From Customer Discovery to Real-World Impact: The Reach of I-Corps Hub West

Across 11 partner institutions, I-Corps Hub West has trained 1,612 regional teams and engaged 11,600 program participants. Its latest impact figures also report 170 startups formed, 935 jobs created and $303 million raised in follow-on funding.

A promising technology can begin in a laboratory. Understanding where it might make a difference requires a different kind of research: conversations with the people who may use it, buy it or be affected by it.

Through I-Corps Hub West, research teams test their assumptions through customer discovery. They speak with potential customers and stakeholders, examine needs beyond the laboratory and use what they learn to consider a path toward commercialization.

The Hub’s cumulative figures show the reach of that work across its 11-institution network. Its alumni stories show some of the paths teams take next.

“The real measure of I-Corps is not simply how many teams complete the program, but what researchers are able to do with what they learn. Every customer conversation brings them closer to understanding where their innovation can create meaningful value, and when we see those teams go on to secure funding, build companies and enter new commercialization programs, we begin to see the broader impact of that work." Stacyann P. Russell, Director, NSF I-Corps Hub West Region

Building a Path Beyond Customer Discovery

Across the Hub West network, I-Corps alumni are advancing into accelerators, pursuing competitive funding, forming companies and continuing to develop practical applications for their research.

At the University of Colorado Boulder, that progression is particularly visible.

Venture Partners at CU Boulder recently celebrated its fifth Ascent Deep Tech Accelerator cohort. The five-month accelerator builds on prerequisite customer discovery training through NSF I-Corps Hub West and helps research-based teams work toward company formation, market strategy and fundraising.

The 2026 Ascent cohort was the program’s largest to date, with 22 teams. Since Ascent launched in 2021, its 67 participating teams have gone on to raise more than $20 million in non-dilutive funding and $47 million in venture capital. Alumni have advanced to programs including NREL West Gate, Creative Destruction Lab, Techstars and Activate.

Colorado’s latest Advanced Industries Accelerator awards offer another view of the path from discovery to further support. Fourteen awardees, including teams from Colorado School of Mines and CU Denver, previously participated in NSF I-Corps customer discovery and commercialization programs offered through CU Boulder.

The state’s latest funding round awarded nearly $7.5 million to researchers and companies across Colorado’s advanced industries, including $2.2 million to CU Boulder researchers and university-connected startups.

Hub West Alumni Take the Next Step with Activate

Other Hub West alumni are moving into fellowships that support scientists building hard-tech companies.

Activate’s 2026 cohort includes 50 scientist-innovators developing 41 companies in fields ranging from energy and advanced materials to food systems and biotechnology. Among them are I-Corps Hub West alumni connected to institutions across the network.

CU Boulder alumnus Mach Electric is developing technology that converts carbon dioxide into carbon fiber, with the goal of enabling lower-cost, lower-emissions composite materials at scale. Brint Tech, connected to Colorado State University, is developing optical sensing systems designed to quantify hydrogen and give infrastructure operators better data as hydrogen technologies scale.

From the University of California, Riverside innovation ecosystem, Elizabeth Hann and Marcus Harland-Dunaway were selected for the 2026 Activate Berkeley cohort with Nolux, a company pioneering light-independent agriculture with the aim of making food production more affordable and resilient.

These teams are working with different technologies and markets. Each is taking steps to understand how its research could work in the world beyond the laboratory.

Customer Discovery in the Field

That progression often begins with a fundamental question: What does the customer actually need?

At Colorado State University, one National I-Corps team took that question directly to dairy farmers while exploring the commercial potential of a new technology.

Their work illustrates a central principle of I-Corps: researchers need to test the market assumptions surrounding a technology. Conversations with potential users can reveal operational realities, economic considerations and unmet needs that may be difficult to see from the laboratory. Those insights can change how a technology is developed and how a team approaches its path to market.

A Growing Regional Impact

The Hub’s cumulative impact figures capture several stages of that journey: 1,612 regional teams trained, 11,600 program participants, 170 startups formed, 935 jobs created and $303 million raised in follow-on funding.

The figures describe the scale of a regional innovation network. The team stories reveal the work within it: listening to potential customers, refining an idea, seeking the right support and deciding what to do next.

Not every discovery interview leads to a company, nor does every technology follow the same path. Customer discovery gives researchers evidence to make better-informed decisions early enough to act on what they learn.

Across I-Corps Hub West, that work continues to bring an essential question into focus:

Where can this innovation make a difference?

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