Overview of Innovation Corps (I-Corps™)

Rathindra (Babu) DasGupta

National Science Foundation

Engineering Directorate

Global Entrepreneurship WeejkNovember 18-19, 2014

Goals

• Increase the economic impact of NSF funded

fundamental research

• Support the growth and maturity of the

entrepreneurial leads (post docs, graduate

students…)

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

I-Corps™ Team

• Entrepreneurial LeadPost-doc or Student to move it forward

• I-Corps MentorDomain-relevant & business-savvy, volunteer guide

Proximity is preferred

• PIResearcher with current or previous award

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

Source: Steve Blank

=

under extreme

Source: Steve Blank

Listen, don’t

talk…..

Source: Viktor Brandtneris

Learning is

Paramount

Your current assumptions are probably

wrong!

You must not try to validate what

you already think or want to be

true!

Source: Viktor Brandtneris

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…

Happiness Cycle

Source: Viktor Brandtneris

Product-Market Fit

Pivot or Proceed

Source: Edmund Pendleton

I-Corps Grant Details

9% Course Tuition

10% F&A to Award Institution

81% Reasonable Efforts to Advance Commercial Readiness

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

$50, 000 $50, 000

$50, 000 $50, 000

The National Science Foundation

15

The Complete

Process

Recruiting processes

(NSF)

Pool of eligible Teams (from NSF):

• Entrepreneurial

Lead

• PI

• Mentor

TeamSelection

(NSF)

NodeAssignment

(NSF)

Awarded I-Corps Teams(NSF)

CurriculumDelivery &

Refinement(Nodes)

Customer Discovery

(Teams/Nodes)

Business Model

Canvasses(Teams)

“Go” Decision(Teams)

“No-Go” Decision(Teams)

Resource Infusion

Strategic Partnership

Private Capitalization

Public Funding (e.g., SBIR, STIR, …. )

Private Sector

A Hectic First

Three Years…

16

• 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

I-Corps™ Teams Success Stories

I-Corps™ Teams

& Institutions

Start-Up Creations

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 algorithmFacilitate image analysis

FoundersSerge BelongieProfessor at UC San Diego

Peter WelinderAward-winning research in computer vision, machine learning and crowdsourcing.

Boris BabenkoCo-founder of @Anchovi Labs, Inc.

CISE 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

ENG Lineage

• SBIR and STTR award information is currently available for the 146 teams

that participated in I-Corps™ in 2011 and 2012.

• 75 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).

NSF I-Corps™ Overview 10/18/14

SBIR/STTR & Other Awards

Award Type Funded

NSF

NSF SBIR/STTR 57AIR/PFI 8GOALI 1ERC & STC 0

Non-NSFDOD SBIR/STTR 1DOE SBIR/STTR 2HHS SBIR/STTR 6

Total NSF & Non-NSF 75

NSF I-Corps™ teams that went through the 2011-2012 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)

NSF I-Corps™ Overview 10/18/14

Funding from the Private Sector

• 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 2011-2012 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.

NSF I-Corps™ Overview 10/18/14

Gender

Creation of 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

NSF I-Corps™ Overview 10/18/14

• 55 individuals from the 2011-2012 cohorts (16%) reported developing an entrepreneurial curriculum.

I-Corps™ SitesSuccess Stories

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

http://www.photonicareinc.com/

Watch a demonstration of this tool at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAlOjwtbRFQ

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.

http://techcrunch.com/2014/06/06/motionsavvy-is-a-tablet-app-that-understands-sign-language/

I-Corps NodeI-Corps Site Nodes and Sites and the

National Innovation Network (NIN)

A Hectic First

Three Years…

30

• 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)

Q & A