30 Teams Enter Cohort 5 of the Pitt Blast Furnace Student Accelerator

March 29, 2017

5 Teams selected as Blast Furnace Fellows will split $50,000 to launch a startup by June

Hudson Companies donates $10,000 to support new Fellowship program

In the clearest indication yet that Pitt students are thirsting to be entrepreneurial, the Pitt Blast Furnace student accelerator has announced its fifth and largest cohort of 30 teams.

New for this cohort, five teams have been selected to receive $10,000 each for a fellowship where they will work full time from April to the end of June on launching their idea as a full-fledged startup.

“The growth of the Blast Furnace just two short years reflects the growing culture of innovation and entrepreneurship at Pitt,” said Greg Coticchia, Blast Furnace director and Innovation Institute entrepreneur in residence for software and information technology.

“We are excited to expand our support of our student entrepreneurs in this cohort through the Blast Furnace Fellowship program, which allows our students to invest in themselves and bring their ideas to life,” Coticchia added.

The Blast Furnace Fellows teams (in red font in the table below) must work 30 hours minimum per week at the Blast Furnace office space at the Gardner Steel Conference Center, conduct a minimum of 50 customer discovery meetings, apply to up to five local or national accelerators or angel investors and create a legal entity by the end of the program.

A portion of the fellowships is being offset by the Hudson Companies of Hermitage, PA, an industry leader in real estate development, investment, and general construction. The Hudson Companies' privately held investment and development portfolio consists of investment grade real estate including credit tenant leased facilities, multi-family apartment communities, medical office, and multiple commercial office facilities located in institutional grade investment markets. As an established general construction company, it specializes in educational, medical, office, and institutional facilities. The Hudson Companies has financed, developed, acquired, invested, and managed properties in six states, including Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas

“At The Hudson Companies, we pride ourselves on teamwork, innovation, and incorporating an entrepreneurial approach to our business. We are pleased to support the growth of entrepreneurial programs at Pitt, and the Blast Furnace in particular, as it aligns with our company values,” said Jonathan Hudson, second generation vice president.

To date, 56 teams comprised of close to 200 students from across the University have participated in the Blast Furnace, with a third of them going on to incorporate startups, and 10 percent have been accepted into competitive regional accelerator programs such as Alpha Lab, Alpha Lab Gear, Idea Foundry and Ascender (formerly Thrill Mill).

Two recent Blast Furnace teams, Aeronics and uTranslated, have been named Best University Startups for 2017 by the National Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer (NCET2). They join HiberSense, from the first Blast Furnace cohort, who received the same honor last year.

Blast Furnace is an nine (9) week program open to Pitt undergraduate and graduate students at the main campus. It consists of 9 weeks of Lean LaunchPad workshops and 8 evening socials with presentations and Q&A sessions with successful entrepreneurs and early-stage investors. Blast Furnace is a capstone course option in the Swanson School of Engineering’s Innovation, Product Design and Entrepreneurship certificate program and is offered for credit in the College of Business Administration.

Each cohort concludes with a Demo Day where student teams pitch their ideas to a panel of VIP’s from Pittsburgh’s local startup scene. Cohort 5 Demo Day will be held June 8, 2017.

The Cohort Five teams are: