Startup Talk by Pursuit Cofounder + Internship Opportunities

At this event, Mike Vichich will talk about his journey as a serial entrepreneur and the company that he’s currently cofounder and CEO of: Pursuit, a firm that uses technology to make it easier to serve the public sector.

In addition, Prof. Krisztián Flautner will introduce attendees to Intern Connect: a new program from CSE that helps to facilitate the process of matching students to internship opportunities at small, local companies.

About Pursuit: Pursuit (https://www.pursuit.us/)is an AI-driven company that streamlines the process of selling to the public sector by analyzing public documents to uncover hidden opportunities. Our investors include Jack Altman (Alt Cap), Blake Robbins (Hidden Capital, ex Benchmark), Bill Gurley (Former Benchmark GP), Sam Hinkie (Former GM of Philadelphia 76ers). Pursuit’s Cofounders, Mike Vichich (CEO), and Brandon Max (CTO), built and sold another tech company, Wisely, for $200M.

Often, when there’s a perceived waste of public funds, rules get created. Public sector officials want to “make sure that never happens again.” These well-intentioned rules, from registrations, to procurement processes, to RFPs, to insurance requirements eventually form a massive barrier to entry, cementing an incumbent’s position. As time passes, without facing real competition, prices go up and quality goes down.

We started Pursuit to fix this — to make sure the best contractor wins, not just the most entrenched one. From federal agencies to local school districts, Pursuit transforms how trillions in public sector contracts are sought and awarded. Because when innovators have the tools and resources to compete fairly, the citizens win.

About internships at Pursuit: We want future founders. You’ll gain awesome technical experience using cutting-edge tools — Cursor, OpenAI, Anthropic, psikit. But most importantly, this will be different from other internships because you’ll be close to the customer, see how sales work, see company financials and understand how to build a company from the ground up — alongside a super experienced founding team. Best case: you work at Pursuit for a while, and then we invest in your startup and plug you into our investors.

About Intern Connect: Intern Connect is a new program operated by CSE that is designed to connect talented undergraduate students studying computer science, computer engineering, and data science with internship opportunities at companies across Michigan. Internships currently listed on Intern Connect can be viewed by students here.