What factors do you believe contributed to your company being recognized as one of the “10 Smartest Companies to Watch in 2024”?
LaunchX is continually focused on providing a rigorous, yet practical, program for high school students. Helping incredible students around the world develop their entrepreneurial spirit – not just their startup. When looking at the changing landscape of business and the great need for competent business leaders, LaunchX pushes the envelope of high school summer programs further with the Innovation Program. Built on the foundation of the prestigious Entrepreneurship Program, the Innovation Program teaches the core of business while partnering with student teams with existing companies and organizations who are facing a genuine business problem. Students are expected to digest the problem, prototype potential solutions, and present a final solution in just 3 weeks. LaunchX remains dedicated to developing entrepreneurs who will change their corner of the universe.
How has your company embraced and leveraged emerging technologies to stay ahead of the curve?
In 2020, LaunchX was forced to take the entrepreneurship program online due to the pandemic. This change created a new experience for students around the world at a highly reduced cost. Since then, LaunchX has doubled down on finding digital tools that help produce a phenomenal experience for students. From determining the right LMS to working with developers in building custom connections tools through APIs, LaunchX is always looking for tools that aid in the student experience.
Can you share a specific innovative project or initiative that played a key role in your company’s selection?
The new Innovation Program is a key expansion of the LaunchX programming. With more Entrepreneurship Programs emerging in the past decade, LaunchX continues to lead, giving practical experience in building a startup. The introduction of the Innovation Program is really an extension of the entrepreneurial mindset through the lens of consulting. This addition rounds out the overall experience as students develop their skills from the startup to the enterprise.
In what ways does your company foster a culture of continuous innovation and adaptability?
Innovation is at the heart of the LaunchX experience. Not only is LaunchX focused on students developing the skills necessary to innovate to build a startup or drive change in an existing company. LaunchX headquarters team is constantly questioning the status quo of how processes and operations are done all to drive a better student experience.
How do you identify and prioritize opportunities for disruptive innovation in your industry?
Each year, the LaunchX team takes a week after all the programs to understand the summer programs and look for areas of opportunity and growth based on the year’s experience. This is a critical time to review the landscape of the business summer program industry as a whole and look for ways that LaunchX can offer new changes that will serve students well – all while ensuring that the changes do not diminish the current student experience.
What role does collaboration and partnerships play in your company’s pursuit of innovation?
LaunchX has begun focusing on generating partnerships throughout the industry, looking for institutes and organizations that have students interested in the experience LaunchX offers. Similarly, our campus partnerships are critical to the success of the LaunchX in-person, creating a tight connection with these university partners.
How do you navigate challenges associated with the rapid pace of technological advancements in your sector?
New education software and supportive tools are released every year. The LaunchX team is constantly reading and testing new solutions to find the best tools available for helping high school students grow. Whether it is a more advanced LMS or a new way to incorporate AI into the learning process, the team is on the lookout for better ways to enhance the student experience.
Can you elaborate on any unique strategies your company employs for talent acquisition in cutting-edge fields?
As a company that cares about who is doing the work as much as how the work gets done, we are extremely discerning in our talent acquisition efforts. We subscribe to Randy Street and Geoff Smart’s A Method for hiring. We believe that the way we craft our job descriptions and present our culture and business are as important in the hiring process as how a candidate crafts their resume and story of self.We attract the right candidates to do cutting-edge work by approaching hiring as a relationship. It’s not about whether or not someone matches us, it’s about whether we are a match for one another. It creates space for diverse, creative, and innovative candidates to surface to the top of our candidate pool.
As a leader, how do you balance the need for innovation with the necessity of maintaining operational stability?
For LaunchX, the student experience is always first. This requires a constant search for new ways of teaching and supporting students. Equally, it is necessary to continuously calibrate the summer programs to design the best program possible. However, LaunchX does not make changes just for innovation sake. The new solution fundamentally creates a better experience for students and helps them develop as entrepreneurs, otherwise, it isn’t a change worth making.
How do you see your company evolving in the next few years, especially in terms of technological advancements?
LaunchX will continue to grow, requiring more sophisticated systems for managing our students, the program materials, and alums. The continued expansion of AI will also dramatically affect both how materials are further developed, how students work on their startups, and how alums engage with one another after the program.
What lessons have you learned from past innovations or experiments that have shaped your company’s current approach?
Our experiments in the space of entrepreneurship education have shown us that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to cultivating students’ passion for business. Our 2023 pilot with our Innovation Program demonstrated that there is a significant market of teens interested in consulting work, as well as businesses willing to learn from talented youth. This new program proved that the world is not viewing young age and expertise as mutually exclusive anymore. It is paving the way for us to expand our Innovation program and potentially open up our entrepreneurship program to younger demographics.
How do you ensure that your team stays informed about the latest trends and breakthroughs in your industry?
Each team member has quarterly professional development goals with access to a related fund for development. Team members work with their supervisor to determine the goals and the course of how to develop. Whether books, professional publications, conferences, or training – every team member is constantly growing, leading to them uncovering new developments in the industry and how they might be leveraged for LaunchX.
Can you discuss any challenges your company has faced in adopting new technologies and how you overcame them?
LaunchX takes the application process very seriously. Due to LaunchX being focused on building entrepreneurs, not startups, LaunchX is particular about the students that are chosen to attend the programs. 2 years ago, LaunchX attempted to change out their application system for a new system. However, the system was underdeveloped and promises were unkept on the capabilities of the system. After reverting to the previous system, LaunchX invested in connecting multiple systems through custom development and API connections, allowing LaunchX to maintain the specific application process while gaining full integration with other valuable tools.
What metrics or indicators do you use to measure the success and impact of your innovation initiatives?
A critical KPI for LaunchX is the NPS score for both students and the summer teams involved with the programs. LaunchX always looks to expand our incredible programs to more high school students interested in developing their entrepreneurial mindset. If our changes diminish or hinder that expansion or the experience (measured through the NPS), then it isn’t a change worth making.
How do you manage the risks associated with investing in cutting-edge technologies and untested ideas?
LaunchX is a data-driven company. LaunchX looks to past experiences or similar experiences to give context to innovations. However, there is always some risk involved with change. Further, because LaunchX runs on a yearly cycle, there is a natural rhythm to developments in the program and company. LaunchX looks to take calculated risks based on the current amount of change, the necessity of the change, and the potential gains to make the best decisions possible.
