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Written by Elyse Ball  Many companies – particularly those that are developing physical products based on deep laboratory research – may not be a good fit for traditional angel and venture capital funds. For these companies, large corporations that have a strategic interest in the technology (also called strategic investors) provide an alternative source of both capital and technical support.
In 2021, UARF interviewed Akron Ascent Innovations co-founder and CEO Barry Rosenbaum to learn more about how he built a high tech physical product startup, based on university research, into a successful exit. Akron Ascent had recently announced that it entered into an asset purchase agreement with a large, multinational technology company. This occurred after the startup had secured two strategic investments from large corporations. The interview provided great insights to answer three key questions:
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Interview by Shannon Marshburn and Evan Haugh of LEAF  “I hope I can continue to provide exciting updates on LEAF to UARF for years to come, as this is only the beginning of our vision for LEAF, the Logically Engineered Automation Features company.” Evan Haugh tells us in an interview about the journey of him and his team with the startup, Logically Engineering Automation Features Ltd., or LEAF for short.
The team is focused on solar design applications to aid in the electrical wiring of solar panels and helping to make electrical engineers' lives easier. In this interview, Evan walks us through his journey and how he and his team overcame challenges they faced. How did the idea for your product/service come about? Evan: LEAF was born out of my own frustrations as an electrical engineering intern who spent most of his day doing the same thing over and over. Simply put, every solar array from 10 to 100,000 solar panels in size must be wired together in a well-coordinated method that can only be done by manually drafting every connection between every panel in a CAD program like AutoCAD. Throughout this internship, I spent most of my time drafting these pesky lines and I thought to myself that there must be a better way. Four years later, I'm proud to say that the solution we've developed to solve this problem, LEAF, will be released for beta trials on the AutoDesk Appstore on January 15th, 2023.  By Shannon Marshburn and Melissa Egts "Without a customer, you don't have a company," Melissa told us in an interview about her journey with, O2 FRESH™. The O2 FRESH™ is a nasal cannula cover that is a simple way to keep nasal cannula prongs clean and prevent oxygen tubing from falling on the floor. We talked with Melissa about her journey through our I-Corps program and reflected back to look at how things have pivoted. You can learn more about the product on their website, https://www.hartfielmedical.com/ How did the idea for your product/service come about? I use home oxygen and the oxygen tubing is a pain in the neck. Literally! Like many people prescribed oxygen therapy, I take my nasal cannula off several times a day (a nasal cannula is the tubing you see on patient's faces that delivers oxygen into the nose via a prong in each nostril). The nasal cannula prongs were often hung over door knobs that other people had touched or the backs of chairs. And they often fell to the floor. Can you imagine having to put something back in your nose that fell on the floor? That's like putting a finger in your nose your dog has licked. YUCK. Do you know, there isn't a safe place for the 1.5 million people who use oxygen at home to put a nasal cannula when you take it off? Asthma inhalers have a cover. Toothbrushes, too, for the same reason - hygiene!  The nose is a direct route of infection into the body! It really worried me because I'm prone to respiratory infections so I set out to create a solution - the O2 FRESH nasal cannula cover. There are three important things about my O2 FRESH nasal cannula cover. One, it has an opening with a patented latch that gently compresses the tubing and holds it securely so the user can just insert it and go. No hinge, lid or moving part to fumble with. Two, it has a universally attachable handle so it's always nearby the user. It attaches in seconds to nasal cannulas, wheelchairs, oxygen tanks, and portable oxygen concentrators like Inogen. And three, it is inexpensive to purchase and clean, sanitize, and reuse. Just toss it in the dishwasher to clean or use one of four other methods to sanitize.
 Written by Kendall Martis and Alyssa Riker There are many different financial statements, each highlighting different areas. All of these statements talk to each other, meaning that certain information comes from one statement and then shows up on another. The three most important in the business are the profit and loss by class, balance sheet and cash flow. These statements show a snapshot of what your business is doing.
 Written By Nick Glavan It’s hard to believe we’ve been running our I-Corps course virtually for nearly 3 years at this point. While at first, the switch over to online meeting sessions was a challenge, we’ve tried to iterate on our approaches to make our virtual classroom achieve the same outcomes (or better) as our old in-person sessions used to. Here are some of the best methods we’ve learned along the way:
 By Linda Hale
Here at UARF, we usually concentrate on problem validation and customer discovery. If you have participated in I-Corps or Starting Line, we generally ask you to think about what you do, who cares, and why they care. Then we ask you to interview potential customers to test risky assumptions about your customer's problems and motivations. And, if you've successfully completed the I-Corps program, you should have walked away with a good understanding of what it will take to motivate your customer to buy your product. Now what? How do you take your idea to the next level? By Shannon Marshburn  Networking is a social skill I was not fully prepared for upon graduation. Networking is a heightened conversation where it benefits you to talk about work, but not too much work that it is boring, try to be memorable, but don’t talk too much about yourself. If you are trying to land a job or new position you should drop some experience or knowledge, but don’t make it seem like you are reciting your cover letter.
At UARF we have a few networking events coming up in the month of October and I would like to help you prepare so you can make meaningful and lasting professional connections with confidence.  Written by Nick Glavan
Have you ever felt tired, in spite of getting a good night’s sleep? Or felt lacking in energy right after a long weekend away from work? It turns out that time away and sleep are only a portion of the rest we need to avoid running ourselves into burnout mode. To truly recuperate from daily stress, entrepreneurs should be addressing the seven different aspects of wellbeing.  By Elyse Ball
As our deadline for I-Corps applications nears, I’ve become fascinated by the way asking customers simple questions can teach us so much. Teams that have completed the I-Corps program have launched more than 100 startup companies, raised $27.6 million in funding, been accepted to accelerators like Y Combinator and TechStars, and achieved 2 exits (selling their company to larger companies so everyone makes money). All of this grew out of a commitment to learn about their customers’ problems before they try to build something. Written By Linda Hale We just completed the summer cohort of I-Corps in July, and I had an opportunity to watch the final presentations in-person at the Bounce Innovation Hub. It was fun to meet some of our entrepreneurs in person and learn more about the ideas and technologies that drove them to I-Corps in the first place. We don’t allow the participants to focus on their technologies during the program, so the finale is usually an eye-opening experience for everyone.  I-Corps focuses on Customer Segments and the Problems those customers face. When emerging technologies can solve those problems for the customer segment, we call that Product-Market Fit.
Most businesses fail because they didn’t take time to identify product-market fit before spending time and money on product development. I-Corps provides a safe space to delve deeper into the motivations of a customer segment PRIOR to expensive R&D, working prototypes, or software platforms. Once you identify your customer and the problems or pains they face, you will be able to identify your technology’s unique value proposition, which will guide your product development process. For those who haven’t participated in I-Corps, let’s define some of the topics above and explain why they are so important to startups and emerging technologies. |
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