6 ms·

Carnegie Mellon creates fund to invest in its recent graduates

133 points by dpieri 15y ago

jwuphysics 15y ago
> CMU spin-offs represent 34 percent of the total companies created in Pennsylvania based on university technologies in the past five years. CMU has helped Pittsburgh rebrand itself from a coal-mining, steel-working town to a technological hub. I'm glad to hear that they want to continue the trend.
- schmittz 15y ago
  As I am in this year's graduating class, I was immensely excited to hear this news. Carnegie Mellon's greater fostering of entrepreneurship through initiatives such as this and the relatively new Engineering and Technology Innovation Management program (masters program with classes in Tepper, one of the top graduate business programs, and a required internship at a startup) will prove very fruitful. If we could just also get Google Fiber to come to Pittsburgh, it would be possible to start to see another great entrepreneurship hub form.
  - nicpottier 15y ago
    What does Google Fiber have to do with it? Just curious, as the internet access was plenty fast at CMU 15 years ago when I was there, so I can't imagine it is worse now. And of course these days you host virtually (hah) everything in EC2 or the like, so local bandwidth should never be a limiting factor. Perhaps I'm just sensitive on this topic since I've been using an (at best of times) 100k connection in Rwanda starting a software company here.
    - schmittz 15y ago
      It's average now, slightly better than a base Comcast connection, but that's about it. (I can compare directly since I lived on campus two years and off the last two). I suppose it would depend on what you were doing that would make it matter whether Google Fiber was important or not, but certainly for running large scale things, especially simulations from cloud based sources, Google Fiber would be massively appealing. I'd argue that the effect of ultra high speed internet on a large population base isn't predictable and could only be a positive for the region in terms of drawing developers et al. Also, thank you for laughing at your pun instead of crassly saying "pun not intended."
bugsy 15y ago
So this is yet another scheme where bankers grab ownership of fledgling companies at a massive discount because the visionary founders don't yet realize their company is worth far more than is being offered. Meanwhile press releases go out making it seem like it is some sort of non-profit charity that is doing good and the investors philanthropists.
- hugh3 15y ago
  Hey, if you think these companies are being bought up at massive discounts, why don't you go to Pittsburgh and put your money where your mouth is? Invest 'em in yourself, at twice the going rate, and I'm sure the founders will be happy to take your money.
- schmittz 15y ago
  I'm absolutely confused why you have such hostility. Did you forget the premise of the organization that hosts this news board? Also, did you read the link? The funding is coming from Jon Kaplan, CEO of Pure Digital Technologies and creator of the Flip camera, not "bankers."
bkrausz 15y ago
One thing that's always upset me about CMU is how non-entrepreneurial they are. Google has a large presence there, and most major tech companies fly out for the job fairs, but startups are few and far between (Meebo and Palantir were the closest I saw 3 years ago). I think a lot of it is a byproduct of their location: Pittsburgh is many years behind the valley on investor terms and incubator programs. As a result there are few startups there. Valley startups can't really afford to head out to Pittsburgh to recruit or promote entrepreneurship, especially when Stanford & Berkeley are a car ride away (ditto with Boston/MIT). There are many great people working on this problem inside CMU, but it's an uphill battle. I'm curious what the terms of this investment will be. The worst thing CMU can do is try to force entrepreneurs to stay in Pittsburgh. Fix the attitude, then the location will fix itself.
- dpieri 15y ago
  As a student, I agree that recruiting is a huge problem. Most CMU students have jobs by October their Senior year, and startups can not afford to make offers that early, or even pay for a booth at the job fairs. It doesn't seem like this fund forces people to stay in Pittsburgh. I do think it is important that the school continue to encourage people to stay though; SF and Boston shouldn't have a monopoly on entrepreneurship.
  - jsb 15y ago
    Any advice or thoughts about what we (Pittsburgh startups) can do to get students excited about our respective companies and convince them to take a role with us over another job?
    - dpieri 15y ago
      Just come and talk to us. The first step is just letting us know you exist, and then why we should be excited about you. It will be a lot easier for you to convince Sophomores and Juniors to come on as interns than getting a graduating Senior at first. On the student's part it is much less of a risk, and besides, staying around for a summer in Pittsburgh isn't too bad. Once you get some people to intern for you then you can get some name recognition on campus and start recruiting more seriously. Well that's what I think anyways.
eljaco 15y ago
Glad to hear this - I hope other schools follow along in their footsteps. This is a good way to both invest in graduates, and improve the money problems many schools are facing (though, this is more of a long term result.)
Hawramani 15y ago
This reminds me, I have had an idea for advancing science through investing in graduate students and I would love to get some feedback on it. How about creating a foundation that gives grants to students to support them while they get a Masters or PhD in two branches of science? My assumption is that encouraging people to get high degrees in two or three branches of science will help bridge the 'specialization gap' that now exists between the branches. People on this program will be able to apply one area of science to another, which may create amazing applications. How many people are there who have a PhD in biology _and_ a PhD in computer science? What about PhD's in mathematics and robotics? I would apply immediately to anything resembling this.
- tentonwire 15y ago
  There are interdisciplinary PhD programs that are now gaining popularity. For example, I work on protein structure prediction in my graduate program, which involves lots of programming, robotics algorithms, machine learning, HPC, etc. as well as biochemistry, statistical thermodynamics, and molecular biology. If I were to drop out right now, I could find employment as anything from a software developer to DNA sequencing technician.
  - Hawramani 15y ago
    These are a pretty good start. What I had in mind is an organization that gives long-term grants for many areas of study. Of course, any returns on this kind of investment would be ten to fifteen years away, which would make it hard to find anyone to support it. And worse, we do not know if a we can have a good return on this kind of investment.
- juiceandjuice 15y ago
  I was going to talk about this, but I think part of higher education's problem is the lack of mobility between studies. I think it's hard to switch to a different area of study unless you studied at least 4-5 courses of it as an undergrad, or familiarity from research.
- yummyfajitas 15y ago
spottiness 15y ago
I heard President Cohon talk about it in today's commencement ceremony. That's great news!...to me :) (I'm a CMU alumni, CS School)
ziadbc 15y ago
There are several comments here concerned that CMU might want to keep their startups rooted in Pittsburgh. However, they have a Silicon Valley campus http://www.cmu.edu/silicon-valley/ http://www.cmu.edu/silicon-valley/ which seems to demonstrate that they have some interest in supporting those who want to be in the valley.
joshu 15y ago
Might actually be more efficient than begging for alumni donations. I would have let CMU put some dollars into my latest thing.
bvi 15y ago
I'm wondering whether this fund excludes those in need of H1bs.
ajaimk 15y ago
Georgia Tech (my college) recently announced a similar thing. Basically a Y-Combinator for students and alumni. More details at flashpoint.gatech.edu (Website doesn't launch till tuesday, so you'll have to be patient)

133 points by dpieri 15y ago

> CMU spin-offs represent 34 percent of the total companies created in Pennsylvania based on university technologies in the past five years. CMU has helped Pittsburgh rebrand itself from a coal-mining, steel-working town to a technological hub. I'm glad to hear that they want to continue the trend.

schmittz 15y ago
As I am in this year's graduating class, I was immensely excited to hear this news. Carnegie Mellon's greater fostering of entrepreneurship through initiatives such as this and the relatively new Engineering and Technology Innovation Management program (masters program with classes in Tepper, one of the top graduate business programs, and a required internship at a startup) will prove very fruitful. If we could just also get Google Fiber to come to Pittsburgh, it would be possible to start to see another great entrepreneurship hub form.
- nicpottier 15y ago
  What does Google Fiber have to do with it? Just curious, as the internet access was plenty fast at CMU 15 years ago when I was there, so I can't imagine it is worse now. And of course these days you host virtually (hah) everything in EC2 or the like, so local bandwidth should never be a limiting factor. Perhaps I'm just sensitive on this topic since I've been using an (at best of times) 100k connection in Rwanda starting a software company here.
  - schmittz 15y ago
    It's average now, slightly better than a base Comcast connection, but that's about it. (I can compare directly since I lived on campus two years and off the last two). I suppose it would depend on what you were doing that would make it matter whether Google Fiber was important or not, but certainly for running large scale things, especially simulations from cloud based sources, Google Fiber would be massively appealing. I'd argue that the effect of ultra high speed internet on a large population base isn't predictable and could only be a positive for the region in terms of drawing developers et al. Also, thank you for laughing at your pun instead of crassly saying "pun not intended."

bugsy 15y ago

So this is yet another scheme where bankers grab ownership of fledgling companies at a massive discount because the visionary founders don't yet realize their company is worth far more than is being offered. Meanwhile press releases go out making it seem like it is some sort of non-profit charity that is doing good and the investors philanthropists.

hugh3 15y ago
Hey, if you think these companies are being bought up at massive discounts, why don't you go to Pittsburgh and put your money where your mouth is? Invest 'em in yourself, at twice the going rate, and I'm sure the founders will be happy to take your money.
schmittz 15y ago
I'm absolutely confused why you have such hostility. Did you forget the premise of the organization that hosts this news board? Also, did you read the link? The funding is coming from Jon Kaplan, CEO of Pure Digital Technologies and creator of the Flip camera, not "bankers."

bkrausz 15y ago

One thing that's always upset me about CMU is how non-entrepreneurial they are. Google has a large presence there, and most major tech companies fly out for the job fairs, but startups are few and far between (Meebo and Palantir were the closest I saw 3 years ago). I think a lot of it is a byproduct of their location: Pittsburgh is many years behind the valley on investor terms and incubator programs. As a result there are few startups there. Valley startups can't really afford to head out to Pittsburgh to recruit or promote entrepreneurship, especially when Stanford & Berkeley are a car ride away (ditto with Boston/MIT). There are many great people working on this problem inside CMU, but it's an uphill battle. I'm curious what the terms of this investment will be. The worst thing CMU can do is try to force entrepreneurs to stay in Pittsburgh. Fix the attitude, then the location will fix itself.

dpieri 15y ago
As a student, I agree that recruiting is a huge problem. Most CMU students have jobs by October their Senior year, and startups can not afford to make offers that early, or even pay for a booth at the job fairs. It doesn't seem like this fund forces people to stay in Pittsburgh. I do think it is important that the school continue to encourage people to stay though; SF and Boston shouldn't have a monopoly on entrepreneurship.
- jsb 15y ago
  Any advice or thoughts about what we (Pittsburgh startups) can do to get students excited about our respective companies and convince them to take a role with us over another job?
  - dpieri 15y ago
    Just come and talk to us. The first step is just letting us know you exist, and then why we should be excited about you. It will be a lot easier for you to convince Sophomores and Juniors to come on as interns than getting a graduating Senior at first. On the student's part it is much less of a risk, and besides, staying around for a summer in Pittsburgh isn't too bad. Once you get some people to intern for you then you can get some name recognition on campus and start recruiting more seriously. Well that's what I think anyways.

eljaco 15y ago

Glad to hear this - I hope other schools follow along in their footsteps. This is a good way to both invest in graduates, and improve the money problems many schools are facing (though, this is more of a long term result.)

Hawramani 15y ago

This reminds me, I have had an idea for advancing science through investing in graduate students and I would love to get some feedback on it. How about creating a foundation that gives grants to students to support them while they get a Masters or PhD in two branches of science? My assumption is that encouraging people to get high degrees in two or three branches of science will help bridge the 'specialization gap' that now exists between the branches. People on this program will be able to apply one area of science to another, which may create amazing applications. How many people are there who have a PhD in biology _and_ a PhD in computer science? What about PhD's in mathematics and robotics? I would apply immediately to anything resembling this.

tentonwire 15y ago
There are interdisciplinary PhD programs that are now gaining popularity. For example, I work on protein structure prediction in my graduate program, which involves lots of programming, robotics algorithms, machine learning, HPC, etc. as well as biochemistry, statistical thermodynamics, and molecular biology. If I were to drop out right now, I could find employment as anything from a software developer to DNA sequencing technician.
- Hawramani 15y ago
  These are a pretty good start. What I had in mind is an organization that gives long-term grants for many areas of study. Of course, any returns on this kind of investment would be ten to fifteen years away, which would make it hard to find anyone to support it. And worse, we do not know if a we can have a good return on this kind of investment.
juiceandjuice 15y ago
I was going to talk about this, but I think part of higher education's problem is the lack of mobility between studies. I think it's hard to switch to a different area of study unless you studied at least 4-5 courses of it as an undergrad, or familiarity from research.
yummyfajitas 15y ago

spottiness 15y ago

I heard President Cohon talk about it in today's commencement ceremony. That's great news!...to me :) (I'm a CMU alumni, CS School)

ziadbc 15y ago

There are several comments here concerned that CMU might want to keep their startups rooted in Pittsburgh. However, they have a Silicon Valley campus http://www.cmu.edu/silicon-valley/ http://www.cmu.edu/silicon-valley/ which seems to demonstrate that they have some interest in supporting those who want to be in the valley.

joshu 15y ago

Might actually be more efficient than begging for alumni donations. I would have let CMU put some dollars into my latest thing.

bvi 15y ago

I'm wondering whether this fund excludes those in need of H1bs.

ajaimk 15y ago

Georgia Tech (my college) recently announced a similar thing. Basically a Y-Combinator for students and alumni. More details at flashpoint.gatech.edu (Website doesn't launch till tuesday, so you'll have to be patient)