Customer and Competitor Discovery via Database Research*

Thursday, January 18, 2018
12:30-2 pm
Tepper, Room 322
Presenter: Ryan Splenda, CMU Business and Economic Librarian
*Bring your own lunch
Presentation

Good market research informs the planning of any entrepreneurial venture and underlies its success. This workshop, that will incorporate demonstrations and hands-on activities, will show how to maximize the information resources available from CMU‘s libraries. Bring your laptop.

Advance Your Internet Selling Power*

Tuesday, January 23, 2018
12:30-2 pm
Newell Simon Hall 3305
Presenter: Laurie Barkman, Chief Marketing & Business Development Officer, Burns White LLC
*Bring your own lunch
Presentation

Regardless of what you are selling, your business should be working to attract and convert customers.  In this workshop, learn how to use sales funnel and customer journey frameworks to map an epic customer journey online.

Digital Marketing: It’s All About the Numbers*

Thursday, January 25, 2018
12:30-2 pm
Tepper, Room 322
Presenter: Eric Boduch, Pendo
*Bring your own lunch

Learn how marketing has changed in the last 10 years while discussing the marketing stack of today, how to experiment and scale a digital marketing organization and look at how a high growth startup grew its revenues.

Making Things Here*

Tuesday, January 30, 2018
12:30-2 pm
Newell Simon Hall 3305
Presenter: Afshan Khan, AlphaLab Gear
*Bring your own lunch
Presentation

For the last decade, investors, media and those who follow technology have been focused almost entirely on software. More recently, the buzz has shifted to hardware and manufactured products. Learn why CMU entrepreneurs are positioned to take advantage of the renewed interest in physical products and the resources available to help get their products from idea to market.

Getting Started with Sales*

Thursday, February 1, 2018
12:30-2 pm
Tepper, Room 322
Presenter: Bruce Smith, Achieving Sales Results, LLC
*Bring your own lunch
Presentation

How do you grow your company when you lack customers or references? How do you hire your first sales person and manage them? Learn about startup sales and techniques that help you get in the door, close the sale and how to set sales goals.

Start Smart: Company Formation

Thursday, February 1, 2018
5:30-7 pm
University of Pittsburgh
Presenter: David Lehman, K&L Gates
Presentation

Learn the basic legal issues that can occur with entity formation, including founder arrangements, founder employment arrangements, splitting the founder's equity pie, founder agreements and employee equity. The seminar will be followed by a workshop that will assist startups in the pre-company formation stage with developing a roadmap that covers recommended structure, operating agreements and other formation issues.

If you have a startup and would like to participate in the workshop, contact kit@cs.cmu.edu. If you are a law student interested in participating, contact SAD111@pitt.edu.

Lean Startups*

Monday, February 5, 2018
12:30-2 pm
Newell Simon Hall 3305
Presenter: Dave Mawhinney, CMU Swartz Center
*Bring your own lunch
Presentation

The Lean Startup is a technical approach to generating and managing startups, helping to get an anticipated product or service into the hands of customers faster. Learn how to make your startup lean and efficient using entrepreneurial best practices in this seminar.

Start Smart: Starting a Business with an F-1 Visa

Tuesday, February 6, 2018
5:30-7 pm
Tepper, Room 322
Presenter: Panel Discussion
Presentation

Join us for a panel discussion that will address how students with an F-1 visa can start a business or work on a startup team without violating their student status.

The panel participants are to be determined.

Business Model Canvas*

Wednesday, February 7, 2018
12:30-2 pm
Tepper, Room 322
Presenter: Dave Mawhinney, CMU Swartz Center
*Bring your own lunch
Presentation

The goals of this workshop are to identify and explain innovative business models. Find out what will work and what won’t for developing your business.

Tax, Business and Accounting Issues for Startups*

Thursday, February 8, 2018
12:30-2 pm
Tepper, Room 322
Presenter: William Richardson & Carissa Habsburg, Sisterson & Co. LLP
*Bring your own lunch
Presentation

Learn practical tax, accounting and business considerations that startups face in their first few years of operation.

Start Smart: Raising Capital

Thursday, February 8, 2018
5:30-7 pm
Newell Simon Hall 3305
Presenter: David Lehman, K&L Gates
Presentation

Learn about the legal issues associated with raising capital through friends and family, seed and series A, B, C, etc. Discuss the following:

•  Structuring the investments to maximize growth

• Opportunities available due to the new JOBS Act

• Crowdsourcing and proposed SEC regulation

• Funding from incubators/accelerators, government and foundations

Financial Modeling*

Tuesday, February 13, 2018
12:30-2 pm
Gates Hillman Center 4405
Presenter: Phil Compton, CFO - SingleSource Property Solutions
*Bring your own lunch
Presentation
Cap Table Example
Financial Model Template

If you’re going to start a company, mapping out your financial projections will be an important part of that process. Learn the basics and gain insight on how to incorporate assumptions and flexibility into a model.  Understand and be able to discuss key terms such as burn rate, cash runway and EBITDA which will allow you to more confidently support your projections to investors, Board and fellow team members.

How to Pitch to Angels*

Thursday, February 15, 2018
12:30-2 pm
Tepper, Room 322
Presenter: Don Morrison, BlueTree Allied Angels
*Bring your own lunch
Presentation

Angels invest much more than VCs and at earlier stages, which means that angel investors may be a vital source of funding for your startup. Learn how to deliver a pitch that stands out from the crowd.

Start Smart: Raising Capital Part 2-Negotiating Term Sheets*

Thursday, February 15, 2018
5:30-7 pm
University of Pittsburgh
Presenter: David Lehman & Henry Snyder, K&L Gates

Attend this interactive workshop to learn how to address the business and legal issues associated with making investments in startups, including negotiation strategies, valuation, founder and investor rights, vesting, management and exits. Participants will divide into two groups—one to represent the investor and the other to represent the company.  Both will decide independently on the terms they want and then brought back together for the negotiation led by the lawyers.

Agile Product Development*

Tuesday, February 20, 2018

12:30-2 pm

Newell Simon Hall 3305

Presenter: Sean Ammirati, Birchmere Ventures & Labs 

*Bring your own lunch
Presentation

Learn an iterative and interactive framework to manage the process of building your startup's technology solution. Master specific tips for implementing this framework in your venture and hear case studies from local Pittsburgh companies who have taken advantage of these techniques.

Splitting the Equity Pie & Other Aspects of Equity Compensation*

Thursday, February 22, 2018

12:30-2 pm

Tepper, Room 322

Presenter: Frank Demmler, Innovation Works

*Bring your own lunch
Presentation
Founder Share Vesting
Founder's Pie Calculator
Cutting the Founder's Pie

Equity compensation can be a very mysterious concept for first-time entrepreneurs. Learn how to make critical decisions from the division of the Founders' Pie through stock option grants.

Insurance for Startups: What Do I Needs and When?*

Tuesday, February 27, 2018 

12:30-2 pm

Gates Hillman Center 4405

Presenter: Sean Ruppert, Kraemer, Manes & Associates LLC.

*Bring your own lunch
Presentation

For startups running on a lean budget, obtaining the right insurance is essential. Learn about the unique risks that can arise when running your business, when you should address those risks and how they can be addressed with insurance.

Understanding Convertible Debt*

Thursday, March 1, 2018

12:30-2 pm

Tepper, Room 322

Presenter: Adam Kelson, K&L Gates

*Bring your own lunch

Convertible promissory notes are a common form of investment in early stage companies. Adam Kelson will lead a discussion of terms and conditions typically found in convertible notes, including interest, conversion mechanics and covenants.

Start Smart: Protecting Your Company’s IP Assets*

Thursday, March 1, 2018

5:30-7 pm 

Newell Simon Hall 3305

Presenter: George Dickos & Lauren Shuttleworth Murray, K&L Gates

Presentation
LSM Patent and Trademark Search

This seminar will cover legal issues related to intellectual property, including:

• How to protect your company's IP

• How not to infringe on another's IP

• How to handle IP created by your employees, including non-compete clauses

• Which IP protection to use: copyright, patents, trademarks and/or trade secrets

• First to file vs. First to invent: changes in US patent law


Finding Follow-on Capital: Identifying and Engaging Your Next Investors*

Thursday, March 22, 2018
12:30-2 pm 

Tepper, Room 322

Presenter: Benjamin Garber, MedExpress
*Bring your own lunch
Presentation

"We've very excited about your company, but it's just not a fit for us right now."  Sound familiar?  In this workshop you'll learn how to use tools currently available to all CMU students to run the same process used by investment bankers and venture capitalists to target next round investors.  We will cover profiling your company and potential investors, available resources and how to use them, getting prepared and what to expect when raising capital.  Fundraising is an arduous process.  Engaging the right audience can make it easier.  

Start Smart: Preparing for an Exit

Thursday, March 22, 2018 

5:30-7 pm 

University of Pittsburgh

Presenter: David Lehman, K&L Gates

Presentation

Acquisitions are the most common form of exit. Learn how to prepare the company for sale, including the due diligence process, sale process and potential auctions, the role of investment bankers, tax implications, typical structures, including earn-outs, employment and non-competition obligations.

Buy-Sell Agreements & NDAs*

Thursday, March 29, 2018

12:30-2 pm 

Tepper, Room 322

Presenter: Kristopher Micknowski, The Lynch Law Group
*Bring your own lunch

Join Kristopher Micknowski as he gives an overview of the differences between agreements associated with corporations and LLCs. You will learn about Non-Disclosure Agreements (Confidentiality Agreements)—when to use one and how to determine if your agreement should be one-sided or reciprocal—and the six trigger events that form the basis of an Operating/Buy-Sell Agreement: death, disability, divorce, bankruptcy, retirement and voluntary quit.

FDA Vision for Novel Technologies*

Tuesday, April 3, 2018 

12:30-2 pm

Posner Center
Presenter: Dr. Elora Gupta, Drug and Device Advisory Group, and Courtney Williamson, AbiliLife
*Bring your own lunch
Presentation

Engaging with FDA as a startup? Learn strategies and tools for streamlined product development with differentiated label.

The Hustlenomics Way. Hip-Hop Business 101*

Thursday, April 5, 2018 

12:30-2 pm 

Tepper, Room 322

Presenter: Damola Idowu, EIC & Founder of Owners Illustrated Magazine
*Bring your own lunch

Join us for an interactive discussion on the business of hip-hop, its cultural influences, provocative marketing techniques and alternative distribution channels that has made it the dominant popular global music culture. 

Start Smart: Social Enterprise-Profit with a Purpose

Thursday, April 12, 2018

5:30-7 pm

Newell Simon Hall 3305

Presenter: Stephanie Dangel, IPI, University of Pittsburgh Law

Presentation

This is a must-attend event for anyone interested in starting and running a company that blends profit with purpose. Learn about for-profit, non-profit and hybrid social enterprise entities and the legal issues related to each entity choice, including financing and employment issues.

Start Smart: Cryptocurrency – The Regulatory Landscape

Monday, April 23, 2018

5:30-7 pm

Newell Simon Hall 3305

Presenter: Michael Philipp, Partner, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP
Presentation

As the development and use of cryptocurrency races ahead, regulators throughout the world are trying to catch-up.  Michael Philipp, a partner at Morgan Lewis who counsels financial services clients on regulatory, compliance and enforcement matters, will  provide insight into the current state of cryptocurrency regulation.  He will review which governmental bodies regulate cryptocurrencies, cryptocurrency markets, and participants and what do the regulations involve.  He will also address the legal and regulatory significance of different functional characteristics of cryptocurrencies and what types of activities and participants may implicate different federal and state regulators.  Finally, the talk will also cover how different regulators have enforced laws and rules related to cryptocurrencies and how regulations are evolving.