🚀 IT'S TIME! NSF I-Corps Summer 2025 NY Regional Lean Bootcamp kicks off Thursday! 𝗟𝗘𝗧'𝗦 𝗚𝗢𝗢𝗢!! 🎉

🚀 IT'S TIME! NSF I-Corps Summer 2025 NY Regional Lean Bootcamp kicks off Thursday! 𝗟𝗘𝗧'𝗦 𝗚𝗢𝗢𝗢!! 🎉

A few months ago, I got accepted into the NSF I-Corps Summer 2025 Lean Bootcamp, a competitive startup training program backed by the 𝗡𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 (𝗡𝗦𝗙)!

Since we kick off in just a few days (July 31st, a day before my birthday, no less), I figured it’s time I shared the story behind it all.

So... what IS this whole thing?

Think of it as a three-level pyramid:

🔹 𝗟𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹 𝟭: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 (𝗡𝗦𝗙) – "𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘰𝘥𝘧𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳"

 The NSF is the U.S. government agency funding America’s scientific future. They invest billions in university research and back Nobel Prize winners.

 When they support a venture, it carries serious weight.

🔹𝗟𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹 𝟮: 𝗜-𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗽𝘀𝗧𝗠 (𝗜𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗽𝘀) – "𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘌𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘶𝘳'𝘴 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘵𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘱"

For decades, incredible, taxpayer-funded research would sit in labs and never become a real product. The NSF created I-Corps to fix this. The program's core mission is built on one legendary principle: "Get out of the building." It means you stop writing plans in isolation and start treating your ideas as untested hypotheses by talking to real people to find hard evidence.

(𝘚𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘦: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘐-𝘊𝘰𝘳𝘱𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘮 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘭𝘢𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘩 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 1,400 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘱𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘣𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥 $3.16 𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘧𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨.)

🔹 𝗟𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹 𝟯: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗬-𝗥𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝘁𝗰𝗮𝗺𝗽 – "𝘔𝘺 𝘌𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘗𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵"

This is where I come in:  a fast-paced, two-week sprint that forces us to conduct customer discovery interviews and stress-test our business ideas with real-world feedback.

So,what are we building:

For months now, alongside my mentor Jerald Posman, I have been working on the business model for an idea I had back in Toronto. It's been through several stages and iterations, as any idea naturally does, but I think it's time we tested it in the real world. I call it:

𝗔𝘅𝗮𝗺 – 𝗮𝗻 𝗔𝗜-𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁.

In today's world, effective learning is blocked by two major barriers: the digital divide (no internet access) and the focus gap (too many digital distractions). Axam tackles both head-on.

 It’s essentially “ChatGPT for Education — but offline.”

We are building a comprehensive, AI-powered educational assistant that works entirely offline. Axam is essentially "ChatGPT for Education, but offline" - providing comprehensive AI-powered educational assistance across all subjects, grade levels, and educational contexts, eliminating both connectivity barriers and internet distractions.

Our mission in I-Corps is to prove that Axam's offline AI educational assistant can transform the $400B global EdTech market by providing comprehensive tutoring WITHOUT internet connectivity.

Team Axam

I’m proud to be building this with an incredible team. Pictured here with me is Abraham Isyagi, my co-pilot on this mission. We're also joined by the brilliant Mehul Bafna. Together, as Team Axam, we’re ready to build something that truly matters, proudly representing the Katz School of Science and Health!

Special Thanks to:

• Jerald Posman, for mentoring me long before this program

 • Katende Enock, fellow Katz student and I-Corps participant thank you for telling me about this in the first place

 • Katz School, thank you for nurturing this vision

The real work starts now. Time to validate, learn, pivot, and build.

#NSFICorps #EdTech #Axam #AIforGood #OfflineLearning #StartupJourney #CustomerDiscovery #LeanLaunchPad #KatzSchool #GetOutOfTheBuilding #YeshivaUniversity #Founders #EducationInnovation