Built In LA would like to congratulate May’s Startup of the Month: Viterbi Startup Garage! This new incubator will help engineering students and recent alumni from the University of Southern California turn their ideas into venture-backed companies.
[ibimage==26585==Medium==none==self==ibimage_align-left]The ten yet to be announced companies that will make up the Startup Garage’s inaugural class were chosen from a pool of 90 applicants. Ashish Soni, Executive Director of Digital Innovation and Founding Director of the Viterbi Student Innovation Institute at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, got together with partners from venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers (KPCB) and literary and talent agency United Talent Agency (UTA) to select the class. Soni, who has taught startup development at USC for several years, will work with KPCB’s Mike Abbott and UTA’s Brent Weinstein to provide capital, business development assistance and mentorship to the participating teams.
The 12-week program officially begins on May 28, when teams will take up residence in USC’s Information Sciences Institute in Marina Del Rey. Participating companies will receive capital and guidance in exchange for an undisclosed deal involving equity which will go to KPCB and UTA, with the University receiving no financial return. According to Soni, creating an environment to foster companies driven by engineering students in the summer, when they are free of academic constraints, is a win for the school.
We caught up with Soni to learn more about the Startup Garage. Read our edited interview below.
IN YOUR OWN WORDS, WHAT IS THE VITERBI STARTUP GARAGE?
Startup Garage is an early-stage technology accelerator program that strives to build more engineering-backed companies. The big idea is USC is the second-largest engineering school in the country and also a top ten engineering school. Our goal is to help cultivate the many technology entrepreneurs out of the engineering school to ultimately help create some of the largest tech companies in Los Angeles.
HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THIS IDEA?
The idea came about in conversations with our partner and our advisory board member, Mike Abbott of KPCB. We share a vision of supporting more engineering-founded companies. In our conversations with Mike, we came up with the idea to create a program that supports engineering students and alumni in building or co-leading technology companies.
WHY DID YOU CREATE THIS ACCELERATOR?
What we know is that most early-stage startups need two things. They need, of course, a great idea and they need engineering expertise. And they need the skills to execute, but I think we have really smart students and alumni at the engineering school. We know that most early-stage startups also need business development help and access to capital.
UTA is a leader in strategic business development, KPCB is one of the leading legendary investment firms in the country, so we envision that getting both of them as partners would give our teams the best support. Of course, the talent, coaching and mentoring would come from the engineering school, our team of mentors and also from our partners.
WHAT WERE YOUR CRITERIA FOR SELECTING COMPANIES?
Which of these companies can become a large, disruptive business? Where are they doing really innovative or cutting-edge work in industries that can be disrupted. We’re seeking not incremental innovation, we’re seeking sustainable innovation with some competitive technological edge.
WHAT IS YOUR MEASURE OF SUCCESS?
Getting these companies venture-backed, that’s really the ultimate metric for us. How many companies can we create that are able to raise capital, build large teams and build innovative products, and then disrupt different markets? That’s our ultimate metric, helping build large technology, engineering-backed companies.
Visit Viterbi Startup Garage’s website, check out their BILA profile and follow them on Twitter at @USCVSi2.
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