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UBalt's AI-Enabled Business Incubator

Welcome to the University of Baltimore's AI-Enabled Business Incubator, an innovative program designed to bridge critical gaps in Baltimore's entrepreneurial and commercialization ecosystem. This initiative empowers a diverse range of founders, including underrepresented entrepreneurs such as women, minorities, and veterans, by equipping them with essential knowledge, tools, and networks to launch and scale AI-enabled businesses.

About the Accelerator

The UBalt AI-Enabled Business Accelerator is a 9-week part-time program (Jan–March 2026) that supports early-stage founders in Baltimore who are building scalable ventures using AI. Its goal is to equip teams with the insights, business fundamentals, mentorship, and technical supports needed to validate their idea, improve market fit, and position themselves for future investment or acceptance into downstream accelerators.

Empowering Entreprenuers
What's In It For You?
Important Dates
UBalt Team
Partnership Power
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UBalt
AI-Enabled Business Accelerator

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Cohort Collaboration AI-Enabled Business Incubator

Founders will be part of a cohort where collaboration across teams is built in. This peer-education dynamic encourages:
- shared learning,
- reviewing each other’s work,
- peer feedback, and
- the exchange of ideas.
Shared sessions, peer critiques, and cross-team discussion are core parts of the accelerator.

Milestones and Mentorship

Ventures are expected to enter the accelerator at different stages, with varying needs. While all participants will complete required modules (aligned with customer discovery, go-to-market, AI in product, etc.), they will otherwise move through milestones tailored to their venture.
Each team will get matched with advisors and mentors drawn from UBalt, local AI-ecosystem partners (Techstars, Conscious Venture Lab, etc.), and industry experts. The mentorship will be highly personalized, and peer learning will be encouraged, with teams sharing resources and learning from each other.

Practice to Improve

The accelerator is structured to give founders time to interview customers, test assumptions, build prototypes or pilots, adjust based on feedback, and learn from failure.
Weekly workshops plus mentor check-ins provide opportunities to iterate and improve continuously. Demo Day at the end of the program gives a chance to present refined business ideas.

Participants in the UBalt AI-Enabled Business Accelerator will get:

Expert mentorship from academic faculty, AI practitioners, and industry leaders.
Targeted workshops on market validation, AI’s role in unit economics, go-to-market strategy for startups, ethical AI, financial forecasting and fundraising readiness, building scalable systems and teams, and more.
Access to technical and operational supports (e.g. cloud credits, AI tool vendor guidance, legal/data/privacy basics).
Demo Day spotlight and exposure to investors and downstream accelerators.
A stipend and opportunities for follow-on funding or partnership referrals.

We’re looking for:

Baltimore-based early-stage founders (beyond prototype or pilot stage, ideally some evidence of customer validation), not necessarily revenue-generating yet.
Innovators who view AI as a central enabling tool in their product/business — not just a buzzword.
Entrepreneurs, representing any industry and market size, who are coachable, willing to iterate, and eager to learn business fundamentals (customer discovery, market fit).
Founders who want to move to the next level — whether that’s raising, scaling, or entry into growth accelerators like Techstars or Conscious Venture Lab.

stock image of AI startup and a man writing on a board.

Timeline and Commitments

Recruitment and Application Period: October – November 2025
Cohort Selection: by mid-December 2025
Program Duration: Early January – Mid-March 2026 (9 weeks)
- Weekly in-person workshops, mentor check-ins, peer review sessions, and office hours.
- Demo Day in March 2026, where teams present refined pitches.

Important Dates

MILESTONE	DATE
Application Opens	Early October 2025
Info Sessions / Q&A	Mid-October & Early November
Application Deadline	Late November
Cohort Announcement	Mid-December
Program Start	Early January 2026
Program End / Demo Day	Mid-March 2026

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Team

The success of the AI-Enabled Business Incubator is driven by a dedicated team:

Henry Mortimer: Director of UBalt's Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, with a decade of experience in leading CEI, supporting entrepreneurs, and managing ecosystem partnerships. He oversees program delivery, external partners, and commercialization planning.
Dr. Mikhail Pevzner: Professor and EY Chair in Accounting at UBalt, instrumental in launching Maryland's first M.S.in Artificial Intelligence for Business program.
Other UBalt Faculty: Experts in entrepreneurship education and startup advising, guiding curriculum development and serving as advisors for AI startup projects.
Industry Partners Advisory Board:
- Delali Dzirasa: Founder/CEO of Fearless.
- Nick Culbertson: Managing Director, Techstars AI in Healthcare.
- Smitha Gopal: COO at EcoMap.
- Philip Niedermair: Chairman of the Technology Assessment Center (TAC).
- Ken Malone: Co-founder of Early Charm Ventures.

These leaders advise on the curriculum, serve on the Inucbator's advisory board, and provide mentorship and funding pathways to AI-enabled ventures.

Partnership Power

Building on the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation's (CEI) successful track record of providing startup capital, coaching, and programming for inclusive entrepreneurship, this program leverages the unique assets of UBalt's Merrick School of Business, which pioneered Maryland's first Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence for Business. UBalt's approach emphasizes accessibility, applied learning, and community impact, targeting main street entrepreneurs and early-stage founders often excluded from tech ecosystems.

The program has received an Entrepreneurship Commercialization, Programming and Infrastructure Award as part of the Baltimore Innovation Initiative, funded by TEDCO's Maryland Innovation Initiative. This funding specifically supports an equitable innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem within higher education institutions in the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson Metropolitan Statistical Area, aiming to advance technology toward commercialization and bolster support for entrepreneurs developing technology-based ventures.