LaunchPosse Blog

LaunchPosse is a unique online platform that helps turn your ideas into reality by leveraging the knowledge and talent in your social networks.

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Launching LaunchPosse

Our co-founder Shahed Amanullah just announced his departure from the Obama Administration to take full-time control of LaunchPosse.  In this blog post, he talks about what we're trying to do with LaunchPosse:

We’ve all seen the power of social networks to transform the way people interact creatively and socially. But we feel that we’ve only scratched the surface of what’s possible. Not everyone has the business savvy or connections to launch a successful venture, but everyone has a social network they can tap into. And somewhere in that community lies the secret to turning that idea of yours into a reality. That’s where LaunchPosse comes in.

Look for more thoughts from Shahed both at his blog and over here.

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LaunchPosse at Hoya Entreprelooza

Great time at Georgetown's Entreprelooza last week.  Tons of fun to see several of our old professor's and get a chance to meet with the current students.  The Startup Hoyas club is bustling with activity and new initiatives.  Among them include efforts to engage more alumni and startups in the broader DC community.  We love to see that!

Professor Jim Hunt was recognized for going above and beyond in support of the new entrepreneurship track for students.  As former students of his, we absolutely appreciated the passion and commitment he puts into his classes.  We're big fans - the award is well deserved!

Entrepreneurship is thriving at Georgetown and the university is doing a great job at tapping into the student body's energy under Jeff Reid's leadership.  Excited to see what's next!  Hoya Saxa!  

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The next step

After working evenings and weekends for the past year, and pretty much keeping to ourselves, we're in the process of shifting our operations to the 1776 DC incubator, where we will be joining several of our trusted friends from the Founder Institute Fall 2012 class.  We're all going to be helping each other accelerate our startups to market, and several of us will be moving to full-time operations for at least one of our team members.  

This is a big step for us - it means that we are staking our livelihood on the success of LaunchPosse.  But if we're going to create a site that helps give people the confidence to strike out on their own to start their own small businesses, it makes sense that we do the same.  We've always joked about using LaunchPosse to launch LaunchPosse, and as we move into our public beta shortly, we'll be making that a reality.  The 1776 space is a really great collaborative space, with lots of energy that we can feed on to make sure we deliver a usable product.  

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The human dimension

When we first envisioned the idea behind LaunchPosse, we weren’t thinking about building a for-profit company at first. The discussion over tea in Dupont Circle started by focusing on the plight of people we knew who were struggling in the current economy - people who were graduating into an uncertain job market or those who had been let go suddenly. We noted that several of them were looking towards starting their own businesses as a last-resort option, and that their experience in doing so left them struggling alone.

We thought about the capacity gap that existed between these people and us - two MBA graduates with access to advice, capital, and networks - and wondered how we could level the entrepreneurial playing field to allow people to start small businesses - the kind that America was built on - in the same way we started tech startups.

Originally, this was going to be a philanthropic endeavor, one that helped enable ordinary people to become entrepreneurs. As we thought about our idea, it dawned on us that this would make an interesting business model as well.

Within the hour, we started sketching out the ideas that eventually made their way to LaunchPosse. And while we’ve turned what started out as a way to help people into a full-fledged for-profit startup, we’ve never forgotten our original intent: to create a platform to help people work together to create their own economic independence.

After all, if we really do this right, the value we create for our users will be tremendous, and even a little share of that value will make LaunchPosse a very successful company.

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The screwed generation

The millennials are getting crushed under the weight of their own debt burden. Higher education is supposed to be your ticket to a good job and financial freedom and yet this has been anything but true for the last five years. Average graduate loans in the US are up to $27,000! Given these stiff challenges I think students need to rethink how spend our time in university.

I appreciate the argument that college is supposed to be fun - having enjoyed my undergraduate experience thoroughly, I wouldn’t like to take that away from anyone. Too many boring internships and side jobs can upset the fair work/fun balance. But starting a business is different. It offers great training for the real world, creates an opportunity to generate income, and can be terrific fun! Plus, the timing is perfect - students are bursting with creativity and energy, are surrounded by university resources and a very healthy risk appetite.

LaunchPosse wants to unlock the entrepreneurial potential on university campuses. More college students need to know what they are capable of. College entrepreneur of 2012 Bryan Silverman came up a great idea - Star Toilet Paper - and had a ball developing the company. The idea of starting a business is intimidating for so many people. Others think it requires a lot of money when it’s not necessarily the case. While Forbes has offered some helpful tips for college entrepreneurs, LaunchPosse takes it farther.

Leverage your posse to help you polish your business idea and overcome all the hurdles of starting a business. LaunchPosse helps your do just that - and makes it fun!