Starter Studio Becomes First UCF I-Corps Community Affiliate

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Startups

Startups from Starter Studio will take the stage at Demo Day tomorrow evening to highlight what they’ve accomplished, pitch their business, and show you why their startup will succeed.

Strengthens the Lean Startup Network in Orlando’s Tech Community

(ORLANDO, Fla) – The University of Central Florida’s (UCF) Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program is partnering with local regional incubators, accelerators and other organizations supporting entrepreneurs, as Community Affiliates, to provide education programs combined with intense coaching and mentoring services to early-stage technology entrepreneurs.

The first community affiliate to offer the acclaimed National Science Foundation’s (NSF) I-Corps Lean Startup program to high-growth entrepreneurs in Central Florida is Starter Studio.

Starter Studio was launched by Gregg Pollack, founder of Envy Labs and Code School, as a passion project to help tech startups in Orlando thrive. Starter Studio provides education, mentorship, legal and financial resources, networking opportunities, and the right culture to help innovative solutions grow. Ninety-day accelerator classes are offered for aspiring tech startups. Currently, the third class is preparing for graduation.

“The partnership with UCF gives our Starters additional support to grow their new venture.  Participating in the UCF I-Corps program opens up the opportunity to apply for the National NSF I-Corps program as well as SBIR/STTR grants,” said Pollack, founder of Starter Studio.

As a Community Affiliate, organizations such as Starter Studio, will receive training and support from UCF on delivering a tailored version of the Lean Startup education, as well as access to software and other tools for providing the various program elements.

“We are pleased to have Starter Studio as our first UCF I-Corps Community Affiliate.  This is the first step towards our goal of offering this proven program through a premier network of affiliates to university researchers and technology entrepreneurs throughout the region,” said Ivan Garibay, program director for UCF I-Corps.

Local area entrepreneurs selected for the program, receive I-Corps seed grant funds along with other legal and financial services offered by the Community Affiliate. The I-Corps funds are applied to business, market, or early product prototype development.

UCF was awarded the NSF I-Corps grant in November 2014 for a three year timeframe. Plans are in process to support the program through the network of affiliates beyond the period of the grant.

“This is an example of UCF as ‘America’s Partnership University’.  We have shown that contributing like this to the entrepreneur ecosystem in Central Florida benefits the entire economy through increased high-wage jobs and wealth creation”, added Thomas O’Neal, founder/director of UCF I-Corps and the UCF Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Meanwhile, Starter Studio is preparing for its demo night on April 14th where each team from its accelerator class will showcase their work.

Teams include:

  • AutoRetainer®: Provides solo and small firm attorneys the power to send a fee agreement and invoice in less than 30 seconds from any device. Clients can then sign their contract and pay their invoice online.
  • CodeStart: Gives the absolute beginner a university-level coding education in a fun, easy, and affordable way. The interactive courses are designed to provide the skills to make creativity a reality.
  • Comdash: A fixed-asset tracking and management solution that enables companies to maximize their ROI and mitigate losses for corporate offices and data centers.
  • Fattmerchant: A subscription-based merchant services provider that offers unlimited credit card processing for businesses at direct cost for a monthly membership fee.
  • Fitbot: lets trainers create individualized workout programs for their clients, track performance, benchmarks and assessments that the trainer deems are important and communicate in real-time.
  • My School Flow: is a mobile app that pulls assignment, Facebook and email data then organizes it into a calendar that sends reminders for upcoming deadlines.
  • Rapido – is a mobile app for homeowners searching forimmediate service from tradesmen such as HVAC, technicians, plumbers and electricians.

For more information about UCF I-Corps, please contact us.

Information about Starter Studio visit starterstudio.com.

 

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Starter Studio:

Starter Studio was created by Gregg Pollack, founder of Envy Labs and Code School as a passion project to help tech startups in Orlando thrive. Located in downtown Orlando at CANVS, Starter Studio provides education, mentorship, legal and financial resources, networking opportunities, and the right culture to help innovative solutions grow. It is one of Orlando’s first business accelerator programs – anyone interested in taking their company to the next level is welcome to apply. For more information, visit starterstudio.com

 

UCF I-Corps

UCF has been selected by the National Science foundation (NSF) to provide Florida’s first implementation of one of the agency’s flagship programs, an I-Corps Site. The I-Corps Site’s purpose is to foster innovation among faculty and students, promoting regional coordination and linkages in the innovation ecosystem, as well as develop a National Innovation Network. The primary goal of NSF I-Corps is to provide University scientists and researchers the program, process, and resources to investigate and validate the commercialization of their science. UCF has one of the nation’s best innovation and entrepreneurial networks and is one of 15 universities nationwide that is leading an I-Corps Site program. The UCF I-Corps program is administered by the university’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE), a department that consolidates and coordinates UCF’s major innovation and entrepreneurship support activities. Details visit Icorps.ucf.edu

 

UCF Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship:

The University of Central Florida Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (UCF CIE) is a university wide program consolidating and coordinating major innovation and entrepreneurship support activities with the objectives of: Education, Research and Outreach. Its goal is to leverage university and regional partnerships to create an effective entrepreneurial support infrastructure in the Central Florida Region, with a mission to promote innovation, wealth creation, and economic vitality. The UCF CIE programs include: Florida Small Business Development Center at UCF, GrowFL, UCF’s Business Incubation Program, Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, Innovation Corps (I-Corps), Office of Technology Transfer, and the Venture Accelerator . Connect at cie.ucf.edu

UCF Awarded Federal Grants to Expand Entrepreneurship Outreach in Central Florida

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Community Partners Rally to Generate $1.5 Million in Matching Funding to Foster Culture of Innovation throughout Region

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker announce funding two initiatives that will advance innovation and capacity-building activities in regions across the country.

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker announce funding two initiatives that will advance innovation and capacity-building activities in regions across the country.

Gaining momentum for its continued leadership in innovation and commercialization, UCF was awarded two federal grants totaling up to $750,000 from the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s (EDA) Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (OIE).  The College of Engineering and Computer Science (CECS) and community partners raised an additional $750,000 in matching funds to supplement the EDA grants.  These partners include:  Harris Corporation,  City of Orlando, Crossroads Investors, Canvs, Rollins College College, Starter Studio, Creative Village Orlando and others. This represents $1.5 million to help foster the culture of innovation throughout the central Florida region.

U.S. Secretary Penny Pritzker came to UCF during a press conference to make the exciting announcement last week, as part of the 2014 Regional Innovation Strategies (RIS) program grants.

UCF was one of 24 institutions to receive RIS program funding, which is a new initiative designed to advance innovation and capacity-building activities in regions across the country, and one of only two universities to earn both an i6 Challenge Grant and a Cluster Grant for Seed Capital Funds.

i6 Challenge funds

The i6 Challenge was launched in 2010 as part of the Startup America Initiative and is now in its fourth iteration. i6 is a national competition that makes small, targeted, high-impact investments to support startup creation, innovation, and commercialization. Now that the i6 Challenge is included in the new Regional Innovation Strategies Program, the funding will support more than just Proof-of-Concept Centers. Investments will also go toward the expansion of existing centers and in later-stage Commercialization Centers, which help innovators fine tune and scale their innovations to bring new products and services to the market. The total amount of funding for the i6 Challenge under RIS is nearly $8 million.

The i6 Challenge funds will be used to extend the UCF I-Corps pilot program across the five economically challenged central Florida counties (Orange, Seminole, Osceola, Brevard and Volusia), and to help transition the region’s engineering workforce into high growth technology companies that design, manufacture, and export innovative products through the Maker Spaces Proof Of Concept Center (POCC).

This Center will also leverage both the statewide Florida Cleantech Accelerator Network (FL-CAN, which was created through a former i6 grant) and the Osceola County Advanced Materials Research Center once it is opened.

StarterCorps Fund The Starter Corps Fund will directly address the critical gap in seed funding that is the largest barrier faced by the region’s technology entrepreneurs.  The same five counties referenced above will be directly served by the StarterCorps Seed Fund.  UCF will set up the StarterCorps fund structure, in the first six months, raise a minimum of $1,000,000, which is enough to fund 12 companies through the first year.  Ultimately it will raise, deploy, and manage a $5 million evergreen StarterCorps Seed Fund to launch innovative technology and advanced manufacturing startups based in central Florida.

StarterCorps’s evergreen fund structure means all investment profits will be returned to the fund to be redeployed in future

investments.  StarterCorps will provide equity-based funding in a series of milestone-based investments.  Milestones will be based on a team’s aggressive progress in transforming commercially viable prototypes (which were developed in Starter Studio and I-Corps programs) into viable technology companies that gain early market traction, have a complete founding team (business and technical skills), secure IP, and can prove they are addressing an urgent market opportunity.

“The StarterCorps Seed Fund addresses the funding gap by developing stronger teams prepared for Angel investment, said Michael O’Donnell, founder of the Florida Angel Nexus CEO and executive director of the UCF Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE).

“We want to ensure that all entrepreneurs have access to the tools they need to move their ideas and inventions from idea to market. The Regional Innovation Strategies Program competition is designed to advance this mission across the United States, strengthening our economy and our global competitiveness,” said Secretary Pritzker.

UCF I-Corps helps teams of innovators go through all the necessary steps before taking an item to market and uses the UCF College of Engineering and Computer Science’s new Maker SpaceLab Complex, created with generous industry partners to help them through idea, design and prototyping. Thomas O’Neal, director of UCF’s CIE estimates that in the fifth year of the program 195 companies will be created producing 1,730 new high-wage jobs through these teams.

“The UCF Engineering Maker Spaces have already proven their value for our students in developing prototypes and testing ideas.  These grants will enable us to provide this value to more students and to the community,” said    Michael Georgiopoulos, Dean of UCF’s CECS.

“We are working with regional community partners and industry to make Central Florida an epicenter for innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship.  These grants will enhance our ability to help more future entrepreneurs across five counties.   The awards are a validation and recognition of the Central Florida ecosystem and UCF’s role as the partnership university,” said O’Neal.

More information about the Regional Innovation Strategies Program, including a full list of the 2014 grant recipients, can be found by clicking this link.

New grants to help UCF, Canvs launch $5M seed fund

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