Is your business a fit for IION?
IION supports innovation-driven, scalable, for-profit businesses that are developing or refining products or processes that have the potential to create meaningful regional economic impact through revenue growth, job creation, productivity gains and market expansion.
We focus on innovative businesses that are operating full time and are ready to act, not just explore ideas. You need to be serious, ready to do your homework and have defined projects and goals to grow your business.
IION‘s objective is to understand your business and goals to determine fit, viability and eligibility. The eligibility criteria differs between programs and services based on the stage of your business.
Is your business innovative & eligible?
The first task is to validate whether your business is eligible and genuinely innovative or simply unique within its local business landscape.
A service-based business is only eligible if the service is built around something innovative that you own or control, like a proprietary product or process.
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Eligible:
A marketing company that has created a proprietary analytics platform that they use internally and sell to other marketing firms.
A health service using a patented diagnostic process and integrating the newest technologies to create their own products.
A manufacturing company that is incorporating robots and automation into their process to increase efficiency.
Ineligible:
A consultant that is putting their content onto an existing software platform.
Companies using off the shelf software to provide a service.
Tourism companies offering unique services but have no proprietary processes or products.
At what stages can IION assist eligible companies?
Exploring & defining the opportunity
- Clarify the problem
- Shape the solution idea
- Explore market need
- Define basic value proposition
- Develop prototype / MVP
Building & validating the solution
- Refine prototype / MVP
- Test with early customers
- Validate willingness to pay
- Define target market
- Refine business model
- Develop marketing strategy
Scaling customers & operations
- Increase sales
- Improve conversion
- Build processes & systems
- Expand marketing
- Strengthen financial forecasting
Expanding & sustaining the business
- Aggressive scaling
- Market expansion
- Team growth
- Stable systems in place
- Long-term sustainability
*Idea stage companies, please visit our resources, funding search engines and events pages.
Let’s get started!
If you believe you are eligible, please fill out the eligibility assessment below and someone from IION will contact you. The information you share will remain confidential.
We believe that in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, relationships matter. That's why we serve as matchmakers, connecting entrepreneurs with appropriate resources, funding and service providers. With IION, you have a partner committed to your success and dedicated to helping you achieve your goals.
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