Carnegie Mellon University’s Project Olympus retains and trains future local entrepreneurs

"It’s the modern version of the garage startup"

Founded in 2007, Project Olympus at Carnegie Mellon http://www.olympus.cs.cmu.edu/ supports student and faculty companies at the (very) embryonic stage. In the first three years of the program, 23 companies have formed — including star performers, reCAPTCHA, an online text digitizer recently acquired by search engine Google, and Dynamics Inc., which acquired $5.7 million in funding last year.

In September 2009, there were 21 groups in the project. That number had nearly doubled to 41 by December.

The program, founded by computer science professor Lenore Blum, seeks to introduce members to the differing — and sometimes dueling — sensibilities of research scientists and business professionals. But the in-house incubation has had another effect, as Dr. Blum saw at a recent meeting with the Olympus groups.

Read more: http://www.pittsburghpost-gazette.com/pg/10078/1043982-28.stm#ixzz0ij63KmmZ

By Erich Schwartzel, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Full Story: http://www.pittsburghpost-gazette.com/pg/10078/1043982-28.stm