Launch Greensboro, the entrepreneur initiative of the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce, provides education, mentoring and access to capital to current and aspiring entrepreneurs in the Triad.
Here’s a look at three ways they help businesses succeed:
Education
Starting a business was overwhelming for Shawn Straub, the founder of ALT HR Partners.
“I felt very, very lost, like I was swimming and I couldn’t find anything to hold on to,” she said.
When she signed up for the LaunchLab Growth program in 2018, she found solid footing and a community of like-minded people.
Three years later, she’s running a successful human resources consulting firm – and finding time to give back.
Straub is one of several local business experts who volunteer their time as session leaders for Launch Greensboro’s LaunchLab accelerator programs.
LaunchLab 101 is a five-week accelerator program for entrepreneurs moving from an idea to a business entity and creating a plan for a successful launch.
Existing businesses move on to the LaunchLab Growth program, which meets for 14 weeks of training, support and mentorship, culminating in a Demo Day pitch event.
Straub educates LaunchLab Growth entrepreneurs on employment law, effective management strategies and creating company culture.
“Human resources is incredibly complicated,” Straub said. “A lot of small businesses fail because people get frustrated and they don’t know how to move forward.”
She becomes the companies’ cheerleader, just like the Launch Greensboro team did for her.
Lou Anne Flanders-Stec, executive vice president for entrepreneurship, remembers when Straub brought in a cake.
“It dawned on me, Shawn promised to bring in cake when she signed her first contract, and there she was. We celebrated that morning with her.”
Mentorship
Natalie Pass-Miller has transformed the Historic Magnolia House from a restaurant-only operation to an event venue, living museum and – soon – a hotel.
She credits the shift in her business model to her LaunchLab Growth mentors, Bret Mazzai and Caro Everts.
“Without the mentors I had, I don’t know that I would have thought about strategy and our business model,” Pass-Miller said.
The Historic Magnolia House is a former Green Book site – one of just six still operating in North Carolina – owned by Pass-Miller’s family since 1995. In 2018, she moved home from Atlanta to run the business.
Pass-Miller participated in the LaunchLab Growth program in 2020. One of the primary components of the program is matching entrepreneurs with mentors who provide an outside perspective and access to a broader network.
The matching process is based on experience, personality and the startup’s needs. Pass-Miller said the Launch team’s attention to detail during the matching process is the key.
“Be sure that the mentor you’re assigned to is where your weaknesses are in your business,” she said.
Since participating in LaunchLab Growth, the Magnolia House has added history-inspired Shoebox Lunches to its offerings and put up exhibits on its ground floor explaining the history of the site as a hotel for Black travelers during the Jim Crow era.
Later this fall, it will reopen its guest rooms for the first time in years.
Access to capital
One of the Triad’s fastest-growing companies was once a startup pitching at Launch Greensboro’s annual Capital Connects competition.
Running for more than 20 years, Capital Connects serves as a bridge between investors and entrepreneurs seeking capital for their companies.
“The real value for me that night was networking,” said Ryan Pratt, founder and CEO of the technology company Guerrilla RF, which makes computer chips used in devices such as Wi-Fi access points, cell towers and automobile antennas. “There were so many people there – investors, advisers.”
The Launch Greensboro team helps entrepreneurs craft and refine their pitches weeks before the event, ensuring the presentations are top-notch by the time judges and investors see them.
The winners, chosen by a panel of expert judges, receive both cash and in-kind services.
Pratt said the connections entrepreneurs make with each other and investors often prove to be the most valuable part of the experience.
Shortly after winning the Capital Connects competition in 2013, the Guerilla RF team was awarded an NC IDEA grant.
“Those two things, they ended up being firm proof points for the investors we were talking to,” Pratt said. “It gave us a lot of credibility.”
They leveraged their new network with enormous success.
Guerrilla RF was recently named No. 489 on the Inc. 5000 list, a guide to America's top private companies published by Inc. Magazine, and the Triad Business Journal named it one of the 50 fastest-growing companies in our region.
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Launch Greensboro, the entrepreneurship initiative of the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce, accelerates growth for local entrepreneurs through education, mentoring, and access to capital.