As part of our ‘Partner Spotlight’ series, we introduce our 2022 ECOSYSTEM partner, LaunchCLT. LaunchCLT, formerly LaunchLKN, is a community of curious, collaborative people ready to catalyze the entrepreneur ecosystem in Charlotte. The organization is made up of local mentors and entrepreneurs with products or services who are addressing national and global markets.
Describe your organization in 25 words or less.
We create stronger entrepreneurs by connecting founders and mentors to catalyze a viable, sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem in the greater Charlotte region.
How does your organization support entrepreneurs?
We have a formal long-term mentor program intended to grow as your business grows. We support founders with business ideas that have the potential to scale to national or global audiences. We offer additional educational programming intended to support early idea stage founders and ready them for a mentoring relationship.
Who benefits from your organization’s work?
On the large scale, we want the greater Charlotte area to benefit from the work of LaunchCLT. But perhaps even more importantly, we want our founders to benefit from our work. We want to create stronger entrepreneurs because the world changes quickly, and entrepreneurs are the key to solving many challenges. Plenty of ideas that come to our mentor program won’t ultimately be viable — there will be shifts and pivots and failure. But if we can help an entrepreneur become a better decision maker and a more thoughtful leader who embraces change, we know that will help them in their next endeavor. Entrepreneurs never just have one idea! And if founders find a community to lean on in Charlotte, they will want to stay local and grow ideas that ultimately benefit the community as a whole.
What advice would you give other organizations in acquiring funding?
I think the key to building a successful, sustainable mentor program is the mentor community. Before we launched a formal mentor program, we spent over a year building a community of committed individuals who wanted wholeheartedly to give back in this way. And we’ve continued to pour into our mentors, create opportunities for connection, and learn together. This gives us diverse group of individuals to pull from and achieve our goals of supporting founders throughout their journey. I’m incredibly grateful for our mentors — we would not be here without them.
Please share any collaborative partners or relationships your organization has either worked with in your community or within the broader NC entrepreneurial ecosystem. How do these partnerships strengthen your respective work and/or missions?
I often use the term “happy accident” for the partnership that exists between LaunchCLT and Davidson College. The work we are doing now is strategic and purposeful, but the happy accident happened when we both endeavored on this path at the same time and the right people were involved in the right conversations. We have worked together to not duplicate efforts, but instead build on our respective strengths and provide resources to a broader audience. I know that the educational programming that Davidson develops will be top notch and a true benefit to the founders in our mentor program. I think it is critical to collaborate for many reasons — but most importantly for our customer: our entrepreneurs. We need to be thinking about how to make it simple for them to find the resources they need.
Published October 16, 2024
Submission Provided by: Erica Madden
(Chief Engagement Officer)
As part of our ‘Partner Spotlight’ series, we introduce our 2022 ECOSYSTEM partner, LaunchCLT. LaunchCLT, formerly LaunchLKN, is a community of curious, collaborative people ready to catalyze the entrepreneur ecosystem in Charlotte. The organization is made up of local mentors and entrepreneurs with products or services who are addressing national and global markets.
Describe your organization in 25 words or less.
We create stronger entrepreneurs by connecting founders and mentors to catalyze a viable, sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem in the greater Charlotte region.
How does your organization support entrepreneurs?
We have a formal long-term mentor program intended to grow as your business grows. We support founders with business ideas that have the potential to scale to national or global audiences. We offer additional educational programming intended to support early idea stage founders and ready them for a mentoring relationship.
Who benefits from your organization’s work?
On the large scale, we want the greater Charlotte area to benefit from the work of LaunchCLT. But perhaps even more importantly, we want our founders to benefit from our work. We want to create stronger entrepreneurs because the world changes quickly, and entrepreneurs are the key to solving many challenges. Plenty of ideas that come to our mentor program won’t ultimately be viable — there will be shifts and pivots and failure. But if we can help an entrepreneur become a better decision maker and a more thoughtful leader who embraces change, we know that will help them in their next endeavor. Entrepreneurs never just have one idea! And if founders find a community to lean on in Charlotte, they will want to stay local and grow ideas that ultimately benefit the community as a whole.
What advice would you give other organizations in acquiring funding?
I think the key to building a successful, sustainable mentor program is the mentor community. Before we launched a formal mentor program, we spent over a year building a community of committed individuals who wanted wholeheartedly to give back in this way. And we’ve continued to pour into our mentors, create opportunities for connection, and learn together. This gives us diverse group of individuals to pull from and achieve our goals of supporting founders throughout their journey. I’m incredibly grateful for our mentors — we would not be here without them.
Please share any collaborative partners or relationships your organization has either worked with in your community or within the broader NC entrepreneurial ecosystem. How do these partnerships strengthen your respective work and/or missions?
I often use the term “happy accident” for the partnership that exists between LaunchCLT and Davidson College. The work we are doing now is strategic and purposeful, but the happy accident happened when we both endeavored on this path at the same time and the right people were involved in the right conversations. We have worked together to not duplicate efforts, but instead build on our respective strengths and provide resources to a broader audience. I know that the educational programming that Davidson develops will be top notch and a true benefit to the founders in our mentor program. I think it is critical to collaborate for many reasons — but most importantly for our customer: our entrepreneurs. We need to be thinking about how to make it simple for them to find the resources they need.
Published October 16, 2024
Submission Provided by: Erica Madden
(Chief Engagement Officer)
