Launch Factory

11/01/2022

Today is the day!

FLOW Speak is now live on Product Hunt.

Come join the conversation! Share your comments with us.
https://www.producthunt.com/posts/flow-speak

The FLOW Speak platform combines advanced voice technology and a supportive community to build English conversational fluency.

Join us in building a world where all students and professionals have access to technology to boost your English-speaking confidence and achieve career success.

FLOW helps non-native English speakers learn to speak confidently and naturally, so they can share their voices and achieve academic & career advancement. Our Speaking AI allows for unlimited repetition and gives real-time feedback for improvement.

10/18/2021

Hiring freelancers for a startup is hard! So how can you successfully recruit quality talent on Fiverr?

In a recent REC Innovation Lab podcast, Alex Triener answers that important question. As the CEO of Productfied, Alex and his team work hard to provide resources and tools to help inventors and entrepreneurs turn their ideas into products.

To learn more about the process for finding and hiring TOP talent on Fiverr, check out the podcast linked below!

The REC Innovation Lab is a community business incubator dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and to helping founders solve problems by launching h...

06/14/2021

We’re excited to share that we’ve selected founders to launch four new companies this year.

During the Recruitment Process, we saw hundreds of skilled entrepreneur teams develop their vision and strategy for one of our four market opportunities (This year, teams will be launching businesses in Legal Tech, Data Privacy, Esports, and Audio Education).

After wrapping up the 7-week founder recruitment process, we’ve selected four teams to lead these new startups!

We want to extend a huge thank you and congratulations to everyone that participated in this year's recruitment process. We are grateful to have had so many talented teams take part in the process this year and we're excited to see them return next year.

Specials thanks go out to everyone on the Launch Factory team, our investors, advisors, and judges. Without your support and dedication, this recruitment process would not be possible.

Stay tuned for individual team introductions coming soon!

04/21/2021

Really excited about the work Neal Bloom and Al Bsharah are doing for the San Diego startup community.

Launch Factory is especially excited for their recent investment in our 2021 fund!

Check out this Union Tribune article on Interlock Capital:

Ex-Seismic vice president Al Bsharah joins startup community leader Neal Bloom at Interlock Capital

04/14/2021

We’re midway through Phase 6: the final iteration of business plans.

As we near the end of the Founder’s Recruitment Process, teams are fleshing out weak areas in their drafts and adding or adjusting based off feedback received from the last round… preparing for their final pitch.

Launch Factory’s helped prepare these teams along the way…

But what ultimately matters is the judge’s decision.

This last phase is a consolidation of their strategic vision & analysis with final pitches on April 22nd and 23rd.

Stay tuned for more updates!

04/07/2021

TOP 3 ELEMENTS TO BUSINESS LONGEVITY

Pacing & perseverance are key to longevity.

Here are the top 3 things successful companies do to make their businesses last…

1. BUILD SOCIETY-FIRST: Visionary companies have a deep commitment towards not only financial achievement, but also building mutual respect between the business and society.

2. ADAPT LONG-TERM: Be able to adapt and pivot as demands change in a rapidly shifting world. Embrace continual iteration and transformation to become extremely valuable.

3. DEVELOP SCALABLE LEADERSHIP: Systems of leadership that enable creative decision making and autonomy free up founders to focus on developing their company culture, mission, and values.

And remember Gusto’s guiding philosophy, “Short term gains never justify long-term sacrifice. Invest in the future.”

Read more:

Prioritize endurance, not growth.

04/01/2021

Today we start Phase 5: teams are developing the first full iteration of their business plans.

This first draft includes:
- Executive summary
- Business overview
- Product description
- Market analysis
- Strategy
- Organization & management summary
- Financials

As the first comprehensive submission, this draft pulls from all of the past four week’s work and outlines the entirety of the business’s functions.

All deliverables are due Sunday night.

Stay tuned for more updates!

03/31/2021

HOW TO TURN AN IDEA INTO A BUSINESS

Startup studio Wilbur Labs’ blueprint for this process breaks down each phase into clear & coherent action steps with key questions to ask yourself as you begin the process.

Turning an idea into a business has five steps: research, planning, ex*****on, adaptation, and growth.

1. Research: Dive deep. Frontloading research & due diligence helps prevent wasted time in future stages and reduces risk. For some ideas, this can take up to 6-12 months. Conduct first-hand research, speak with experts, and talk to your target customers.

2. Planning: Work backwards. Like with any goal-setting process, start from where you’d like to be in 3-5 years and build your roadmap to get there. It’s helpful to build a product roadmap, financial model, and startup checklist.

3. Ex*****on: Prioritize high ROI activities. This manages & mitigates bottlenecks and helps apply your time and money where it’s needed the most across all areas of business.

4. Adaptation: 90% of businesses fail. To make sure you iterate and adapt well, having a strong support system of advisors and mentors helps you avoid re-inventing the wheel.

5. Growth: Focus on sustainable growth. Keep your eye on the long-term, while working on solving your short-term challenges and mitigating future obstacles.

Read more:

A blueprint for turning an idea into a business will increase your success as a founder. As a startup studio, we have systemized how to start a business, and detail the steps we use to build companies.

03/29/2021

David Kolodny, cofounder of Wilbur Labs, a startup studio in SF, goes into the top 3 tactics for effective adaptation:

1. Reframe challenges as opportunities
2. Focus on what you can control
3. Zoom out to the long-term

Read more here:

Challenges will continue to confront every founder, and adaptability will separate lasting companies from the pack — so follow these 3 tips to adapt.

03/24/2021

This past week…

Teams in our recruitment process focused on developing detailed plans for bringing their MVP, and complete versions of their product, to market in the first 12-18 months. These early plans developing a high-level overview of scaling in the long-term.

Understanding exactly how your business will acquire & retain its first 10, 100, 1,000 and 10,000 customers is crucial to bringing a successful product to the market.

Your GMT strategy shapes and guides the product development and launch. A solid vision makes application easy.

So, we thought we’d share this article from Jory Mackay over at plan.io that outlines clear, actionable steps to take for developing your GTM:

https://plan.io/blog/go-to-market-strategy/

It’s probably safe to say that every company wants to grow. Yet while growth can come from wildly different sources, they all share one quality: Without a solid strategy, you’re going to spend a lot of time spinning your wheels and not getting anywhere. Nowhere is this more true than when you...

03/18/2021

Today we start Phase 3: product roadmap, wireframes and strategic planning.

In this phase, teams submit detailed product features for an MVP and any additional features to be added in the first 24 months.

Additionally, teams will produce wireframes that show product interactions.

This week builds on the strategies and product definition from prior phases.

Teams have until this Sunday night to complete and submit their roadmaps and wireframes.

Stay tuned for more updates!

03/17/2021

We have some exciting news! Our first company, Turbosbir - powered by OmniSync, recently closed their first round of fundraising. They raised $1M in a 100% oversubscribed seed round led by GovTech and a diverse collection of VCs, family offices, and strategic angels.

Founded in 2019, OmniSync has been growing rapidly over the past 18 months and has seen tremendous user growth on its TurboSBIR grant platform.

TurboSBIR is a software solution for startups looking to apply for government grants. Their platform streamlines the process, making grants more inclusive and accessible to applicants.

We’re very proud of their achievement and look forwards to continual growth!

Learn more:

/PRNewswire/ -- OmniSync, a company that helps deep tech and life science companies raise debt-free and equity-free funds from the government, closed their...