Is AI the Missing Piece to Your Communication Skills Training Strategy?
In a recent press release from a group that works with us at Olympus, TalkMeUp, the platform that uses AI to help its users create a culture of super-communicators, the company addresses the issue of how many reserve communication skills training for high-potential employees and executives, indefinitely delaying a broader effort when time and budget allows. It also discusses how AI is the ingredient that allows communication skills development possible across the business.
Mark DeSantis, CEO of Bloomfield: $8.5 Million Raised to Build the Future of Agriculture Robotics
Check out this podcast from Front Lines. Topics Discussed:
- Mark DeSantis’ entrepreneurial background and what brought him to the ag-tech business
- The wide application of AI technology and automation across critical components of the agriculture sector
- Individual monitoring and assessment of speciality crops as a game-changer for the industry
- The looming challenge of feeding a growing global population, and the role of automated technologies in future food security
- The future of AI in the agriculture sector more generally, and how Bloomfields is preparing to position themselves as leaders in the space
Fluid Reality Wins "Best Demo" Award at IEEE World Haptics Conference
Fluid Reality, a startup co-founded by Joe Mullenback and Craig Shultz and has participated in Project Olympus, the Innovation Commercialization Fellows program, and the NSF I-Corps program, recently won the "Best Demo" award at the IEEE World Haptics Conference in Delft, Netherlands.
The two have been recognized by the experts in the field on the largest stage for haptics.
Gather AI Becomes the Largest Autonomous Inventory Management Platform in the World
Gather AI, a provider of AI-powered autonomous inventory management solutions for warehouses using commodity hardware, announces today that it is acquiring the business of Ware, another large player in the market. With this acquisition, Gather AI is now the market leader in the space with 25 customers, more than any other autonomous inventory management company, and the technical platform best able to meet accelerating customer demand.
ToyzSTEAM turning kids into superheroes through video games
Host Heather Abraham is chatting with Damola and Wole Idowu, a father and son duo inspiring kids to learn the STEAM subjects through video game superheroes.
Pittsburgh’s Resilient Lifescience wants to use tech to reduce opioid overdose deaths
At the time, Holden’s full-time job was working in product and operations at Infinitus Systems, a San Francisco-based AI platform for healthcare professionals. But the experience made him decide he could use his background in medical device work and degree in biomedical engineering to address the opioid epidemic. Fast forward to 2022, and Holden would pitch his idea — a wearable medical device designed to detect and reverse overdoses using naloxone to prevent deaths — to his would-be cofounder and CTO Charlie Proctor.
A company started to take form.
Project Olympus Show & Tell gave Pittsburgh founders a chance to network and problem solve
A dozen startup founders pitched ideas for addressing issues ranging from finding a parking spot to treating opioid overdoses at the annual CMU event.
When you present at the Project Olympus Show & Tell, you must come prepared not to try and sell a product, but to answer one question: What problem are you trying to solve?
These are the first 6 startups selected for placement in the inaugural Robotics Factory cohort
Congratulations to two Project Olympus startups, Aquatonomy Inc. and Voiage, on being selected to the inagural Robotics Factory Cohort!
The Robotics Factory, an initiative led by startup investment firm Innovation Works Inc. in partnership with the nonprofit Pittsburgh Robotics Network, announced that these six preseed firms will be eligible to receive up to $100,000 in funding. These startups will also have access to co-working space, mentorship and strategic resources to help grow company operations during the seven-month program, itself part of the "Accelerate" element of the Robotics Factory's three-pronged mandate, with the other two being "Create" and "Scale."
Q&A With Toyz Electronics Co-Founders Damola Idowu and Wole Idowu
Meet the team empowering diverse and disadvantaged students to find rewarding careers.
Can you provide a short description of your product?
We are empowering disadvantaged students by gamifying STEAM learning and training using hip-hop culture and entrepreneurship. Our activities expose kids to superhero industry veterans who have achieved high levels of success in their professions so they can better envision themselves in STEAM careers. For example, we ran a hackathon at Carnegie Mellon where the General Manager of EA spent 30 minutes on Skype answering questions from students on game development.
Read more...
BlastPoint elevates past $5.25 million in funding, targets increasing headcount by 50% before year's end
An East Liberty startup has surpassed an investment milestone of over $5.25 million in seed funding and it's now looking to increase its workforce by about 50% of its current headcount before the end of the year.
BlastPoint Inc., a software firm that provides companies with affordable and accessible artificial intelligence-powered data tools for market analysis and other metrics, employs 21 full-time workers across 10 states, but most are based in Pittsburgh.
Alison Alvarez Selected to EY Entrepreneurs Access Network
Alison Alvarez, CEO and Co-Founder of Blastpoint, has been selected to join the 2023 cohort of the EY Entrepreneurs Access Network for Black and Hispanic/Latino leaders.
Read more on LinkedIn...
On keeping the ‘big-picture goal’ in mind: 10 questions with Farm to Flame Energy cofounder Kwaku Jyamfi
In this RustBuilt Pittsburgh Q&A, the exec shares lessons on building a mission-driven team and scaling a young energy company.
If you’re anything like Kwaku Jyamfi, he says, you might tend to get lost in the details of growing a company. That’s not necessarily a bad thing — but seeking advice from others who’ve been in your place can go a long way to keep perspective.
In 2018, Jyamfi and Will McKnight cofounded Farm to Flame, a Duquesne-based startup bringing clean energy to farmers and businesses by manufacturing generators that replace diesel with carbon neutral feedstocks.
Read more...
Shift Robotics' Moonwalkers Featured in Video by WIRED
WIRED's Brent Rose has some questions: Are the Moonwalkers by Shift Robotics real? Are they safe? Are they actually any good? Brent goes inside Shift Robotics's research and development lab to get some answers.
Watch the full video...
Resilient Lifescience Wins $500K In Richard King Mellon Foundation Pitch Competition
Resilient Lifescience, co-founded by CMU alumnus and CEO Brad Holden, won first place and $500K at the second Richard King Mellon Foundation's Social-Impact Investment Pitch Competition. The company, which aims to combat drug overdoses with wearable, intelligent drug delivery systems, was also recently named to Technical.ly's 2023 RealLIST Startups list for Pittsburgh.
Read more at Technical.ly...
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Cleantech Open Northeast Announces 2023 Cohort
Congratulations to two Project Olympus groups, InceptEV and Power3D, on being accepted to the 2023 Cleantech Open Northeast cohort!
Cleantech Open Northeast (CTONE), the northeast region of the nation’s largest cleantech startup accelerator, has welcomed 47 startups from across the northeast and around the globe into its 2023 cohort, NECEC announced today. Selected from a pool of 80 applicants, this year’s cohort is diverse, and extremely driven to commercialize high-impact solutions to improve the environment and combat climate change.
Ecotone Renewables wants to help Pittsburgh reach its zero waste goal
Food waste costs the US an estimated $218 billion per year. Since the Pittsburgh region counted more than 4,000 restaurants and other eating establishments in the region as of 2020, the Steel City isn’t immune from needing to be vigilant about how it handles its food waste. Through Pittsburgh’s Climate Action Plan, the city is working toward eliminating organic waste from its landfills by 2030.
A sustainability-minded startup is helping the city work toward this goal.
Farm to Flame Energy Inks $4.4M Purchase Agreement
Pittsburgh-based renewable energy startup and Incubator alumni company Farm to Flame Energy recently announced a $4.4 million combined heat and power purchase agreement with a Vermont furniture company.
“We’re very excited about this contract as it’s a 20-year contract, and it shows the long-term growth trajectory that Farm to Flame has,” explained Kwaku Jyamfi (KJ), the company’s CEO & co-founder.
Edulis Therapeutics and Magnify BioScience Invited to Pitch in the 2023 RICE Business Plan Competition
Congratulations to Edulis Therapeutics and Magnify BioScience, both groups that have worked with Project Olympus, on being invited to pitch at the prestigious RICE Business Plan Competition, the world's largest and richest intercollegiate student startup competition! This is a huge honor, and we are wishing them the best of luck!
Toyz Electronics is gamifying STEM to draw diverse students into Tech
Not everyone can walk the path of early genius and start pursuing an engineering degree at 16 the way Damola Idowu did — and like his son, Wole would similarly do at Carnegie Mellon University at 15. But almost anyone could download Dah-Varsity, Toyz Electronics’ video game app based on the father-son duo.
The goal is to expose “diverse and disadvantaged students” to STEAM.
Inspired by Booker T. Washington’s educational outreach, Toyz Electronic is on a mission to get more Black people involved in tech, Idowu told Technical.ly...
Gather AI CEO Sankalp Arora Named A Pittsburgh Deal Maker of the Year
Carnegie Mellon University alumnus and Gather AI co-founder and CEO Sankalp Arora has been named a Pittsburgh Deal Maker of the Year by Smart Business Deal Makers. Sankalp will be honored at the Pittsburgh M&A Conference in Pittsburgh on February 9, 2023.
Edulis invited to 2023 MassChallenge HealthTech Sprint
Congratulations to Spencer Matonis and Edulis on being invited to the 2023 MassChallenge HealthTech Sprint. This is an 8-week program intended to work intensely with 20-25 startups to accelerate the tools and technologies that could transform healthcare.
Bloomfield Robotics looks to grow strategic partnerships following $4.4 million funding raise
A Lawrenceville-based agriculture-tech startup has landed $4.4 million in external funding that will be used to aid the company's growth of its robotics-based technology that's being used by international companies in the specialty crop industry.
Bloomfield Robotics CEO Mark DeSantis said he's looking forward to growing the startup's relationship with Osaka, Japan-based agricultural machinery company Kubota Corp. and Bordeaux, France-based wine producer Oeneo Group...
Read more...
HEARTio wins first place and $75,000 at the Tulane Business Model Competition.
Heart Input Output Inc. (DBA HEARTio)—a digital diagnostic startup using artificial intelligence to help emergency providers identify heart abnormalities more quickly, more accurately, and at a fraction the cost—is pleased to announced that it has won first place, and a cash reward of $75,000, in the Tulane Business Model Competition. HEARTio was selected the top of 123 team applications, 6 semi-finalists, and 3 finalists. The competition was filled with ventures that had amazing ideas and commercialization strategies.
HEARTio wanted to take a moment to thank Tulane University, the Albert Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Tulane’s A. B. Freeman School of Business, and all of the administration, judges, and volunteers. All helped to make sure this competition ran smoothly, and made sure that meaningful and engaging questions were asked.
2023 Startups to Watch
Check out these 10 Pittsburgh startups to watch in 2023 including a number of them that work with us at Project Olympus (including MindTrace (pictured above), Resilient Lifescience, and Farm to Flame Energy).
The past year has been a tumultuous time to run a tech startup.
A previous decade-long showering of venture capital dollars has turned into an apparent drought, while pandemic-induced demand that led to rapid payroll growth has since subsided, leading to widespread layoffs and even complete shutdowns of companies. And just a few weeks ago, a bank that almost exclusively courted and catered to many of the nation’s startups collapsed in a matter of 36 hours.
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