I-Corps™

Tapping the Enormous Potential of National Science Foundation-Funded Science and Engineering Innovations

I-Corps™ is a National Science Foundation (NSF) initiative launched in 2011 to increase the economic impact of the research it has funded by transitioning it from lab to market. Through a dynamic collaboration with VentureWell, NSF offers select participants from U.S. academic laboratories the opportunity to participate in an accelerated version of Stanford University’s Lean LaunchPad course. This revolutionary course engages participants in commercializing their products by talking to potential customers, partners, and competitors and encountering the challenges and uncertainty of creating successful innovations.

The I-Corps™ environment is fast-paced and rigorous; teams are pushed, challenged, and questioned with the aim of quickly determining whether their ideas are worth pursuing. VentureWell, as the backbone and support of the I-Corps™ program, plays a crucial role in delivering the necessary mentorship, guidance, and training to ensure the program’s success. Our role is to provide entrepreneurial expertise, infrastructure, and resources to support teams as they go through the demanding customer discovery process. Teams are expected to complete at least 10 customer discovery interviews per week, engaging with at least 100 potential customers over the course of the 10-week program.

The teams—composed of academic researchers, student entrepreneurs, and business mentors—participate in a rigorous and fast-paced 7-week curriculum delivered through online instruction, as well as on-site activities through one of several I-Corps™ Hubs. The Hubs catalyze additional groups to explore potential I-Corps™ Team projects and other entrepreneurial opportunities that build on academic research.

The program aims to create a nationwide ecosystem that helps researchers translate their promising technologies to market by teaching them how to be entrepreneurs and connecting them to each other and to potential supporters through a National Innovation Network. VentureWell also provides support through I-Corps™ programming at NIH for life sciences.