Rice eXperiment Fund Grant

THE HIGHLIGHTS

• RXF helps to remove financial barriers for early-stage undergraduate and graduate student makers, creators and future founders.
• Recipient(s) will be awarded up to $100 per academic year to perform a small-scale experiment related to their venture.
• RXF funds must be used within the semester for which they were requested.
• RXF grants claim no IP ownership, and are always equity-free.

WHO CAN APPLY?

• Currently enrolled undergraduate or graduate Rice University students.
• Any major or discipline is welcome to apply.
• For profit and non-profit ventures are equally welcome, as are ideas of all kinds. There is no such thing as too early or too crazy for RXF.
• Students can apply individually or as part of a team. There is no limit to the size of your team.
• All applying individuals and team members must be in good academic standing.

What are some examples that RXF could support?

• Conducting customer development interviews to gather data about the problem space.
• Running small ad campaigns to test conversion rates of multiple customer acquisition channels.
• Setting up a Shopify or other e-commerce implementation to gather customer feedback on a minimum viable product (MVP).
• Buy materials to set up a pop-up store to gather customer feedback on product offerings.

If you have other ideas, needs, or are unsure if you qualify, please reach out to the RXF Manager, Tony Cordova (tony.cordova@rice.edu) with any questions, or sign up for a meeting at the link at the bottom of the page!

WHAT TO EXPECT:

Step 1: Submit a simple application describing your venture and experiment plan or idea! 

Step 2: Schedule a one-on-one meeting with a member of the Lilie team to review your experiment plan, and talk through next steps.

Step 3: Once approved, you’ll receive the $100 funding to kickstart your experiment!

Step 4: Return to LILIE to get feedback on your experiment and results!

Step 5: (Optional) Launchpad Opportunity! If you want to continue your entrepreneurial journey and explore further opportunities, you can choose to apply to Launchpad, which provides a platform for mentorship, community, and venture acceleration. You’ll then become eligible for additional funding through your participation in Launchpad.