A new startup accelerator program will help Indiana University faculty and staff turn their research discoveries and professional insights into viable businesses.
The IU Faculty Startup Accelerator Program, a collaboration between the IU Innovation and Commercialization Office and The Mill, is designed specifically for IU entrepreneurs who have early-stage, scalable business ideas.
"We are excited to partner with The Mill to offer this program tailored for IU inventors and entrepreneurs," said Simran Trana, associate vice president of the IU Innovation and Commercialization Office. "Through this program, participants will improve the probability of success for their startups and accelerate technology commercialization for IU."
Over an intensive six-week program, participants work to define their customer base, market, revenue models and more to build a business plan for their early stage startups while receiving individualized feedback and consultation from mentors and startup experts at The Mill.
At the end of the program, participants pitch their solutions to an expert panel of entrepreneurs, founders, investors and community leaders. The inaugural demo day, featuring eight IU faculty, took place on March 8th.
"These new founders did a great job on Demo Night," said Andy Lehman, head of accelerator programming at The Mill. "They made huge strides forward in turning their academic and scientific innovations into compelling business concepts. We're thrilled to support them on their entrepreneurial journey and connect them to our amazing startup community. Maximizing the opportunities in the intellectual property coming out of IU has always been part of The Mill’s vision, and we’re really pleased with these first steps."
Rachel Wheeler, associate professor of religious studies at IUPUI and program participant, said she likes how this program offers a crash course in how to translate their vision to effectively communicate with potential investors.
"We have a team of outstanding faculty and student researchers working on an idea that we believe could lead to a viable and valuable product for academic professionals, but what we don’t have is experience in starting a business," Wheeler said. "It's also great to go through the program with a cohort of our faculty peers - our ideas are all very different, but we are all dedicated researchers navigating through a complex environment of industry, research and business."
Wheeler and her team have created an app prototype, CovidCV, that enables faculty to document the impact of the pandemic on their lives and careers on their CVs. Their new version, RealCV, will help to make the invisible labor at home and on campus visible by translating that labor into recognizable skills.
"IU’s Innovation and Commercialization Office is committed to transforming lab discovery into market solutions through licensing and startup formation," Trana said. "Our commercialization managers work closely with IU innovators and early-stage startups by providing access to clinical expertise and support for navigating the commercialization process at IU."
The first cohort with diverse business ideas includes:
- Feng Guo, Department of Intelligent Systems Engineering
- Dan Tracey, Gill Center for Biomolecular Science
- Rudy Banerjee, Department of Geography
- Rachel M. Wheeler, Department of Religious Studies
- Janaiah Kota, Medical and Molecular Genetics, IUSM
- Weinian Shou, Department of Pediatrics, IUSM
- Aaron Ganci, Department of Visual Communication Design
- James Tagg, Jacobs School of Music
The IU Faculty Startup Accelerator program plans to welcome its second cohort later this year. Contact ICO’s commercialization managers to learn more about the program.