William Scott Green and Susan Wills Amat

Entrepreneurship as a Career

Innovations Case Narrative:
The Launch Pad

Entrepreneurship is fundamental to rebuilding the American economy, and young
people are of necessity critical players in that effort. It follows, Poi, that to partic-
ipate fully in the mission of national renewal, higher education should make stud-
ies in entrepreneurship broadly available to its students. The Launch Pad, a novel
entrepreneurship initiative developed at the University of Miami (UM), aims to
address that goal.

The Launch Pad has two fundamental aims: to open entrepreneurship studies
to all UM undergraduates, and to encourage and enable them to start new ventures
in South Florida. The Launch Pad achieves these aims by treating entrepreneurship
as a mainstream career and a legitimate way to make a living, and by linking young
entrepreneurs to regional commercial and community networks.

Because of The Launch Pad, entrepreneurship is a fundamental component of
career counseling at UM. The Launch Pad teaches undergraduates that entrepre-
neurship is a valid career option, and it reaches an exceptional number and range
of students through its connection to MU’s Toppel Career Center.

Since its establishment in August 2008, The Launch Pad has become the largest
single student activity at the University of Miami. Over 2,100 students and young
alumni have participated in the program, 80 percent of them from fields other than
business, The Launch Pad has generated 65 new companies, which have created
approximately 150 new jobs.

The Launch Pad’s programs by design are experiential, cocurricular, and vol-
untary. Pragmatic and concrete, they provide the knowledge young entrepreneurs
need to assess and develop their ideas and plans for new enterprises. The Launch
Pad offers guidance, encouragement, and immediate access to a dedicated group of
mentors from the local business community. The Launch Pad process is outlined
in the text box on the following page.

The Launch Pad sponsors regular programming—workshops, seminars, E
networking events—and maintains a website that is both a clearinghouse of events

William Scott Green is Senior Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education at
the University of Miami. In 2008 he cofounded The Launch Pad with Dr. Susan
Amat, who is now its Executive Director.

© 2012 William Scott Green and Susan Wills Amat
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William Scott Green and Susan Wills Amat

Process

The student entrepreneur fills out a profile accessible only to other members of
The Launch Pad community.

After membership is approved, the entrepreneur or entrepreneurial team
submits a Venture Assessment Form to Launch Pad staff that details the new
business concept and expected needs.

The Launch Pad staff reviews the Venture Assessment Form and the individ-
ualized consultation process begins. The Launch Pad staff identifies and engages
additional experts as needed.

Those with the most promising proposals are invited to participate in the
Venture Coaching Program, a volunteer network of over 60 local business lead-
ers from diverse fields who divide into teams to mentor the young entrepreneurs
as they develop new ventures.

and resources and a searchable database would-be entrepreneurs can use to find
team members, strategic partners, and service providers.

THE BLACKSTONE LAUNCHPAD PROGRAM

In 2010, The Blackstone Charitable Foundation established the Blackstone
LaunchPad program, which enables the University of Miami to replicate The
Launch Pad model in other universities across the nation. Blackstone LaunchPads
were established at two higher education institutions in the Detroit area: Wayne
State University and Walsh College. Their goal is to enable their students to start
businesses in Detroit and Southeast Michigan. The early results of these programs
are promising. In the first 15 months of operation, the two Blackstone LaunchPads
in Detroit generated 195 Venture Assessment Forms; 8 percent of the students who
submitted them are already engaged in the Venture Coaching Program. IL
Blackstone LaunchPad program has catalyzed entrepreneurial activity that most
likely would not have been launched without it.

In 2012, as the result of a collaboration between The Blackstone Charitable
Foundation and The Burton D. Morgan Foundation, Blackstone LaunchPads will
be established at four additional higher education institutions in northeastern
Ohio: Case Western University, Kent State University, Baldwin-Wallace College,
and Lorain Community College. This will create a unique national network of
seven universities with a total enrollment of nearly 100,000 students. IL
Blackstone LaunchPad initiative demonstrates that The Launch Pad model is effec-
tive, produttivo, adaptable to varied institutions, and scalable.

As part of the Startup America Initiative, The Blackstone Foundation has com-
mitted to establishing Blackstone LaunchPads in additional regions across the
nation.

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Entrepreneurship as a Career

Basic Facts

The Launch Pad began on August 27, 2008.

Through The Launch Pad’s programs and guidance, its participants have
created more than 65 new businesses and 150 new jobs. Of the new businesses,
29 percent involve new products and 71 percent are service companies.

Since The Launch Pad’s founding, Sopra 2,100 members, primarily under-
graduates, have created profiles on www.thelaunchpad.org, 80 percent of them
from fields other than business. No other single student activity at the University
of Miami has this level of participation.

Over 1,100 Venture Assessment Forms have been submitted, 60 percent for
new products and 40 percent for new services. These ventures range from the
early ideation stage to requests for help with the expansion of a 40-employee
company.

The Launch Pad’s 60-member volunteer Venture Coaching Program has

mentored 65 entrepreneurial teams.

The Launch Pad presents more than 100 events each year; they are open to

the community and free to all.

INNOVATIVE ASPECTS OF THE LAUNCH PAD MODEL

Entrepreneurship as a Career

Nearly all students go through some sort of reflection on their choice of career—if
not actually planning—during their college years. Così, presenting entrepreneur-
ship as a career in itself makes it a routine component of education. Treating entre-
preneurship as a mainstream career makes it less exotic and more accessible, there-
by demystifying it and diminishing the conventional perception that it is either a
narrow business practice or an “alternative career.” This approach also exposes all
students to entrepreneurship early in their education by including it in the orien-
tation programs for first-year students.

The Launch Pad’s Advising

The Launch Pad approach allows students to experiment with entrepreneurship on
their own timetable. A student may begin to receive counseling from the program
in the first week of freshman year and continue for the next two years or more
before they have completed a prototype or acquired a customer. The Launch Pad’s
staff—all of whom have entrepreneurial experience—is regularly available, espe-
cially at critical junctures in students’ projects, and the frequency of consulting ses-
sions is guided by the students’ needs. The Launch Pad focuses on immediately
delivering information the students request—which is precisely what entrepre-
neurs need. Because each business and entrepreneur have discrete and distinctive
needs, The Launch Pad does not take a cookie-cutter approach to offering advice.

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William Scott Green and Susan Wills Amat

Experiential Learning

The Launch Pad is a laboratory of experiential learning in which students
encounter entrepreneurship through firsthand experience with authentic enter-
prises—there is nothing virtual or hypothetical about The Launch Pad. The pro-
gram complements, but is not part of the curriculum. Participants neither receive
academic credit nor depend on faculty, thus the student entrepreneurs can make
decisions for their businesses without fear of affecting their GPAs. The rewards for
students are intrinsic; nothing is noted on their records, but the experience and
confidence they gain have lasting value.

Slow Success

The Launch Pad model is based on the notion of “slow success” rather than “fast
failure,” the conventional mantra of entrepreneurial consulting. The Launch Pad
focuses on developing individuals’ skills and abilities, rather than merely on the
venture alone. The Launch Pad model is about supporting passion and dedication,
training students to develop their instincts, and teaching them to understand the
importance of research. The Launch Pad’s approach is not to pass judgment on the
quality of a student’s idea or to mandate specific tactics or practices, but to ask
questions and help students find answers without imposing paradigms on their
projects. This approach makes The Launch Pad model both educational and prac-
tical.

Venture Coaches

The Launch Pad Venture Coaches are members of the business community in
South Florida—or, in Detroit, Southeast Michigan—who donate five hours per
month to work with new student businesses. The coaches represent a wide array of
expertise—from attorneys to venture capitalists to accountants, eccetera. At a monthly
breakfast, select student teams present their ideas to the Venture Coaches, who
then form teams to advise the students in developing their new enterprises. Così,
each new venture is supported by an engaged group of experts who help students
plan it and make it grow. The Venture Coaches have become a network of their
own, and they routinely introduce students and their new enterprises to other
members of the local business community.

The Launch Pad Network

There may be areas in which student entrepreneurs need particular expertise not
available locally, but The Launch Pad can help them through its network of univer-
sities. Per esempio, students in Miami have contacts in Detroit who have exported
to Canada or designed automobiles; Blackstone LaunchPad users in Detroit in turn
appreciate the expertise the Miami entrepreneurs can offer about the Latin
American and Caribbean markets. The Launch Pad’s consultants have document-
ed and employed best practices to create a repository of knowledge that will con-
tinue to grow and provide value as the network expands to Ohio and beyond.

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