Pitt Neuromuscular Research Lab Innovations are Ripe for Commercial Translation
Understanding the value and product-market fit of your innovation is crucial, but it's only half the work. Once you have an idea of how you can make money, the next step is to decide how to spend money to bring your innovation to market. The Innovation Institute's First Gear teams focused on answering this question as they start to put their new business ideas into motion.
Knowing your competitive landscape helps you explain how your product or service is better than existing solutions or good enough to switch customers from competitors or the status quo. You need to show a variety of stakeholders how your innovation is a better approach to pain relieving, gain providing, and the best problem-solving innovation. Studying your competitors lets you know who is trying to get your customers, how your innovation is unique, and how your competitors attract their customers – price, features, market entrenchment or something you never imagined before you looked closely.
After almost two months of hard work molding their startup ideas, eight teams from the Pitt Blast Furnace student startup accelerator pitched their ideas to a panel of five judges. The event, held on June 9th in the William Pitt Union, marked the completion of the third Blast Furnace cohort in its first year of its existence.
Agreement provides Pitt Innovators with access to growth capital targeted to university spin-outs The University of Pittsburgh Innovation Institute has joined Osage University Partners (OUP), a venture capital firm established to invest in spin-out companies of its University partner institutions.