Special Topic: First Person - Conversations with Founders and Investors
Course ID 15729
Description First Person is a weekly speaker series that brings the most consequential people in the startup economy into one room with students from across CMU. These are the field's leading founders, operators, CEOs, and investors, along with the researchers and builders shaping where the frontier goes next, in candid conversation about the work of starting, financing, scaling, and running a venture. It runs as two independent minis in the spring, First Person: Winter Sessions in Mini 3 and First Person: Spring Sessions in Mini 4, each with its own slate of guests. Students can take either on its own or both across the semester, and a follow-on seminar allows for a smaller case discussion with that week's guest.
Key Topics
How ventures are founded, financed, scaled, and led; founder decision-making under uncertainty; how investors evaluate founders, markets, and timing; building teams and culture; commercializing research and frontier technology; the founder-investor relationship; leadership, setbacks, and pivots; how AI and other emerging technologies are reshaping company building.
Required Background Knowledge
None. We welcome all! The course is open to undergraduate and graduate students in every college, and no prior entrepreneurship coursework or startup experience is required.
Course Relevance
Designed for students from every discipline who are curious about how new ventures and technologies make it into the world, whether they plan to start a company, join an early-stage team, invest, or bring an entrepreneurial lens to research, design, policy, or a corporate career. Students hear directly from the people making these decisions and see the reasoning behind outcomes that are usually only reported after the fact.
Course Goals
By the end of each mini, students will be able to:
- Describe the major stages of a venture's life and the decisions that define each one
- Compare how founders and investors frame risk, opportunity, and timing
- Recognize recurring patterns, and meaningful exceptions, across very different founder journeys
- Prepare informed, substantive questions for senior leaders
- Reflect on their own career paths and how entrepreneurial thinking applies to their field
Learning Resources
Before each session, students receive a short brief on the week's guest and their company, along with selected articles, interviews, or podcasts. Recorded sessions are made available on the course YouTube channel for review.
Assessment Structure
Pass/fail. Credit is based on preparation, attendance, and engagement at the weekly sessions and a short weekly reflection on a key takeaway from that week's guest. Students may choose their reflection format from a menu of options, such as a brief video, a photo with caption, or a social media post.
Extra Time Commitment
Optional related events, such as receptions or campus visits tied to speakers, may be offered outside class time.