Startup Weekend Launches Startup Foundation Initiative in Partnership with Kauffman Foundation

The Startup Foundation currently has eight pilot member cities: Boston; Des Moines; Detroit; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; New York City; Seattle; and Sao Paulo, Brazil. Foundation co-founders in each city are mapping their local entrepreneurial ecosystem and interviewing community leaders.

From the Kauffman Foundation:

“Startup Weekend, a global grassroots network of entrepreneurs and leaders, today announced an initiative in partnership with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation that will lead to the creation of vibrant startup communities in cities across the nation. Called the Startup Foundation, the program is a grassroots initiative that helps cities build and establish ecosystems that will support more high-growth entrepreneurs, startups, and ultimately, jobs.

“We know from our experiences with local Startup Weekends that entrepreneurship is best supported at the grassroots level,” said Marc Nager, CEO of Startup Weekend. “The Startup Foundation will ensure that community leaders across the country have a sustainable platform for which to effect real change within their local communities.”

Startup Weekends are events in cities around the world where aspiring founders and startup supporters meet to share ideas, form teams, build products and launch companies. With funding from the Kauffman Foundation, the Startup Foundation will focus on researching and mapping the ecosystems of participating cities to identify influential leaders, programs and gaps in community resources; supporting local initiatives that drive the creation of more entrepreneurs, startups, and jobs; and raising funds for local entrepreneurship support initiatives…”

READ FULL PRESS RELEASE [web]
Startup Foundation [web]
About Startup Foundation on YouTube [web]
Startup Weekend [web]

Uncle Sam to university inventors: School is in session

[The Kauffman Foundation] found that post-docs with entrepreneurial training served as critical bridges between the university and the businesses that were interested in licensing university technologies.

From Vivek Wadhwa of Washington Post:

“The National Science Foundation (NSF) announced at the end of July that it is setting up a public–private partnership to turn the most promising breakthroughs from its funding portfolio into successful start-ups. The partnership, called Innovation Corps (I-Corps), will teach participants the basics of entrepreneurship, connect them with mentors, and provide $50,000 in seed funding. This is essentially a Silicon Valley-style incubator for scientists and engineers.

If past is prologue, the vast majority of the start-ups to emerge from this program will fail. Even venture capitalists only claim to have a one-in-ten batting average. The government can’t possibly do better. But I am optimistic that I-Corps will be a game changer. In the long term, it will likely produce returns that are orders of magnitude greater than the $5 million per year that will be spent. That’s because it addresses one of the core problems of the university research system, narrowing the gap between science and innovation…”

READ FULL ARTICLE [web]
About the NSF I-Corps program [web]
NSF Innovation Corps Website [web]

NSF Awards $10 Million Grant to Stanford University to Launch National Center to Educate Entrepreneurial Engineers

Next generation of engineers will combine innovation and entrepreneurial know-how with technical skills to power the nation’s growth.

The National Science Foundation has awarded a five-year, $10 million grant to launch a national center for teaching innovation and entrepreneurship in engineering, based at Stanford University. Directed by the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP), the entrepreneurship center at Stanford’s School of Engineering, the new center addresses the critical need for innovative and entrepreneurial engineers. STVP’s key partner on this initiative is the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA).

The center, which launches operation in September 2011, will catalyze major changes in undergraduate engineering programs by developing an education, research and outreach hub for the creation, collection and sharing of resources among the almost 350 engineering schools in the United States… [more]

Learn more about the initiative [web]
Stanford Technology Ventures Progam [web]
NCIIA [web] [Facebook]

I-CORPS – NSF Innovation Corps [web]

NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps) is a new effort to help develop scientific and engineering discoveries into useful technologies, products and processes.The NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program, a public-private partnership, will connect NSF-funded scientific research with the technological, entrepreneurial and business communities to help create a stronger national ecosystem for innovation that couples scientific discovery with technology development and societal needs (www.nsf.gov/i-corps).

New “i6 Challenge” U.S. Grant Program to Bring Innovative Ideas to Market

Updated for the 2011 i6 competition

i6 Green Challenge: Application Deadline: May 26, 2011

Press release [web]
Official Notice [pdf]
EDA i6 program [web]

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Application Deadline: is July 15, 2010.
i6 Challenge [ website ]

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Economic Development Administration (EDA) announced a new $12 million innovation competition, in partnership with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Entrepreneurs, investors, universities, foundations, and non-profits are encouraged to participate in the i6 Challenge.

The EDA will award up to $1 million to each of six winning teams with the most innovative ideas to drive technology commercialization and entrepreneurship in their regions

U.S. Department of Commerce [ press release ]
i6 Challenge FAQ [ website ]

$1.5 Million Awarded to Establish Cleantech Incubator Program at Stony Brook University

” The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) today announced it is providing $1.5 million to establish a Clean Energy Business Incubator Program (CEBIP) on the campus of Stony Brook University. The Long Island High Technology Incubator, Inc. (LIHTI, www.LIHTI.org), which will receive this funding over the next four years, will provide business support to accelerate the successful development of early-stage, clean energy technology companies on Long Island.

SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher said:  ”The Long Island High Technology Incubator will leverage the university’s expertise to support economic growth and create new job opportunities for our graduates. Stony Brook has been a national leader in energy research, and this new incubator will help expand the university’s impact on Long Island and all of New York State.” [newswise, more]

Long Island High-Tech Incubator www.lihti.org

NYSERDA www.nyserda.org