GCC Entr pt 4: Lean Launchpad

where do I even start? Lean Launchpad is kinda like you birth a brain baby at the beginning of the semester and aren’t done raising it till they graduate college. Basically How the class works are first everyone pitches their own business idea. Then everyone votes on the best one. Once that happens the top 8 teams are decided by everyone choosing which team they want to be on, interviewing with the student whose idea it was, and then either being added or rejected. Each team also received a TA to work directly with the team. This year I was fortunate enough to receive an amazing TA named Luke Gilligan. He’s only a sophomore but is basically running this place. Last year in Lean launchpad he joined a team called Resence and has since he has actually launched the business and is helping people with dementia every day. I’ll talk about that more in my next post.

Anyways after the teams are decided that’s basically when your life turns upside down. Interviewing two people every week and preparing presentations to give to the class complete with aesthetic slide decks and unknown obstacles you might have to face (e.j. your computer not working so you cant present your slides. actually happened). The idea of Lean Launchpad is to show you how forming a startup works, the ideation process, learning how to interview a wide array of people, and the importance of good presenting skills. It is one of the classes at GCC that truly gives you a small piece of what it will be like after college. This is a key factor when Yvonanne English is the professor. She herself is a role model queen who basically started the entrepreneurship department herself here at GCC.

Unlike other classes, your midterm and final don’t consist of written tests. For your midterm, your team is required to make a video and slide deck to submit to the wolverine venture battle. This is again one of those assignments that makes it feel like your life is being taken over. Your final is a competition called Rocket Race which consists of you and your team competing with the other Lean Launchpad teams for the winning prize, one hundred dollars each.

Overall the class is exciting, thrilling, draining, fun, boring, and important. It also opens you up to the chance of earning money. My team this year was the only Lean Launchpad team to make it into the Wolverine Venture Battle. From there we earned $1,320 from the donor judges and an extra $500 for the winning fan favorite. My TA’s team last year won over $6,000.