Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship is located on the third level (on floor 3) in Suite 3700.