By chance, the founders of two energy startups aiming to commercialize campus discoveries enrolled in Cohort 14 of the Iowa State University Startup Factory.
During the fall ’23 semester, they attended two-hour sessions on Tuesdays, one-hour workshops on Thursdays and weekly one-on-ones with an assigned mentor. Starting with the assumption that the founders knew little to nothing about starting a business, discussions began with definitions of a startup and eventually got to finance, marketing, law, intellectual property and the like.
The founders wrote commercialization plans for their companies – Rise Energy and Upcycling+. Both are startups that aim to produce liquid fuels and other valuable products from underused biomass or waste plastic. Those plans included a market summary, thoughts on overcoming barriers to entering the marketplace, financials and an 18-month roadmap.