Starting Blocks: A Workshop in Customer Discovery

Starting Blocks is the beginning of your journey to commercializing your technology.

• Find data-driven market interest from people in the industry
• Unlock access to other resources and programs including Research to Market, Lab Venture Challenge, and Ascent Accelerator.
• Start the process to be an investable company

The program is a 3-day workshop with customer interviews designed to help scientists and engineers of all types find a market for their innovations. The core concept encourages inventors to get out of the lab and talk to industry decision-makers to find out what problem the industry needs their product to solve.

This is the shortest, “introductory” version of the National Science Foundation's I-Corps™ methodology, which helps inventors build a customer discovery toolkit and learn to talk to industry and business funders about their technologies. Starting Blocks leverages the nationally-recognized Lean LaunchPad methodology, specifically designed for university researchers commercializing their inventions.

The program consists of:

• Two half-day lectures on customer discovery and interviewing
• Five to 10 interviews during the week done in a target industry
• Weekly check-in meetings with staff and mentors