Josh 1:1 Prep — Thursday, February 19, 2026

Meeting type: Weekly 1:1 Primary topic: Three C’s strategic proposal — seed grant lifecycle framework Visual: scratch/2026-02-18-three-cs/seed-grant-lifecycle.html (share with Josh)

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Main Agenda: Seed Grant Lifecycle × Three C’s

The Framework

We mapped the entire seed grant journey into four phases and overlaid the three C’s (Critical Boost, Capacity Building, Cross-Pollination) to see where we’re strong and where the gaps are.

Four phases: SPARK → BUILD → SHARPEN → SCALE

What We Already Have (more than we realized)

Phase	Offering	Type	Status
SPARK	Learnings from My Seed Grant Journey	Peer panel	Ran Mar 2025
BUILD	PM of One (Plus AI)	Workshop	Piloted for King/Our Voice, Crystal Springs
SCALE	Scaling Sustainably from Academia	Panel workshop	Ran Oct 2025
SCALE	Partnerships as Pathways	Workshop	Ran Nov 2025
SCALE	Legal 101	Workshop (Sam McClure)	Ran Feb 18, 2026
SCALE	Comms Workshop	Workshop (Joe lead)	Planned Mar 2026

Key insight: We’ve been building a seed grant curriculum without naming it. SCALE is well-covered (4 workshops in 12 months). The middle phases need attention.

Proposed New Offerings (focusing on Capacity Building + Cross-Pollination)

SPARK:

• Meet the Toolkit — Wayfinding session for new grantees. What Stanford resources, offices, and people are available to you? Hits all three C’s: removes the “I didn’t know that existed” blocker (Critical Boost), teaches them to navigate the ecosystem (Capacity Building), and introduces them to key contacts (Cross-Pollination).

BUILD (late) / SHARPEN:

• Privacy by Design — COPPA/FERPA-informed design decisions, data architecture choices to make early. Proactive, not reactive — the design choices you make in week 2 that save 6 months of headaches later.
• IRB Demystified — Practical walkthrough with someone from Stanford’s IRB office. When do you need it? Exempt vs. expedited vs. full? Common mistakes that delay approval.

SHARPEN:

• Prototype to Pilot — User testing, pilot planning, study design. Grantees bring their prototype, learn to run usability sessions, leave with a pilot plan.
• User Testing Jam — Paired usability testing using think-aloud protocol. Grantees test each other’s tools live. Fills Capacity Building AND Cross-Pollination in one shot.

Structural Spine (not workshops)

Two anchor meetings run by the seed grant lead (AS:DE assists), in-person when possible:

1. Kick-off Meeting (SPARK) — grantees meet each other, set expectations
2. Mid-point Check-in (SHARPEN) — progress review, surface blockers, peer sharing

These are the primary cross-pollination moments. We layer workshops around them, not on top of them.

Internal: Seed Grant Huddle — AS:DE + Cathy regroup to coordinate support across the portfolio.

Discussion Questions for Josh

1. Does this four-phase lifecycle resonate? Is anything missing?
2. Which 1-2 proposed offerings should we prioritize for Q2?
3. Should we formalize this as a “Seed Grant Curriculum” and name it? Or keep it informal?
4. How does this connect to the ISTE conversation next week? (Train-the-trainer for Flash Lab could be a SCALE offering for external partners)
5. Who could co-facilitate the new offerings? (Cathy for Prototype to Pilot? IRB office for IRB Demystified? Sam again for Privacy by Design?)

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Other Items

Legal 101 Debrief (ran today, Feb 18)

• Workshop went well — Sam McClure facilitated
• Key takeaways for the team: SU-18 implications, OTL process, entity formation playbook
• Sam’s white paper: https://ecopreneurship.stanford.edu/white-papers/academic-innovation-pathways/
• Follow-up survey sent

ISTE Meeting (Wed Feb 25, 1pm)

• Jessica Garner, Joseph South, Isabelle, Josh, Reuben
• Prep doc exists: prep/2026-02-19-iste-strategy.md
• Connection to today’s discussion: Flash Lab train-the-trainer is a SCALE offering for external partners. The lifecycle framework shows how it fits.

End-of-Month Meeting (Tue Feb 24)

• Need to start gathering material — activity review, trends, emerging stories
• This lifecycle framework could be one of the “trends” to share

Trip Receipts

• Still need to pull Egencia + Lyft/food/parking for Stanford trip, send to Moraima

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Prepared: Feb 18, 2026 evening