Thanks to Georgetown University for allowing us to host a breakout session at the GCEC Conference. “LaunchPlan: The Platform for Entrepreneurship Courses” featured the 2 co-founders of LaunchPlan, Ray Di Nizo and Matt Chepeleff, as well as Ken Jones, the Associate Director of the Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Houston.

The goal of the session is to discuss how LaunchPlan’s technology is improving the quantity and quality of business ideas that are being built out of universities’ entrepreneurship programs.  They discussed how the platform creates a richer learning experience for the students, while allowing a professor and additional mentors to have have access into each business idea. In the end, this all leads to a constant flow of feedback and progression for the students’ business.  Thanks to all of those who attended!

This article on Yahoo! is a great example of how LaunchPlan is helping students to build better businesses in the classroom.  Not only is it allowing students to work collaboratively together, but it allows the professor a more efficient way to guide and mentor their students and future entrepreneurs!

http://news.yahoo.com/launchplan-cornell-students-advantage-creating-businesses-classroom-144233172.html

This week, The Princeton Review & Entrepreneur Magazine released their annual ranking of the 50 best entrepreneurship programs in the U.S.  We were pleased to learn that LaunchPlan has the pleasure of working with a handful of the top undergraduate and graduate entrepreneurship programs.

Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Programs – #2, 3, 4, 13, & 23

Graduate Entrepreneurship Programs - #11 & 17

Please see the full lists here - http://www.princetonreview.com/top-entrepreneurial-colleges.aspx

LaunchPlan is excited to announce the roster of schools that we will be working with this Fall!  The platform has now been adopted by over 30+ universities in their business schools.  Some  are waiting patiently for their entrepreneurship classes that take place in the Spring semester.  This Fall we are proud to be working with the following programs:

Arizona State University
Bradley University
Carnegie Mellon University – Qatar
Chapman University
Dallas Baptist University
DePaul University
Eastern Illinois University
Georgetown University
Georgia Southern University
Indiana University
Lake Washington Institute of Technology
New York Institute of Technology
Northeastern University
Ohio State University
Quinnipiac University
San Diego State University
South Florida University
Suffolk University
University of Arkansas
University of Delaware
University of Houston
University of Southern California
University of Tennessee

We are excited  to help build the next great businesses directly out of these classrooms!

A few weeks back I had the privilege of presenting LaunchPlan in front of students and professors at the Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship at The University of Houston – I was extremely impressed with their program!  Not only is the Wolff Center ranked the #1 undergraduate entrepreneurship university in the country by The Princeton Review, it is evident they breed hardworking and successful entrepreneurs.  The Wolff Center students and professors are using LaunchPlan on an ongoing basis, semester by semester, to create business plans for new or existing businesses.  Each student and team is linked up with a personal mentor who is an expert in the particular industry.

After speaking to the Wolff Center students, they handed me the book in the picture and each and every one of the students signed it to thank me for my time and showing them the ins and outs of LaunchPlan’s software.  I am rarely given a gift during my birthday, let alone a gift after a business trip – I just thought it was fantastic!  From the “must wear” Wolff Center  blazer with a Wolff Center emblem on it, to the multiple top tier professors and abundant amount of resources at the students’ figure tips – The University of Houston – Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship is truly a top class educational program.  Thanks for hosting me for a couple days and good luck on your business plans this semester!