Become an I-Corps Mentor
Mentorship is key to NSF I-Corps, and each national NSF I-Corps team has an Industry Mentor (IM) join their team for the 7 week program.
Sign up to become a Mentor today.
Commitments
60+ Hours | 4-6 Weeks | 4 Events a Year
What do Mentors do?
Mentors tend to be industry experts with experience in early-stage technology commercialization, business, or entrepreneurship. They are volunteers from outside of the team, not involved with the core technology development.
The IM is seen as an extension of the I-Corps teaching team. By being an outside resource for the team, the mentor can help the team recognize and reduce confirmation bias during the customer discovery process. The mentor also serves as a sounding board to help the team process interview learnings and implement feedback from the I-Corps teaching team.
Mak Ahmad | SWE & PM @ Instagram, Salesforce and Google
“My NSF I-Corp mentees were already a group of rockstars. It was very rewarding to add value to their journey with my professional experiences. I feel like we have a much better idea of our product fit with our target customer segment!”
Benefits
Collaboration with a highly technical, innovative team that developed a novel technology with the potential for high commercial impact through their university research
Guide driven founders and support them to transform their new technology into a high-impact startup through the customer discovery process
Gain entry to cutting-edge researchers at top universities
Foster connections with other team Industry Mentors with backgrounds as entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, industry experts, and startup founders
Guiding a highly technical team of founders through the National Science Foundation's transformational customer discovery market validation program
Responsibilities
The IM is required to attend all program sessions during the seven-week cohort, including:
a 4-hour orientation
three 5-hour kickoff sessions
weekly 90-minute meetings
and two 5-hour "lessons learned" sessions in the last week
All program sessions are remote. The IM also supports the team in reviewing and assessing interview findings and preparing weekly presentations.
~60-hour time commitment over the 7-week program.
The IM role is a volunteer position, though any customer discovery related travel expenses are covered by the team’s $50,000 NSF I-Corps grant.
Past Mentors
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Chris Halliwell
Technology Commercialization Expert
"It's meaningful and a pleasure to journey with startup teams as they move from innovation to productization and value creation. iCorps focuses the teams on the foundation of a successful venture, listening for opportunities to solve compelling problems. When these bright and capable entrepreneurs gain insights that spur innovative ideas to add value both to customers and to the business model, that's magical!"
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Cathy Farmer
Startup Advisor/Instructor, Investor, Autism Advocate, Board Member, Co-Founder
"Mentoring NSF I-Corps was an honor, a privilege, and a tremendous experience from a wonderful program, following the business model canvas. My mentoring actually led to additional opportunities as an adjunct instructor for both NSF I-Corps and NIH Entrepreneurship Bootcamp. With these programs, mentors, instructors, and founders learn from one another to help startups apply the scientific method of inquiry. This method, initiated by customer discovery, can be reused repeatedly, as founders often need to pivot in some areas. They learn in a fast-paced, solid, accountable environment how to get it done." -
Malik Naeem
CEO, TechLori and SCORE Business Mentor
"It’s inspiring to guide brilliant PhD students in the NSF I-Corps program as they turn bold ideas into solutions that shape the future."