UC Venture Lab outpacing expectations
The University of Cincinnati’s startup pre-accelerator at the 1819 Innovation Hub helps fledgling businesses connect with experts and entrepreneurs
The University of Cincinnati’s reimagined startup ecosystem — a key component of the university’s Innovation Agenda and strategic direction, Next Lives Here — appears to be on track to exceed its goal of startup launches in its first year.
The UC Venture Lab at the 1819 Innovation Hub had set its sights on helping UC faculty, students, staff members and alumni get four businesses launched by the end of the 2018-19 fiscal year, which concludes on June 30. UC Director of Startups Grant Hoffman announced at the graduation of the Venture Lab pre-accelerator’s third cohort on Feb. 26 that three had already crossed that milestone. In addition, a fourth team has been fully funded. All told, Venture Lab graduates have received just more than $1 million in funding.
The Dewy Water Conservation team presents their business idea at the Venture Lab graduation on Tuesday, Feb. 26. Photo/Joseph Fuqua II/UC Creative Services
Making that more impressive is that Venture Lab businesses don’t ask for money when they present their business ideas during the seventh and final week of the program. Instead, each team focuses on telling the story of where the business is in its development and explain what they believe it needs to move forward.
“These presentations should be very honest and authentic about where a business is and what it needs to get off the ground,” Hoffman explained. “This is not a demo day like you would see at other accelerators in town.”
Hoffman believes the unfinished nature of the ideas being presented sets the Venture Lab graduation apart from a typical demo day because of the increased possibilities for collaboration between the presenters and those in attendance at the graduation.
VELO founder Jonathan Tyler explains how his startup's software will help speed up the creation of electronic health records. Photo/Joseph Fuqua II/UC Creative Services
The most common ask is for the assistance of one of the 1819 Innovation Hub’s nearly 40 entrepreneurs-in-residence (EIRs) — business people who typically have exited at least one successful startup. The Office of Innovation is happy to be able to facilitate those connections, says UC Chief Innovation Officer David J. Adams.
"The 1819 Innovation Hub and initiatives of the Office of Innovation are attracting more and more interest from our region's business community," Adams says. "Venture Lab is about creating opportunities — not just for the UC faculty, students and other members of our university community, but for talented and experienced businesspeople with the know-how to turn vision into reality."
The needs of each business being presented is unique: A student-led team of mechanical engineers working on an aftermarket product for aluminum fishing boats said they’d need the help of someone with knowledge of electronics to get their product to market, while a faculty-led team announced they could use help from someone with knowledge of the nonprofit world.
To date, a total of 24 teams have graduated from the Venture Lab, including nine teams in the most recent group. This last cohort is the first one in which each team that entered was able to graduate; one team from each of the first two cohorts learned early in the process that there wasn’t a market for the products around which they had hoped to build their businesses.
“We never assume everyone is going to make it,” Hoffman said. “In fact, we assume that most won’t.”
By the numbers
Cohort 1
- 6 teams at start
- 5 graduated
- 4 incubating (no extra funding provided yet - still working with EIRs)
- 2 funded
Cohort 2
- 9 teams at start
- 8 graduated
- 5 incubating
- 2 funded
Featured Image: Saketh Mylavarapu, left, and Krishna Nelson present Axizoun, their staffing solution startup. Photo/Joseph Fuqua II/UC Creative Services
Next Lives Here
UC is leading urban public universities into a new era of innovation and impact. Learn more about Next Lives Here.
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