alicia and jerry mcginnis

The McGinnis Venture Competition, a platform exclusively for Carnegie Mellon University's community of student entrepreneurs, brings together Carnegie Mellon's best and brightest student entrepreneurs to compete for $60K in investments. All participants receive crucial interaction with alumni entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, an opportunity to raise capital and valuable feedback about ventures.

This multi-round competition kicks off in early January, starting with two virtual rounds and culminating in a final live round celebration at Carnegie Mellon University.

Previous Winners

Mach 9 Robotics

Mach 9 Robotics

Mach9 Robotics was created to bring cutting edge research in robotics and machine learning into the real-world. Our team came out of the Robotics Institute...

Moonpy

Moonpy

Benjamin Graham, the founder of Moonpy, is a senior in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. During one of his internships, Ben was...

Aruga

Aruga

Aruga is a medical device company that integrates a new nature-inspired, surface technology into the design of synthetic vascular reconstruction devices. Aruga inspired vascular devices...

Zensors

Spun out of Carnegie Mellon University – the birthplace of Artificial Intelligence – Zensors wants to enable smart and reactive spaces through cutting-edge computer vision...

TalkMeUp

TalkMeUp

Our proprietary AI system was created in 2018, and we've been using it to empower communicators everywhere. We're focused on uplifting the voices of others...

Fifth Season

Fifth Season

(Formally known as Robotany) In 2015, our founders met at Carnegie Mellon University and discovered a shared enthusiasm for collaborative robotics. They saw the opportunity...

Blast Point

Blast Point

(Formerly known as Blast Radius) The idea for developing a geolocation-based software tool that could be as easily accessible to sales teams as it would...

Forest Devices

Forest Devices

Forest Devices is a medical device startup located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We are the creators of ALPHASTROKE, the first stroke and Large Vessel Occlusion (LVO)...

VIT

VIT

Sword Health, a virtual MSK provider, has acquired Vigilant Technologies (VIT), a workplace injury prevention company. The acquisition will help Sword prevent MSK injuries and fuel...

SolePower

SolePower

SolePower is a Pittsburgh based startup, originally founded by Hahna Alexander and Matthew Stanton. The company is proving that portable tech can be powered solely...