NC State Innovation and Entrepreneurship has developed an incubator program to support early-stage undergraduate and graduate student startups. During the incubator, students will work on furthering their concepts through a variety of fundamental practices like doing customer discovery, exploring business modeling and thinking through commercialization strategy.
The incubator occurs over a rolling 10-week period, but students can earn one elective credit this spring semester by enrolling in LaunchPad through ECE 383-003. Non-credit seeking participants may enter at any time.
While the cohort will meet weekly for update sharing, the program gives students access to an asynchronous library of resources that they can navigate at their own pace. Throughout the incubator period, participants will also be connected to mentorship and other forms of support. Each week will kick off with founder updates including what’s working, road blocks and goals for the week.
To apply to LaunchPad please fill out this application form. At the end of the form there is a question to confirm if you’d like to take the course for credit or non-credit.
Questions can be directed to Program Lead Kenneth Proseus at kpproseu@ncsu.edu.
Modular Content
Module 1: Customer Discovery Overview
An overview of customer discovery and an introduction to the fundamentals of entrepreneurship.
Module 2: Identifying and Validating Ugh’s
Learning how to identify and validate ughs to make sure your business is solving frustrations, dissatisfactions and unfulfilled desires your customers actually have.
Module 3: Market Research (Understanding Your Opportunity)
A focused lesson on conducting relative market research.
Module 4: Demand Experimentation and Validation
Learn how to test and validate demand for your concept quickly and cheaply.
Module 5: Basics of Prototyping and MVP
Brush up on the basics of developing and prototyping a minimum viable product.
Module 6: Identifying and Validating Customer Satisfaction, Validating Business Model
This topic covers the basics of actually going out and validating customer satisfaction for a product or service, and determining if the business model can work.
Module 7: Pitching and Storytelling
This module covers the basics of giving a pitch and telling your story in an engaging way.
Module 8: Next Steps for a Startup and Continued Support with Innovation and Entrepreneurship Programming for Alumni
Innovation and Entrepreneurship will connect incubator participants to resources and opportunities once they have mastered the content offered in the incubator. Continuing support could be for additional programs like the Miller Fellows or Andrews Launch Accelerator as well startup competitions and startup packages.
Program Requirements
All companies in the cohort will be introduced to mentors and advisors in their respective areas and are expected to set up meetings with those individuals. Incubator attendees are required to take part in the campus-wide mentorship program, outside of direct pairings that may be made.
Companies will get access to a resource database as part of being a cohort member. Additional marketing, prototyping and new venture creation coaching or resources may be applied throughout the program’s duration.
Weekly incubator sessions will take place in the Albright Entrepreneurship Garage or Entrepreneurship Clinic, and participants will be required to attend in person.
Startup packages may be created at the conclusion of the incubator, tailored to fit the next steps of each venture that meets core requirements and has proven a runway to commercialization. Startup packages are based on merit, likelihood of commercial success and other requirements established by the NC State Innovation and Entrepreneurship leadership team.
Teams should plan to work from the Albright Entrepreneurship Garage or earmark time specific to building their venture (5-10 hours per week). Teams will benefit from meeting other aspiring founders during weekly meet-ups. Ventures are highly encouraged to share a 1-minute update on their progress each week and engage with alumni speakers/guests.
To apply to LaunchPad please fill out this application form. To additionally sign up for course credit, please sign up for ECE 383-003 during class selection.
It is also required to create an account for Campfire in order to gain full access to this programs’ modules and resources. Please follow the link below to open Campfire or create an account.
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