January 14, 2022
America At Its Best – Live at LaunchPad 2021: Bringing New Ideas to Life
It is estimated that 90 percent of startups fail, most within the first 2-5 years of launching. While there is no shortage of big ideas out there, often, entrepreneurs struggle to get off the ground with a solid foundation. In order to inspire innovative thinking and spur more state and local solutions at a faster rate, SPN decided to create its own incubator program.
SPN started LaunchPad in 2019 to help address some of society’s most pressing problems by engaging directly with state and local leaders who had a vision but needed support, advice from real-world practitioners, and direction to take their ideas to the next level. At LaunchPad, these idea entrepreneurs collaborate with members of a “Brain Trust” of experts (nonprofit leaders, business owners, philanthropists, and specialty experts) to refine their projects into actionable plans. This productive and intense model of co-creation was inspired by and developed with the Antigua Forum at the Universidad Francisco Marroquin.
In this episode of America at Its Best, we talk to the brains behind the event, Lynn Harsh, SPN’s Vice President of Strategy. She discusses the LaunchPad process, the featured projects this year, and why this model is important to launching new ideas in the Network and beyond.
To see past episodes or subscribe for more information, please visit spn.org/AAIB.
America at Its Best features powerful stories of hope that bring you good news and groundbreaking solutions from the Network of 63 state-based organizations and over 90 national partners in the State Policy Network. Together, we accelerate the work of these organizations so that state solutions have national impact.
