1. 1 NSF I-CORPS Innovation Corps Evidence-Based Approach to Reducing Risk of University Tech Transfer Spinouts Lou Bucelli, Serial Entrepreneur, NSF I-Corps Mentor The views expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation

2. THIS IS REALLY HARD! 2

3. $ Valley of Death University Investors Industry NSF Grants time discoverydevelopmentcommercialization I, Corpse

4. NSF I-CORPS Goals Leverage NSF’s investments Improve impact of NSF-funded research Expand research beyond the laboratory Promote societal benefit of technologies Turn ideas into product/service/companies Change the cultures of academic research

5. NSF I-CORPS National Innovation Network I-Corps Teams – $50K, – 6 month I-Corps Sites – $100K/year – Up to 5 years I-Corps Nodes – $3M/year – Max 5 years 5

6. NSF Innovation- Corps Flow Diagram Pool of eligible PIs & projects: ~50,000 projects (NSF) Recruiting processes (NSF) Pool of eligible Teams (from NSF): Entrepreneuri al Lead PI Mentor Team Selection (NSF ) Node Assignment (NSF) Awarde d I- Corps Teams (NSF) Curriculum Delivery & Refinement (Nodes) Customer Discovery (Teams/No des) Business Model Canvasses (Teams) “Go” Decision (Teams) “No- Go” Decision (Teams) Pool of eligible Teams (from I- Corps Sites and Nodes) Strategic Partnership Private Capitaliza tion Public Funding (e.g., SBIR, STIR, …. ) 5-6 Weeks 7 Intensive Weeks 6 Months

7. NSF I-Corps Teams Principal Investigator (PI) Must have NSF funding in last 5 years Entrepreneurial Lead (EL) Usually PhD student of PI Industry Mentor (IM) Either domain experience or entrepreneur experience

8. NSF I-Corps Team Course 7 week intensive course 3 day in person kickoff workshop 5 week online flipped classroom 2 day in person closing workshop 100+ customer discover interviews Final Presentation and Lessons Learned Video Go/No Go Decision

9. NSF I-CORPS CURRICULUM Based on hypothesis-drive customer discovery model (Steve Blank, Stanford University) Focused on addressing market risk Requires getting out of the lab – 15 hours of prep per week – 100 customer interviews 9

10. Application/Selection Process Read the solicitation Participate in the introductory webinar Contact NSF I-Corps with intent to apply Compile a team Apply with 1-page tech overview + team bios Series of selection calls - entire team, be early Once selected - formal application NSF I-Corps Website: http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=504672

11. NSF I-Corps By the Numbers 800 Teams participated 192 universities 44 states 320 companies formed $83M in follow on funding $30M FY2017 NSF I-Corps Funding 11

12. Acquired by Dropbox, three months after completing I-Corps! This team of CISE – funded Computer Scientists Developed software to annotate a large number of images quickly and accurately Combining human input (e.g., crowd-sourcing) with an annotation algorithm to facilitate image analysis (e.g., photos, maps, …) Founders Serge Belongie Professor at UC San Diego Peter Welinder Award-winning research in computer vision, machine learning and crowdsourcing. Boris Babenko Co-founder of @Anchovi Labs, Inc.@Anchovi Labs

13. North Carolina A&T State University Crowned Champion in $100,000 ACC Clean Energy Challenge Bioadhesive Alliance’s winning technology, an environmentally friendly bio-based adhesive, is a sustainable alternative resource developed from the thermochemical liquefaction process converting swine manure to a bio-binder, while sequestering carbon and greenhouse gases otherwise released into the atmosphere. North Carolina A&T State University Crowned Champion in $100,000 ACC Clean Energy Challenge Bioadhesive Alliance’s winning technology, an environmentally friendly bio-based adhesive, is a sustainable alternative resource developed from the thermochemical liquefaction process converting swine manure to a bio-binder, while sequestering carbon and greenhouse gases otherwise released into the atmosphere. … 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

14. Mobile Robots: CISE-Funded City- Climbers with Artificial Intelligence A wall-climbing robot system based on the teams "City-Climber" technology for building façade inspection and glass wall cleaning applications. The current practice of manual inspection of building façade is time-consuming, expensive, and poses risk to human workers. The City-Climber technology provides a solution to meet a strong demand for automated inspection of building façades. In addition, the City-Climber robots can be modified to carry out tasks such as to clean glass walls and solar panels. Under prior funding, this team developed several wall-climbing robot prototypes, named City-Climber.

15. Forbes "[...Neon] is now integrating her research into an algorithm that helps determine which online images produce the greatest number of clicks." Sophie Lebrecht, Carnegie Mellon University, Entrepreneurial Lead; Mike Tarr, PI; Babs Carryer, Mentor Sophie Lebrecht identified that the brain computes a very rough, very rapid and automatic snapshot of perception in order to estimate the likability of an object. They had essentially discovered a way to predict the images people would be most attracted to, and that image discovery had huge market potential—anytime there is an image, and you want a human to relate to that image, the research is applicable. NEON

16. “Selected as a GigaOm "Best of the Best" finalist for new start-up” “They've already received $1.5M in Angel financing and are going out for their series A round now.” CISE-funded AppScale is the open source implementation of Google App Engine cloud platform. PI: Chandra Krintz University of California- Santa Barbara “AppScale -- Spurring Innovation Through Cloud Application Portability” Cloud computing platform that automatically deploys and scales unmodified Google App Engine applications over public and private cloud systems. “AppScale Launches As An Open-Source Backup Equivalent To Google App Engine”

17. Magdy Iskander, University of Hawaii NSF Industry/University Collaborative Research Center (I/U CRC) “All in all, ICORPS has been a most rewarding experience in my over 35 years in academia. ICORPS is magic, transformative and most effective, in a deceivingly simple way, in invigorating interstate in commercialization and makes believers out of academic doubters. … We are most grateful for the opportunity and wholeheartedly thank you for having our team being a part of this outstanding program.” Microwave Stethoscope MiWa Technologies has developed the Cardiopulmonary Stethoscope, a low-cost, non-invasive integrated radio frequency-based system for lung water and vital sign measurements. Being able to closely monitor the changes in lung water, respiratory rate, and heart rate, are the foundation for proactively preventing worsening of patients’ heart failure. MiWa Technologies has developed the Cardiopulmonary Stethoscope, a low-cost, non-invasive integrated radio frequency-based system for lung water and vital sign measurements. Being able to closely monitor the changes in lung water, respiratory rate, and heart rate, are the foundation for proactively preventing worsening of patients’ heart failure.

18. “Smart and yummy educational animations, mini–games, and interactive tools that help mid-school learners better understand math concepts.” New Mexico State University “One of the most exciting outcomes of the Math Snacks I-Corp efforts is the new focus of the PI's as we continue to seek funding. There is an increased interest in the distribution and commercialization of the products throughout the writing process. This has resulted in the team seeking out these partners and getting letters of support prior to submitting grants. For example, the NMSU Learning Games Lab, which produced Math Snacks was selected by Glass Labs at USC to be one of the game developers involved in a pilot study where teachers can go for a clearinghouse of gaming resources for the classroom. The I-Corp experience has made the education team and the development team realize how important this is to future development and funding.”

19. Thanks!