Steven Guo: Building Communities That Bridge Disciplines at Carnegie Mellon University
From behavioral science to supporting the entrepreneurship ecosystem, Steven Guo shares how he’s mobilizing alumni, students, and faculty to redefine what it means to be a CMU founder.
Xiao He:
Hi Steven, it’s so great to meet you in person here at the Swartz Center in Pittsburgh. To start, could you introduce yourself to our readers?
Steven Guo:
Sure! I’m Steven Guo, a proud Carnegie Mellon alum from the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, where I studied Decision Science—essentially behavioral economics with a focus on how people make choices. I like to also think of myself as a community builder at heart.
At CMU, I’m now helping transform how we mobilize our resources, networks, and opportunities across the founder community—connecting students, alumni, and faculty so that whether you graduated last year or 20 years ago, you can come back, plug in, and build something impactful.
Xiao:
That’s beautiful. How would you define “community”?
Steven:
To me, community is a shared sense of belonging—a bond, a culture, a web of connection that provides space for growth and impact.
I love The Art of Gathering, which talks about being intentional when you design communities: not exclusionary, but curated and thoughtful about who’s in the room and why. CMU people share this deep understanding of rigor and challenge; we’ve been through the grinder together having gone through CMU. So, a community is a space where we feel safe, supported, and empowered to amplify one another’s success.
Xiao:
CMU has so many sub-communities—undergrads, grad students, researchers, artists, engineers. How do you think we can bridge them?
Steven:
That’s something I think about a lot. When I was an undergrad, I didn’t see myself as an entrepreneur. I wasn’t a coder or an engineer or a designer—I was a humanities student. Entrepreneurship felt distant to who I was.
But now I realize it’s all about people and mobilizing diverse talent. CMU’s strength is its diversity, but the experience can feel disjointed. We don’t have a sports culture that serves as a unifying point of connection tying our CMU experience together, for example.
Part of my work, stemming from my experience as a Dietrich student, focuses on creating more accessibility across campus: reaching out to Dietrich, Heinz, CFA, MCS—schools that may not always feel represented—and showing that entrepreneurship isn’t just tech startups. There’s entrepreneurial potential in every discipline we have across campus.
Xiao:
Yes, absolutely! CMU is often seen as a “tech school,” especially in Silicon Valley, but we also have world-class art, drama, and design programs.
Steven:
Exactly. We have incredible technical founders, but also creative thinkers and artists. The goal is to build a culture of entrepreneurship that includes everyone—from roboticists to playwrights. The Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) is one such example of the powerful collaboration that happens when you integrate technology and the arts.
I recently met with faculty from the Center for New Work in the College of Fine Arts. We talked about how theater production is, in many ways, like a startup—it requires funding, risk-taking, and collaboration. Each production is a venture: you raise capital, assemble a team, build an experience, and hope it resonates with an audience. That’s pure entrepreneurship!
Xiao:
That’s such a great analogy. Hardware founders face similar challenges—high cost, long timelines, uncertainty.
Steven:
Exactly. Before coming back to CMU, I used to work at LifeX, a health-tech and life-sciences accelerator affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh. I saw firsthand how challenging the path is to build a venture in hardware, biotech, or medical devices.
At CMU, we have an amazing ecosystem of student, alumni, and faculty founders spinning out their research from the lab into commercial ventures. But access to capital remains one of the biggest challenges.
While we currently have multiple mechanisms to provide capital for our founders: the McGinnis Venture Competition (up to $60 K prize), the Tartan Entrepreneurs Fund ($100K for alumni ventures building in Pittsburgh), Sandbox Fund, Beyond 2% Fund, SPARK grants, and of course, VentureBridge (our flagship pre-seed Accelerator for CMU Alumni startups); we still need to do more to mobilize more capital and get them those resources to succeed.
Xiao:
You mentioned events like CMU Startup Week. Could you share more about those?
Steven:
Yes! We’re creating what I like to call, high-intensity “moments” throughout the year:
CMU Startup Week (Pittsburgh): 25 events in 4 days, 150 external investors, over 2,000 participants. VC office hours, panels and workshops, networking mixers, startup demo day pitches and showcases, startup hiring fair, etc.
Lab to Market Symposium (San Francisco): connects faculty ventures with investors representing the cutting edge of CMU’s research.
Venture Bridge Demo Days (New York, SF, Pittsburgh).
The idea is to make CMU’s entrepreneurial presence visible—show the world that CMU founders are everywhere, building incredible things, and providing a focal point to gather.
Xiao:
For readers who are current students or alumni, what resources should they know about?
Steven:
If you’re a current student, start by submitting a Swartz Center Startup Application—that’s how you enter our pipeline. Our team reviews each idea and connects you with mentors, programs, resources, and funding.
If you’re an alum, you can join Venture Bridge (our pre-seed accelerator), the CMU Tech & Entrepreneurship Community, or the CMU Startup Directory we’re building to spotlight founders and promote what they’re doing.
We also host over 100 events a year in the Swartz Center, open to both campus members and broader community—so just show up, participate, and connect.
Xiao:
That’s incredibly helpful. I also wanted to ask about legal and mentorship support.
Steven:
We partner with law firms through our Patrons Program, offering CMU founders early legal consultations. If you choose to become a client later with them, that’s your own relationship you can develop, but we help to facilitate that first step. We also have partnerships with the major tech companies providing cloud computing credits and additional resources for you to get started.
For mentorship, we have over 250 mentors across industries who offer 30-minute pro bono sessions to CMU founders—just reach out via our website. We’re in the middle of revamping our Mentor and Entrepreneur-in-Residence programs, so keep posted on that front!
Xiao:
That’s amazing. Before we wrap up, I always ask guests—are there any books, podcasts, or films that inspire you?
Steven:
A few!
Book: The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker — about intentional community-building.
Podcast: Freakonomics Radio — as a behavioral scientist, I love how it explores various ideas and problems in society with the lens of behavioral economics and policy.
Magazine: The Behavioral Scientist — for accessible takes and recommendations on the frontlines of behavioral science research.
Book: The Fuzzy and the Techie by Scott Hartley — argues that the liberal arts will “conquer the digital world.” It reminds us to not discount those studying the social sciences as fundamental problems to society are human problems, and technology is just a means to solve them.
Bonus Story
During one of CMU VentureBridge’s fireside chats, Steven recalls a conversation with Matt Rogers, the CMU alum who co-founded Nest Labs (which became the Google Nest/Home device) and was one of the first engineers on the iPhone.
Matt described himself as the “behavior change guy” and highlighted that people overestimate how drastically products can change behavior. The sweet spot of innovation and a great product, he said, often comes from small, subtle nudges—tiny adjustments that quietly, but transformatively reshape daily life.
He reminded the founders that the dramatic transformation may not appear until two or three product generations later—like how the iPhone evolved from a buttoned device to a fully flat screen.
“Behavior change,” Steven reflected, “is not a switch you flip—it’s gradual, cumulative, and deeply human. That’s why behavioral science and entrepreneurship go hand in hand: both are about understanding people first.”