The document provides an overview of the NSF I-Corps mentor program and curriculum. It discusses that mentors will work with teams selected by NSF to help them determine if there is a potential business opportunity in commercializing their research. Mentors are asked to commit time to meet regularly with their assigned team and provide guidance, connections, and feedback as the teams go through the Lean LaunchPad curriculum focused on validating hypotheses about potential business models through customer interactions. The curriculum involves workshops, lectures, and weekly classes where teams present their progress and lessons learned from testing their hypotheses outside of the classroom.

1. The National Science Foundation
I-Corps
Mentor Handbook
I-Corps 245 Mentor Handbook Revision 2 page 1 of 9

2. Welcome
Welcome to the NSF I-Corps. Together we are working to build a unique and
powerful national network of seasoned commercialization-focused mentors that will,
over time, greatly enhance our nation’s innovation capacity. This network is the
central component of the Innovation Corps itself. As mentor, you are the essential
resource of I-Corps. Your experience, advice and connections to additional regional
and industry-specific resources will play a critical role not only in the success of the
specific team you are currently working with but in the I-Corps network itself. It is our
goal to establish a long-term partnership with you.
The United States faces unprecedented economic challenges across a broad
spectrum, and we are calling on our science and engineering base to once again
marshal its vast resources to respond. Our nation has a long history of investing in
and deploying advances in technology derived from the foundations of basic
research. Historically this has afforded our country great advantage. But, often, the
gap between fundamental research and commercial deployment is too wide.
Opportunities are squandered; economic promise is dashed. To ensure success
moving forward, we need to develop and nurture a national innovation ecosystem
that can build upon fundamental research to develop marketable products and
services that benefit society in the most effective manner. This is where you come in.
Over time and together we will build a network that itself becomes a national
resource providing benefits for generations to come.
It is well known that NSF serves as the basis for our nation’s international leadership
in technology, innovation, and education. NSF’s mission also includes supporting
our nation’s economic leadership and national security. From its beginning, NSF has
been the well-spring of programs that have redefined the ways with which our country
supports its research community. These programs include academic research
centers, Industry-University cooperative centers and even grant programs to for-profit
companies. We believe the NSF I-Corps will take its place among the other high-
impact programs and has the potential to represent a transformative capability for our
nation’s innovation capacity. As an NSF I-Corps mentor, you are entering into a
partnership with us to fulfill this mission and it is our hope that you will be willing to
contribute now and into the future.
If you are willing to join us as we grow our national network, we ask that you identify
yourself by joining the NSF I-Corps Mentor Linkedin Group here:
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3. Curriculum Background
NSF recognizes that transitioning technology out of an academic
laboratory requires different skill sets and knowledge than undertaking
research does, and that these skills and expertise are much more common
in a start-up environment than an academic one. NSF has long supported
the development of human capital, and NSF Innovation Corps will help
develop entrepreneurial knowledge and skills in an important new cadre of
scientists and engineers. Therefore, involvement in I-Corps requires a
commitment to fully participate in the I-Corps curriculum. As an I-Corps
mentor, we look to you to reinforce the principles we are going to cover in
this curriculum. Also, as a mentor, it is our hope that you will be able to
bring your unique experience to the table to help work through the team-
specific challenges faced by the team with which you are currently
working.
The I-Corps curriculum employs a formal hypothesis-validation approach
to determining technology disposition. The curriculum's approach
represents the current state of the art in commercial opportunity
recognition, and its renowned instructors are entrepreneurs and venture
capitalists who are also experienced educators. Part of your role is bring
the education principles taught in the curriculum to bear on the unique
challenges faced by the team you are supporting.
The I-Corps curriculum is built on a special, accelerated version of
Stanford University's Lean LaunchPad course (ENGR 245) and additional
elements designed just for I-Corp grantees. All I-Corps team members will
be required to attend a kick-off workshop at Stanford, to join a series of
web-based lectures, and to travel to Stanford again to present their
business pitches. All I-Corps team members also are expected to invest
significant effort in their projects outside of the university/laboratory
environment.
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4. Stanford University
http://i245.stanford.edu
Instructors
Tom Byers tbyers@stanford.edu
Steve Blank sblank@kandsranch.com
Tina Seelig tseelig@stanford.edu
Jon Feiber jdf@mdv.com
Co-Instructors
John Burke jburke@trueventures.com
Kevin DeWalt kevindewalt@kevindewalt.com
Tony Mak
Alexander Osterwalder osterwalder@gmail.com
Teaching assistants:
Thomas Haymore thaymore@stanford.edu
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5. Course Goal: Lean Startups
The I-Corps curriculum provides real-world, hands-on, immersive learning about
what it takes to successfully transfer knowledge into products and processes that
benefit society. It's not about how to write a research paper, business plan, or NSF
proposal. The end result is not a publication or a deck of slides or even a scientific
discovery.
Instead the entire I-Corps team will be engaged with industry outside the classroom
to test each element of their business model; talking to customers, partners, and
competitors; and encountering the chaos and uncertainty of creating successful
innovations. Getting out of the laboratory/university is what the effort is about.
This curriculum requires full participation from the entire I-Corps team (consisting of
Entrepreneurial Lead, I-Corps Mentor, and Principal Investigator). Each team
member must commit to in-depth preparation, attendance at the lectures and
workshops, and at least 15 additional hours per week for Customer Discovery.
Students
I-Corps 245 is only open to NSF I-Corps students. Each class will have 25 teams.
Each team will have 3 students; an Entrepreneurial Lead, Commercialization Mentor
and Principal Investigator. We encourage the teams to recruit any and all resources
to their teams. Nonstudents can serve as extra members of the teams.
E 245 Course Organization
The course is organized around Alexander Osterwalder’s Business Model Canvas and
Steve Blank’s Customer Development process. (See the syllabus for details)
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6. Test Hypotheses:
• Demand Test
Agile Creation Hypotheses:
Development Test Hypotheses:
• Problem
Test
• Product • Customer
Hypotheses: • Market Type • User
• Channel • Competitive • Payer
• (Customer)
• (Problem)
Customer
Development Test Hypotheses:
Team
• Channel
Test Hypotheses: Test Hypotheses:
• Size of Opportunity/Market • Pricing Model / Pricing
• Validate Business Model
Each week’s class is organized around:
• a lecture on one of the 9 building blocks of a business model.
• Students teams present their “lessons learned” from getting out of the
building and iterating or pivoting their business model.
The Eight (3 hour) Class Sessions:
Session 1: Oct 10h - Course Introduction, Business Models, Customer
Development at Stanford
Session 2: Oct 11th – Value Proposition at Stanford
Session 3: Oct 12th – Customer Segment at Stanford
Session 4: Oct 18th - Channels
Session 5: Oct 25th – Demand Creation
Session 6: Nov 1st – Revenue Model
Session 7: Nov 8th - Partners
Session 8: Nov 15th – Resources and Costs
Session 9 & 10: Dec 12th and 13th – Lessons Learned Presentations
at Stanford
Workshops will also be offered on Oct 10-12th and Dec 1th
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7. All mentors are welcome to attend any of the classes or workshops.
Schedule
Sessions 1-3 meet at Stanford in tbd
Sessions 4-8 Video broadcast 9am PST
Sessions 9 &10 meet at Stanford in tbd
Office hours are held Tuesdays from 3-4 pm in TBD.
Class details can be found on the class website. http://i245.stanford.edu/
Textbooks
• Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur, Business Model Generation
http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/order.php
• Steven Blank, Four Steps to the Epiphany
http://www.stevenblank.com/books.html
Website
http://i245.stanford.edu/
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8. Specific Role of Mentors in the curriculum
As a mentor, you are the advisor for one team. In ten very short weeks your team
has to, 2) get outside the classroom and test all their business model hypotheses and
3) if a web-based business get it up and running.
Mentors and Opportunity Selection
As NSF grantees they’ve been selected for the potential to commercialize the
technologies they’ve been working on. Your goal is help them discover whether
there’s a business. Remember, it was with you in mind that the team was selected
for the I-Corps program and NSF is relying on you for “ground truth” on the team’s
performance. Projects will come and go but, your participation as an engaged I-
Corps mentor is paramount to long-term success of the program.
Mentors and Getting Out of the Building
The class is about teaching the students that the 9 building blocks of a business
model are simply hypothesis until they actually validate them with customers and
partners; and since there are “no facts inside the building, they need to get outside.”
This means as part of this class they need to talk to customers, channel partners,
and domain experts and gather real-world data – for each part of their plan.
For scientists and engineers this can be a daunting and formidable task. To the best
of your ability, help them network, teach them how to send email and make phone
calls and run customer surveys. Open your rolodex to whatever level you feel
comfortable with.
Mentor Time Commitment
The wisdom and advice you give the grantees are invaluable. We’ve found that
successful mentor/team interactions look like this:
- Physically meeting with your assigned team a least every two weeks
- Additional communication as needed by phone or email
- The NSF I-Corps is a strictly a volunteer effort and your contribution to the team
and (more here…)
Mentor Communications
We’ve found that keeping the mentors, teaching team and teaching assistants in
sync is the best way to ensure both a great outcome for the students and a
satisfying experience for you.
1. We will hold a one hour Mentor orientation session h at the kickoff of the I-
Corps workshop at Stanford. We ask you to send the entire teaching team an
email summarizing the teams progress and dynamics each time you meet with
them letting us know if we need to specifically help and intervene.
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9. 2. In addition, we will share all these emails with the entire mentor team and see
if there are any common problems that need to be addressed class-wide.
Thanks once again for your support and participation,
Steve, Ann & Jon
Mentor List for the Class of Q4FY11 I-Corps
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