{"id":15851,"date":"2025-05-06T14:39:02","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T18:39:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.ncsu.edu\/commercialization\/?p=15851"},"modified":"2025-06-05T09:54:49","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T13:54:49","slug":"student-entrepreneurs-leverage-i-corps-into-successful-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.ncsu.edu\/commercialization\/2025\/05\/06\/student-entrepreneurs-leverage-i-corps-into-successful-exit\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Entrepreneurs Leverage I-Corps to Turn Software Project into Successful Exit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n

QuikCal<\/strong>, a startup founded by undergraduate engineering students at Duke University, was recently acquired<\/a> by MOCA Systems, Inc., a leading provider of construction planning software, for its artificial intelligence-driven tool designed to improve communication between office and field personnel on commercial construction sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the QuikCal team was formed at Duke, it has strong ties to the Wolfpack community. The team was able to leverage North Carolina State University\u2019s National Science Foundation (NSF) I-Corps Program<\/a> to gather valuable, real-world market insights that enabled them to better understand their customer and successfully refine their product offering into a viable software tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breaking Ground on a New Solution<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

QuikCal initially formed while participating in an undergraduate engineering course at Duke University that pairs teams of students with industry partners to solve real-world design problems. Ken Kalin and Delali Cudjoe \u2013 both first-year students in the Duke Pratt School of Engineering at the time \u2013 were matched with Skanska USA, a major construction company experiencing challenges efficiently scheduling deliveries at construction job sites. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite having little knowledge of the construction industry, the team developed a prototype app that used web forms, reminder texts, and calendar integrations to avoid delivery mix-ups. Their solution offered an easy way for on-site construction personnel to share important job information \u2013 typically manually written on physical whiteboards in the field \u2013 with office staff charged with delivery scheduling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Kalin and Cudjoe had no entrepreneurial aspirations at the time \u2013 \u201cI saw this as a vehicle to improve my coding abilities\u201d, noted Cudjoe \u2013 but the positive feedback they received from the client encouraged them to carry the project into another semester to continue development. After another semester of work, the team had developed a working prototype of the app but were unsure of the next steps to bring their solution forward. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A grant from Duke\u2019s Christensen Family Center for Innovation<\/a> in January 2024 helped the team continue development of the tool. Dr. Adria Dunbar, managing director of the center \u2013 and a former NC State faculty member and software entrepreneur \u2013 encouraged the team to deepen their understanding of the construction industry by talking to real-world customers to better design and position their solution. Dunbar recommended they apply to NC State\u2019s NSF I-Corps Program<\/strong><\/a>, a five-week short course designed to teach academic researchers how to assess and validate product-market-fit for new, technology-based solutions. <\/p>\n\n\n