by Vanessa Heizmann, MBA 2020
The Launchpad team (left to right): Freddie Briance (MBA 2019), Constantin Clement (MiM), Yash Dhanuka (MiM), Francesca Bresciani (MiM), Vanessa Heizmann (MBA 2020) and Eliran ben David (MBA 2020)
Moving to London last summer, I was excited to immerse myself into the city’s entrepreneurial scene. London is considered to be one of the world’s most vibrant tech hubs. It is home to some of the most innovative and disruptive tech startups. Naive as I was, I thought this would be an off-campus activity for the most part.
In my first few weeks at LBS, I joined the executive committee at the entrepreneurship club. Soon I discovered that LBS is home to a large and vibrant entrepreneurial scene. I was thrilled.
Together with an amazing team of students, I organise LBS Launchpad.
Launchpad is our pre-accelerator programme at LBS. It is a part-time programme of five months. During the programme, participants form teams and pressure test their innovative business idea. They participate in several workshops in which they learn the most essential basics of starting a business. They learn how to develop an MVP, how to come up with a go-to-market strategy, how to market their brand, how to value their business and how to pitch it to investors.
But that’s not all. Our ambition is to make our teams ready to receive their Startup funding and prepare them to enter into an accelerator or incubator. In fact, two Launchpad businesses from last year successfully made it into the LBS incubator.
Last week, we have opened our applications and I’m excited about the incoming applications from a diverse range of applicants. Students from the top universities across London (such as LBS, UCL and LSE) as well as the talent working in London’s hottest Startups have signed up. We welcome entrepreneurial minds of all kinds – business minded self-starters, creative designers as well as coding talent (if you are interested, you can apply here).
It is amazing to see such support from the LBS entrepreneurship community.
LBS alumni and serial entrepreneurs mentor our best teams in the final phase of the programme. Our main sponsor, the Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, greatly supports us with their network and expertise. Our partners (such as BCG Digital Ventures, Frog Design, LeWagon, Forward Partners and many others) teach our participants crucial entrepreneurship knowledge in our workshops. It is truly amazing to engage in conversations with so many inspiring people!
The student clubs at LBS are a key part of the MBA experience. I look forward to our Launchpad cohort of 2019 and many more exciting initiatives from the entrepreneurship club.
Interested to learn more? Check out our website at lbslaunchpad.com.