Startup IMERSHEN LLC Joins the University of Arizona Center for Innovation
Dr. Dave Cornelius shares the value of agile life skills to Scrum Alliance Coaching Retreat at Berkeley University, Spring 2019.
TUCSON, Ariz. (April 7, 2020) — The University of Arizona Center for Innovation (UACI) is pleased to announce that startup company IMERSHEN LLC has joined the UACI incubation program. After being admitted, IMERSHEN jumped right in by utilizing all the resources offered and is working closely with the startup incubator team to identify and survey potential customer segments and continue product development to advance their business model.
“IMERSHEN provides realistic and high-impact virtual experiences designed to build confidence in the workplace and make learning new skills more engaging and valuable for staff members,” explained Founder Dave Cornelius, DM.
Specifically, IMERSHEN transforms the immersive training delivered by KnolShare’s instructor-led courses using augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) to create a digital experience for corporate customers.
By collaborating with UACI, Cornelius predicts that IMERSHEN can fast-track their business plan based on the benefits derived from the UACI resources. “The University of Arizona Center for Innovation provides valuable guidance and support that is helping us begin customer segment identification and validation,” explained Founder Dave Cornelius, DM.
UACI Executive Director Eric Smith elaborated on the services IMERSHEN is receiving while working alongside UACI. “Like every startup we serve, IMERSHEN has a unique problem they are solving. Working collaboratively, we are helping them acquire the customer segmentation data necessary to inform key commercialization decisions,” Smith emphasized.
The next step for IMERSHEN is to zone in on their target market through expanded customer discovery research. “The opportunities for our innovative product are large and we want to make sure that we focus on the right customers who are seeking our services,” Cornelius stated. “We will build a minimum viable product that can be evaluated with the right customer segments to make decisions about our course going forward.”
“As part of the process working with the University of Arizona Center for Innovation, IMERSHEN has already interviewed 31 potential customers in retail, healthcare and IT services to identify their interest in the IMERSHEN product and services,” Cornelius explained. “The insights and information we gained will guide us in the next phase of development of our company.”
Cornelius has advice for area startup companies. “The startup incubation program provided by the University of Arizona Center for Innovation is an excellent opportunity to start your technology company on the right footing before launching into the unknown.”
Cornelius’ commitment to building confidence and teaching new skills not only takes place in the workspace but in the community as well. Cornelius is a community outreach champion that also runs a non-profit program called 5 Saturdays that provides learning experiences to high school students that teaches teaching them coding, entrepreneurship, job readiness, design thinking, and agile life skills.
About the UA Center for Innovation
The University of Arizona Center for Innovation (UACI) is a startup incubator network with locations across the Southern Arizona region. The UACI mission is to grow scalable startup ventures that fuel the Arizona economy. Since inception in 2003, the program has directly served over 120 companies and impacted thousands of entrepreneurs through providing access to people, programming and places that help entrepreneurs take their companies from idea to market. UACI is part of Tech Parks Arizona which brings together university, industry, and community creating “interactive ground” to advance technology innovation.
