The Venture Lab
With over $270 Million of sponsored research each year, a large amount of intellectual property is developed by VCU faculty & staff, which has exciting commercial potential. The Venture Lab is a three month pre-accelerator program designed to further develop and validate the viability of these new technologies with the goal of spinning out new companies.
The purpose of this program is to: (1) provide hands-on assistance with business model development (2) facilitate team formation, and (3) connect teams with a “testing bed” that will allow them to validate their technology and business model within the marketplace.
The Opportunity
The VCU Ventures team is currently identifying potential entrepreneurs to participate in this program as fractional CEOs of the teams formed around participating technologies. In this role, entrepreneurs will be matched with a technology, the corresponding faculty inventor, an end user, and a student intern.
Entrepreneurs selected will be offered a $3,000 stipend to participate, or the option to license the technology (subject to approval) at the culmination of the program.
Requirements:
- Attendance at program sessions once a week for three months.
- Approximately 10-15 hours of work outside these sessions should be expected
- Assistance with marketing the technology to other potential entrepreneurs if the licensing option isn’t realized at the end of the program.
Startups successfully formed through this program have the opportunity to pitch for dedicated seed funding, along with a spot in Lighthouse Labs, which is a nationally ranked regional accelerator.