[Text on screen
Jeremy Minty
Co-founder, CEO
Ecovia Renewables, Inc.]

Jeremy Minty: With I-Corps, the really valuable thing that I got out of it was learning
to think like an entrepreneur.

Jonathan Fay: Almost every institution of higher ed at
this point has sent a team through I-Corps. I-Corps is not about how
to commercialize - it's really about...

[Text on screen
Jonathan Fay
Dixon and Carol Doll Executive Director
Center for Entrepreneurship
University of Michigan]

Jonathan Fay: ...Should you commercialize and
with whom.
The U.S. has been on an unprecedented tear of being the global
leader in new technology, starting with electronics and then moving
into computers, and then into software and the internet and social
media and e-commerce. We've strung together this huge sequence
of unbelievable technologies. Now, what's the next wave?

[Music]

[Text on screen
Brandon Wong
Founder
HIYI]

Brandon Wong: We provide monitoring services for wildlife biologists.

Hereck Clack: We believe we are defining a new product that can protect humans

[Graphic on screen
Person wearing a visor device with the words "AIR INTAKE" on one side and "FLOW OF AIR" on the other]

Hereck Clack: from germs in the air without using a filter, 

[Text on screen
Hereck Clack
Co-founder
Taza Aya]

Hereck Clack: without using a face mask. 

Nina Lin: The whole idea is to try to use biotechnology to make sustainable, renewable biomaterials.

[Text on screen
Nina Lin
Co-founder
Ecovia Renewables, Inc.]

[Music]

Jonathan Fay: I-Corps is a program where we work with scientists and engineers,
and we teach them how to go out into the world - who they need to
talk to and what they need to ask - to really try to find out how to
get their technology out into the world and how they can make an
impact with what they've done.

Brandon Wong: I-Corps reinforced a framework to make sure I'm not running around
in circles.

Hereck Clack: My mind was focused on the technology: how to make it
better, make it more efficient. Those are all important, but there's a
commercial aspect that we aren't taught. How do we alter the design
of our innovation in order to maximize profit?

Jeremy Minty: We go through a customer-discovery process where you get out of
the building and you actually talk to people to understand what is
really the pain point that you're solving and what the value
proposition is.

Jonathan Fay: This program was started by the National Science Foundation and
has really become a global phenomenon. Michigan and Georgia Tech
were the first two nodes, but since those two institutions joined, there
are over a hundred different institutions across the U.S. that are
formally part of the I-Corps program. We're going to train about 3,000
scientists and engineers through the program every single year. And
that's really exciting, because then you'll start to see collaborations
across units, across schools, across departments - to try to form
these complete solutions that can really help society and serve the
common good.

Brandon Wong: I-Corps was, for me, that push I needed to really take the reins and
go. I can't do that if I'm writing papers. 

Hereck Clack: We're hoping to be financially successful, but I would say equal to that is the hope that we get to see the embodiment of this idea finally come to fruition.

Nina Lin: It really changed the way that I do research. It's not just about generating data for a paper; it's about whether indeed these innovations have a future in the outside world.

[Text on screen
Center for Entrepreneurship]

[Music]