Prototype of Directed Search and Training Engine to Educate and Support Entrepreneurs was Successfully Developed
Salt Lake City, UT (July 19th, 2011) – Enclavix™, LLC announced that it has successfully completed its Phase I SBIR Project with funding from the National Science Foundation to Create a Directed Search and Training Engine to Educate and Support Entrepreneurs. This is NSF SBIR project #1047421. Details of the National Science Foundation award can be found at Research.gov or PDF Summary .
Project Outcomes Report – The VentureWrench™ Project
This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project designed and built a running prototype of a Directed Search and Training Engine to Educate and Support Entrepreneurs, called VentureWrench™ . Entrepreneurs have the opportunity to create profitable, society-changing companies with high quality jobs, but many entrepreneurs lack at least some skills in the areas of capital, finance, legal and startup management, which are required to convert an opportunity into a successful enterprise. Many resources are available to entrepreneurs, but with millions of search engine links on the topic, the most valuable resources can often be invisible. The mission of the Enclavix team is to systematically help America’s entrepreneurs learn more and learn faster, both via on-line resources and by referring them to high quality mentoring and training programs.
The Enclavix VentureWrench™ project is a web-based resource-matching system, using an inference engine and semantic network (types of artificial intelligence referred to as “fuzzy logic”). After the entrepreneur answers a few questions, the system will assess the current knowledge and skills of an entrepreneur as well as the type and state of the venture, and guide entrepreneurs to the national, regional and local resources that will best help them achieve entrepreneurial success.
In addition to creating the technology engine and system to drive the matching of entrepreneur to resources, the Enclavix team created an index of the highest quality, most relevant entrepreneur-specific resources across the United States. These include resources from government agencies, non-profits and associations, high quality books, publications and relevant real-time on-line content such as blogs and social media. The prototype index also includes connections to local/state/regional agencies and resources, as well as local/state/regional mentors and training programs.
There is no cost to organizations or resources to be included in VentureWrench, nor is there a cost for entrepreneurs to use the system. VentureWrench.com currently hosts a brief introduction to the system and acknowledgment of NSF support, until the prototype is completed and becomes commercially available. Inquiries can be directed to VentureWrench@gmail.com
The broader impact of VentureWrench is significant as the system will assist in increasing the rate of entrepreneurial success in America. The current rate of entrepreneurial success for Venture Capital backed companies is less than 50%. The overall rate of success of entrepreneurship is far lower, as venture capitalists invest in only a few percent of all ventures. If the United States could improve the success rate of entrepreneurs, significant economic and social benefits would accrue to the nation. Many local, state and Federal agencies are trying to improve the success of entrepreneurs, but there is no mechanism for an entrepreneur to readily find these existing resources. Enclavix believes that VentureWrench, once commercially available, will quickly attract many entrepreneurs and organizations supporting entrepreneurs, so that they will move quickly up the entrepreneurial learning curve because they will quickly have access to the highest quality and most meaningful resources and contacts customized for their efforts. These entrepreneurs will form a community prepared for success.
This proposal and project were developed in response to an NSF solicitation which identified that, “…the focus of entrepreneurship education should be how to harness quickly a greater variety of different ideas to successfully exploit a business opportunity. To this end, innovative educational applications exploiting advanced software and hardware can be developed to integrate curricula and training to serve this growing and important segment of education, which is a critical component for success in the contemporary global economy.” VentureWrench uses advanced software technology to help entrepreneurs quickly learn “what they don’t know they don’t know” and accelerate their success in the global economy
About Enclavix, LLC
Enclavix is a software development firm focused on applying artificial intelligence, machine intelligence and related technologies to extracting context and meaning from complex, big-data problems including unstructured data sets such as online resources. Enclavix focuses on technologies that 1) encourage and strengthen innovation and entrepreneurship and 2) make innovators and entrepreneurs more effective.