An Evening with Claire Zau: Lightspeed Ventures
You’ve seen the stories shaping the future of AI. Meet the investor helping tell them.
Join Pittsburgh Student Venture Capital and Scottie Ventures for Lightspeed Labs, an evening with Claire Zau, Partner & New Media at Lightspeed Ventures, bringing together students from Pitt and CMU to explore venture capital, startups, and the future of physical AI.
You don’t need a finished company or a funding round to connect with investors. Whether you’re exploring your first idea, already building, or considering a startup career, this evening is about meeting the people who can help you take the next step.
Meet Claire
With 350,000+ followers across social media and millions of monthly views, Claire has turned her passion for technology into a platform reaching hundreds of thousands of people. Her content brings the biggest developments in AI, startups, and venture capital to life, making complex ideas accessible, engaging, and worth paying attention to.
She brings a rare combination to the conversation: an investor’s insight and a creator’s reach. At Lightspeed, Claire invests in pre-seed and seed companies, helps shape the firm’s new media strategy, and co-hosts Lightwork, its weekly AI podcast.
Before joining Lightspeed, she spent six years investing at GSV Ventures, building her media platform alongside her investing career. Now, she’s bringing that experience directly to Pittsburgh to share her journey, answer your questions, and meet the next generation of student founders.
A leading name in venture capital
Lightspeed is a top global venture capital firm with more than $50 billion in assets under management and decades of experience backing ambitious founders. Its work spans the earliest stages of company building through global growth, giving Claire a window into the ideas and entrepreneurs driving the next wave of technology.
Through Lightspeed Labs, that perspective comes directly to campus, connecting investors and companies with students at the very beginning of their entrepreneurial journeys.
Physical AI with Mecka
What does building a company and a career in physical AI look like?
Mecka builds data infrastructure for robot learning and real-world deployment and recently announced a $60 million Series B. A planned session with the team will introduce the company, its work, and its perspective on the future of robotics, alongside career opportunities and how students can get involved.
Mecka representatives and final session details will be confirmed closer to the event.
What to expect
Fireside chat with Claire, moderated by Ethan Tran: A 10–15-minute conversation about Claire’s journey, Lightspeed’s investment approach, what she looks for in early-stage founders, and her perspective on the venture capital industry.
Open audience Q&A: Bring your questions about AI, building a company, venture capital, and connecting with investors.
A planned 30-minute session with Mecka: Meet the company, learn about its work in physical AI, and explore robotics, engineering, and startup career paths.
Come with an idea, a career question, or simply a curiosity about what comes next.
October 29, 2026 · 6–7 PM ET
Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship, Carnegie Mellon University
4765 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Hosted by Pittsburgh Student Venture Capital × Scottie Ventures.