Ready for Launch

With year-round pitch competitions, legal assistance and mentoring, USC entrepreneurs have lots of places to turn for help. These are just a few of the many resources that get Trojans ready to launch their next big idea.

USC Viterbi Startup Garage

USC Viterbi School of Engineering

What’s offered: $20,000 in seed funding, mentoring, legal and fundraising help as well as development space in Marina del Rey at USC’s Information Sciences Institute, an international innova- tion hub for computing and communication technologies dating back to the development of the Internet.

Audience: Students, faculty and alumni focused on Internet, hardware or software startups

Fact: The program’s first-year winners included AIO Robotics, creator of the world’s first combination 3-D printing, copying, scanning and fax machine.

USC Stevens Center for Innovation

Office of the Provost

What’s offered: Assistance with forming startups, from negotiating license terms to building connections with experienced managers, as well as intellectual property and licensing expertise.

Audience: Faculty, students and industry partners

Fact: The 2015 USC Stevens Student Innovator Showcase awarded more than $25,000 in prizes to business concepts with world-changing potential.

Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies

USC Marshall School of Business

What’s offered: Coursework, venture competitions, networking, incubation and research as part of the nation’s oldest integrated entrepreneurship program.

Audience: Students and alumni

Fact: The center’s partnership with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti helped create the Mayor’s Cup, an upcoming competition for USC entrepreneurs with innovative solutions to local civic challenges. Winners will receive $25,000 and the opportu-nity to work with city leaders to develop their ideas.

The Alfred E. Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering

USC Viterbi School of Engineering

What’s offered: Consultation services for inventors to transform their ideas into commercially viable medical products, legal support, intellectual property evaluation and market analysis, PhD fellowships and tuition remission at USC Viterbi. Audience: Faculty, students and industry partners in biomedical fields

Fact: The institute launched technology for implantable blood-sugar monitors and prostheses that can help amputees control artificial limbs.

Athena USC

What’s offered: Access to funding capital and mentors for women. Audience: Female students and faculty

Fact: Athena partners with USC Annenberg’s Women’s Leadership Society, USC Marshall’s Graduate Women in Business Association and USC Viterbi’s Women in Science and Engineering program to host workshops, speaker panels, pitch competi- tions and networking mixers.

Business Entrepreneurship Startups

Trojan Family Magazine

5 Resources for Trojans Launching the Next Big Thing

5 Resources for Trojans Launching the Next Big Thing

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