A collection of programs. Some are used as examples of things to be on the lookout for and may not directly overlap with all deeptech verticals.
Unlike many of the startup accelerators you will come across, this one is for free. It can also be one of the more demanding programs. Its goal is to help get groups ready to submit for an NSF SBIR Phase 1 grant. Many groups were grad students and their professor or other research staff looking at how / if productizing their research was a good thing to do. The team I was part of didn't have a professor or any PhDs. If selected, you will get funding to participate in the program and effectively live out of your car/hotels/airplanes chasing customers and iterating on customer-problem-solution with weekly conference calls and mentor office hours. Not every team that starts finishes (our cohort had dropouts in the 1st 24hrs).
A team will need to have:
- Entrepreneurial Lead
- Technical Lead
- Industry Mentor
Without these you will not be admitted in the program. The industry mentor can be hard to find and might ideally be a consultant or someone who is retired. One of their roles is to help provide connections to enable the team to interview, shadow, and observe customers.
You will also need to have industry trade shows to attend picked out. As the cohorts happen year around, you should apply to a cohort that overlaps well with relevant tradeshows.
The objective at the shows is not to have a booth, but to crash the networking events. Talk to possible customers. Get connections for site visits to shadow & observe the problem / process you are working on.
Only within the US is allowed. With some exceptions to Cannada on a case-by-case basis from what I recall. Remember that the US also includes, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, US Virgin Islands, Hawaii, and Alaska. If your metro area hosts an I-Corps cohort you will not be allowed to participate in that one (you can do customer discovery anytime near you).
I would conduct cold calling and interview calls with places such as Guam and Hawaii at night to maximize my day. 10 AM eastern to 5pm Hawaii gives you good time window each day.
Also called Americas Seed Fund. Every US federal government agency has to operate an SBIR program. Their implementation varies by agency, and they are typically meant to fund R&D that aligns with that agency. For example, the US Dept. of Agriculture might have topics or focus areas on farming, forestry, or something related to food while the Dept of Transportation might have topics related to road safety or bridge construction. However, some agencies such as the National Science Foundation have an approach where their SBIRs are focused on society / national economic impacts regardless of focus area. Some states will provide matching funds or some type of addon for companies bringing in award funding. These grants take no equity, but they are highly competitive submission to starting the proposed funded grant project can take a long time.
In the year that we submitted the NSF SBIR we also submitted a total of 4 proposals. The NSF was the last one we heard back from and the only win. You have to submit these and keep operating like they won’t hit.
A good proposal will have strong support letters in addition to the rest of the proposal package that the agency is looking for. The support letters can take the most time to source. I recommend people look at the NSF proposal process even if they are not a high-risk technology vertical that they would fund. The NSF proposal requires you to think and answer questions on your startup and product. Questions that if you are not able to answer you might need to reconsider how much you think you know and work on fleshing out those topics for your business.
A website that hosts US gov sponsored challenges. The largest ones typically aren’t profitable to compete on their own (you can spend more time and money working toward 1st place than the value of the 2n place award). Think DARPA Urban challenge. Challenges like these where the gov is essentially hosting a large field R&D environment can be enabling for deeptech as field testing in highly flexible sandbox environment can be challenge and cost prohibitive on its own. There are smaller challenges frequently posted too.
A program run by the state of New York. Part pitch competition and part accelerator. Aimed at attracting tech startups to the state. Some states and cities might have programs like this. They typically have some component of setting up employment in a specific area could be a city, region, or a census tract.
Try to keep an eye open for these types of opportunities. I submitted for this in 2019 and out of a pool of over 3500+ global applicant, I ended up being in the top 50. I didn’t make it to the final round. The finalists received a $20k+ award, a weeklong free design boot camp in NYC and a spot in a Lexus showcase during Milan Fashion Week.
20k would of been nice for how lean we were running. We also could have used the design mentorship and exposure to contacts attending a globally significant event.
Autodesk isn't the only program like this. Larger companies will typically host centers or events to get early adopters to test and help drive product. In exchange you get access to their tools. In the case of Autodesk you also get access to the innovation studio / makerspaces that they operate. Verizon had a similar program around their 5G rollout around supporting companies developing products to leverage their upcoming network upgrades. These programs will also typically have a good network early adopter or high performance customers and don't necessiarly offer funding (paying customers can be a good source of funding).
SPIE hosts a start up pitch competition during their photonics west trade show. Other trade shows / industries do something similar to an extent. In the case of SPIE there isn't any cash award or investment but essentially large gift cards to top vendors in that industry. You also end up presenting to good contacts in that industry potentially from the investment, sales channel, or other aspects.
Unlike SBIRs this is constructed as an award competition. Award money is different from grant money so you can have a SBIR and get one of these awards on the same or highly similar topic. When I went to this companies were presenting and demoing a wide range of tech from additive manufacturing, helicopter long line rescue stabilization, and battery technologies. It is a multi-step process that starts with a while paper and ends with a live demo pitch.
These are venture back start up accelerators. You apply and if accepted; give up a portion of the company and participate in a multiweek bootcamp with a demo day at the end. These programs typically provide coworking space during and for some time after. They also typically have a network of alumni, mentors, investors and corporate partners.
I went through boomtown The Farm which was hosted at Comcast in Atlanta. One group in my cohort was able to get a pilot with Comcast for their product. We toured and shadowed some Comcast employees at their warehouses and plant.
These are beneficial, but I would suggest looking at the NFS I-Corps program before giving up equity in your company (NSF I-Corps can be more money than some of the lower funded accelerator programs).
This is a yearly multi city tour. The event I went to featured a weekend long business bootcamp and pitch contest at the end. Various groups will host these types of bootcamp events. They can be great networking and sometimes your odds for pitching can be very good.
An accelerator for launching a VC firm.
An accelerator hosted at UC Berkley. Targeted toward the UC Berkeley community. Other universities / regions may have a likewise themed program.
A Department of Energy accelerator / incubator program based at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Air Force venture and innovation. They offer SBIRs, Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO), and funding through other transaction authority (OTA).
A network of accelerators, incubators, and other resources relevant to startups.
A group that hosts social meetups in many cities across the US.
A VC firm that also hosts a bootcamp focused on construction tech.