UCF I-Corps Seminar by Michael O’Donnell
Wednesday, September 7th, 2016 1:00PM to 2:00PM
CREOL Room 103
About UCF I-Corps:
I-Corps is a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded grant that aims to teach researchers how to commercialize their research and ideas through the Business Model Canvas. The five week program focuses on discovering that there is product-market fit through evidence based research. This is done before building a product or service in order to increase the viability of the company and reduce the risk, time, and money spent. While the NSF provides the teams that go through I-Corps with seed funding, UCF coordinates all of the sessions, provides nationally certified instructors, matches teams with seasoned business mentors, and countless follow-on service with collaboration of the UCF and Orlando entrepreneurship community. The UCF I-Corps program is a part of the start-up community in Central Florida that aims to support and further develop an ecosystem of innovation and entrepreneurship where local companies can start, grow, and thrive.
Once teams graduate, the Venture Accelerator consults the teams with next step opportunities. At this point, most teams have validated their assumptions and understand who their customer is and why they care, identifying if they have a product-market fit. Since the program is funded by the NSF, teams get “lineage”, meaning they are able to apply to a plethora of grants only available to NSF grantees, apply for the $50,000 National I-Corps program, and are able to put the NSF as one of their funders. The I-Corps program has proven to: make teams 60% more likely to earn an SBIR/STTR grant, win business pitch competitions, and build a valuable network.
To find out more about I-Corps, please visit our website: https://icorps.cie.ucf.edu/
For additional information:
Vanessa Zabala
UCF I-Corps Program Coordinator
University of Central Florida
12201 Research Parkway, Suite 501 | Orlando, FL 32826
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