Listen to Peduto's Roundtable with Pittsburgh's Tech Leaders

Photo by Clara Michelle

Pittsburgh's Mayor Peduto is holding a series of roundtable discussions with area technology and innovation leaders. The series focuses on the tech and maker culture that is part of the region. If you are interested in listening in on the conversation, check out the details below.

The events are being held in conjunction with the White House Business Council, according to Peduto's office.

The series kicked off June 9 with a roundtable on the maker movement. A discussion on co-working and accelerator spaces is set for Aug. 6 and another on startups is slated for Aug. 13.

Thursday's event will not be open to the public due to space constrains, but will be broadcast live at 2 p.m. on the City Cable Channel. 

Read more  

Registration is Now Open for the 3 Rivers Venture Fair

Photo by The Editor

The 3 Rivers Venture Fair is taking place on October 7th and 8th at Heinz Field! If you aren't familiar with the event yet, it showcases the region's hottest and up-and-coming technology startups to investors. A selected group of entrepreneurs pitch their innovations with the chance to attract funding. 

Registration to attend the event is now open. If your company would like the chance to present your idea to investors, you can find the free application here.

Since its debut in 2002, the mission of the 3 Rivers Venture Fair has remained steadfast; to foster the commercialization of promising technology innovations through investment.\

In the twelve years since, the 3RVF has grown both in size and stature and is, today, heralded as one of the largest, most respected technology investment showcases in the U.S and a must-see for influential investors seeking lucrative ground-floor opportunities. 

Companies featured at the 3RVF have gone on to raise over $500 million, a testament to the caliber of our presenters and the potential of their innovations to transform business and industry, from manufacturing to marketing and every sector in between. 

Read more at the 3 Rivers Venture Fair website.

11 Pittsburgh Startups Receive Investments from CMU's Open Field Entrepreneurs Fund

Photo by Joey Gannon

Eleven Pittsburgh-based startups were awarded investments from CMU's Open Field Entrepreneurs Fund. Investments were given to a total of 16 startups, 37 since the fund began in 2012. Recipients of the award are Carnegie Mellon alum and entrepreneurs that have graduated in the last five years. More information about the fund and the list of this round's recipients are below.

Each OFEF recipient received a $50,000 investment, along with personalized mentoring from CMU faculty and alumni. Peter Stern, Kaplan’s classmate and co-founder of Datek Online, provides advisory support for the fund and serves as a mentor to one of the OFEF award recipients.

The local recipients and a brief description of what each does are listed alphabetically below:

• BandPass provides bands with direct assets to the shows they want to play and gives venues the information they need to book shows.
• Bistrobot uses robotics technology to create fresh food in a timely manner.
• Collected allows users to uncover and reuse existing work by providing related content from the user’s cloud accounts as they type.
• Digital Dream Labs teaches children how to build programs as they guide characters in a video game through puzzles, learning the fundamentals of computer sciences along the way.
• Greenovation designs, builds and develops affordable and sustainable housing.
• Innovesca develops processing technologies to provide users with a detailed account of food’s nutritional benefits.

Read more

Young Entrepreneur of the Year Celebration and Symposium

Congratulations to ActivAided Orthotics CEO, Kelly Collier, on being named the Young Entrepreneur of the Year! The award is given by the Western Pennsylvania Small Business Administration (SBA) to a rising entrepreneur that is making a significant impact to the local community with his or her innovation and business savvy. 

Kelly's company, ActivAided Orthotics, is dedicated to supporting active lifestyles through the development of innovative products that work to retrain proper posture and biomechanics. In celebration, ActivAided and the Western Pennsylvania SBA are holding a "Celebration and Symposium on Evolving Physical Medicine After the ACA" at RCI on August 4! To attend, please RSVP by July 28. For more details, view the flyer below.