Delta I-Fund Summer 2021

The application for our summer cohort is now open. The deadline to apply is 6/11/2021. The mandatory kickoff weekend is scheduled for June 25 and 26, 2021, and will be held virtually due to established COVID-19 protocol.

The Delta I-Fund™ is an early stage, proof-of-concept accelerator formed to train entrepreneurs in the eight-state Delta Regional Authority (DRA) territory. Each startup team accepted into this program will be matched with a mentor from the business community, complete 12 weeks of rigorous training alongside other startup teams, and receive technical assistance.

Teams are preferred to have at least two members, though a minimum of three is encouraged. Single founder teams are discouraged. It is recommended that teams have a balance of business and science-based backgrounds.

The types of ideas and startups targeted by the Delta I-Fund are those based on innovative business models including:

• Patented university research, including medical, biomedical, science, and engineering applications.
• Software and other IT-based platform solutions.
• Any other patented or proprietary technology or innovation which provides a competitive advantage.

As for the stage of the company, the Delta I-Fund seeks very early-stage ideas and companies that need validation, including pre-revenue startups and entrepreneurs still in the idea stage. Companies that are post-revenue and already positioned for angel and venture capital funding are likely too advanced for the program.

The structured training provided during the program is modeled after I-Corps™, a program formed by the National Science Foundation in 2011. Thousands of teams nationally have been through I-Corps, and the curriculum is founded on the Lean LaunchPad™ entrepreneurial training developed by Steve Blank and Stanford University. Entrepreneurs in the Delta I-Fund are taught to develop and document their proposed business model on a lean canvas, and then to test their hypotheses through a rigorous customer discovery process.

The Delta I-Fund is administered by Winrock International, in partnership with entrepreneurial support organizations throughout the DRA territory.

For more information, visit ifundatwinrock.com or contact Vicki Malpass at vmalpass@winrock.org more