Model

This.
We don’t “host” projects or write essays for them — we build the company around the idea from day one. The university handles the science, we handle everything else.
Because they’re overlooked. The ideas are there — the structure isn’t. We make early talent investable.
It’s not to fund the whole project — it’s bait. It signals seriousness, attracts a PI, and helps students win the real grants that actually pay for the work.
In the PI’s university lab under their protocols. We don’t run labs ourselves; we plug into existing ones.
We look for three things: originality, feasibility, and follow-through. If the idea could plausibly earn external funding, we’ll back it.
We issue the microgrant, form the company, match the student with a PI, and help file the right paperwork — from IBC protocols to incorporation.

Operations

They act as sponsors and advisors — providing lab space, compliance coverage, and mentorship while students run their own work.
The university, as usual. Each project licenses that IP to the new company, where Control Group, the student, and PI hold equity.
The PI files and manages all protocols through their institution. We make sure every project sits safely inside that regulatory umbrella.
We manage the business side — grant submissions, IP, incorporation, budgeting — so students can focus on experiments.
They run in real labs, under real PIs, using real institutional infrastructure. We just make that accessible.

Control Group does, from our endowment. It’s our early-stage investment, designed to unlock bigger money later.
Two ways: we take 40–50% equity in every project, and we receive 5–10% of awarded grants through our SAM.gov registration.
It lets us appear on federal grants as a paid research partner. When a student wins a grant, a small subaward goes to us for infrastructure and oversight.
40–50%. Students get funding, a PI, and a legal path to own their idea — none of which exist without us. It’s high, but it’s fair for what we provide.

Every funded project becomes its own Delaware C-Corp or LLC at the time of the microgrant. Control Group is automatically listed as a shareholder.
The student founders, Control Group, and the PI. Universities don’t hold equity; they license the IP back to the company.
The university retains ownership, but the startup gets an exclusive license under standard tech-transfer terms. We’ve already run this structure successfully with Pitt.
Two: Control Group, Inc. (the main C-Corp that holds equity) and Control Group Labs, LLC (which issues grants and receives subawards).
None. All experiments happen under university supervision and compliance frameworks. We never touch the bench.

Easily. Each new city just needs a few good PIs, a microgrant pool, and local managers. The system replicates itself.
It’s cheap, dense with talent, and already home to Pitt, CMU, and UPMC. It’s the perfect testbed for a model like this.
Securing follow-on funding, publishing data, or forming a sustainable biotech company — any outcome that moves science forward.
A self-sustaining network of student-founded companies producing real discoveries — and real returns.
We’ll expand to other universities, starting with Boston. The long-term goal is a global network where undergraduates can build fundable biotech anywhere.