UC Accelerator : Written Proposal Stage
Proposal Title
PI Name* and Names of any key collaborators.
*list here the PI’s position and email address.
Category: List the category of your technology (medical
device,
sensors,
software,
energy,
diagnostics,
therapeutics, materials, etc.)
Elevator Pitch
Delete this gray text. You should not exceed 4 pages nor
alter the font sizes/spacings here. In some cases 3 pages
should be enough if you are being both adequately
informative and succinct. Submit your proposals by email
to: [email protected]. You should receive email
confirmation of receipt of proposal within 48 hours. If not,
please contact our office to make sure your submission was
properly received.
The Problem: What unaddressed problem are you trying
to solve and why is it important?
The Challenge: Tell us about the challenge. Why is this
problem hard to solve? If it was easy, someone would have
already solved it… Or if it is not that hard to solve, then why
did others not see this opportunity (for example, you could
say “mainly clinicians were seeing this problem, and our
group is technology focused and sees the problem in a very
different perspective”).
The Technology: What is the unique technology or
solution that you are proposing to solve the problem? If you
have acquired any data in support of the technology or
solution, please include it here. This section, including
figures, should be no more than ONE page in length,
maximum.
Delete this gray text. If appropriate, please insert at least
one descriptive figure here of your unique technology or
solution, and/or what it might look like as a product.
Status: What is the current status of your technology (i.e.
how far along is it in research or development).
The Customer: Who is your target customer or audience
or what is your target market: who are the specific users or
buyers? If you have talked to any potential customers and
have feedback, you should definitely make note of that here
and potentially include the feedback here.
Value Proposition: What is your value proposition: what
benefit do you bring to your target audience?
Total Addressable Market: What is the total addressable
market if you solve the problem. This can be tough, but often
some simple google searching can yield some answers.
Market reports often list total market sizes in their abstracts.
Timing: This might not be relevant to all proposals (only
include if it is), but, is there anything particularly compelling
about the timing of your proposal? For example, lets say
Page 1 of 2 - UC Accelerator Proposal – Confidential Information
you have a new technology for rapid screening of Zika
infection, and that the federal govt. said that within 5 years
all medical service entities must have readily available
screening assays for the Zika virus.
The Competition: Very briefly state who your biggest
competition is, and the top one or two reasons why you can
defend your advantage in the future. Don’t discuss your
technical competitive advantage yet (that is next, and is
better understood in the context of your competition).
Rather, here mainly talk about how you will defend yourself
against the competition from a business perspective. For
example: answers could include IP protection, your
proposal aligns with regional science and industry
strengths, or for example, your area of interest is too small
right now for the competition to focus on it until you have
already developed a major competitive edge, etc.
Competitive Advantage: What is the specific competitive
advantage for your technology? How exactly does your
tech. or solution solve the problem in a way that is better
than what is current available today or in development by
others? Increased performance, easier to use, better
customer strategy, game changing solution vs. just an
incremental improvement, etc. Note, winning on cost can
be tough. Your cost advantage has to be significant and
defendable even if the competition responds by lowering
their cost (sometimes even selling at a loss with the purpose
of putting you out of business).
Why a Potential Startup: Almost done with the pitch…
please answer why is this a startup? Answers can include,
the big companies see this as too early and high risk, we
believe we can maximize economic return for the State of
Ohio through sales of product made in Ohio, this is a
platform technology, or for example our company will
license this out and we will make the real $ by selling
services or components to the big companies. Etc.…
Our Team: Lastly, why you and your team, or potential
team? We are investing in YOU just as much as we are
investing in your technology. Answers can include your
teams advantage in skills/knowledge, or that you are ready
and eager to learn to become an entrepreneur, or you have
done this in the past and are ready to give it a try again,
etc… Also, if you are aware of any gaps in your team that
need to be filled to complete your proposed workplan, list
them here as they increase credibility of your proposal, and
because we can help you determine how to fill these gaps.
UC Intellectual Property
Delete this gray text. Please only list the intellectual property
you have that is relevant to this specific proposal.
•
•
•
UC invention disclosure ####, title, filed on DD/MM/YY
UC provisional patent ####, title, filed with the US
patent office on DD/MM/YY
Pending patent ####, title, filed with the US patent office
on DD/MM/YY
UC Accelerator : Written Proposal Stage
•
Granted patent ####, title, filed with the US patent office
on DD/MM/YY
Prior Art: If you know of it, please list here any prior art
(other’s patents, etc.) that you may have found or that UC
may have found, and also briefly mention why it is not
relevant or a major issue, or if you have a strategy to deal
with it (for example, in-license (acquire) the prior art that you
might need). This can be tough to answer at this point, and
most proposers are unaware that in commercialization they
will often need other people’s intellectual property before
they can go to market. If you don’t know how to answer this,
simply state “We are not aware of any important prior art
based on our preliminary search, but have not yet
performed an exhaustive search”. Another example answer
is: “UC has performed a prior art search and found none.”
Workplan and Budget
 Workplan: Very briefly what will you do with the funding?
What is the major outcomes that this will achieve?
 Return on Investment: It is very important that you
understand, that the Accelerator grant is to set you up for
the achieving a next level of funding or commercialization.
For example, this work could set you up to bring on board a
CEO, or to form a company and write an SBIR, or to do a
beta release of your product using angel funding, or the
ability to go after a large federal grant that will help set this
up for commercial success. Basically, for the $ that the
accelerator puts in, what is our return on investment? If you
are unsure about this, this is a great question to ask during
the proposers workshop.
Budget: Briefly list the total requested funding and the
major subcategories.
Remembers, salaries in your
research group cannot be covered by an Accelerator Grant.
Page 2 of 2 - UC Accelerator Proposal – Confidential Information