Participating in an NSF I-Corps Program

Dear Subscribers:

I would like to share with you some information about the NSF I-Corps Hub: Northeast Region Propelus Program I participated in this spring and my achievements with you.

Advantages and Benefits of Participating in an NSF I-Corps Program

About the Program

This program aims to help startups or developing companies in the United States by guiding them in their process of becoming an enterprise. Based on my experiences, I can attest that this program offers excellent services.

The program is organized in three-month periods, and in the last one, there were 22 teams, each consisting of 2-5 members, including the entrepreneur leader and technical staff, who participated alongside us. During the first month, there were four intensive meetings, which lasted 3 hours per week, that we were required to attend. Each meeting included informative presentations and 20-30 minute sub-group meetings led by mentors in the same category. These meetings were really informative and focused on our own products. The sub-group meetings were brainstorming sessions with two experienced mentors, where we shared our products, services, and what we did each week, and discussed our thoughts. The mentor's questions, the perspectives, and contributions of other participants opened up new horizons for us and gave us a different point of view. They helped us see the points that we did not see and understand the points that we could not. If we had any questions, we could find solutions through the mentors and participants.

The best aspect and goal of this program is to help to make your product truly marketable by meeting with real customers in the market. Therefore, within a month,the program requires you to have 15 meetings with customers and note down the benefits from these meetings. This way, you are essentially rediscovering your product and trying to turn it into a solution that solves a problem in the market.

In addition to the exceptional training and mentorship, the Regional  NSF I-Corps Program helps aspiring entrepreneurs take their ventures to the next level by offering financial support and access to valuable networking opportunities. Each team that completes the program receives up to $3,000 for research and customer discovery expenses and participation in conferences in the US. This funding can significantly boost business ideas, startups, and early-stage companies working on a limited budget. Moreover, the program also provides opportunities for participants to attend conferences to network with other entrepreneurs and investors and gain exposure for their products.

How NSF I-Corps Program Helped Me

Initially, I believed that I had developed a great product for K12 districts, called Preventive School Counseling Program. In my opinion, the importance of this program for schools is as important as water in human life. The only problem, a weakness for me was in marketing the product. I believed that I could not explain the program well to school principals and other decision-makers. Since, in the US, because of the student-counselor ratio, it is around 400 students per counselor, counselors cannot reach out to all students either to solve their problems or improve their academic success. The product Academic Window offers, produces a solution for this problem each school district has.

In the I-Corps program, I realized during the interviews with principals and counselors that they did not look at my product from my perspective. Since they think that their responsibility is to solve the problems of the students who are notified by teachers or parents during the day. Because of their different priorities like security, safe learning environment, they have no intention to reach out to the rest of the students who have no problem since nobody complained or informed them about them. However, every child is unique and has potential to do better, if we motivate them well enough. The pathways should be discovered by collaboration of counselors and teachers and admins. Having better success depends on discovering students’ strengths. So, I believe, our responsibility, besides solving the problems, is to reach out to all students and discover their strengths. It leads them getting self-confidence, motivation and being better. These results not only increase students academic success but also minimize students problems. That means, a kind of creation of safe learning environment. So, we should discover methodologies to understand and analyze students’ behaviors and relationships in a best way. At the end of the sessions, I understand we should focus more on how we can create a safe learning environment and how we can explain it to school admins and counselors and teachers.

One of the other goals of this program in the process of becoming an enterprise is to help participate in the next stage which is the National I-Corp program. Now, all team members have motivation to participate in the next level of the program. I wish all team members to apply by completing all requirements and being successful. I also believe this process is a shortcut to be an enterprise in the near future.

So, I would like to thank to:

• Mark DeGuzman, who encouraged me to participate in this program,
• Program coordinators Christina A. Pellicane and Vanessa Calu,
• Mike Ehrlich, who is an experienced mentor, and did fluent presentations in the meetings,
• Meliha Taciroglu, Anne Marie Maman, Julia MacDonald, and Troy Farmer who devoted time to our product and participated in individual meetings during the program.
• And all the other mentors and all interviewers who devoted their time during this program.

Finally, Participating in the NSF I-Corps Hub: Northeast Region Propelus Program was a game-changer for me and my team. It not only gave us the opportunity to refine our product and market it effectively but also helped us understand the needs and priorities of our potential customers. Through the program, we learned to think outside the box and see our product from a different perspective. I strongly encourage anyone interested in developing their business and ideas to participate in NSF I-Corps Hub: Northeast Region Propellus Program to get much benefits and advantages in a short time.