GW is offering $25K to early-stage startups. AccelerateDC is back

AccelerateDC is returning in 2018, as George Washington University is offering $25,000 to help eight non-university affiliated startup research teams in the Mid-Atlantic region. The program is funded through the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps program, which has helped over 1,000 entrepreneurial teams nationwide since its inception in 2011.

As we’ve reported, GW is one of many I-Corps nodes tasked with helping these teams overcome challenges, polish their business models and presentation skills. AccelerateDC will expand the scope of I-Corps to non-university startups.

“Some of those challenges may be protecting their IP, fundraising, building a team, continued customer discovery, building a technology roadmap and all of the challenges that early stage technology startups encounter,” Daniel Kunitz, director of I-Corps at GW, told Technical.ly DC. “We want to find the most interesting, impactful, promising early stage tech startups that are anywhere in our region,” The $25,000 will fund the AccelerateDC “customer discovery phase”, followed by a national training course later this year.

GW is picking up the lead role on AccelerateDC from the Washington D.C. Economic Partnership, which previously ran the program. WDCEP continues to be a partner.

The AccelerateDC program includes:

• Qualifying course: Introduction to I-Corps, run at GW
• Customer discovery course: I-Corps Phase 0, run at national I-Corps centers
• Entrepreneurial training course: I-Corps Go, run at GW
• Small Business Innovation Research Phase 1 grant application support
• Mentor support

The application for teams to apply launched this month, and training programs will start on January 23 and a TBD date in March.