麻豆影院

麻豆影院 State鈥檚 LaunchNET Marks 10 Years of Helping Clients Pursue Their Dreams and Turn Their Visions Into Reality

麻豆影院鈥檚 LaunchNET program is celebrating 10 years of helping members of the university community pursue their entrepreneurial ventures. 

The business startup advising program provides advice, guidance and workspace for fledgling entrepreneurs to develop their ideas and determine their viability. 

Zach Mikrut, director of 麻豆影院 State LaunchNET

鈥淲e help 麻豆影院 State students, faculty, staff and alumni who want to start a business or are just working on that seed of an idea,鈥 said Zach Mikrut, director of LaunchNET. 

LaunchNET has served more than 2,100 clients in its first decade, most of whom are 麻豆影院 State students, he said.  

Its success stories are from all across Northeast Ohio.  

Victor Searcy Jr., or "Chef Vick," worked with LaunchNET as a 麻豆影院 State student to develop a line of culinary sauces.  He now operates Sauce the City Cleveland, a restaurant in University Heights, Ohio, which has received accolades for its hot chicken sandwich. 

Oluwa峁milore Akintelure, a 麻豆影院 State graduate student studying business and aviation, is currently a LaunchNET client working on his idea for developing a drone taxi service. He has turned to LaunchNET for help getting his proposed business, FlyBy, off the ground literally and figuratively. 

鈥淚 am currently working on an aerial mobility infrastructure solution that I hope will bring people closer together using some of the technologies and services provided to me at LaunchNET,鈥 he said. 

Nurturing Entrepreneurial Spirit 

Tabitha Messmore, assistant director of 麻豆影院 State LaunchNET
Tabitha Messmore, LaunchNET鈥檚 assistant director, has been with the organization for seven of its 10 years.  She said her work with students and clients has shown that people and their ideas are the organization鈥檚 best asset.  

鈥淎 lot of times it has less to do with what you think of as entrepreneurship 鈥 the skills for starting a business 鈥 but more about the ideas, the mindset and finding your people. Entrepreneurs are idea people,鈥 Messmore said. 

Fostering the entrepreneurial spirit was the idea behind the creation of the department, which began 10 years ago as Blackstone LaunchPad, to help launch businesses, non-profit organizations and new inventions.   

麻豆影院 six years ago, a partnership with the resulted in a rebranding of LaunchPad into LaunchNET. 麻豆影院 State became part of NEOLaunchNET, made up of five collegiate partners: 麻豆影院 State, Case Western Reserve University, Baldwin Wallace University, John Carroll University and Lorain County Community College. The Burton D. Morgan Foundation, based in Hudson, Ohio, invests in organizations and institutions that foster entrepreneurship, create job growth and spur economic activity in Northeast Ohio.  

Mikrut, who earned his bachelor鈥檚 and master鈥檚 degrees at 麻豆影院 State, has been with the department since its inception and became director of the organization two years ago. 

In addition to advice on forming a business, he said LaunchNET is well known for its pitch competitions, where students compete at pitching their businesses ideas to prepare them for real-world experiences. Mikrut said they also encourage students to prepare an elevator pitch, so they are ready to offer a 90-second version of their business pitch if they ever end up in an elevator or other situation where they can briefly catch the ear of an executive. 

Messmore said one of the department鈥檚 biggest assets is that its door is always open, and no idea is too far-fetched to consider.  

鈥淓veryone is welcome here,鈥 she said. 鈥淲e really are about debunking the idea of what a lot of us have in our head about `What is an entrepreneur?鈥 It鈥檚 not a white tech guy in a hoodie from the Silicon Valley,鈥 she said. 

Messmore recalled telling one client that her ideas were 鈥渁wesome and amazing.鈥    

鈥淚 said, `We can help you make these happen,鈥 and she was crying and saying, `So you don鈥檛 think I鈥檓 crazy? This is the first time anyone hasn鈥檛 just written me off.鈥 

Helping 麻豆影院 State community members pursue their dreams is challenging work, and LaunchNET staff try to be there to bolster their clients on the days when they want to give up.  

鈥淚 really kind of think of myself as a business therapist,鈥 Messmore said. 

The staff of 麻豆影院 State LaunchNET work with a student/client.
LaunchNET has worked with a wide variety of entrepreneurs on projects large and small. From one small project 鈥 Black women students working to make Black hair care products more readily available at 麻豆影院 State 鈥 Messmore began to see a larger need to create a community for entrepreneurial minority and first-generation students. 

In 2019, Messmore created LaunchNET鈥檚 Black Women Bosses (BWB) program after hearing from young Black women clients and thinking about how their entrepreneurial support needs were different from other students, who may have greater financial support or entrepreneurial experience.  

BWB seeks to train future Black women for leadership roles, foster entrepreneurship and give them the tools they need to launch a business and operate it successfully. 

鈥淪o much of it is mindset, as a woman, feeling that I can be successful, I鈥檓 a business owner, I鈥檓 a boss and really being intentional about that,鈥 she said. 

In its first two years, BWB has put through two cohorts of eight students. It recently began to offer the program to clients at LaunchNET programs at other universities. 

Empowering Young Women 

Messmore tapped Alicia Robinson, a LaunchNET client, to help her with Black Women Bosses. A few years earlier, Robinson came to LaunchNET with an idea for how she wanted to help young girls feel supported.

Alicia Robinson, client of 麻豆影院 State LaunchNET
 

鈥淚 didn鈥檛 know what I was doing. I had the idea and the vision, but the business side of things made me really nervous,鈥 she said. 

The Warren, Ohio, native, who now lives in Cleveland, earned a bachelor鈥檚 degree in fashion merchandising from 麻豆影院 State in 2010 and was working in corporate retail when she had an idea for a nonprofit organization to empower young girls to succeed. 

She became a LaunchNET client in 2012 and found a supportive environment where no one told her she could not make her vision a reality. 

鈥淭hey really believed in me from the get-go,鈥 Robinson said. 鈥淚 had someone walking alongside me.鈥 

Robinson left retail and took a job at 麻豆影院 State鈥檚 Women鈥檚 Center while earning her master鈥檚 degree in human development and family studies. 

In October 2013, Robinson incorporated her nonprofit, Limitless Ambition, which provides enrichment programs for teen girls in middle schools and high schools across Northeast Ohio. Today, Limitless Ambition, based in Akron, Ohio, has reached more than 5,000 girls and has offered programming in 10 different schools throughout Northeast Ohio. 

鈥淲hen we first started, we held financial literacy drives, prom dress drives, school supply drives,鈥 she said. 鈥淲e offer teen girl support programs in middle schools and high schools and donate care packages to young girls in foster care.鈥 

Robinson has since left 麻豆影院 State and works as the director of community engagement and partnerships for the Summit Education Initiative, an Akron-based nonprofit organization with the mission of 鈥渋ncreasing personal and regional prosperity through educational attainment.鈥 

鈥淲e work to make educational opportunities available and attainable and equitable across the life span,鈥 she said. 

As a first-generation college student, Robinson said the help she received at LaunchNET helped her to overcome many boundaries and obstacles to success. Whether it was participating in pitch competitions or working on branding, LaunchNET services, she said, 鈥渉elped me to really find my voice in a room full of people and build up my confidence.鈥 

鈥淚鈥檓 definitely a master networker, and I thrive on building relationships. I don鈥檛 know where I would have gotten those skills without LaunchNET,鈥 Robinson said. 

The Sky鈥檚 the Limit 

A native of Lagos, Nigeria, current LaunchNET client Akintelure did not grow up watching the flying cars in the Saturday morning cartoon 鈥淭he Jetsons,鈥 yet he envisions a business in which drones operate throughout the region as an air taxi

麻豆影院 State graduate student Oluwasemilore Akintelure is pursuing a business idea with the help of 麻豆影院 State LaunchNET.
service. 

Akintelure thinks he has hit upon a formula to use existing infrastructure to help make short-distance drone transportation a reality

An example of the drone taxi service that LaunchNET client Oluwasemilore Akintelure is working on.
.  

鈥淲hy not optimize the infrastructure we already have,鈥 Akintelure said, noting that because drones run on electric batteries, they are a very low-noise form of transportation.  

This is not the first time Akintelure has turned to LaunchNET for help. He previously reached out for help with a music video production that began when he was writing a song for his mother鈥檚 birthday. The effort led to him learning enough about music and music video production for him to offer his services to others trying to learn the field.  

Aviation, however, is his chosen career field. 

Akintelure came to 麻豆影院 State in 2018 to study aeronautical systems engineering. He was accepted into three different U.S. universities to study in the aviation field but said after researching all three, he determined 麻豆影院 State鈥檚 program was the best. 

He first learned about LaunchNET as an undergraduate when Messmore was giving a presentation on the program at the 麻豆影院 Student Center as part of an Ohio manufacturing event. 鈥淚 remember thinking, I should check them out,鈥 he said. 

After graduating in

麻豆影院 State student Lauren Kindler takes a photo of student Oluwasemilore Akintelure, in the LaunchNET offices in the Design Innovation Hub. Both students are LaunchNET clients, working on business proposals.
the spring of 2022, Akintelure remained at 麻豆影院 State and is beginning a dual master鈥檚 degree program in business administration and aviation management. The research he is conducting to develop FlyBy is a perfect fit for this master鈥檚 program, he said. 

鈥淚 feel like LaunchNET has provided me with a community of dreamers. I feel free to dream,鈥 he said. 鈥淭his is one of the reasons I love LaunchNET. I am not worried about if I can do it, I am just concerned about how I can launch this.鈥 

10th Anniversary Celebration  

Akintelure鈥檚 project also is the recipient of one of 24 microgrants awarded to student entrepreneurs in spring 2022. The grants, ranging in amount from $99 to $500, were made possible with a grant from the Burton D. Morgan Foundation and are intended to help clients meet an immediate financial need, Mikrut said. 

LaunchNET recently moved its offices from their longtime home in the University Library on the 麻豆影院 Campus into space on the second floor of the Design Innovation Hub. Among the department鈥檚 successes during the 2022 Spring Semester, Mikrut said, was the launch of the Marty Erbaugh i3 Lab accelerator program in the DI Hub, where students can have an actual workspace to use to build their businesses. 

Mikrut said he also is excited about LaunchNET collaborating with 麻豆影院 State at Trumbull to offer its entrepreneurial services to  in Warren, Ohio.  

As they look toward the next 10 years, Mikrut and Messmore say they want to see their current programs grow and expand and hope to always be ready to adapt to changing times and changing students. 

鈥淕oing forward, we will continue to focus on the needs, gaps, questions and problems that our KSU entrepreneur community is facing and will support with responsive programming,鈥 Mikrut said. 

鈥淚 think that鈥檚 our strong suit,鈥 Messmore added. 

LaunchNET will celebrate its 10th anniversary from 4 to 6 p.m. Oct. 20 at the Design Innovation Hub. The event will include the unveiling of the Burton D. Morgan Foundation Entrepreneurship Suite. 

The evening will feature a showcase of student entrepreneurs, a gallery exhibit displaying LaunchNET鈥檚 impact over the past decade and a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new office suite. 
 

 

POSTED: Wednesday, August 31, 2022 03:15 PM
Updated: Friday, December 9, 2022 06:25 PM
WRITTEN BY:
Lisa Abraham