LaunchHouse targets teen entrepreneurs as its new focus

LaunchHouse, which has helped in creating adult entrepreneurs since 2008, is redirecting its focus to youth entrepreneurship in Northeast Ohio.

SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio -- LaunchHouse, which aims to foster entrepreneurship in Northeast Ohio, is redirecting its focus to primarily working with teenagers who want to start businesses.

The organization will spend about 75 percent of its effort on youth entrepreneurship, including its flagship summer program for high school students, said Stephanie Bartolone, LaunchHouse's marketing director.

Since its founding in 2008, LaunchHouse's mission has mostly centered on helping adults start businesses. This has included its business accelerator program, which has provided mentoring and funding to 62 startup companies. Bartolone said LaunchHouse will continue to offer resources and support to the companies currently in its portfolio. She said other initiatives for adult entrepreneurs will continue from its 23,000-square-foot facility on Lee Road, including a coworking program, suited for entrepreneurs, independent contractors and others who prefer a shared work environment to doing their jobs in isolation.

When LaunchHouse began its business accelerator about three years ago, few existed in Northeast Ohio, Bartolone said. Since then, more have been formed.

"We decided to start working with teens because we have realized that education is the stepping stone prior to any entrepreneur entering an accelerator or even starting a business," she said. "As the local entrepreneurial ecosystem has evolved and matured, there have been other organizations that provide that accelerator structure."

Its accelerator program provided everything from business space to financial support of $1,000 to $20,000 per startup. The 62 companies which LaunchHouse helped nurture have since raised over $22 million in follow-up funding, according to Todd Goldstein, the group's CEO and managing partner.

Bartolone and Goldstein wonder if there might have been even greater success if many of these entrepreneurs had already mastered some of the basics long before deciding to go into business. Both say business basics not only include the nuts and bolts of running a company, such as understanding balance sheets, but soft skills, often focused on interpersonal communication, as well.

What would success have looked like for some of these entrepreneurs if they had been introduced to the basics as early as high school? Attempting to answer questions in that vein led to LaunchHouse holding a pilot four-week summer program in 2013 that was designed to be a business accelerator for high school students. That program became LEAP, which was held last year, and is scheduled for July 6-31 this year.

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Clik here to view.These participants in LaunchHouse's LEAP summer program for teen entrepreneurs pose with the LEAP banner at Legacy Village after completing a segment on customer development.photo courtesy of LaunchHouse 

Despite other local programs focused on creating young entrepreneurs, such as E CITY, Goldstein said LaunchHouse will be able to carve out a niche.

"We are teaching 21st Century work and life skills," Goldstein said. "We are teaching high school students how to present, how to negotiate, how to tie a tie. We are teaching those foundational skills that will make them successful in life."

The summer program is the center of the youth entrepreneurship program. Among the other offerings are after school programs, which include entrepreneurship clubs and workshops and classes on the subject. Another LaunchHouse youth program is Hack-A-Thing, a one or five day immersion program in which middle school and high school students focus on customer development and "design thinking," a process that aims to spark creativity, innovative ideas and effective problem solving.

The youth entrepreneurship programs are run by LaunchHouse Institute, a nonprofit partnership between LaunchHouse and the Shaker Heights Development Corp., charged with initiating educational programs "designed to foster entrepreneurial creativity and critical thinking skills."

So far, more than 40 students have gone through the summer program. Among them is Bharath Katragadda, a Solon High School senior, who was a participant in 2013 and worked in the program the following year. In 2013, he and some other students planned a business that would place high school students in meaningful unpaid internships at area companies. He said plans for the business were derailed after they learned such unpaid internships were not permitted in Ohio. Still, Katragadda said the experience was valuable.

"I obviously try very hard at school," he said. "I have a lot of AP classes and a lot of extra curriculars. One thing you can't gain at school -- either because there aren't resources for it or time in the curriculum -- is actual real-life experience by doing a project. That is the thing LEAP can give a lot of students -- real-world experience that they oftentimes can't get in school."

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Clik here to view.Bharath Katragadda, who participated in the LEAP summer program in 2013 and worked with the program in 2014, acts out a scenario on negotiation with LaunchHouse intern, Isaiah Williams, as LaunchHouse CEO Todd Goldstein watches. From left to right: Katragadda, Williams and Todd Goldstein photo courtesy of LaunchHouse 

Students have had a range of real-life experiences during the summer program. Katragadda offered some examples from last year. One student, who set up a t-shirt printing business, not only got one-on-one mentoring from an experienced entrepreneur in the field, but the summer program found funding for him to buy equipment for his startup. Some other students, who started a sports drink business, got mentoring and free bottles for their business from a local bottler. Realizing that showbiz may be more business than show, one student used the summer program to prepare for a career in the rap music industry.

The summer program, which draws students from throughout Northeast Ohio, costs $1,200 for the four weeks. Goldstein said scholarships are available. He sees LaunchHouse's focus on youth entrepreneurship growing beyond Greater Cleveland.

"It is our goal in the future to structure our program in such a way that we can expand it in other communities outside of Shaker Heights and Northeastern Ohio," Goldstein said. "We are fundamentally building a framework that we can then provide to other companies to run these programs."

Nick Fedor, executive director of the Shaker Heights Development Corp., said by making young people the focus, LaunchHouse is continuing in its mission of helping to develop the local entrepreneurial ecosystem.

"We think it is important that if kids are in high school, and they have ideas they want to test or have identified solutions they think that there is a market for, then that type of inquisitive activity and entrepreneurial activity should have an outlet," he said. "That is what we hope to do with the LaunchHouse Institute program."