Seven Touches: The Value of Follow-Up in Startup Fundraising - Dan Broderick

Fundraising is one of the two hardest tasks entrepreneurs undertake. The other, even harder, task is to spend the money you do raise wisely. This short article will focus on the first: raising capital for your startup company. As for my background, I have been on both sides of the fundraising table, entrepreneur and investor. As an entrepreneur, I have successfully raised capital for startups and venture capital funds where I have been a founder and executive or general partner. As a venture capitalist, I have invested in dozens of companies and entrepreneurs and decided not to invest in hundreds (if not thousands) more.

A Dash of Determination: A Baker's Guide to Innovation - Maansi Shah '25

The BakedbyMaansi Story: The reason I started BakedbyMaansi was because of the pandemic. I was bored at home with nothing going on, so I started baking (a lot) to pass the time. I loved baking prior to the pandemic, especially in my free time, but it was hard to find the extra time to bake -- I would bake maybe once or twice in a span of six months. During lockdown, I was able to bake at least three or four times a month, and I would post my baked goods on my Snapchat story. However, I wanted to start sharing my desserts for more than twenty-four hours so others could remember the creations I’ve made. As a result, my Instagram account BakedbyMaansi was born!

Get to Know Our RFBIC 2022 Grand Prize Team, FlowCellution!

The FlowCellution team (pictured from left to right): Maya Bhat, Becca Segel, and Priscilla Prem. Photo courtesy of Becca Segel After our 2022 Randall Family Big Idea Competition Virtual Awards Ceremony, we at the Big Idea Center caught up with the grand prize winning team, FlowCellution, to discuss how three PhD chemical engineering candidates became entrepreneurs and what their next steps are for their mission to provide the testing capabilities necessary to create next-generation flow batteries. Their idea, the comprehensive FlowCell testing system, offers an accelerated framework for scientists to quickly identify optimal flow battery compositions.

Going Green with Gasoline: How Ingevity is Fueling the Transportation Industry with its Renewable Gas Solutions - Mel Amago '23

Over the spring break, I had the chance to visit Charleston, South Carolina – a city along the Carolinian coast that anyone who visits can easily fall in love with. The town is almost like a perfect melting pot of history, industry, art, and tourist attractions! Along its coastlines, starting from the historic district, are beautiful walks and parks, rows of colorful mansions, and a myriad of restaurants and resto-bars. Go further north and you’ll see ports and their tall container cranes, as well as tall steam stacks of huge industrial plants. All these are a testament to Charleston’s thriving economy.

My Battery "Cell-ution" to Climate Change - Becca Segel, Pitt ChemE PhD Student

How can a battery cell reduce climate change? (And what do orca whales have anything to do with it?) In this blog post, we’re catching up with Becca Segel, a Pitt Chemical and Petroleum Engineering PhD student and CEO of FlowCellutions, as she delves deeper into how her idea answers these questions as well as shares her entrepreneurial journey with the Big Idea Center and advice for students interested in innovation!

Our TeamFinder Experience: Finding a Teammate and a Friend!

You know what they say: teamwork makes the dream work! And for Pitt student startup team Potluck (consisting of Joe Slomowitz '23, Oliver Yao '22, and Avi Moses '24), our TeamFinder tool helped them build the dream team! In their featured Big Idea Blog article, learn why Joe & Oliver needed to recruit an additional team member for their idea, how TeamFinder became beneficial in this process, and what important milestones the team has been able to achieve with the addition of Avi. The team also shares some pointers on how to make the most out of your team-building experience.

Top 10 Big Idea Blog Posts of 2021

With another year in the books, we at the Big Idea Center would like to take a look back and reflect upon the incredible memories and stories that 2021 has brought us as we highlight our 10 most popular Big Idea Blog posts of 2021! We hope that as you browse these insightful articles written by Pitt alum, current Pitt students, our entrepreneurs in residence, local business owners, and more, that you gain inspiration from their points of view as well as additional knowledge to further equip you on your entrepreneurial journey as you head into 2022!

Why I Bet on the Goodwill of the Crowd - Leah Lizarondo, Co-Founder & CEO of 412 Food Rescue

Pictured: Leah Lizarondo, Co-Founder & CEO of 412 Food Rescue. Courtesy of Laura Petrilla Photography When I was first pitching my nonprofit tech platform to funders, I was often met with skepticism about a key component of the model: “You’re really going to rely on volunteers to do all this?” The answer, even back then, was an unequivocal “yes.” Five years and an incredibly effective network of 25,000 volunteers later, I hope more nonprofit leaders and donors are seeing what I see.

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