I-Corps at Wichita State University - Great Plains Hub
Assess the market potential for your technology innovation!
- Customer discovery and validation training and customer interview experience.
- Mentoring from industry experts and entrepreneurs.
- Access to entrepreneurial resources.
- Networking with an innovation ecosystem.
- Build your innovation team and access funding.
Each team should include an Entrepreneurial Lead, a Technical Lead, and a Mentor.
- The Entrepreneurial Lead can be a Post-Doctoral scholar, graduate student, undergraduate or other student, professional university staff member or community entrepreneur, with relevant knowledge of the technology and a deep commitment to investigate the commercial landscape surrounding the innovation.
- The Technical Lead can be a faculty member who is the technology inventor and serves as principal investigator, OR a postdoctoral researcher who has deep expertise in the core technology area to be evaluated for market potential.
- The Mentor must be an experienced or emerging entrepreneur with experience in transitioning technology to market (If you have not identified a Mentor or need assistance, please contact WSU Strategic Initiatives at ICorps@wichita.edu or (316) 978-5363 and we will do our best to match you with a mentor for your project).
As part of the I-Corps program, the participating Entrepreneurial Lead of each team can receive up to $2,000 in funding. This funding is awarded to support team-based customer discovery research aimed at investigating the commercial viability of a product or a specific market application of a novel process, algorithm, device, or other technology.
I-Corps funding can be used to for any expenses related to customer discovery research. Teams have approximately six months to spend their awards. Expenses can include:
- Meetings, Conferences, Trade shows and Training: Cost of registration/admission as well as ancillary costs associated. (i.e., travel/transportation, meals, fees, etc.).
- Conference must be related to product/service industry.
- Meetings hosted by the team for the purpose of customer discovery or market research.
* Legal fees and Administrative Costs (office supplies and equipment) cannot be included.
Possible outcomes include the following:
- Make a go/no-go decision.
- Movement toward R&D and commercialization of team projects.
- Applications submitted by teams to the National NSF's I-Corp Team Program.
- New start-up businesses formed.
- Licensing agreements.
The Fall 2025 Cohort will take place every Monday from September 15th - October 20th from 1:00 P.M. - 4:00 P.M.
You can learn more about instructors and add dates to your calendar here.
How Does I-Corps Work?
Through I-Corps, a select group of innovators will “get out of their comfort zones,” talk to customers, and identify the best product market fit.
Participants will go through workshops over a six-week period alongside a cohort of fellow teams led by experienced instructors. Each week, you will learn more about the customer discovery process, and your business model canvas, and integrate the findings to bring your innovation closer to market. Participants will also take part in office hours with trained coaches from various entrepreneurship resources. Participants who complete the program are awarded up to $2,000 in funding to conduct customer interviews.
Cohort teams will attend weekly three-hour virtual workshops over a six-week period led by experienced instructors.
