Third Thursday: Immigration and Entrepreneurship
2022-01-20 17:00 - 18:00 UTC
Open to all Columbians, including Barnard and Teachers College.
RSVP

Join Columbia Engineering for an open forum on Thursday, January 20th to learn more about entrepreneurship and network with the Columbia University startup community. You’ll hear from Columbia alumni and other experts on their experiences working in the field, how they’ve applied their Columbia experience in their careers, and more.
Invited speaker Megan Kludt, Partner at Curran, Berger & Kludt LLP, a boutique law firm specializing in all areas of immigration, will discuss options and requirements for various visas, immigration resources for foreign startup founders and much more.

Deadline: Columbia Venture Competition Technology Challenge
2022-02-17
Columbia Engineering provides funding in the Technology Challenge to students and teams focused in tech, innovation, products, etc.
All entries to the Technology Challenge must include business models based on a solid foundation of applied, solution-focused, technology innovation. Judges favored novel tech over novel applications of existing tech. Submissions had to focus on product development, innovative design, and “builder” technologies including data analytics, biomedical solutions, software, or hardware. As always, cross-disciplinary teams were strongly encouraged.
The Tech Challenge is open to all Columbia University students and recent alumni (five years or less from their most recent degree) but teams must have one SEAS founding member (either recent alumni or student).
There’s more information at StartupColumbia.org – please check that site for eligibility and timeline information, made available when you click on the name of the challenge you are interested in – but here’s a quick run down of this and other tracks that are accepting applications this month with the deadlines for participating and lines to applications.

Columbia Innovation Forum: Perfect Your Pitch!
2022-02-17 12:30 - 14:00
Columbia Engineering’s February forum will feature pitch coaches who are angel investors and venture capitalists. Apply using this Google form by February 7th for consideration as a priority application, and by February 11th for regular application.

Ask Me Anything (AMA): Interdisciplinary Entrepreneurship
2022-02-24 18:00 - 19:00
REGISTER
Join on Thursday, February 24th to learn about entrepreneurship through a multidisciplinary and cross functional lens. Guests include Erin McNulty, a junior studying computer science and working in tech entrepreneurship, Daniela Duron Garcia, a 2020 graduate currently with the mechanical engineering lab and co-founder of start up FLOW, and Maya Joudi, a senior with a background in global entrepreneurship and experience with the Columbia Organization of Rising Entrepreneurs. Attend this session to hear firsthand accounts of entrepreneurship at Columbia – through senior capstones, club projects, passion projects, hackathons, and competitions – to create spaces for anyone seeking to make an impact.

Applications Open: Startup Bootcamp
2022-03-04
Join Columbia Engineering’s Lean Launchpad virtual course to test your idea in the market! Participants in this free, two-week course will receive entrepreneurship training and mentor support as they talk with customers to identify the best product-market fit using the lean launchpad methodology.
Faculty, staff, postdoctoral, graduate and undergraduate student researchers may apply with a team of one to three people. Applicants are expected to be available for all sessions. Teams that successfully complete this bootcamp may become eligible to apply for the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps Teams program, which includes a $50,000 grant.
Admissions are rolling.

Big Mistakes Founders Make
2022-05-05 14:30 - 17:00
Join Columbia Engineering to learn the basics about fundraising for investors and legal considerations for startups. This event is open to all schools and students campus-wide.
Date: Thursday, May 5, 2022
Time: 2:30 PM
Location: Design Studio, 645 W 120th St, Room 430, NY, NY 10027
RSVP

Columbia Innovation Forum: Immigration and Entrepreneurship
2023-01-19 17:00 - 19:00
Register Here
Columbia Engineering’s Innovation Forum will feature Megan Kludt, Partner at Curran, Berger & Kludt LLP, a boutique law firm specializing in all areas of immigration, including business, achievement, investment, family, and humanitarian bases for immigration status. Attend to hear about options and requirements for various visas, such as: J1, O-1B, and H-1B; visa options and NYC/NYS immigration resources for foreign startup founders.

Start Me Up Bootcamp Kickoff
2023-07-18
Join a select group of entrepreneurs for a two-week virtual program designed to build your startup. The bootcamp introduces participants to the Lean Launchpad methodology and techniques to direct customer discovery through field interviews.
Participants are required to conduct at least 20 customer interviews; attend online sessions and engage with other bootcamp teams and entrepreneurs. Teams “get out of the building” to learn from potential customers to determine if they are solving a real-world problem with a sizeable market opportunity.

Benefits include

Meet other entrepreneurs and alumni
Join for endless networking opportunities
Receive feedback from Columbia faculty and mentors
Learn about potential funding opportunities
Find out where to plug in Columbia’s wide-ranging entrepreneurial community

APPLY

Fundraising 101 for Startups with NY Angels
2023-08-02 12:00 - 14:00
Join Columbia Engineering to learn the basics about fundraising for startups with NY Angels’ Nikos Theodosopoulos, BS’84. This event is open to all schools and students campus-wide.
RSVP HERE
12:00 – 12:30 PM Lunch and Networking
Arrive early for lunch and network with entrepreneurs, students and mentors at the event.
12:30 – 1:45 PM Startup Fundraising
Explore the basics with an expert from NY Angels: fundraising, the recent trends, and approaching investors.
Why attend?

Support Columbia Entrepreneurs
Meet our Start Me Up Bootcamp teams
Connect with new and old friends!
Excellent opportunity to get started and learn about entrepreneurship at Columbia

Innovation Forum: Immigration and Entrepreneurship
2024-01-24 17:30 - 19:00
RSVP
Join Columbia Engineering for an open forum to learn more about entrepreneurship and network with the Columbia University startup community. You’ll hear from Columbia alumni and other experts on their experiences working in the field, how they’ve applied their Columbia experience in their careers, and more. This event will feature Megan Kludt, Partner at Curran, Berger & Kludt LLP, a boutique law firm specializing in all areas of immigration, including business, achievement, investment, family, and humanitarian bases for immigration status.

StartMe Up Bootcamp Winter 2024 Kickoff
2024-01-25
Apply here.
Join a select group of entrepreneurs for a two-week hybrid program designed to build your successful startup. The bootcamp introduces participants to the Lean Launchpad methodology and techniques to direct customer discovery through field interviews. Participants are required to conduct at least 20 customer interviews; attend online sessions and engage with other bootcamp teams and entrepreneurs. Teams “get out of the building” to learn from potential customers to determine if they are solving a real-world problem with a sizeable market opportunity. In addition to providing entrepreneurial training, this program helps students and researchers identify new ways to apply research to solve global challenges.
Faculty, staff, postdoctoral, graduate and undergraduate student researchers may apply with a team of one to three people. Applicants are expected to be available for all short-course sessions. Teams that successfully complete this bootcamp may become eligible to apply for the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps Teams program, which includes a $50,000 grant.
Winter 2024 Bootcamp Dates
Kickoff Day 1 | January 25, 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM
Kickoff Day 2 | January 26, 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM
Midpoint Check-in | February 2, 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM
Finale | February 9, 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM

*Interviews are required prior to acceptance. Please email seaseship@columbia.edu to set up a brief interview after submitting your application.

Learn more.

Kickoff: Start Me Up Bootcamp
2024-04-11
The Start Me Up Bootcamp program is a two-week virtual program designed to build your startup. The bootcamp introduces participants to the Lean Launchpad methodology and techniques to direct customer discovery through field interviews. Teams are required to conduct at least 20 customer interviews; attend online sessions and engage with other bootcamp teams and entrepreneurs. Teams “get out of the building” to learn from potential customers to determine if they are solving a real-world problem with a sizeable market opportunity. Upon completion, eligible teams may apply for a $50,000 NSF I-Corps grant to support customer discovery. Additional funding is available to support conference travel for commercialization.
APPLY

Founder's Journey: Navigating the Obstacles from Student to Startup!
2024-04-24 17:00 - 18:30
Our speaker on the Founder’s Journey is Andrew Satz, CEO of EVQLV, a company that leverages advances in computation to design therapeutic antibodies for biotechs and pharmaceutical companies. Andrew is a Columbia alumnus, a data scientist, and former CORE president, where he had a significant impact on Columbia’s entrepreneurial community. He will be sharing his entrepreneurial journey, the challenges, and ways to overcome obstacles to build a thriving startup.

Deadline: Start Me Up Bootcamp
2024-06-30
Join a select group of entrepreneurs for a two-week hybrid program designed to build your successful startup. The bootcamp introduces participants to the Lean Launchpad methodology and techniques to direct customer discovery through field interviews. Participants are required to conduct at least 20 customer interviews; attend online sessions and engage with other bootcamp teams and entrepreneurs. Teams “get out of the building” to learn from potential customers to determine if they are solving a real-world problem with a sizeable market opportunity. In addition to providing entrepreneurial training, this program helps students and researchers identify new ways to apply research to solve global challenges.
Faculty, staff, postdoctoral, graduate and undergraduate student researchers may apply with a team of one to three people. Applicants are expected to be available for all short-course sessions. Teams that successfully complete this bootcamp may become eligible to apply for the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps Teams program, which includes a $50,000 grant.
MORE INFO AND REGISTER

Innovation Forum
2024-09-18 17:00 - 18:30
Register for the fall welcome event on September 18th to meet new and current entrepreneurs at Columbia. Dan Steingart, co-director of the Columbia Electrochemical Energy Center will join Professor Harry West, co-faculty director of IDE, and Ivy Schultz, Director of Entrepreneurship Programs, to share how to get started on all things entrepreneurship at Columbia. You’ll hear from Columbia faculty and other experts on opportunities at Columbia, their experience in startups, and more. RSVP to learn about upcoming entrepreneurship programs and events in the 2024 – 2025 school year.

Start Me Up Bootcamp Kickoff
2024-10-10
Applications are now open for the Start Me Up Bootcamp program. Teams are required to conduct at least 20 customer interviews; attend online sessions and engage with other bootcamp teams and entrepreneurs. Teams “get out of the building” to learn from potential customers to determine if they are solving a real-world problem with a sizeable market opportunity. The bootcamp is based on the NSF I-Corps program and introduces participants to the Lean Launchpad methodology including techniques to direct customer discovery through field interviews.

Fireside chat with Investor Mike Maples and Entrepreneur and Professor Apoorv Agarwal
2024-10-22 13:00 - 14:00
Join Columbia Engineering for a fireside chat with Mike Maples, one of the first investors in Twitter, Lyft, and Twitch, on October 22nd at 1PM in Davis Auditorium! A regular on Forbes’ Midas List, Mike has an incredible record of sensing and driving innovation in tech. He’ll be joined by Apoorv Agarwal, who received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Columbia and founded Text IQ, a pioneering legal tech startup that he successfully exited in 2021. If you’re building now or looking to learn more about VC and startups, this is a must attend event for you – RSVPs required, please register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/building-a-startup-tickets-1033913532207
After the panel, Mike will be signing his book, Pattern Breakers, which Steve Blank has called “The most important startup book of the last ten years”. We’ll be doing a Columbia-specific BOGO offer if you’re interested in taking it home!

2024 Columbia Fast Pitch Competition
2024-11-20
In November Columbia Engineering hosts the much-anticipated Fast Pitch event. Teams have 60 seconds to sell their business ideas to a panel of judges to win up to $5,000. Fast Pitch is Columbia’s longest running pitch competition on campus since 2013.

Columbia Innovation Forum: Immigration & Building a Team for Entrepreneurs
2025-01-22 17:00 - 19:30
REGISTER
Join Columbia Engineering for an open forum to learn more about entrepreneurship and network with the Columbia University startup community. You’ll hear from Columbia alumni and other experts on their experiences working in the field, how they’ve applied their Columbia experience in their careers, and more. At this month’s open forum, learn about all things entrepreneurship, immigration and building a team. Attend to network, meet potential co-founders & recruit for your team.

Columbia Innovation Forum: The Art of the Pitch
2025-02-27 17:00 - 19:00
Join Columbia Engineering for an open forum on February 27 to learn more about entrepreneurship and network with the Columbia University startup community. You’ll hear from Columbia founders and other experts on their startup experience, and more. During this presentation/interactive session, serial entrepreneur Hugh Thomas will dig into the details of what a business plan “pitch deck” contains and what you will need to create in preparation for talking with investors and various audiences.

REGISTER HERE

Application Deadline: Startup Me Up Bootcamp
2025-06-20
The Start Me Up Bootcamp is a virtual program designed to build your startup. The bootcamp introduces participants to the Lean Launchpad methodology and techniques to direct customer discovery through field interviews. Teams conduct at least 20 customer interviews; attend online sessions and engage with other bootcamp teams and entrepreneurs.
Teams “get out of the building” to learn from potential customers to determine if they are solving a real-world problem with a sizeable market opportunity. Upon completion, eligible teams may apply for a $50,000 NSF I-Corps grant to continue customer discovery. Additional funding is available to support conference travel for commercialization. In addition to providing entrepreneurial training, the program enables students and researchers to identify new ways to apply research to solve problems across several fields.

Startup Me Up Bootcamp Kickoff
2025-07-09
*Application Deadline, June 20*
The Start Me Up Bootcamp is a virtual program designed to build your startup. The bootcamp introduces participants to the Lean Launchpad methodology and techniques to direct customer discovery through field interviews. Teams conduct at least 20 customer interviews; attend online sessions and engage with other bootcamp teams and entrepreneurs.
Teams “get out of the building” to learn from potential customers to determine if they are solving a real-world problem with a sizeable market opportunity. Upon completion, eligible teams may apply for a $50,000 NSF I-Corps grant to continue customer discovery. Additional funding is available to support conference travel for commercialization. In addition to providing entrepreneurial training, the program enables students and researchers to identify new ways to apply research to solve problems across several fields.

2025 Fast Pitch - Columbia Engineering
2025-09-19 08:00 - 17:00
Do You Have a Startup Idea?
Apply to compete in Fast Pitch, Columbia Engineering’s campus-wide annual elevator pitch competition to win prize money for your startup idea.
Learn more and sign up here.

Innovation Forum: Welcome Entrepreneurs
2025-09-25 17:00 - 19:00
Join Columbia Engineering to kick off the monthly Innovation Forum for the 2025-2026 school year! The Columbia Innovation Forum provides students, faculty, and staff the opportunity to hear startup ideas, network, form teams, and explore next steps. You’ll hear from Columbia faculty and other experts on ways to engage at Columbia, their experience in startups, and more.
The event will feature Professor Harry West, co-faculty director of IDE, and Ivy Schultz, Director of Entrepreneurship Programs joined by guest speaker Neil Daswani, ENG’96, co-director of the Stanford Advanced Security Certification Program, and an expert in data security. Learn more and register.

Kickoff: Start Me Up Bootcamp
2025-10-03
Join a select group of entrepreneurs for a two-week hybrid program designed to build your successful startup. The bootcamp introduces participants to the Lean Launchpad methodology and techniques to direct customer discovery through field interviews. Participants are required to conduct at least 20 customer interviews; attend online sessions and engage with other bootcamp teams and entrepreneurs. Teams “get out of the building” to learn from potential customers to determine if they are solving a real-world problem with a sizeable market opportunity. In addition to providing entrepreneurial training, this program helps students and researchers identify new ways to apply research to solve global challenges.
Faculty, staff, postdoctoral researchers, graduate and undergraduate students may apply with a team of one to three people. Enrolled teams are required to attend all short-course sessions. Teams that successfully complete this bootcamp may be eligible to receive conference travel or stipend funding, including eligibility to apply for the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps program, which includes a $50,000 grant.

Innovation Forum: Business Plans, Pitching and Customer Discovery with Hugh Thomas
2025-10-07 17:00 - 19:00
Join us on October 7 and Hugh Thomas, serial entrepreneur and teacher, with over 30 years’ experience in international technology companies as corporate leader. Hugh has been through all phases of the technology company lifecycle, from company formation, fund raising, product development, sales and marketing, organization growth through to company acquisition. Hugh will be speaking about startups, pitching, and the value of customer discovery.
Hugh is a serial entrepreneur and teacher, he has over 30 years’ experience in international technology companies as corporate leader. Hugh has founded and run 4 startup companies of his own, as a 4x CEO he has raised multiple rounds of investment capital (>$50M in total), grown teams from 1 to over 150 employees, built and sold many successful products (software and semiconductors) and grown revenues from zero to tens of millions of dollars in annual sales.
Open to CUID card holders only.
Davis Auditorium, CEPSR
530 W 120th Street
Tuesday, Oct 7, 2025, 5-7pm

RSVP HERE

Fast Pitch 2025
2025-11-19 17:00 - 20:00
Fast Pitch 2025 – Fast Pitch is Columbia’s longest running pitch competition on campus since 2013. Entrepreneurs pitch in 60 seconds to a panel of judges and win up to $5,000! Fast Pitch is FREE and open to all undergraduate and graduate students across campus.

Innovation Forum: Immigration & Entrepreneurship
2026-01-28 16:30 - 18:30
RSVP Here
Join Columbia Engineering for its monthly Innovation Forum, an open space to listen, share, and learn more about entrepreneurship as well as network with the Columbia University startup community. Each month features a unique guest and theme, and is followed by a set of low-stakes student pitching. Have an announcement or idea to pitch to the group? Contact Ivy Schultz (is2350@columbia.edu) in advance and come prepared to pitch it!
This month’s Innovation Forum features Jonathan Grode, the U.S. Practice Director and Managing Partner for Green and Spiegel, who will lead the forums on all things entrepreneurship, immigration and building a team.
Jonathan has worked continuously in the U.S. business immigration law field since 1999 and has amassed considerable experience obtaining nonimmigrant and immigrant visas for new company start-ups, professional workers, artists and entertainers, athletes, physicians, and scientific researchers. In addition, Jonathan has significant experience dealing with Department of Labor and Department of Homeland Security enforcement actions as well as immigration related aspects of Mergers and Acquisitions.
Jonathan has been a panelist and moderator on immigration law topics for numerous organizations, including the American Bar Association, Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, French Chamber for Commerce and Industry (Paris, France), and the American Immigration Lawyers Association. He also writes regularly for industry publications and academic journals. In addition, Jonathan is an Adjunct Faculty at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law where he teaches Business Immigration Law, Advising Global Corporations, and Law Practice Management. In 2020, Jonathan Grode was named Adjunct Faculty of the Year by Temple University.
Notably, Jonathan has been listed as one of SuperLawyers Rising Stars from 2012-2019 and since 2020 continuously been named a Super Lawyer. He has also been honored with the 2014 Pennsylvania Bar Association Special Achievement Award for “Dedication and Commitment to the High School Mock Trial Competition”, for which he has served as Lead Author since 2007. Jonathan was also the recipient of Lexology’s Client Choice Award in 2019 and was named in the 2020 and 2023 Edition of The Best Lawyers in America. Jonathan graduated first in his class from Temple University Beasley School of Law in 2008.
This event is open to CUID card holders only.

AI and Entrepreneurship Talk: Parag Agrawal, Parallel.ai CEO and Cofounder
2026-02-05 11:00 - 12:00
The Columbia Engineering AI Entrepreneurship Series is a bi-weekly speaker series that brings students and faculty at Columbia together with founders, VCs, technologists, and business leaders to learn about the process of transitioning lessons from research and the classroom into products and value.

This week join to hear from:

Parag Agrawal, Parallel.ai CEO and Cofounder
11AM February 05, 2026 Davis Auditorium
Parag Agrawal is the founder of Parallel Web Systems, a company unlocking the web for AI agents. Previously, he spent 11 years at Twitter, where he joined as an engineer before serving as CTO, and then CEO. Parag has a PhD from Stanford University in Computer Science and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT, Bombay.

February 27 Lecture Series in AI: Ali Farhadi, CEO of AI2
2026-02-27 10:30 - 12:00
Columbia Engineering Lecture Series in AI
Friday, February 27: Ali Farhadi, CEO of Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2) & Professor, University of Washington

10:30-11:00am Check-in
11:00-12:00pm Lecture

Advance registration is required for both Columbia affiliates and non-affiliates
REGISTER HERE
ABOUT THE LECTURE
“What is the Language Model of a Crow?”
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Ali Farhadi is the CEO of the Allen Institute for AI (Ai2) and a Professor at the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington. Ali has been a professor at the UW Allen School since 2012. He first joined Ai2 in 2015 to lead the institute’s computer vision research team with a focus on visual common-sense reasoning and the role of actions and interactions in visual understanding. While at Ai2, he co-founded Xnor.ai, the first on-device deep learning startup that was acquired by Apple in 2020. Ali led Apple’s next-generation machine learning efforts until 2023 when he rejoined Ai2 as CEO in July. Ali’s research impact has been globally recognized with several best paper awards at CVPR, NeruIPS, AAAI, NSF Career Award, and the Sloan Fellowship, and he was named one of Forbes’s Top 5 AI Entrepreneurs in 2018.
