Students eager to stretch their entrepreneurial wings can receive support from Worcester State’s IDEA Accelerator, a new program taking place this semester.
According to Director of Entrepreneurship Elaine Vescio, “the program is for students from any major who want to validate an idea for a product, service, or social venture. The action-based format gets the idea out of their head, tested, and refined.” The deadline to register [1] for the IDEA Accelerator is Sunday, Feb. 14, with the kickoff meeting on Feb. 16 at 5:30 p.m.
The program incorporates the “agile project methodology” of dividing a larger project into a series of “sprints,” each one contributing to develop the idea into a viable concept. In the first two-week sprint, participants will create a customer value proposition; the second sprint will explore viable business models; and the third sprint will focus on telling the story of the idea.
Throughout each sprint, participants will receive guidance and feedback while creating a specific deliverable. At the conclusion of the second sprint, 10 finalists will be selected to compete in the Robert K. O’Brien Next Big Idea contest [2], to be held virtually on Friday, April 23. Now in its eight year, the business idea pitch contest—Worcester State’s version of “Shark Tank”—offers cash prizes for winning entries, including a grand prize of $2,500.
To manage the content, tools, and communications for the program, Worcester State will use Startup Wind [3], a virtual innovation platform for universities, states, and organizations.
“This is a game changer for being able to offer a scalable, and really well-supported accelerator program that is totally virtual,” says Vescio. “Massachusetts Technology Collaborative [4] generously offered for Worcester State to be able to run our accelerator program as a cohort within Mass Tech’s Innovation Network in Startup Wind. This means there is no financial cost to Worcester State to use this powerful application to manage the complexity of a virtual accelerator program, so our resources can be focused on the students.”
Read more about the Center for Entrepreneurship. [5]