the founder community

at uw cse graduate school


The agent startup club is a community of uw cse graduate students passionate about tackling the world's toughest challenges with an entrepreneurial mindset.

Join the Club Upcoming Events

Upcoming Events

12 Nov

Faculty Founders

Oren Etzioni (TrueMedia.org), Jeffrey Heer (Trifacta), Kurtis Heimerl (Endgaga)

6:30 PM - 8:00 PM | Gates Commons
9 Dec

Late Nights

Monthly social event for members to network and build relationships(secret invited guest).

5:30 PM - 6:30 PM | TBD
13 Jan

Late Nights

Monthly social event for members to network and build relationships(secret invited guest).

5:30 PM - 6:30 PM | TBD

Past Events

VC Panel (Spring 2025) - Tim Porter (Madrona), Jacob Kolker (AI2 Incubator), Ti Zhao (Pack Ventures), Vivek Ladsariya (Pioneer Square Labs) at CSE
Seattle Founder Stories (Fall 2025) - Matt Whitehill, Beth Kolko (UW), Sergey Karayev (Gradescope) at Foundations Seattle
Founder Stories (Spring 2024) - Priyanka Kulkarni (Cesium), Jared Roesch (OctoML), Melinda Haughey (Proxi) at OctoML
Founder Stories (Fall 2023) - Andy Konwinski (Co-founder, Databricks, Perplexity AI, Apache Spark) at CSE

About Our Club

Our mission is to inspire and encourage UW CSE PhD students to explore startups as an exciting and rewarding career path. We host events, workshops, and networking opportunities to help students learn about startups and build their own ventures. Each month, we organize a gathering on the second Tuesday, featuring invited guests from our VC partners and local Seattle entrepreneurs. Twice a year, we host a major event with a guest speaker panel.

Join Our Community

Membership Benefits

  • Access to exclusive startup events and workshops
  • Mentorship from successful entrepreneurs and VCs
  • Networking with fellow graduate student founders

How to Join

Step 1: Attend an Event

Come to one of our open events to meet current members and learn more.

Step 2: Interview

Brief conversation with club leadership about your entrepreneurial goals.

Ready to Join?

Start your entrepreneurial journey with UW CSE's most innovative graduate students.

Apply for Membership

Get in Touch

Connect With Us

Have questions about joining or want to learn more about our startup community?

Email

agent@cs.washington.edu

Slack

Join our #entrepreneurship channel