Mind to Market (M2M) Initiative: Commercializing Viable and Scalable Ideas

Wednesday, March 7, 2018

After more than a year of planning, pivots, and fine tuning, we are excited to unveil the Mind to Market initiative, a focused effort in our region to commercialize viable and scalable ideas. Mind to Market (M2M) is a collaboration between Startup Spokane, Mind to Market, LLC (a pre-seed investment fund), and a myriad of community stakeholders.

M2M has three major components – 1) Rapid Commercialization Program; 2) M2M pre-seed investment fund; and 3) Operations Phase. The graphic (see left) illustrates the framework of the program, so please refer to it as this article guides you through the program.

Ideas or Startup – Ideas come from a multitude of sources, including colleges, universities, business & industry, ideation events such as Startup Weekend Spokane, business plan competitions, and the community at large. Spokane’s vast network of community partners, each of whom serve entrepreneurs, are also feeders for ideas and startups to recommend to the M2M program. Startup Spokane will vet all ideas to ensure the idea has a champion (someone passionate and obsessed) who is coachable, that the idea solves a problem and/or tension, has a potential market, and is scalable. (continued)