Programs and Services
A full suite of business programs and services
By joining the Junction in Chapel Hill, you can take advantage of a full suite of business programs and services offered by Innovate Carolina – our in-house team of innovation experts and practitioners from UNC-Chapel Hill. They work with hundreds of startups, entrepreneurs, small businesses and corporations to make an economic and social impact across North Carolina. And they’re here at the Chapel Hill innovation hub to help you do the same.
Resources and activities provided at the Innovate Carolina Junction are intended to further the mission of the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill to serve as a center for research, scholarship, and creativity and to teach a diverse community.
Startup Accelerator
Join an award-winning accelerator to take your venture further, faster. Launch Chapel Hill, our startup accelerator program, provides resources, services that will help you speed the growth of your high-impact startup or early-stage venture. You’ll be part of a connected community of entrepreneurs, founders and mentors and will have access to:
• Office hours with entrepreneurs-in-residence
• A network of entrepreneurial mentors
• Pitch scrub sessions
• Guidance on business incorporation and management
• Technology partnerships and resources
Community and Industry Exchange
What if you had a direct conduit for building strategic relationships with corporate leaders, academic researchers and up-and-coming entrepreneurs? Innovate Carolina’s Community and Industry Exchange Program helps you make connections and build strategic relationships that you can rely upon to help grow your business.
• Virtual and in-person events and meetings. Meet and network with industry leaders and entrepreneurs from across the region.
• Corporate connections. Tap into UNC's industry relationships and start building relationships between your organization and others.
• IP licensing and contracts. Create awareness among corporate partners about opportunities to license your startup's IP or to contract your organization's services.
Design Thinking Workshops and Consulting
Use human-centered design to understand your customers and find effective solutions faster. Led by Innovate Carolina’s resident design thinking practitioners, our design thinking workshops and consulting sessions allow you to create products, services and processes that are adapted to your customers’ needs, delightful to use and truly innovative. Our sessions will help you and your team:
• Understand what your customers need.
• Find targeted solutions before spending too much time and money.
• Create customer-focused technologies, products or services.
• Launch new ventures that are positioned for success.
Patent Landscaping & Market Research
Patent landscaping and market research help you assess your technologies, the marketplace and potential investment funding. Innovate Carolina’s research experts have guided hundreds of startups and entrepreneurs in the following areas:
• The competitive landscape.
• Customer demographics.
• Current and projected market size and conditions.
• Potential licensees and partners.
• Pricing models.
• Funding potential for new products, services, ventures or markets.
Talent Recruiting
Connect your startup or business with talented students seeking internships and jobs. Through Innovate Carolina’s talent recruiting services your organization can connect with some of the most enterprising students at UNC-Chapel Hill and other area community colleges. Our programs are a win-win: students benefit from experiential, on-the-job learning; companies can fill internships and jobs with top students who possess the skills and entrepreneurial mindsets required for rapid business growth.
• Connect your organiztation to students through online channels, in-person meetups, and events.
• Find a direct forum to recruit top students for jobs and paid/unpaid internships.
• Explore funding opportunities that can help select students and startups afford the costs of internships.
