LaunchLab

Overview

The LaunchLab accelerator program provides a platform for education, inspiration, collaboration, and support – requiring entrepreneurs to take action and work toward achieving goals related to their business. The goal of LaunchLab is to assist entrepreneurs as they launch, grow, and expand their business with an emphasis on minority entrepreneurs. This program hires interns from our seven colleges and universities to work with each company in the cohort on special projects allowing us to reach out to college students to develop their skills and retain their talent in our region.

LaunchLab 101

The 101 Series is a 5-week accelerator program for startup companies and founders looking to critically consider their business idea, and plan for a successful launch. Each week, the program will be led by local experts who seek to help startups define their customer base, develop market strategies, learn leadership and financial skills.

Program runs twice annually: January, August
Upcoming dates: January 9 – February 6, 2023

LaunchLab Growth

Weekly meetings (Mondays) for 14 weeks culminating in a Demo Day event. The session topics include sales, capital acquisition, pitching to investors and many other topics. Each company is assigned a mentor and will receive assistance with growth projects by expert service providers. Outcomes for the growth participants are mutually-agreed upon objectives but most often include customer definition, development of marketing materials and financial models, completing an MVP to test within the market and a pitch deck for customer and investor development.

Program runs twice annually: February, September
Upcoming dates: February 20 – May 22, 2023

Success Story

“LaunchLab connected us to local start-up resources and amazing mentors. It helped us test our idea and have the confidence to move our business forward.” – Jonathan Woahn

Woahn and his co-founder, Brian Lopatka developed a software solution to provide an industry defining, out-of-the-box performance management tool to engage manufacturing and operations based teams. They now have 6 full-time employees including one former graduate of the LaunchLab intern program.

“They connected us with a marketing executive to help design a comprehensive marketing strategy and helped with the groundwork necessary to begin raising capital. We’re just wrapping up the 12-week accelerator program where subject matter experts met with us as a cohort of growing businesses.

“It’s such a great time to be an entrepreneur in Greensboro. A year ago my partners and I started a company which sells GPS trackers and tracking software. Our customers buy our GPS tracking hardware and setup a subscription for access to our tracking apps. We feel pretty lucky; our business is growing fast! The phones are ringing and and we’re shipping product all over the country. We are hoping to hit a million dollars in sales this year. But getting started is hard. We found the help we needed through LaunchLab Growth in areas that we have almost no experience with (especially raising money and finding mentors with relevant experience).

We’ve benefited from Launch Greensboro and their partnership with the Elon Law Business Clinic. And we love the coworking cultures at Collab and HQ Greensboro! I’m grateful for the people and companies that are leaning in to help us scale quickly. We’re lucky to live in a place that is developing and promoting a culture of entrepreneurship. The City of Greensboro is doing an amazing job cultivating new companies and growing jobs from within.”