Florida State University College of Communication & Information visiting faculty member Farhood Basiri is one three facilitators for a new boot camp in business development called, “Startup Gauntlet,” hosted by the university.

The free, six-week course introduces participants to the world of startup ventures. Basiri, along with Florida State Assistant Vice President for Research and Economic Development John Fraser, helped organize the course. To help lead the program, they enlisted Paul Freet of the Georgia Tech VentureLab, an instructor for the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps program.  Startup Gauntlet is a lean version of I-Corps, which was originally designed to teach professors and doctoral students how to identify commercialization opportunities from their research.

“This is designed to help people understand their market and potential customers, but who aren’t sure where to start,” Basiri said. “And it reinforces Florida State’s commitment to being one of the most entrepreneurial-focused universities in the country.”

The group of 55 course participants is comprised of faculty, staff, graduate and undergraduate students from a variety of fields of study.  There are two faculty members (Dr. Jonathan Adams, John Marks) and three undergraduate students from College of Communication & Information taking the course.  There are also participants from the College of Business, College of Medicine, College of Education, College of Social Science & Public Policy, Computer Science and Physics.

The course, which started June 12, meets every Friday and concludes July 25.

Read more about the Startup Gauntlet on FSU 24/7:
http://news.fsu.edu/More-FSU-News/Free-boot-camp-helps-FSU-entrepreneurs-build-successful-start-ups

 Learn more on the Startup Gauntlet website.