Cohort 5 of the Pitt Blast Furnace student accelerator is underway with an interesting new twist. For this cohort, a new Blast Furnace Fellowship was created to help Pitt students develop a full-fledged startup by the end of June. The five Blast Furnace Fellows teams must work 30 hours minimum per week at the Blast Furnace office space at the Innovation Institute, 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. Each team will receive $10,000 for their work.
Keirstin Townsend, co-owner of Pittsburgh Shirt Company in Coraopolis, knows what it's like to work a 80 hour work week while facilitating her company's move to a larger new facility.
Be honest. No one is insusceptible to an occasional noxious act. As much as we love our customer advocates who share glowing, positive reviews of us to friends, family and peers, on occasion our advocates can be a royal pain, showing characteristics of one of the following toxic behaviors. Maybe we should consider these behaviors as a sign of an advocate: