Supporting Virtual Member Companies at TU Incubator

Where Mission-Driven Remote Support is Actualized

This post originally distributed on TU Incubator Medium Publication here.

From the early days of tilting to education technology as a vertical focus for the Towson University Incubator (TU Incubator), the thought was to buttress up a national network of companies, mentors, and partners who we thought we could help and who could help us innovate locally by pulling best practices from beyond Greater Baltimore.

Turns out we were low in our prediction of demand for virtual incubation support, which at least partly means that there is just not enough quality edtech specific support out there.

At TU Incubator, we support over 15 edtech companies as virtual members, half of which are in region (in the Baltimore-DC corridor), half of which are spread around the U.S. This post focuses on a select number of virtual members outside the state of Maryland. We do this in various ways and are constantly iterating on our process. Per the graphic and corresponding icons below, we support our members in distribution, communications, capital, and team, among other functional needs.

Distribution + Partnership

In mid-2016, at the end of a Dreamit Ventures cohort, Philadelphia-based CampusESPwas looking for distribution support and capital connections. With connections from the TU Incubator network, CampusESP is now supporting the Towson University parent base and has been introduced to several capital sources. We have opened doors for our members at many places within the Towson University community, for feedback, advice, and potentially even a contract that might induce longer term partnership and impact.

Mass Comm + Marketing

We try to tell the story of each member that joins TU Incubator — at entrypoint and at appropriate milestones thereafter. Princeton-based Mindprint Learning takes a unique, diagnostic approach to the personalized learning pathway. Austin-based Nepris is a company whose mission is to induce motivation for and pathways in STEAM careers. We have blogged about and driven traffic to each of these companies via social media and longer form content. We have also enabled customer and partnership opportunities in both custom ways and via targeted events such as the EdTech Innovation Showcase, where both companies were able to attend in-person and come away with great connections and prospective partners.

Capital Connections + Readiness

Boston-based SchoolCNXT and Austin-based Nepris are late seed stage companies that have raised seed monies and are at the point of customer and end user traction that might attract Series A, moreover institutional investment. TU Incubator is making very certain, uniquely warm introductions to experienced Series A edtech investment firms throughout the U.S. This takes time and strategic wisdom; we have some of the latter on the TU Incubator team with over a decade of direct edtech investment experience.

Time, Talent , Team

Startups require talent to evolve and to succeed. Much of the time there is no free cash flow for said talent. In the case of undergraduate education, there is a need for real-world experience in the form of internships. Herein, lies a mutually beneficial relationship. For over a decade, TU Incubator has leveraged the need and energy in students at Towson University and other Baltimore area institutions in functions such as marketing, research, digital content solutions, financial modeling, and general operations assistance. These student interns are supporting members whether they are resident companies or those headquartered in other states across the country. These Millennials are not in the least bit phased by remote coordination and communication.

Atlanta-based Steppingblocks and San Francisco-based Scrible are two of our newest virtual members. Each has had multiple telephonic and in-person meetings with more than one member of the TU Incubator team; each was able to attend the October EdTech Innovation Showcase and come away with great partnership and customer prospects; each has received custom marketing content generated by the TU Incubator team.

One of the ‘behind-the-curtain’ member-only events we host every 6–8 weeks is what we call ‘Member Sessions.’ In these 90–120 minute working lunch sessions, we have a member company expose a weakness or strategic question area or funding dilemma and allow stakeholders to privately tackle whatever challenge is conveyed. Nepris CEO Sabari Raja was able to participate remotely in a Member Session and add considerable value to the conversation among 7–8 people, which, in turn, helped her hold up a mirror to her company’s own approach to distribution.

Finally, as a way of stitching together remote stakeholders, we use a platform entitled StartupTree, derived out of Cornell University’s entrepreneurship program. Founded in 2015, we are one of the founding university incubator customers and have watched and added to the evolution of the product. The platform connects mentors and member companies and allows for public and private communiques. Each member company (venture) has a profile embedded and the platform inter-operates with LinkedIn.

Sometimes your circle decreases in size — but increases in value.

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I am an edupreneur, edtech investor, and teacher-coach located in Baltimore, MD. As Towson University’s Director of Venture Creation, I help support Maryland’s largest cluster of edtech companies via TU Incubator and associated programs.

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