Pittsburgh is a great place to build a startup, but most of the early-stage entrepreneurs we speak to are not aware of the local resources that are available to help them.

With applications for the Pittsburgh Founder Institute now open, we are excited to release the Pittsburgh Startup Ecosystem Canvas, which is currently in Draft v1 below! It was developed by the Pittsburgh Founder Institute and local leaders Greg Coticchia and Randy Eager. 

This is just a DRAFT, and while we spent many hours on this research, more input is needed. Please leave your comments on this collaborative Google document to help us complete the list. There are definitely omissions on this current version. 

Are you looking to start a company in Pittsburgh? Then apply to the Pittsburgh Founder Institute today!

Text version included below, for ease of searching:

Startup Stages

There is no one right way to build a technology company, but for the sake of simplicity we have outlined a basic, common, sequential framework.

1. Idea Stage

This is where new entrepreneurs get inspired, learn best practices, develop skills, validate ideas, and begin to build their team and product.

A. Inspire

• Startup Media: Centralized local information, listings, and news. (i.e. startup blogs/ publications/ lists/ FB groups/ newsletters, Startup Digest)

1. Awesomecast
2. Built in Pitt
3. NEXT Pittsburgh
4. StartNow Pittsburgh

• Inspirational Events: Open, inclusive, beginner startup events (i.e. Startup Weekend, idea fairs, and inspirational meetups)

1. #UnstuckPgh
2. Black Tech Nation
3. Boss Lady Grind - Pittsburgh
4. Carnegie STEM Girls
5. Entrepreneur, Start up and Small Business Monthly Q and A
6. Events at Work Hard Pittsburgh
7. Freedom-Obsessed Female Entrepreneurs of Pittsburgh!
8. From Startup to Success
9. Girl Develop It Pittsburgh
10. Girls Who Code
11. Going Deep Summit
12. Inclusive Innovation Week
13. Invest In Her
14. Lesbians Who Tech Pittsburgh
15. PGH Tech Meetup
16. Pittsburgh VR Meetup
17. Pittsburgh Entrepreneurs Forum
18. Startup Weekend Pittsburgh
19. Thrival Festival
20. Young Entrepreneur's Society of Pittsburgh (YESpgh)

B. Educate

• Best Practices: Beginner knowledge-sharing events. (i.e. beginner events that serve to educate more than inspire, like 1 Million Cups, Startup Grind, Startup Founder 101, etc).

1. Bagels and Bytes
2. EdTech PGH
3. Google Developer Group (GDG) Pittsburgh
4. ngPittsburgh
5. Pittsburgh ProductCamp
6. Pittsburgh Startup Founder 101
7. Pittsburgh Technology Innovation Group
8. Startup Grind Pittsburgh

• Training & Feedback: Skill & Idea development. (Ex. bootcamps and comprehensive training programs, like Founder Institute, General Assembly, Lean Startup Machine, code camps, etc)

1. Academy Pittsburgh
2. Alice Bootcamp
3. All Star Code
4. Big Data (Next Gen Hadoop) Ingest & Transform
5. Concept to Launch
6. Connects
7. Founder Institute
8. Lean Startup Machine Pittsburgh
9. Next Gen Native Hadoop Big Data Apex Users Group
10. ONLC Training Centers
11. PGH Lab
12. Pittsburgh Agile
13. Pittsburgh Code & Supply
14. Pittsburgh Startup: Idea to IPO
15. Praxis
16. ProductTank Pittsburgh
17. Startable Pittsburgh
18. Startup Ideation Bootcamp
19. Startup Pitch Bootcamp: Learn How to Pitch from Top Entrepreneurs

C. Validate

• Team Formation: Resources for teaming up. (i.e. events or other resources that facilitate early-stage recruitment and cofounder matching)

1. CoFoundersLab
2. Ellevate
3. Entrepreneurs' Organization
4. FounderDating
5. LaunchPGH
6. Network After Work Pittsburgh
7. Pittsburgh Entrepreneurs Forum
8. Tech Happy Hour - Pittsburgh

• Build First Product: Hackathons & resources to build. (i.e. hackathons and other builder-focused events and resources)

1. CodeDay
2. Code for Good
3. Conservation Hackathon 2018
4. FCHacks
5. HackPGH
6. Pittsburgh Hardware Startup Meetup
7. Pittsburgh TechFest
8. She Innovates Hackathon
9. SteelHacks 2018
10. TartanHacks
11. The Pitt Challenge
12. The XFactory

2. Launch Stage

In this stage, entrepreneurs establish and formalize the company, develop the product, get feedback from customers, and prepare for the next step.

A. Start

• Establish: Law firms & banks for startups

1. Baer Crossey McDemus
2. BNY Mellon
3. Brentwood Bank
4. Bridgeway Capital
5. Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney
6. Citizens Bank
7. Cohen & Grigsby, P.C.
8. Cozen O’Connor
9. Dollar Bank
10. Elliott & Davis
11. FHLBank Pittsburgh
12. First Commonwealth Bank
13. First National Bank
14. Fox Rothschild LLP
15. Kisner Law Firm
16. Kraemer Manes & Associates
17. Leech Tishman
18. Meyer, Unkovic & Scott LLP
19. Morgan Lewis
20. OGC Law
21. Pepper Hamilton LLP
22. PGH Startup Law
23. PNC Bank
24. Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP
25. Reed Smith LLP
26. S&T Bank
27. Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr LLP
28. SSB Bank
29. Standard Bank
30. Stonecipher Law Firm
31. The Lynch Law Group, LLC
32. Wells Fargo Bank

• Workspace: Co-working and flexible workspaces (note: “official” office space goes in 3.1.a. Infrastructure)

1. Alloy 26
2. Ascender
3. Avenu
4. Beauty Shoppe
5. Bruno Works
6. CatapultPGH Coworking
7. Club Level CoWorking
8. Cube
9. Factory Unlocked
10. Industrious
11. Innovate28
12. Level
13. Looking for Group Pittsburgh
14. Novel Coworking Golden Triangle
15. Spaces Bakery Square
16. Stack
17. The Global Switchboard Space
18. Whetstone Workgroup
19. Work Hard Pittsburgh

B. Develop

• Formalize: Accounting, development and HR for early-stage startups.  

1. 2440 Media
2. ANTLR Interactive
3. Blue Archer
4. Cintacs
5. Clark and Chamberlin
6. C-leveled
7. Collins & Ganley, P.C.
8. Davis, Davis & Associates
9. Dennis Piper & Associates, CPA
10. Drift2
11. DS Financial Advisors
12. EchoHR Consulting
13. FiveStar Development
14. Holsinger PC Certified Public Accountant
15. Hyperfluid Solutions
16. Imperial
17. Infoshape
18. IQInc
19. Joyce, Inc.
20. Kathy L. Hess & Associates
21. OpenArc
22. Paxton
23. Posti & Associates
24. PrimePay
25. ROKET
26. Siegel and Company
27. Sisterson
28. Sparkbox
29. Treetop Interactive
30. Truefit
31. W. Cotton Mather CPA
32. Wilke
33. ZAP Solutions

• Prepare for Seed: Incubators and advanced mentorship. (i.e. advanced knowledge sharing, later stage events and resources for startup TEAMS, Startup Next, etc)

1. Ascender Incubation
2. BHiveLab Incubator
3. eCenter
4. IncubateHER
5. Indiana County Small Business Incubator
6. New Sun Rising
7. PantherlabWorks
8. Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse
9. Project Olympus Incubator Program
10. Riverside Center for Innovation
11. VentureBridge
12. Washington Area Business Incubator
13. Work Hard Pittsburgh Cooperative Business Incubator

C. Launch

• Seed Accelerators: Seed funding mentor programs (Techstars-style programs that provide funding)

1. AlphaLab
2. AlphaLab Gear
3. Blast Furnace
4. Idea Foundry
5. Numo
6. SteelBridge Labs

• Pitch & Demo: Show local startups for investment (i.e. demo days for companies seeking seed investment)

1. Alloy 26 Demo Day
2. AlphaLab Demo Day
3. AlphaLab Gear Hardware Cup
4. LaunchCMU
5. LeechTishman LaunchPad
6. McGinnis Venture Competition
7. PGH Tech Council — Tech 50
8. Project Olympus Show & Tell
9. Randall Family Big Idea Competition
10. Startup Blitz
11. UpPrize Challenge

3. Growth Stage

Here, a startup proves their utility, receives recognition, and scales up. This usually requires funding, angels, VCs, and ways to connect them to startups.

A. Recognition

• Investor Networking:  Connect professional investors with founders. (i.e. events or groups that facilitate connections with professional investors)

1. 3 Rivers Venture Fair
2. Active X-it
3. Angel Investment Network
4. BlueTree Allied Angels
5. Keiretsu Forum
6. Next Act Fund
7. PA Angel Network
8. Pipeline Angels Angel Investing Bootcamp
9. TiE Pittsburgh

• Major Media: Mainstream local business press. (i.e. major local or regional publications that frequently champion local businesses)

1. ABC Pittsburgh
2. CBS Pittsburgh
3. Crain's Pittsburgh
4. FOX Pittsburgh
5. NBC Pittsburgh
6. Pittsburgh Business Spotlight
7. Pittsburgh Business Times
8. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
9. Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
10. Smart Business Magazine
11. B. Funding

• Angels / Micro-VCs: Seed-stage investors

1. Andrew Rabin
2. Andrew Williams
3. Arjun Hattiangadi
4. Barry Rabkin
5. Benjamin J. Garber
6. Brian Jeffrey Gross
7. Catherine Mott
8. Dave Mawhinney
9. Drew Volpe
10. Edward Engler
11. Evan Tahler
12. Ezz-Eldin Moukamal
13. Frank Demmler
14. Guillaume Binet
15. Jim Jen
16. Jim Ruiz
17. Joey Rahimi
18. John Hammer
19. John Petote
20. LifeX Seed Fund
21. Matt Newton
22. Mountain State Capital
23. Raffi Krikorian
24. Ryan Walsh
25. Ryusuke Kubo
26. Severin Hacker
27. Taylor Davidson
28. Tim Marman
29. Troy Polamalu
30. Victoria Kulli
31. William Guttman
32. Zachary Marburger
33. Zach Malone

• Venture Capitalists: Series A and beyond

1. 20/20 Capital Group
2. 3 Rivers Capital
3. Adams Capital Management
4. Birchmere Ventures
5. BlueTree Venture Fund
6. Chrysalis Ventures
7. Coal Hill Ventures
8. Draper Triangle
9. Eagle Ventures
10. Edison Partners
11. FFC Capital
12. Grouse Ridge Capital
13. Incline Equity Partners
14. PGH VC Association
15. Pi Capital Group
16. Pittsburgh Equity Partners
17. PNC Riverarch Capital
18. Riverfront Ventures
19. Rosetta Capital
20. Scottie Ventures
21. Stone Pier Capital
22. Stonewood Capital
23. Tecum Capital
24. Topanga Partners

C. Growth

• Infrastructure: Office space, HR, local business insurance. (i.e. office space/ HR/ insurance providers for capital-rich companies to grow and scale)

1. 42Floors
2. Acuity HR
3. Boyden Executive Search
4. Compass Business Solutions, Inc.
5. Hurley Insurance Brokers
6. Instant Offices
7. Kennon Insurance Consultants
8. LoopNet
9. McIlrath Insurance Agency
10. Offices
11. OfficeSpace
12. Regus
13. Rofo
14. Rupp-Fiore Insurance
15. Simpson & McCrady
16. The Bradley Partnerships, Inc.
17. Wagner Agency, Inc.

• Expansion: Growth accelerators/consultants. (i.e. programs and business consultants for capital-rich companies to grow and scale)

1. Accenture
2. ARC Advisory Group
3. Aspirant
4. Cayenne Consulting
5. CGI
6. Conduent
7. Deloitte
8. Ernst & Young
9. FTI Consulting
10. Full Circle
11. KORYAK Consulting
12. KPMG
13. LifeX Labs
14. McKinsey & Company
15. Plus Consulting
16. Protiviti
17. PwC
18. SDLC Partners
19. Synergen
20. Towers Watson

4. Success Stories

Successful homegrown companies that have raised significant institutional funding, employ a large workforce, or have achieved liquidity.

1. 4moms
2. Argo AI
3. Avere Systems
4. Bellefield Systems
5. DiamondKinetics
6. Duolingo
7. Dynamics Inc.
8. ebillinghub
9. EquityNet
10. Expii
11. Forest Devices
12. FOREVER
13. Gridwise
14. Helomics
15. Hibersense
16. Highmark Health
17. Hyliion
18. Interphase Materials
19. JazzHR
20. Jetpack Workflow
21. LegalSifter
22. LendingHome
23. Malcovery Security
24. Matrix Solutions
25. Module Housing
26. Nowait
27. Panopto
28. Rijuven
29. Seegrid
30. Shoefitr
31. ShowClix
32. Skyword
33. Wombat Security

Supporters

To facilitate the steps, every ecosystem needs strong supporters.

1. Evangelists

Successful local founders who lead the ecosystem & frequently mentor newbies.

1. Adam Paulisick
2. Andy Chan
3. Andy Hannah
4. Annia Aleman
5. Barry Rabkin
6. Ben Utter
7. Bobby Zappala
8. Brad Frost
9. Brian Finamore
10. Catherine Mott
11. Craig Markovitz
12. Dave Nelsen
13. David Cristello
14. Don Charlton
15. Don Morrison
16. Greg Coticchia
17. Henry Thorne
18. Ilana Diamond
19. Jennifer Wilhelm
20. Jim Jen
21. John Dick
22. John Quayle
23. Josh Lucas
24. Justin Reese  
25. Kannu Sahni
26. Kelauni Cook
27. Kenny Chen
28. Kevin Dowling
29. Kit Needham
30. Linda Handley
31. Lynn Banaszak
32. Mark DeSantis
33. Marta Dalton
34. Mary Del Brady
35. Melanie Querry
36. Mike Capsambelis
37. Randy Eager
38. Rich Lunak
39. Robb Myer
40. Ryan Gayman
41. Sean Ammirati
42. Suzy Teele
43. Zachary Swetz

2. Government

Public organizations that facilitate local economic development (ex. Start with the chamber of commerce, “Invest in XXX”, “Economic Ministry of XXX” , “Innovation”, R&D, etc)

1. Allegheny Conference
2. City of Pittsburgh Department of Innovation & Performance
3. Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce
4. Inclusive Innovation PGH
5. Innovation PGH
6. Innovation Works
7. P4 Pittsburgh
8. PGH Lab
9. Southwestern PA Veteran's Chamber of Commerce
10. Sustainable Pittsburgh
11. The Pittsburgh EcoInnovation District: Uptown and Oakland
12. Urban Innovation21

3. Talent

Major local business or tech universities and employers that attract and retain local talent.

• Local Universities (universities with prominent technical or business programs)

1. California University of Pennsylvania
2. Carlow University
3. Carnegie Mellon University
4. Chatham University
5. Duquesne University
6. Indiana University of Pennsylvania
7. Penn State in Pittsburgh
8. Point Park University
9. Robert Morris University
10. Seton Hill University
11. University of Pittsburgh
12. Washington & Jefferson College

• Local Employers (Major technical employers, like Microsoft or Google or large local companies, with large local offices, “major technology companies in Pittsburgh”)

1. Aethon
2. Alcoa
3. Allegheny Technologies
4. Amazon
5. ANSYS
6. Apple
7. Aptiv
8. Argo AI
9. Ariba
10. Aurora Innovation
11. BlackBox
12. Bossa Nova Robotics
13. Carnegie Robotics
14. Cisco
15. Comcast
16. Deeplocal
17. Facebook
18. Ford
19. GE
20. Google
21. IBM
22. Identified Technologies
23. Industrial Scientific
24. Intel
25. Lumos Networks
26. Microsoft
27. Modcloth
28. Near Earth Autonomy
29. Nokia
30. Oculus
31. Oracle
32. PPG Industries
33. Re2
34. Redzone Robotics
35. SAP
36. Seegrid
37. Siemens
38. TeleTracking
39. Thermo Fisher Scientific
40. Uber
41. Westinghouse Nuclear
42. Wombat Security

Learn more about the Startup Ecosystem Canvas here, and leave us your thoughts on the Pittsburgh Canvas on this collaborative Google document (This is just a DRAFT, and more input is needed!)

Are you looking to start a company in Pittsburgh? Then apply to the Pittsburgh Founder Institute today!