Frank Rimalovski Executive Director, NYU Entrepreneurial Institute - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Frank Rimalovski

Executive Director, NYU Entrepreneurial Institute Instructor, NYCRIN I-Corps Node

March 21, 2014

NYCRIN Node Leadership

• Principal Investigator:
• Gillian Small (CUNY)
• Co-PIs:
• Kurt Becker (NYU), John Blaho (CUNY), Chris Wiggins (Columbia U)
• Instructors:
• John Blaho (CUNY), Lindsey Gray (NYU), Frank Rimalovski (NYU)
• Jim Aloise (Columbia), Micah Kotch (NYU), Ivy Schultz (Columbia)
• Node Managers/TAs:
• Christina Pellicane (CUNY)
• Risa Cohn (NYU), Effje MacLachlan (CUNY)
• Lead Developer:
• Jennifer Rubinovitz (Columbia)

Level 1 Activities – what did we do?

• 2013: Two NSF I-Corps cohorts
• Summer NYCRIN regional networking event
• I-Corps info sessions/recruitment across Node/region
• Evangelized I-Corps at other forums
• Built Summer Launchpad around curriculum
• Adopted curriculum for PowerBridge NY
• Funded Lean Launchpad educator training -> 2 classes
• 2014: 1st Regional NYCRIN I-Corps cohort

Level 1 Activities – what did we learn?

• Curriculum universally useful across stages & sectors
• Location! Location! Location!
• NYC metro is great location for customer discovery
• Abundant adjuncts, fewer willing mentors
• Life sciences dominates regional cohort
• $50,000 from NSF serves as both carrot & stick
• Limited applicants outside of NYC so far
• “I’m too busy…”/old-school cultures pervasive
• Recruiting teams requires face-to-face contacts
• Role models & success stories help
• Regional cohorts require a lot of advanced planning

Level 1 Activities – what will we do next?

• More of the same
• Plan further ahead for next Regional I-Corps
• Celebrate/showcase success stories
• Explore life science specifjc support
• Greater local outreach efforts
• Greater outreach and support to region

Level 2 Activities – what did we do?

• Node website, newsletter & social media
• Engage & equip peers at regional universities
• Directly engaged PhD/postdoc communities
• Indoctrinated VCs & educators as adjuncts
• Deepened Teaching Team bench
• Engagement of previous NYCRIN teams

Level 2 Activities – what did we learn?

• Great interest in participating in Node activities
• Absent face-to-face outreach/meetings

likelihood of application low

• Need to more deeply engage & support

regional schools

• Effort to maintain website & social media
• Need to fjnd leverage in model

Level 2 Activities – what will we do next?

• Regional mentors database
• 2014 Annual NYCRIN meeting
• Host more regional information sessions
• Work to increase regional collaborations
• More/better tools to enable regional peers
• Leverage media resources to drive awareness

and consideration

• Roadshow?

Level 3 Activities – what did we do?

• Analysis of NYCRIN teams
• Follow federal SBIR/STTR funding
• Exchanged best practices w SF & DMV nodes
• NYCRIN Lean Workbench
• Open source suite for Lean analytics & startup ops
• Will use NYCRIN I-Corps teams as α/β testers
• Status: Close to MVP Launch
• Customer Discovery complete
• Now accepting signups
• leanworkbench.com

Level 3 Activities – what did we learn?

• Challenge to gather data on regional teams

that have not gone through our cohorts

• Teams willing to share successes, but not

failures

• All nodes very “open source”

Level 3 Activities – what will we do next?

• Develop regional I-Corps grad network
• Create formal quarterly survey
• Track progress of regional I-Corps teams
• Adapt toolkit to address needs of graduate

startups

• Continue to exchange best practices

Key “Take-Aways”

• A lot of work…
• But a lot more value