Photo courtesy of University of Arizona Center for Innovation

In the fall of 2019 the GIST Business Incubation program brought together the best international science and technology innovators with American businesses to increase cross-market access, open doors for joint ventures, and gain investor exposure. It also provided the U.S. startup ecosystem the opportunity to forge new connections with entrepreneurs who are abroad.

The GIST Business Incubation launched in 10 cities across the U.S., bringing 29 innovative, global startups to unique, startup ecosystems across 9 states. 

In this series we check-in with the incubators and innovation programs the international entrepreneurs were paired with. We asked them to share their impressions of the GIST Business Incubation experience and to hear about their current programs supporting innovation ecosystems. 

 

Eric Smith is the executive director of the University of Arizona Center for Innovation.

 

GIST: What was your experience with the participants of the GIST Business Incubation participants? 

Eric Smith: We really enjoyed working with the four companies we received. They were receptive to our programming and came with great questions. They were also very good about providing feedback that allowed us to specifically customize parts of the program and ultimately increased the experience on both ends. When we introduced them to domain experts, customers and investors, the feedback was always positive. They had no trouble engaging with our other entrepreneurs- they often spent weekends with them, participating in social events. I feel this boosted their overall experience.

 

GIST: Was there anything that surprised you about the innovators you worked with? 

Eric Smith: We were surprised at the stage in which the companies were operating. We were expecting a bit earlier stage companies, but these had investment and revenue. This was a pleasant surprise--these companies were ready to dig in and really capitalize on their previous success. We did have to tweak portions of the program to gear it towards later stage companies, but we were happy to do it.

 

GIST: When thinking about the benefits of the program, what areas of growth did you see in the innovators? 

Eric Smith: We certainly saw benefits in some of the “in the weeds” but critical aspects of their ventures. The largest growth was in the area of how to conduct business in the United States. We got them to stop boasting and selling at every corner (sometimes when there was nothing to sell or they were not speaking to a qualified lead). Rather, they learned how to do U.S.-based customer discovery. This increased the chances of them getting to the conversation they desired and ultimately allowed them to forge relationships, rather than transactions. We also saw growth in their pitch decks and general investor/customer communication. Things as simple as blind email strategies really highlighted different cultural norms and they learned to craft targeted emails with a succinct message and a clear ask.

 

Photo courtesy of University of Arizona Center for Innovation

 

GIST: Given the dramatic changes occurring over the past four months, how has your program adjusted how you support innovators and entrepreneurial ecosystems. 

Eric Smith: In addition to funding various startup awards and donating time to in-person and virtual competitions, we launched a sponsor program that allows corporations to sponsor startups in our incubator. We now have four additional companies taking advantage of our services sponsored by the Town of Sahuarita, Freeport McMoRan and international law firm, Perkins Coie. We are launching another sponsorship opportunity with a state-wide bioindustry association in the Fall.

We recently won a contract with the Department of Energy to facilitate their American Made Solar Prize in partnership with the National Renewable Energy lab. This allowed us to hire employees and serve 10 additional companies, providing them with the opportunity to win up to 3 million dollars. We currently have 6 of the 10 remaining finalist teams (nationwide) for the current funding round.

We formalized a program roadmap and hired four additional Subject Matter Experts to bolster support. The SME’s are in the areas of accounting/finance, marketing/branding/pitching, team/board development and SBIR proposals. We also developed a virtual weekly workshop series to keep constant communication with our startups during the pandemic. We bring in community experts to speak on topics we find many of our startups need by tracking their progress on our program roadmap dashboard. We can clearly see where many need the most help using this tool.

 

GIST: What upcoming programming from your organization are you most excited about?

Eric Smith: We are building a biotech-focused incubator in the northern region of our city in partnership with large biotech companies and the various municipalities in the area. We should have the building complete this October. We are also expanding to a location just south of the University of Arizona campus to work closer with university technologies. We also will begin work on innovation mapping in partnership with Pinal County, the county just north of us, and will do some virtual startup programming with the Mexican consulate for entrepreneurs south of the border.