Overview
The NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps) is a program created in July 2011 when the National Science Foundation asked Steve Blank to adapt his Lean LaunchPad class to help scientists with SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) grants learn to commercialize their inventions. The scaling of I-Corps nationally was enabled by jerry-engel, who served as National Faculty Director from 2013-2015. I-Corps applies Customer Development to scientific research — treating business model validation as a scientific process of hypothesis testing.
How It Works
I-Corps takes teams of scientists and engineers through a compressed version of the Lean LaunchPad curriculum:
Results
First cohort: 63 scientists/engineers in 21 teams; 19 of 21 teams moved forward with commercialization. The program was made a permanent part of the national science ecosystem and expanded to include the NIH and Department of Energy. Updated metrics: over 9,330 scientists trained; 3,051+ teams; 1,300+ startups; $3.166 billion raised by I-Corps alumni companies.
Significance
I-Corps represents the most scaled institutional adoption of Customer Development. It demonstrated that the methodology works not just for Silicon Valley entrepreneurs but for scientists and engineers at universities nationwide. The program's success earned Blank the NSF and NCIIA Outstanding Leadership Award for Innovation Corps curriculum (2014).
Sources: steveblank.com, Computer History Museum profile, Wikipedia