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Office of Research and Innovation
NC State Office of Research Commercialization

Launch Services

Leverage our programs and partnerships to form a new company around your innovation and increase your chances of success.

Startup Guidance

Startup 101

Are you a first time founder? We offer a series of PackStart Workshops each semester that cover important topics like:

  • How to Build Your Team
  • Founder’s Equity
  • Startup Taxes and Accounting
  • How to Find and Secure Funding

Plan Your Next Steps

As you begin the process of forming a new company to license your technology, you will meet with our New Ventures team to develop a strategy to launch and grow your company.

This strategy session will include:

  • The development of research milestones that will enhance the commercial viability of the innovation,
  • A funding strategy to support completion of the planned milestones,
  • Non-research activities that should be prioritized to move the startup forward and programs that can leveraged to complete these activities.
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Find a Business Mentor

Mentorship can be critical for early-stage university startups to strengthen their team with experienced business acumen and reduce the chance of costly mistakes. We match our startups with the most relevant and experienced mentors through our advisors network to help accelerate growth.

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Establishing the Company

Forming a company is an important step towards commercialization. The New Ventures and Investments team offers several partnerships that assist innovators in forming a new entity and navigating compliance at the university.

Incorporation Partnerships

Several local attorney firms offered discounted incorporation packages to new research-based startups launching out of NC State. This includes guidance on entity types, founders shares, and necessary paperwork. It can also include license review.

We’ll work to connect you as many firms as possible to help you select the one that best suits your needs.

Conflict of Interest Guidance

We work with NC State’s Office of Research Administration and Compliance to help you understand what disclosures around startup activity are required at the university and when to ensure our innovators remain in compliance with university policies.

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Licensing the Technology

Your newly formed company will work with our Licensing team to finalize a licensing agreement for rights to the intellectual property.

Secure Launch Funding

Secure funding from one of our internal startup support programs to assist your early-stage company.

SparkPlug Funds

ORC SparkPlug is a competitive program that provides up to $5,000 in grant funds to NC State startups that enables them to work with professional grant writers to increase their chances of success in winning federal SBIR/STTR funding.

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Daugherty Endowment

NC State’s Daugherty Endowment Fund is an annual business plan competition for startups that have licensed NC State intellectual property within the last three years. $50,000 is awarded each year to the top 3 startups.

Daugherty Endowment funding can be used for any startup business expense.

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Build Your Brand

Our Creative Services team is made up of professional designers who work with NC State research-based startups to create a logo, produce branded materials, and launch a website.

  • Brand Identity and Branded Material Development
  • Logo Creation
  • Website Development and Support
Get In Touch

Ready to get started?

Connect with a member of our team to begin your startup journey.

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