Pre-Seed Workshop

The Pre-Seed Workshop is a two and a half day “build-a-company” event which rallies community talent and resources to investigate and transform potentially commercializable technologies (developed primarily at universities, corporations, and major research centers) into pre-seed stage companies. The PSW occurs about seven times a year in various Host City locations throughout Upstate New York.

The workshop primarily consists of the following eight idea analysis sessions on:

1. The Technology: Do you have a proprietary product?
2. Technology to Market Map: To whom will you sell?
3. Market Need: Where is the pain?
4. Competition: Why will you win?
5. Business Model: How will you operate?
6. Revenue Potential: How big is this opportunity?
7. Management Team: You and what army?
8. Technology Status: What does the roadmap look like?

As teams are lead through these eight modules, they address 20 key questions and generate a series of about 12-13 slides that constitute the foundation of a 15 minute presentation that they deliver on the afternoon of the second day before a panel of community experts, generally Angel or VC investors. These experts will provide feedback on 1) Do they have a business case, and 2) Is it an investable business case?

The team which conducts the analysis simulates a “real” start-up company with members who have diverse expertise in technology, business, finance, law, etc. The team typically consist of an “idea champion”, another technologist, an MBA student, an IP or business start-up attorney, a tech transfer officer, and a business coach from the community.

At the end of the workshop, we provide our teams with vectors into the community. For those with high potential ideas, we encourage them to take the next step and conduct an in-depth opportunity analysis, participate in “pitch fests”, UNYTech, business plan competitions, intensive Entrepreneurship Bootcamps, etc. We see ourselves as a “feeder system” into the various resources that each of our Host communities already has in place. 

For more information, contact Heather Erickson or visit www.psw-ny.org.
 

Thank you to our sponsors:

PLATINUM


 

GOLD