iterato has completed the National Science Foundation's I-Corps Northeast Regional Propelus program, wrapping up a rigorous, hypothesis-driven customer discovery sprint focused on the federal compliance challenges facing research universities.

The I-Corps methodology pushed the team to step outside the building and test its assumptions directly with the market — talking to graduate deans, research administrators, training grant coordinators, and the PhD students and postdocs who are required to complete Individual Development Plans (IDPs) under NIH and NSF mandates. Each interview was structured to challenge, not confirm, what the team believed it already knew about who owns this problem and why existing tools fall short.

Over the course of the program, the team refined its value proposition, sharpened its understanding of the institutional buying process, and built a clearer picture of the path from a validated pain point to a scalable business.

"I-Corps doesn't let you hide behind a good pitch," said the founding team. "It forces you to get out, ask hard questions, and let the data — not our assumptions — tell us where the real opportunity is. We came out of it with a sharper, more defensible view of the market."

With the program complete, Iterato carries that discipline forward as it continues building toward a platform purpose-built for federal IDP compliance and student outcomes at research universities.

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