Landing Zone
Advanced Manufacturing Market Entry Lab
A partnership leveraging YBI, America Makes, and the Youngstown Innovation Hub
Program Duration: Nine weeks, May 5, 2026 – July 2, 2026
Early applicants will have an opportunity to participate in exclusive tutorials from course instructors. This does not guarantee acceptance into the course.
Program Mission
This program identifies and develops founders with early-stage manufacturing innovations, preparing them to build high-impact ventures within Youngstown’s advanced manufacturing cluster. It bridges the gap between technical innovation and industrial adoption—attracting talent, strengthening regional capabilities, and creating pathways to commercialization.
How We Help You Succeed In The U.S.
Why Manufacturing-Specific Customer Discovery Matters
Manufacturing technology adoption differs fundamentally from software or consumer markets:
- Multi-stakeholder approval (operators, engineers, QA/QC, procurement, leadership)
- Qualification, certification, and regulatory requirements
- Integration with legacy systems and supply chains
- High switching costs and extended evaluation cycles
- Demands for measurable ROI (reduced downtime, lower scrap rates, increased throughput)
Generic accelerator programs don’t address these realities. This curriculum uses America Makes frameworks—the national additive manufacturing institute headquartered in Youngstown—ensuring founders work with validated playbooks for qualification paths, readiness levels, and industrial decision-making.
Program Outcomes
Participants will:
- Validate innovations within real manufacturing workflows
- Build commercialization roadmaps aligned with industrial adoption criteria
- Connect with supply chain partners and pilot opportunities
- Access regional manufacturing assets and expertise
YBI’s Role: YBI reviews participant progress throughout the program. Founders demonstrating commercial promise may be selected for technology attraction programs, pilot introductions, entrepreneurial residency support, relocation assistance, or acceptance into the YBI ENGINE Tech Incubator Portfolio and Resources
Qualifications
- First tranche targets applicants based in Israel, UK, and Germany (However, we will accept and consider ALL domestic and international applicants)
- Attendance required: ALL virtual sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 7:45 AM–9:00 AM ET
- Program duration: Nine weeks, May 5, 2026 – July 2, 2026
- Fluent English required for participation and stakeholder engagement
- Commitment to participate in pre- and post-course surveys
Early applicants will have an opportunity to participate in exclusive tutorials from course instructors beginning in March. This does not guarantee acceptance into the course.
Participant Criteria — Who Should Apply
Appropriate participants include:
- Engineers, scientists, or technologists with a clearly articulated manufacturing-related idea
- Founders who can describe at least one plausible manufacturing use case
- Individuals willing to conduct interviews with industrial stakeholders
- Innovators seeking to understand manufacturing workflows, TRL/MRL readiness, ROI metrics, and qualification requirements
- International applicants who can participate virtually at U.S. morning hours and are open to establishing operations in Youngstown
Participants must also be willing to:
- Challenge their assumptions based on evidence
- Engage with industry partners
- Develop a credible MVP or pilot plan suitable for manufacturing environments
Who Should NOT Apply
This program is not suitable for:
- Individuals without any technical background
- Founders working on ideas unrelated to manufacturing (consumer apps, services, retail, lifestyle businesses, etc.)
- People seeking general entrepreneurship training instead of advanced manufacturing commercialization
- Participants unwilling to conduct customer interviews or work with industrial constraints
- Projects with no plausible path to manufacturing adoption
- Anyone uninterested in exploring Youngstown as a potential base of operations
Questions?
Please reach out to YBI ENGINE Program Manager, Rory Kale. rkale@ybi.org
Program Leadership
Scott Shane
Entrepreneur in Residence, Investment
YBIDr. Scott Shane
Scott Shane is Managing Director of Comeback Capital, a pre-seed stage venture capital fund that invests across the Midwest, now on its second fund. He is also a Deal Flow Partner for Right Side Capital Management, a San Francisco-based pre-seed stage micro VC fund. He is an active angel and limited partner and mentor at the Iconyc, Acceleprise and gener8tor accelerator funds, and an LP in Refinery Ventures and Illuminate Ventures.
He is also a Professor of Economics at Case Western Reserve University. The author of 95 scholarly articles and 16 books, Dr. Shane was the 2009 winner of the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research, the most prestigious award in this academic field. According to a study by John Ioannidis at Stanford University, published in PLoS Biology, Dr. Shane the 1,137th most impactful scientist out of 7 million living scientists.
Dr. Shane has also written extensively for popular audiences, penning regular columns for Bloomberg Businessweek, Inc., Entrepreneur and the New York Times. Dr. Shane has served on the faculty at the University of Maryland, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Georgia Institute of Technology, and as a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. He serves currently as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Youngstown Business Incubator and is an advisor to several startup companies. Dr. Shane received his PhD in Applied Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Partners
