SBIR Phase I: Project to Create an Automated System to Identify and Curate Web-based Resources for Entrepreneurs

The innovation in this project is the application of machine intelligence technology to help entrepreneurs quickly connect to the specific resources and services that will help them on their road to success. Entrepreneurs are a key source of growth and economic development in the United States, but many entrepreneurs need assistance in key skill areas ranging from raising capital, to legal requirements to building a startup management team. Tens of thousands of resources are available to entrepreneurs to help with these and other areas, however their quality varies dramatically and it is difficult, at best, to find the proper resources for a particular situation. The proposed online system will use a machine intelligence engine to identify, categorize and pre-qualify a wide array of resources, and then use the semantic network-based system to match the needs of the entrepreneur to the resources that will best support their exact need at the time. The broader/commercial impact of this proposal will significantly accelerate the success of America's entrepreneurs to include job creation. Many entrepreneurs fail because they "do not know what they do not know", because they do not know about available resources, or because they cannot readily find those resources. The proposed, online, "freemium" system will be an invaluable tool to improve the rate of success of America's startups, guiding the time-strapped entrepreneur to specific resources and support whenever it is needed. These tools will include resources and partnerships with non-profits, government agencies and quality sponsors. Beyond the individual business owner, the system and involved communities will leverage existing investments from federal, state and local agencies to better reach and assist potential and emerging entrepreneurs. This project has attracted the interest of organizations which want to partner with the team to bring this system to their entrepreneurial communities. Preliminary work strongly indicates that this machine intelligence-based system will quickly attract many entrepreneurs and accelerate their success