Overview of Innovation Corps (I-Corps ) Rathindra (Babu) DasGupta National Science Foundation Engineering Directorate

Transcription

1 Overview of Innovation Corps (I-Corps ) Rathindra (Babu) DasGupta National Science Foundation Engineering Directorate Global Entrepreneurship Weejk November 18-19, 2014

2 Goals Increase the economic impact of NSF funded fundamental research Support the growth and maturity of the entrepreneurial leads (post docs, graduate students )

3 Background Leverages NSF investments in research Focus on creating a commercialization roadmap Addresses the Ditch of Death Nimble funding -- Immediate assessment Team-based -- commercialization is team effort Process-oriented -- Curriculum-focused (addressing the product-market fit) Based on Stanford Lean LaunchPad class

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5 I-Corps Team Entrepreneurial Lead Post-doc or Student to move it forward I-Corps Mentor Domain-relevant & business-savvy, volunteer guide Proximity is preferred PI Researcher with current or previous award

6 Lean Framework Business Model Canvas Articulate initial Hypotheses Weekly Progress Scorecard Customer Development Test hypotheses in front of customers Hypothesis > Experiment > Data > Insight Agile Development Build Minimum Viable Product Source: Steve Blank

7 Source: Steve Blank

8 = under extreme Source: Steve Blank

9 Listen, don t talk.. Source: Viktor Brandtneris

10 Learning is Paramount You must not try to validate what you already think or want to be true! Your current assumptions are probably wrong! Source: Viktor Brandtneris

11 I-Corps Approach Emphasizes experiential learning and feedback Challenges teams to create their own business model canvas Values revision and continual improvement of business development elements Expects teams to be inquisitive, motivated and capable of self management Full contact immersive class It s all about SEARCHING for a business model MUST get out of the building to test their hypotheses CANNOT outsource commercialization

12 Happiness Cycle Source: Viktor Brandtneris

13 Pivot or Proceed Product-Market Fit Source: Edmund Pendleton

14 I-Corps Grant Details 9% Course Tuition 81% Reasonable Efforts to Advance Commercial Readiness The National Science Foundation $50, 000 $50, 000 $50, 000 $50, % F&A to Award Institution Efforts may include, for example: Prototype Development Travel (e.g. course, prospective customer) Equipment purchase Expenses discussed in proposal budget Strongly Discouraged: PI & Mentor Compensation Legal Fees

15 The Complete Process Customer Discovery (Teams/Nodes) Go Decision (Teams) Strategic Partnership Recruiting processes (NSF) Team Selection (NSF) Node Assignment (NSF) Private Capitalization Pool of eligible Teams (from NSF): Entrepreneurial Lead PI Mentor Awarded I-Corps Teams (NSF) Curriculum Delivery & Refinement (Nodes) Business Model Canvasses (Teams) No-Go Decision (Teams) Public Funding (e.g., SBIR, STIR,. ) Resource Infusion Private Sector 15

16 A Hectic First Three Years I-Corps Teams: 366 Teams have completed the curriculum Start-Up creations SBIR/STTR proposal submission to various agencies One acquisition Private investments received Entrepreneurial curricula developed I-Corps Nodes: (7) I-Corps Nodes I-Corps Sites (15) I-Corps Sites 16

17 I-Corps Teams Success Stories

18 I-Corps Teams & Institutions

19 Start-Up Creations

20 CISE Lineage New way to organize, browse and share your photos. Acquired by Dropbox! Developed software to annotate a large number of images quickly and accurately Combining human input with an annotation algorithm Facilitate image analysis Founders Serge Belongie Professor at UC San Diego Peter Welinder Award-winning research in computer vision, machine learning and crowdsourcing. Boris Babenko Co-founder Labs, Inc.

21 ENG Lineage Bio-Adhesive Alliance was selected as the $25,000 grand prize winner. The start-up company is a spin-out from NC A&T State University that has developed an innovative technology to produce liquid asphalt from swine manure. According to the company, This technology provides a sustainable and cost-effective solution to swine manure treatment while reducing pavement construction and maintenance cost. The Bio-Adhesive Alliance team completed the National Science Foundation s commercialization program known as I-Corps. Bio-Adhesive Alliance

22 NSF I-Corps Overview 10/18/14 SBIR/STTR & Other Awards SBIR and STTR award information is currently available for the 146 teams that participated in I-Corps in 2011 and teams from this period have received SBIR/STTR, or other NSF or non- NSF awards (77% of the 98 teams from this period that formed companies). Award Type Funded NSF SBIR/STTR 57 NSF AIR/PFI 8 GOALI 1 ERC & STC 0 DOD SBIR/STTR 1 Non-NSF DOE SBIR/STTR 2 HHS SBIR/STTR 6 Total NSF & Non-NSF 75

23 NSF I-Corps Overview 10/18/14 Funding from the Private Sector NSF I-Corps teams that went through the courses have raised over 9.3 million in equity financing.* This breaks down as: $5,970,000 from Venture Capitalists (raised by 7 teams) $250,250 from Angel Investors (raised by 2 teams) $490,000 from other companies (raised by 2 teams) $2,627,250 from other sources (raised by 14 teams)

24 NSF I-Corps Overview 10/18/14 Gender 133 out of the 366 teams (36%) that completed the I-Corps course had at least one female team member. Of those teams, 63 are known to have created companies. 13 companies are known to have female CEOs.* For 12 of the 13 companies with known CEOs, the CEO was a member of the original I-Corps team. * The number of female CEOs may be an underestimation. Currently, the only reliable data source on company CEO is the I-Corps Longitudinal Outcomes Survey, for which there is only complete data for the cohorts. If a company s CEO is not a member of the original I-Corps team, there does not currently exist a system of discovering the gender of the CEO. In addition, company websites rarely post this information.

25 NSF I-Corps Overview 10/18/14 Creation of Entrepreneurial Curriculum 55 individuals from the cohorts (16%) reported developing an entrepreneurial curriculum. Sample Course Titles Experiential Entrepreneurship for Computer Scientists Actualizing your Startup Part 2 Biomedical Product Development Starting & Prototyping a Technology Venture 1st Gear Enterprise Creation Team Program

26 I-Corps Sites Success Stories

27 From the University of Illinois I-Corps Site CLEARVIEW is an improved otoscope that will enable physicians to quickly and accurately diagnose middle ear infections during routine examinations. In contrast to the traditional otoscope, which hasn t changed in over a century since its inception, the PhotoniCare CLEARVIEW allows the physician to look through the ear drum to directly observe and characterize effusions and biofilms responsible for infection in the middle ear. CLEARVIEW will dramatically improve diagnostic information without adding time, complexity, or significant cost to the routine patient exam. The improved accuracy will reduce provider costs and improve patient outcomes. Ryan L. Shelton, Ph.D.: I-Corps Entrepreneurial Lead (EL) Stephen A. Boppart, M.D., Ph.D.: I-Corps Principal Investigator (PI) Gary P. Durack: I-Corps Mentor Watch a demonstration of this tool at:

28 MotionSavvy A Tablet App That Understands Sign Language: translate American Sign Language into English and vice versa. The entire development team is deaf. 3D motion recognition system detects when a person is using ASL and converts it to text or voice. The software also has voice recognition through the tablet s mic, which allows a hearing person to respond with voice to the person signing. It then converts their voice into text, which the hearing-impaired receiver can understand.

29 I-Corps Node I-Corps Site Nodes and Sites and the National Innovation Network (NIN)

30 A Hectic First Three Years I-Corps Partners ARPA-E NIH (Pilot activity October-December) Others I-Corps L (Propagate scalability and sustainability of learning innovations initially funded by NSF grants) 30

31 Q & A