Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship

The Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship is an entrepreneurship school and technology startup accelerator at Carnegie Mellon University. It has helped to launch over 1,000 companies including Duolingo, and reCAPTCHA.[1] It provides Carnegie Mellon affiliated startups with mentorship, investment, and space.[2]

Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship
Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship
Former name
The Donald H. Jones Center for Entrepreneurship
TypePrivate
DirectorDave Mawhinney
Address
4765 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213
,
Pittsburgh
,
Pennsylvania
,
United States

40.446468°N 79.944908°W / 40.446468; -79.944908
CampusUrban
Websitewww.cmu.edu/swartz-center-for-entrepreneurship/index.html

History

The Swartz Center is named after Carnegie Mellon University alumnus Jim Swartz (MSIA’66) who co-founded Accel in 1983. Swartz's gift of $31 million in 2015 created a dedicated center to house entreprenial programs at the university.[3] The permanent facility is located in the David Tepper Quadrangle. Artitects designed the center to be unique from the rest of the building giving it a pretuding design. Although it is located in the David A. Tepper Building, it operates independently from the Tepper School of Business.

The creation of the Swartz Center considated several of CMU's entreprenership programs including Donald H. Jones Center for Entrepreneurship (DJC), Carnegie Mellon University's Collaborative Innovation Center (CIC), and Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE).[4] The grand opening was October 25, 2016. Though the center does not cater to a specific business type, it has become a hub for AI and robotics startups.[5]

Dave Mawhinney became the executive director of the center which was a continuation of his role at the Donald H. Jones Center for Entrepreneurship.[6] The 2010s saw a surge of self-employment with many students running startups. Mawhinney would comment, "Self-employment has become more mainstream among undergraduates." citing the advancements in technology.[7] Since 2020, Mawinney has been focused on bringing more venture capital to the Pittsburgh region. He cites that Carnegie Mellon affiliated self-driving startups alone brought in over $7B in the last few years.[8]

Programs

The Swartz Center offers various programs to support the entreprenial community in Pittsburgh. The major ones are: McGinnis Venture Competition, Project Olympus, and Venture Bridge.

Project Olympus

Project Olympus is a satellite startup incubator providing mentorship, micro-grants, and co-working space to Carnegie Mellon University affiliated founders. Kit Needham serves as the Director. Each Spring, it hosts a public "Show and Tell" demo day where companies unveil new technologies.[9]

McGinnis Venture Competition

The McGinnis Venture Competition is a yearly entrepreneurship contest where students compete for over $60,000 in investment funds. The contest has two separate tracks for graduate and undergraduate students. Judges are entrepreneurs who achieved successful exits with their startups.[10]

In 2022, winners included blockchain tech and life sciences.[11]

VentureBridge

VentureBridge is a program for startups with alumni co-founders. It provides seed funding along with incubation space in San Francisco, New York, and Pittsburgh.[12] It is geared towards connecting founders with Angel investors and Venture Capital. Around 12 startups a year gratuade the program.[13]

Companies and people

Entrepreneurs-in-residence include: Steve Bollinger, Meredith Meyer Grelli known for Wigle Whiskey, William Kaigler, Foo Conner, Craig S. Markovitz, and Rob Myer known for NoWait which was acquired by Yelp. Notable companies include: Duolingo, ModCloth, CoPilot Fitness, Mach9 Robotics.[1][14]

See also

References
  1. Heater, Brian (June 28, 2021). "How Carnegie Mellon is helping build its own startups and keeping them in Pittsburgh". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 2, 2023.
  2. Schrackner, Bill (June 11, 2015). "Alumnus Swartz gives CMU $31 million gift for entrepreneur center". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved January 2, 2023.
  3. Lindstrom, Natasha (October 25, 2016). "Shrewd venture capitalist makes $31M bet on Carnegie Mellon". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Retrieved January 2, 2023.
  4. Waltz, Amanda (October 28, 2016). "Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship ushers in new era of business excellence at CMU". NEXT Pittsburgh. Retrieved January 2, 2023.
  5. Bonk, Donald (September 16, 2023). "CMU Incubates the Science Fiction Future". Pittsburgh Quarterly. Retrieved January 2, 2023.
  6. Spencer, Malia (July 27, 2012). "Dave Mawhinney settles into new role as CMU entrepreneurship director". Pittsburgh Business Times. Retrieved January 2, 2023.
  7. Monteros, Maria (July 24, 2019). "These undergraduate students are starting their own businesses to pay for college". MarketWatch. Retrieved January 2, 2023.
  8. Heater, Brian (June 28, 2021). "VCs discuss the opportunities — and challenges — in Pittsburgh's startup ecosystem". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 2, 2023.
  9. Burkholder, Sophie (April 11, 2022). "Why life sciences and big exits got the spotlight at CMU's 25th Project Olympus Show & Tell". Technical.ly. Retrieved January 2, 2023.
  10. Doughty, Nate (March 22, 2022). "NiFTy takes home top prize at McGinnis Venture Competition". Pittsburgh Business Times. Retrieved January 2, 2023.
  11. Burkholder, Sophie (March 23, 2022). "Blockchain tech and life sciences startups take top spots at CMU's 2022 McGinnis Venture Competition". Technical.ly. Retrieved January 2, 2023.
  12. Banerjee, Namrata (June 14, 2022). "Meet the VentureBridge '22 startups". Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved January 2, 2023.
  13. Doughty, Nate (June 16, 2022). "Carnegie Mellon University names 12 startups to its prestigious VentureBridge summer cohort". The Business Journals. Retrieved January 2, 2023.
  14. Barnes, Johnathan (October 17, 2022). "Mach9 Robotics Aiming at Infrastructure". Geo Week News. Retrieved January 2, 2023.
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