These 16 startups founded by CMU alumni showed off their growth at VentureBridge Demo Day

Over the years, Carnegie Mellon University has produced its fair share of startups, including more than a thousand that have raised venture capital in the past decade.

One way CMU supports its alumni founders is through its VentureBridge program, which is part of the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship. Through the program’s summer accelerator, CMU alumni founders get to build on their bold ideas by receiving pre-seed funding, office space, and introductions to potential customers, investors and mentors.

Since 2018, the university has hosted a fall VentureBridge Demo Day to showcase the startups that come from CMU and give the community a chance to hear from alumni founders, who are full-time working on their businesses.

“It’s a celebration of innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit,” VentureBridge Senior Director  Namrata Banerjee told Technical.ly on Wednesday ahead of the 2023 program’s demo day. “It’s a celebration of tackling big problems. It requires a lot of grit and determination to solve problems that are very difficult. And we hope [when] the attendees tonight leave the event, we hope they are hopeful and excited for the future.”

Throughout the evening event, companies ranging from software businesses to robotics startups to entertainment studios presented for the crowd that filed into the Swartz Center.

Here’s a little more about the companies and their presentations, as tweeted by CMU Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship Adam Paulisick, a VentureBridge mentor:

Addy AI

@AddyAI_ is the 24/7 customer service experience everyone in the room wanted at #venturebridgedemoday great to see the metrics that support the raise, congrats! pic.twitter.com/Kr1brQWE3A

— Adam Paulisick (@paulisick) September 20, 2023

Arieca

Refreshing to see already the range from material sciences to AI – @Arieca_Inc now up at @CMUSwartzCenter ‘s #venturebridgedemoday – we see you @Brklyninnov8tor hiding in the back! H/t @Ilanadiamond and other investors leaning in here with these amazing folks! pic.twitter.com/5HPOThXDBv

— Adam Paulisick (@paulisick) September 20, 2023

AugxLabs

There is not a single #entrepreneur who couldn’t benefit from @MeetAugie (super simple video making) – love the shortcuts (url to video) #venturebridgedemoday pic.twitter.com/NkHA3kidGw

— Adam Paulisick (@paulisick) September 20, 2023

BlastPoint

Loving this #Entrepreneurship energy from @primenumbergirl of @blastpointinc kicking us off at the @CMUSwartzCenter – let’s go! #venturebridgedemoday pic.twitter.com/Bh6Q3DyOQ2

— Adam Paulisick (@paulisick) September 20, 2023

Conduit

29,000 service workers quit their jobs everyday and that’s where Conduit kicks in from #venturebridgedemoday – creating the environment that workers want pic.twitter.com/1193w36ayO

— Adam Paulisick (@paulisick) September 20, 2023

Erosion

Can’t wait to see where Erosion Made (climate focused film) takes their “campy horror” #venturebridgedemoday pic.twitter.com/l3Fic3xDZ3

— Adam Paulisick (@paulisick) September 20, 2023

ESTAT actuation

Congrats ESTAT actuation as the first @CMUSwartzCenter #venturebridgedemoday to bring out the robots 🤖 and the materials that will help them all scale! (https://t.co/Ho3j9KjRqa) pic.twitter.com/VyzcnWZATD

— Adam Paulisick (@paulisick) September 20, 2023

Fluid Reality

Moving small things in a big way with @fluidrealty – check the video from #venturebridgedemoday at @CMUSwartzCenter pic.twitter.com/hvVXrmNGPU

— Adam Paulisick (@paulisick) September 20, 2023

Leaficient

Yikes! According to Leaficient we’ll have 30% less usable land to grow by 2030. But.. what if you could manage light the same way you could manage water? #venturebridgedemoday pic.twitter.com/VjWshmnNJv

— Adam Paulisick (@paulisick) September 20, 2023

Mach9 Robotics

Not an empty seat at #venturebridgedemoday especially as @Mach9Robotics shares how everything and anything built starts with maps! Congrats @CMUSwartzCenter @mrmawhinney pic.twitter.com/huJS3rVEil

— Adam Paulisick (@paulisick) September 20, 2023

Shift Robotics

Particularly exciting for me to see @shiftrobotics back at the @CMUSwartzCenter – the founder/CEO was one of the first robotics founders to (voluntarily) take complex sales classes at @teppercmu #venturebridgedemoday pic.twitter.com/g9xYTO9czb

— Adam Paulisick (@paulisick) September 20, 2023

OTL

Congrats to the OTL (Off The Line) crew bringing a platform to private chefs to scale to private and corporate clients! Making me hungry #venturebridgedemoday pic.twitter.com/dwEtyt4MO7

— Adam Paulisick (@paulisick) September 20, 2023

Pendulum

Great to see #fashion take a front seat at #venturebridgedemoday with Pendulum sharing how they can sell more and waste less ($200B of wasted fashion in the US each year) with AI predicting the best sellers pic.twitter.com/JjaCURv16T

— Adam Paulisick (@paulisick) September 20, 2023

Upview

People like @AaronWatson59 and @hannahpmedia have been telling me about the power of @YouTube forever but tools like @upviewai at @CMUSwartzCenter really helped me see where #AI is going to supercharge content – congrats! PS guess which one of these YouTubers are worth $12MM pic.twitter.com/fdvMUTRSNY

— Adam Paulisick (@paulisick) September 20, 2023

Tacit

Tacit wants to guarantee that all code is fast when you deploy, we could all use this at #venturebridgedemoday at @CMUSwartzCenter h/t @SCSatCMU pic.twitter.com/xOpdvPSAGY

— Adam Paulisick (@paulisick) September 20, 2023

Velo AI

Powerful presentation from https://t.co/u2EZC8kemc on copilot to automatically detect if people are too close or intense – can’t wait to see this hit the 52MM! Ppl who ride in just the US #venturebridgedemoday pic.twitter.com/zaVGvkxyKJ

— Adam Paulisick (@paulisick) September 20, 2023

“CMU founders are the world’s best and … when we showcase them through VentureBridge, or when we fund them through VentureBridge, you know, we are funding the future breakthroughs and future innovations,” Banerjee said. “We are really proud that these founders that we’ve found through VentureBridge have put their full time into their startups and [are] choosing to embark on this difficult but exhilarating entrepreneurial journey.”