启动之旅为学生打开了当地的大门

亚历克斯Brandwein, Brandwein百吉饼的老板, speaks to student entrepreneurs as part of the LAUNCH summer accelerator. (Jon Gardiner/博彩平台)

教堂山发射场 runs three sessions a year to help innovators get their ventures up and running. But the award-winning startup accelerator’s summer session is specifically geared to help Carolina student entrepreneurs. 持续8到10周, 这些团队会得到免费的指导, intensive programming and downtown office space in the Innovate Carolina Junction at 136 E. 迷迭香圣.

今年, 第一次, the summer cohort also 太k a little trip: a short walk down Franklin and Rosemary streets to meet Tar Heel and Launch alumni who opened their ventures downtown.

“You may have walked by them on your way to lunch or meeting up with friends and never realized what was behind that door,伊恩·巴尔图蒂斯说, 发射执行董事, 参观前聚集在路口的学生. “We’re excited today to open that door and introduce you to all that’s going on behind it.”

接下来的几个小时, the students glimpsed future possibilities as they met and asked questions of local entrepreneurs. They peeked behind the scenes at businesses launched to sell authentic bagels (Brandwein’s Bagels) and kombucha (Boro Bodega), to help lawyers select jury members (Jury-X) and to use data to personalize health care (Well Digital). They also visited Carolina graduates from the spring Launch cohort who renovated an improv club into a place to hatch business ideas (The Pitch) and fellow students in the current cohort who deliver essentials like energy drinks and ramen to campus by bike (Speedi).

他们听到了这些企业家是如何转型的, 从错误中恢复, 调整课程, managed growth or started over — the joys and headaches of starting your own company.

在参观前的小组讨论中, Ogugua Nwaezeigwe, Eats2Seats的内部开发总监, 来自2021年夏季班的学生, shared how her company adjusted its mission as they saw the need to match people and jobs. Started as a concessions business, “now we’re a staffing solution,” she said.

The current Launch students are well on their way to being their own bosses, 今年夏天致力于给滑板通电, develop a website extension for job 博彩平台es and encourage team building with a card-based improvisational game that makes fun of corporate culture (Cubicle).

“Cubicle was actually born out of one of the problems we faced, 公司内部的团队建设是什么,大二学生丹尼尔·拉宾诺维奇说, who co-founded Underscore Games during the pandemic with his friend, 菲利普Vishnevsky, 和一个完全远程的员工.

Chris Salazar '24, one of the co-founders of Speedi, talking to a group of students in a supply room.

克里斯·萨拉查(Chris Salazar)是Speedi的联合创始人之一. (Jon Gardiner/博彩平台)

Speedi, another team in the summer cohort, was also a stop on the walking tour. Chris Salazar ‘24 and senior Eli Lippman showed off their second-floor storage space stocked with 800 products and amber bags with a lightning logo. 前提很简单:1美元.99美元，从一个应用程序订单到你的手在15分钟内. 萨拉查说:“这是带着微笑的交付。.

去年秋天推出, Speedi joined a very special group of Tar Heel entrepreneurs who stayed close to home and are now sharing their experience with others. Their unofficial cheerleader is 亚历克斯Brandwein, who provided lunch to the group from his bagel shop.

“I want to invest in this community that has given so much to me,” the native New Yorker said of his adopted home of Chapel Hill. “不像其他地方, 教堂山尽其所能真诚地支持人们, 所以, 只要我有机会, 我试着把爱传递出去, 太.”

蒂姆洪水, director of Launch startup accelerators and 凯南-弗拉格勒商学院 associate professor, 庆祝这些当地企业家和他们的慷慨. “Every single one of the success stories we have from Launch gives back,” he said. “这是一个给予和得到整个社区.”