Blast Furnace, the University of Pittsburgh Innovation Institute’s student startup accelerator, has selected 11 student teams to participate in the Spring 2016 cohort.
Andy Kuzneski III and his wife, Laurie, wanted a way to support University of Pittsburgh students in a manner that aligned with their passion for innovation and entrepreneurship.
Nearly 50 Pitt students of all levels, who spent the past eight weeks putting their business ideas through a rigorous development process overseen by an experienced mentor, pitched their ideas to a panel of judges from the Pittsburgh startup community at the William Pitt Union.
Phil Brooks, an entrepreneur and business consultant with 30-plus years of experience across multiple sectors — from manufacturing, mining, and information technology, to life sciences and entertainment — has joined the University of Pittsburgh Innovation Institute as a full time executive in residence.
A recent First Gear team began on a mission to satisfy the need of a very passionate clinician long before they applied to participate in this program offered by the Innovation Institute. In response to a recent session the team estimated the size of their product’s pie at $25,000 a year. Some venture capital firms won’t consider an investment in a company unless the market is at least $1 billion a year.