SBIR Phase I: Novel simulation-based training for entrepreneurs

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This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project aims to develop entrepreneurship training material for universities, governments and non-government organizations. Such organizations have an interest in accelerating the creation of technology-driven entrepreneurial enterprises, and have a history of establishing programs to train technologists for entrepreneurship. To be successful, these teams must learn to operate cohesively, establish a thoughtful and implementable business strategy, obtain needed resources, and execute on the strategy. This research project aims to provide an instructional framework to maximize these goals by enhancing the existing assessment tools, building a simulation test-bed of entrepreneur 'games' and testing these simulations and the educational program with sample groups. The end product will be a tested program including assessments, feedback, and a single simulation which will be piloted several times using grant funding for data collection and refinement. The project outcomes will impact small early-stage companies from pre-funding through to venture capital funding. Such organizations are typically cash-strapped, and will be unable to pay out of their own pocket to attend workshops and purchase software that are not directly focused on each of their core technologies. However, companies are willing to attend workshops to improve entrepreneurial skills when those are sponsored by other organizations. Such types of organizations have both a vested interest in creating more viable high growth companies, both from an economic development and licensing revenue perspective, and they both have funding that they have been willing to put to work delivering programming to prospective entrepreneurs