Lion Launch Pad, spearheaded by a College of Information Sciences and Technology grad to help student entrepreneurs, has rolled out a new Web site . ">Web site.
Part of a suite of tools for emerging Penn State business people, the site was produced by Rob Shedd (IST ’07). Shedd also runs a blog on business start-up issues at http://www.psustartups.com
"The Lion Launch Pad is called a business accelerator because it's not a business incubator in the conventional sense," according to Shedd. "Similarly, the Lion Launch Pad is quite different from the existing incubators at Penn State, so we wanted to distinguish it."
"Accelerating businesses is very much what the Lion Launch Pad was created to do," he continued. "We are helping students take ideas and accelerate them on the process of creating a sustainable venture."
The major difference between the old Launch Pad Web site and the new one is a spotlight on a key part of its mission:
"The new site was created to provide information about the Lion Launch Pad mentoring program," Shedd explained. "The previous site didn't have a focus on this, so we added that."
Shedd also announced that the Launch Pad will help host two events for entrepreneurs later this year.
The first, planned for Oct. 4-5, will be Startup Weekend, with activities planned for the Cybertorium of the IST Building. The following weekend (Oct. 11-12), will be Invention to Venture (I2V). Both are sponsored by Penn State Network of Entrepreneurs, a Penn State student organization.
Begun last year, the Lion Launch Pad is a nonprofit organization specifically designed to meet the special needs of students trying to turn their ideas into new enterprises. The notion for it grew out of research for Shedd's Penn State Schreyer honors thesis.
Through that work he found that traditional business incubators are helpful to practicing business people, but students didn’t fit qualifying criteria and the programs aren't geared to their needs. Also, seeing missed economic opportunity for the region around University Park, Shedd based the Launch Pad in State College so the impact of business growth could be felt here.
The business accelerator currently serves seven nascent companies, among them Fuzr, developed by a 2008 IST graduate, an IST student, and a 2008 computer science and engineering student.
In addition to the Launch Pad's mentoring services, a search for office space is under way as well as one for seed funding for new ventures. Efforts also are ongoing to connect members of the Penn State alumni community with current students engaged in building new businesses.
To learn more about the Lion Launch Pad and entrepreneurs in IST, please watch for the upcoming summer edition of i-Connect, the college'
s alumni magazine