CMU T&E - Updates for March Pt.2
March Updates Pt.2
📢 Hey Tartans!
This second newsletter newsletter for March and the last on the Mailchimp platform before we swap to Substack, we’re bringing you:
Founder Happy Hour in Mountain View – Connect with CMU founders, investors, and builders over drinks & networking
NYC Spring Carnival Kickoff Happy Hour – Celebrate CMU Carnival with the NY Metro Network
Exclusive Founders’ Salon in SF – Intimate gathering for founders, hosted in partnership with Rho
Final Call for VentureBridge Applications – The deadline is almost here!
Scroll down for all the details, and we hope to see you at an event soon! 🎉
🍻 T&E + Hamatha + DraperU: Founder Happy Hour!
📅 Date: Thursday, April 17, 2025
⏰ Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM PDT
📍 Location: Ludwigs Biergarten Mountain View - 383 Castro St, Mountain View, CA 94041, USA
📋 Registration: Free
Join CMU Tech & Entrepreneurship (T&E) and Hamatha and DraperU for another Founder Happy Hour, this time at Ludwig’s Biergarten Mountain View! Expect an evening filled with great conversations, networking, and a fantastic atmosphere as we continue to grow the CMU startup ecosystem.
🥨 Why You Should Attend:
Meet fellow CMU founders, investors, and tech builders
Enjoy a casual networking atmosphere with free food & drinks
Learn about Hamatha’s First Check Investment Initiative for early-stage CMU startups
Co-hosted with DraperU, supporting new entrepreneurs with $100K checks 💰
This event is proudly sponsored by Michael Donohue, Hamatha, and DraperU.
There will be free drinks and light dinner provided.
Sponsors
Michael Donohue
Michael Donohue is the Co-Founder of HalloApp, a digital space designed for real-life relationships. With a background in software engineering, Michael specializes in mobile app development and scalable messaging systems. Previously, he served as Engineering Director at WhatsApp and played key engineering roles at PayPal, QVT Financial, and Coverity, helping them scale their software infrastructure. Michael has been a dedicated supporter of the CMU early-stage startup ecosystem, actively investing alongside Hamatha for several years.
Hamatha
Hamatha is a value-add angel syndicate focused on making angel investing accessible while fostering strong, collaborative relationships with entrepreneurs. In 2024, Hamatha launched the First Check Investment Event to support CMU student and alumni startups, providing an early-stage funding opportunity for first-time founders and ideation-stage startups.
DraperU
DraperU is a Silicon Valley-based pre-accelerator and entrepreneurial education program designed to empower early-stage founders with the mindset, skills, and network needed to build high-impact startups. Known for its immersive training and investment opportunities, DraperU offers hands-on experience, mentorship, and access to a global investor network. In 2025, DraperU is launching a $100K investment initiative for new founders, supporting CMU student and alumni startups as they take their first steps toward building game-changing companies.
Contact: Kevin Fang, Miranda Nover
NYC: Spring Carnival Kickoff Happy Hour 🌃
📅 Date: Friday, April 4, 2025
⏰ Time: 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
📍 Location: TALEA Beer Co. Penn District - 160 W 32nd St, New York
📋 Registration: Free - Event registrations close April 3rd at 11:59 PM EDT
From the CMU Alumni Association:
Can't make it to Pittsburgh for Carnival? Don't worry. The NY Metro Network has you covered.
Join us for a special Kickoff Happy Hour at Talea Beer Co. Penn District. Show your Tartan Pride! We'll have door prizes and swag.
We are so grateful to TALEA for hosting us. We hope that you will join us and consider showing your appreciation by purchasing from their menu featuring drafts, hazy beers or IPAs, sours, can pours, cocktails, non-alcoholic beverages, wines, ciders, or snacks.
Questions? Contact alumni-house@andrew.cmu.edu.
💡 T&E Bay Area: Founders' Salon @ Rho House (SF)
📅 Date: Wednesday, April 9, 2025
⏰ Time: 5:30 PM – 8:00 PM PDT
📍 Location: 930 Ashbury St, San Francisco, CA
📋 Registration: Approval Required – Limited Spots!
Join us for an exclusive Founders' Salon hosted by CMU Tech & Entrepreneurship and Rho, a leading financial services provider for startups. This intimate, approval-required gathering at the Rho House will bring together founders from all stages for meaningful conversations, networking, and insights.
Enjoy food and refreshments while connecting with fellow entrepreneurs in a relaxed, welcoming environment at Rho house.
Spots are limited so RSVP soon. We'll be approving applicants starting the week before the event.
About Rho
From two-person startups to public companies, Rho is the banking platform with everything businesses need to manage cash, control spend, and automate finance busywork. Rho offers corporate cards, banking, treasury, expense management, AP, accounting automation, and more in one integrated platform backed by award-winning support. Rho is a fintech company, not a bank. Checking and card services are provided by Webster Bank, N.A., member FDIC; savings account services are provided by American Deposit Management Co. and its partner banks.
Questions? Reach out to Miranda Nover or Kevin Fang from the T&E team. We look forward to meeting you soon!
📢 Making changes to T&E
This is our last T&E newsletter on Mailchimp!
You should have received a welcome email last week—if you don’t receive it, you can manually subscribe at cmutechentrepreneur.substack.com. Add us to your email whitelist if it's going to spam :)
As we make changes, we're also looking for new team members who have big ideas and personal initiatives to help build the CMU startup ecosystem in their cities.
Examples of what we're looking at are:
Collecting a repository of every free grant/startup resource offered to CMU founders (AWS credits, incubators, etc)
Using our database of CMU founders and builders to create an internal semantic search engine for networking
Expanding virtual content offering though blogs, podcasts, or short video
Out-of-the-box ideas to build community and engagement (run club)?
Willing to put in some hours and have some ideas of your own? Contact cmutehq@gmail.com
Venturebridge Applications Close Tonight ⏰
The CMU VentureBridge Summer Accelerator is designed exclusively for CMU alumni to help scale their startups with:
$25,000 seed funding
Office space in SF, NYC, or Pittsburgh
Mentorship from experienced CMU entrepreneurs & VCs
Connections to top investors & industry experts
📅 Deadline: March 31st, 2025 11:59 pm ET
Eligibility: Your team must include at least one CMU-affiliated alumni founder, and if you’re a current student, you must graduate by Spring 2024.
If you have questions, reach out to:
📩 Aleksandar Petkov (Program Manager) | apetkov@andrew.cmu.edu
📩 Namrata Banerjee (Program Director) | nmalik@andrew.cmu.edu
Thanks for reading! The next newsletter will be on Substack.
Hope to see you at a T&E event soon!
The CMU T&E Team 🎉