VENTURE LAB | Customer Discovery
Validate your innovation and accelerate to market
For faculty and graduate students/postdocs who have developed groundbreaking science or technology innovations, Venture Lab | Customer Discovery by NSF I-Corps offers essential training, funding, and mentorship for teams for early-stage ventures. This program guides teams through the crucial stages of customer discovery and solution validation. With a clear pathway to the national NSF I-Corps Teams program and potential access to a $50,000 grant, this program uniquely positions participants to successfully translate their innovations from the lab to the market, enhancing their appeal to investors and attracting top talent to their research teams.
Spring 2025
Venture Lab | Customer Discovery by NSF I-Corps is hosting a spring 2025 program consisting of 3 sessions held in-person at Yale Ventures from 4:30 to 6 PM; dinner will be provided.
- February 26, 2025
- March, 19, 2025
- April 2, 2025
Who should apply?
Faculty and Grad Students/Post Docs who have developed a science or technology innovation. A team approach is recommended including a technical lead (typically faculty) and an entrepreneurial lead (typically a student).
What you'll get
- Training: Four sessions introducing the lean startup methodology and guiding teams through customer discovery research – customer, problem, solution and value proposition testing.
- Funding: Stipends of $1,500 are given to each team and can be used to fund expenses related to customer discovery research, including solution-testing costs.
Acceptable Expense Policy - Mentorship and networking: Teams will receive mentorship from seasoned entrepreneurs and innovators. Teams may also utilize many other programs offered by the Hub-affiliated institutions.
- Follow-on opportunities: Upon completion, teams are eligible for the national NSF I-Corps Teams program which provides an intensive 7-week training course and a $50,000 grant.
- Other benefits include:
- Attracting more innovative graduate students to your lab (for faculty).
- Reassuring potential investors that you have engaged the customer and have reflected their feedback in the development of your innovation.
- Identifying the first licensees or customers for your product.
When is the best time to attend I-Corps?
- We encourage teams to apply early in the development of their innovation. While customer discovery work can be done as early as the idea phase, typically it is most efficient when the initial research is complete or when a prototype or MVP has been developed. Completing customer discovery before seeking outside investors is ideal.
- Other considerations: The $1,500 stipend funding for I-Corps participants is most often used for registration and travel to a relevant conference with a density of your future customers. The meeting must occur within the weeks of your I-Corps program to use $3K in funds. Therefore, if there is an ideal meeting your future customers are likely to attend, you may want to consider looking for an I-Corps program from one of the Northeast regional hub universities that aligns with your conference.
