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TXST I-Corps: Startup Workshops

About

TXST I-Corps: Faculty Innovation Accelerator Program

The Texas State I-CorpsTM FIAP program is an entrepreneurial program for teams working on business concepts that have the potential to develop Intelligent Property (IP) to support TXST efforts to reach R-1 status.  Teams including faculty, students, staff, and alumni from Texas State University, and underrepresented community members, may apply for the program.  No previous business or entrepreneurship experience is required. 

Most academic spinouts fail because they develop something No One Cares About.

I-CorpsTM is a process that helps you determine:

  • What do your customers care about?
  • Can you build a viable business around your innovation(s)?

National NSF I-Corps Teams

TX State has now sent 11 teams to the national I-Corps program with many coming from our most recent regional program and 4 additional teams in our national I-Corps team pipeline! Thank you all so much for your help, this equates to a total of $500,000 of NSF funding back to TX State, greater future funding opportunities, new companies and jobs into the local ecosystem. Congratulations teams!

  1. Ziliang Zong (GreenSoft)
  2. Feng Wang (StarImage)
  3. Tahir Ekin (DataTwins)
  4. Xijun Shi (PlientConcrete)
  5. Nicole Taylor (MindFul Tech)
  6. Nawab Ali (Nano Drug Enabled Cancer Therapy)
  7. Han Hu (Data-Driven Thermoacoustic Sensing)
  8. Salah Faroughi (AssetScope)
  9. Zhijie Sasha Dong (Util)
  10. Maria Dolores Resendiz (ASD App)
  11. Togay Ozbakkaloglu & Aamar Danish (Data Management Plan)

Congratulations to StarImage (Dr. Xiaohua (Nemo) Luo, Dr. Feng Wang, Haitao Gong, and Jueqiang Tao) they just awarded a $250,000 PFI grant! NSF offers PFI awardees 20% of their total budget ($50k) from a program called Allowable Patent Expenses or APEX. They were recently highlighted in TXST's News on 8/12/22.

Double congratulations are in order for Carlos Corona for raising over $1.5mil for his I-Corps team Nabaco (Dr. Gary Beall and Rusty Phillips). Carlos and Quinn Robichaux for raising  $150k+ for their I-Corps team Southwest Yeast.

Shireen Abdullah was recently awarded an NIH SBIR grant of $256k+ for her I-Corps team of Yumlish.

Our I-Corps teams have raised over $2,656,000 of follow on funding from the TXST I-Corps program.

Wanted VIP's: Visionaries, Innovators, & Problem Solvers (Pre-I-Corps Workshop)

Upcoming Program

All meetings will be held via Zoom.  Links to be provided at a later date.

We are in the process of revamping our program. Our NSF I-Corps grant ended Sept. 30, 2022. A new program is coming! We will post about it here when completed.

 

Resources

Additional resources for I-CorpsTM can be found here.

Do you have product-market fit?

Do you want to take your research to the next level?
Would you like to find additional sources of funding?
How about turning your research into a successful business?

In a short, part-time program, participants receive input from an exceptional teaching team using a proven curriculum.  Participants work to identify a specific real-world need that can be met by their idea or technology, and also define the exact value/benefit they bring to those who need what they have to offer.

Funding Potential -

Attendees will also learn about how they can participate in Texas State’s new Faculty Innovation Accelerator Program (FIAP) and apply for internal funding of up to $11,000 to transition their research.