This past summer, Mtech Ventures partnered with four sustainable agriculture entrepreneurs to accelerate their commercialization process using I-Corps methodology. Eight student interns, through an initiative dubbed “I-Crops,” worked alongside founders to conduct over 250 interviews to test their hypotheses around their potential customers and beach head market. 

The startups included NanoForge Systems, Green Logic, Green Mechanics, and Ridge to Reefs. Their innovations range from fertilizer made from fish scraps to nitrate detection technology. 

The interns, who were split into teams of two, completed two I-Corps cohorts as part of their discovery. In June, they finished Penn State I-Corps’ regional short course and later a special ag-tech regional short course in August. 

The interns also attended the Horticultural Society of Maryland’s Annual Farm Tour, where they toured two orchards and met with farmers to understand their pain points. Finally, they attended Penn State’s Ag Progress days, the largest outdoor agricultural exposition in the state, where they completed about 30 interviews per team in two days. 

Larry Davis, founder of Green Mechanics, said the I-Corps program came during a pivotal time, and gave his startup the opportunity to focus their time and effort on scaling their business locally. 

“Helping to fine-tune where our best chances of marketing and selling our algae products [are] through the help of this program was a game changer,” Davis said.

I-Crops was offered at no cost to companies, and prepared them to apply for additional funding through the Chesapeake Bay Seed Capital Fund, an Idea Factory fund supported by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, for early stage companies commercializing technology improving water quality in the Chesapeake Bay. 

Erna Roth, one of the participating interns, said that after completing the internship she’s been recruited by several different companies based on her experience, and that the program helped define her career trajectory. 

“That became the sector I was really interested in pursuing more of, business development, marketing, and venture for tech companies. That really helped me navigate where I want to go." Roth said.

Startups and students interested in joining future cohorts can learn more by reaching Scott Christensen at schris14@umd.edu.