University of Georgia

Schedule

University of Georgia I-Corps cohort October 2017

Location

Classes will be taught at the Jackson Street Building from 5:30-7:30PM on Mondays and Coaching Sessions will also be held at the Jackson Street Building on Thursdays by appointment.

Accelerator Schedule

Startup Combine

The Startup Combine (think NFL Combine) is a networking event to match projects in need of help with free agents looking for projects to work on.

Each team will provide a brief (2 min) description of what their technology accomplishes and what their team is looking for.

The Combine will be at Jackson St. Building and run from 5:30PM to 7:30PM.

Preparing for Week 1:

  • Watch the following online assignment: Business Models and Customer Development, Lesson 3 and Lesson 4
  • Prepare a two-slide presentation to briefly introduce your team and your project. All teams will be expected to present the 2 slide presentation on September 9th.

Week 1

Class Topics

  • Background and History of I-Corps Program
  • Business Model Canvas Basics
  • Developing & Testing Hypotheses
  • Customer Interviewing Techniques
  • Team Presentation
    • Introductory presentation (3 Minutes, 2 Slides)

Coaching Session Expectations:

  • 10 Potential Interviewees
  • Mock Interview Preparation

Week 2 Homework Assignments & Deliverables

    • Complete the value proposition and customer segments of Business Model Canvas
    • Watch the following: Lesson 6: Customer Segments
    • Complete 10 customer interviews

Week 2

Class Topics

  • Market Research
  • Introduction to Intellectual Property
  • Team Presentation

Coaching Session Expectation

  • Total Addressable Market (TAM), Served Available Market (SAM), and Target Market (TM) Estimates
  • Review first 10 customer interviews

Week 3 Homework Assignments & Deliverables

Week 3

Class Topics

  • Risk and Mitigation
  • Funding Strategies and Sources
  • Guidelines and Example of a Final Presentation
  • Team Presentations

Coaching Session Expectation:

  • Final presentation draft
  • Give a practice presentation
  • Review 10 new customer interviews

Week 4 Homework Assignments & Deliverables

  • Conduct additional customer interviews
  • Prepare fa final presentation draft

Weeks 4-5 Coaching

We are giving two weeks for teams to gather more customer interviews to better develop their value proposition. We will touch base with each group during the usual Thursday I-Corps Coaching times to ensure they are on track and are honing their final pitch.

Coaching Session Expectation:

  • Review new customer interviews
  • Final presentation draft
  • Give a practice presentation

Final Presentation

Final Presentation!

We will be inviting local innovation members, funding agencies and interested UGA community members to a celebration event with each team completing the presentations and networking afterwards. See here for an article from last cohort: Bringing innovative research to market

Your presentations should be no more than 7 minutes:

  • Introduction and 7 words (30 seconds)
  • Technical Background (1 minute 30 seconds)
  • Market (1 minute)
  • Interview Sources/Results (2 minutes 30 seconds)
  • Learnings and Next Steps (1 minute 30 seconds)

Good luck!