Entrepreneurship center to be replicated across U.S.

It’s a vital resource for some 2,000 members with entrepreneurial ambitions of every stripe: from idealistic ventures on behalf of the community to for-profit enterprises seeking robust bottom-line success in market sectors ranging from software to swimwear.
It has managed to create an impressive resume of its own, spawning dozens of entrepreneurial teams, nurturing more than 45 new businesses, and helping to create more than 100 new jobs.

It has been favorably profiled in Inc. magazine and praised by President Obama.
And it has won major philanthropic support to take its upbeat message and practical techniques to other cities, many of them facing tough economic times, that could use a bracing shot of optimism and a large dose of entrepreneurial expertise.

The Launch Pad

The Launch Pad offers career guidance, resources, and advice to entrepreneurs, innovators, and inventors at the University of Miami.

The Launch Pad, which opened in August 2008 as part of the University’s Toppel Career Center, offers career guidance, resources, and advice to entrepreneurs, innovators, and inventors at the University of Miami. This distinctive entrepreneurship resource known as The Launch Pad offers members an experiential approach to starting a venture that not only demystifies entrepreneurship, but validates it as a viable career path.

“Our long-term goal is to help create and sustain a healthy entrepreneurial job market here in South Florida.”

Susan Amat, executive director of The Launch Pad at Toppel

In 2010 the program received a $2 million grant from the Blackstone Charitable Foundation to replicate The Launch Pad, a novel entrepreneurship initiative developed at UM, at Wayne State University and Walsh College in Detroit. As part of President Barack Obama’s StartUp America Partnership, the foundation made a commitment to create offshoots of the UM-based program, known as the Blackstone Launch Pad, in other metro areas.

“The expansion will strengthen the ability to link entrepreneurs to resources,” says Susan Amat, executive director of The Launch Pad. “It also helps alumni and students the tools to create a developing network that contributes to entrepreneurial success.”

Winner of the 2010 Award for Innovation Excellence in Student Engagement from the National Association of Colleges and Employers, The Launch Pad has also received grants from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the Harry and Lynde Bradley Foundation, and the Fairholme Foundation. Growth prospects for this savvy and resourceful startup look strong.

While The Launch Pad's free mentoring service is currently available only to students or alumni of the University of Miami, the program is working to create different initiatives that will help spread entrepreneurship across South Florida. “Our long-term goal,” says Amat, “is to help create and sustain a healthy entrepreneurial job market here in South Florida.”