
CARNEGIE MELLON VENTURE CHALLENGE
Annual national startup competition to win seed funding, legal services, and mentorship.
Demo Day April 8th, 2023
We believe in great ideas.
Student teams that compete at CMU VC are truly offered a unique value proposition - exposure, funding, and feedback. Early-stage companies require significant prototyping funds before a working product can materialize. In order to help teams grow from the experience, the CMU VC aims to objectively reward innovative teams with capital, services, and constructive feedback from experts in a variety of technical and legal domains.
Timeline
Application Opens
Application Deadline
Finalists Announced
Demo Day
January 1, 2023
March 1, 2023
March 15, 2023
April 8, 2023
2022 KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Tim Zheng is the CEO and Co-Founder of Apollo.io. Apollo, YCombinator alumni, recently announced a Series C led by Sequoia Capital of $110 million, bringing their total funding to over $150 million. Before launching Apollo in 2015, the Massachusetts-born entrepreneur founded, built, and sold e-learning platform BrainGenie. Zheng graduated from MIT in 2011, where he studied Math and CS.
Tim Zheng
CEO AND COFOUNDER OF APOLLO

Explore CMU VC
For each of the finalists, the CMU VC brings together a strong network of resources, including mentorship from serial entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, attorneys, and the opportunity to present and pitch to a panel of judges and the city of Pittsburgh.
2023 Schedule of Events:
12:00 pm Introductions and Keynote Speaker
12:30 pm: Startup Pitches (Part I)
2:00 pm: Lunch Break
2:30 pm: Startup Pitches (Part II)
4:00 pm: Networking Session and Judges' Deliberation
4:30 pm: Awards
Our past sponsors
Want to help launch the generation of innovators? Contact us for information about sponsoring, judging, and speaking at the CMU VC 2023.