A Case Study in Implementing the Lean Launch Methodology for Environmental Startups out of Academia

Increasingly the lean launch methodology has been adopted by universities and agencies to promote commercialization of academic research. A condensed lean launch curriculum has been taught at UC San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography (Scripps) since 2017 and has worked with 13 teams (9 teams have completed the course; 4 new teams are currently completing the course). At least one member of each team must be a current faculty, student, postdoctoral scholar, or staff member of UC San Diego, and startups must focus on products or services of, about, or related to the environment. The course was developed to support the accelerated launch of new startups out of Scripps. Teams participate in a 3-week, evening course based on the NSF I-Corps curriculum. Classroom-time is devoted to discussion of the assigned reading and video content and teams’ presentations that are each followed by extensive discussion among all participants, teachers, and mentors to further refine each team’s business model. Through the curriculum, in-class discussions, and interviews of customers, teams ultimately seek to identify and validate their product-market fit. Each team is matched with an industry mentor for the course duration. At the conclusion of the course teams have developed a basic pitch deck. Of the 9 teams that have completed the short course, 7 are still active and have received follow-on funding for further development of their product from foundations, pitch competitions, federal innovation programs, or crowdfunding. Of the 9 teams, 6 were commercializing ocean technologies or services, 2 were in renewable energy, 3 relied on crowd-sourced data, 1 was in aquaculture, 1 focused on reduction of single-use packaging, and 1 provided analytical biochemistry services. Nearly 50% of all participating teams focused on commercializing university-based intellectual property (IP). While we cannot draw any conclusions on the lean launch curriculum as compared to other methodologies for startup formation, we have seen the principles of this approach resonate with a diverse group of teams to-date at Scripps. This offering at Scripps has been incrementally supporting the formation of startups tackling environmental challenges and innovating new products and services stemming from the ocean.