In the free, 4.5-week I-Corps regional course, STEM field researchers and student entrepreneurs learn how to “get out of their comfort zone” and learn from potential customers. Their goal is to determine if they are solving a real-world problem with a sizable market opportunity.
Top researchers from across the US apply to I-Corps Teams, an intensive seven-week innovation and entrepreneurship training course with mentoring and up to $50,000 in NSF funding. Selected teams complete over 100 customer discovery interviews to collect first-hand evidence for or against product-market fit.
Each I-Corps Team includes a mentor – an experienced entrepreneur who can guide the team as they refine their business models, gain insights from their customer market, and pivot down alternate paths.
Qualified ‘non-traditional’ teams may be eligible for a $30,000 Node Sponsorship grant to participate in the national I-Corps Teams program.
In recognition that there are strong teams with innovative, ‘deep technology’ inventions who are not eligible for the I-Corps Teams program as defined by the current solicitation (NSF 21-552), NSF has authorized our Node to screen and nominate “Node Sponsored’ Teams to participate in the national I-Corps Teams program.
In 2018, the UNY I-Corps Node recruited eight early-stage startup companies with deep-tech innovations to participate in the SBIR Phase 0 pilot program, where they received $200K in NSF funding and honed their product-market fit through the I-Corps Teams program.