Skip to content
i2E
  • Programs
    • E3
    • ACT Tulsa
    • Love’s Entrepreneur’s Cup
    • OKBio
  • Client Portfolio
  • Services
    • Access to Funding
    • Venture Advisory Services
  • About
    • Our Values
    • Meet Our Team
    • Board of Directors
    • Corporate Partners
  • Contact
  • Media
Menu
  • Programs
    • E3
    • ACT Tulsa
    • Love’s Entrepreneur’s Cup
    • OKBio
  • Client Portfolio
  • Services
    • Access to Funding
    • Venture Advisory Services
  • About
    • Our Values
    • Meet Our Team
    • Board of Directors
    • Corporate Partners
  • Contact
  • Media
Search

Rigorous evaluation of market is key in identifying viable startups

Get in Touch

Rigorous evaluation of market is key in identifying viable startups
By Scott Meacham
Copyright © 2016, The Oklahoma Publishing Company

Success always brings more success. Likewise, capital begets capital and deals beget deals. The best way to get more of both is to create more successful startups with products that the market wants to buy.

Those of us building an innovation economy are constantly evolving to efficiently and reliably direct our resources — money and human capital — at deals with the best opportunity to succeed. We seek evidence that a startup has a shot at solving a high-priority problem that either reduces cost, increases revenue, or allows a business to accomplish a priority that it couldn’t before.

We want to figure that out before an entrepreneur wastes money, time, or the application of a promising technology on a solution that no customer wants to buy.

At i2E, over the last 17 years, we have built a venture assessment pipeline that in FY 2015 positioned 34 companies for funding, with 31 clients obtaining more than $49 million in private equity capital.

We are able to position this many Oklahoma companies for funding because we tackle product/market fit questions first. Venture assessment is the first step for any potential client of i2E. Our three-week program serves as the first step a potential client and our staff take together to determine if the new concept has the necessary market potential. Our process includes an intense working session each Thursday night in both Tulsa and Oklahoma City.

“We challenge the entrepreneurs to prove to us that customers want the solution they are building” said Stacey Brandhorst, i2E venture adviser. “We push the entrepreneurs to ask themselves and their potential customers the hard questions. We show entrepreneurs the weaknesses in their market plan and then work with them to mitigate those risks.”

Between sessions, entrepreneurs complete outside tasks including customer interviews and receive one-on-one support from i2E.

We know we aren’t going to figure out a whole company in a few hours over three weeks, but we can get to the “red, yellow or green” point. On average, two of the six or so companies in each cohort become i2E clients.

It’s not unusual through this process to see a startup pivot from the original business concept to something more closely aligned with what the market wants.

“We try not to discourage, but we do dispense tough love,” Brandhorst said. “If you are working on something that is never going to happen, and we have the facts to support that, why not give it up and work on something that will?”

If, at the end of the three weeks, the company becomes a client, that’s great. If it goes the other way and we determine that the business concept isn’t viable and the entrepreneur goes on to create another business, that’s a good thing, too.

Read the full story at The Oklahoman.

Scott Meacham is president and CEO of i2E Inc., a nonprofit corporation that mentors many of the state’s technology-based startup companies. i2E receives state appropriations from the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology. Contact Meacham at i2E_Comments@i2E.org.

Did You Know?
In 2015, venture capital investment hit a 15-year high with $11.3 billion total dollars, topping every year since 2000. It’s the second highest record since the Moneytree Report began in 1995.

Author

  • admin admin

More News

Loading...
woman in lab conducting a study
Blog, i2E
12.13.22

Bayesic Technologies Improves Effectiveness and Efficiency of Data Analysis in Healthcare

Read more
Bison grazing fields
Blog
11.30.22

Bison Underground Merges Nature, Science, and Technology to Tackle Climate Change

Read more
African American family sitting on couch reading and chatting
Blog, E3, i2E
11.22.22

Fokes Connects Families, Caregivers and Care Agencies for Smoother Communications and Care 

Read more
i2e blog post graphic
Blog, News
11.03.22

Introducing: Stories of Oklahoma Innovation

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.28.22

Oklahoma Grown! i2E Invests in BIO startups

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.13.22

Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation BIO

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.13.22

Moleculera Labs BIO

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.13.22

University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center BIO

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.13.22

Oklahoma State University BIO

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.13.22

ECHO Investment Capital BIO

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.13.22

AscendBioVentures BIO

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.13.22

Dean McGee Eye Institute BIO

Read more
i2E

Oklahoma City Office

840 Research Parkway, Suite 250
OKC, OK 73104
+1 (405) 235.2305

Tulsa Office

100 S. Cincinnati Ave – Suite 514
Tulsa, OK 74103
+1 (918) 582.5592

  • Client Portfolio
  • About Us
  • Media
  • Events
  • Contact
  • Resources

© 2022 i2E Privacy Policy

Follow us:

Facebook Twitter Linkedin

Programs

  • E3
  • ACT Tulsa
  • Love's Entrepreneur's Cup
  • OKBio
  • Client Portfolio

Services

  • Access to Funding
  • Venture Advisory Services
  • Contact
  • About
  • Our Values
  • Our Team
  • Board of Directors
  • Corporate Partners
  • Media
i2E