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LaunchBox Cultivates the Scene for Start-Ups
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Many LaunchBox ventures focus on gaming or social networking, or combine the two. They include MyGameMug, a social network where gamers can find partners to play with online, and Koofers.com, a one-stop study site where college students can post notes, old tests and teacher reviews from their classes.
The entrepreneurs varied widely in age and experience. For three years before coming to LaunchBox, Michael Powers had run Mpowerplayer, which licenses a program that lets people preview mobile phone games on their computer.
"What this gave to me was an ability to step back and see my company in a new way," he said. The counseling at LaunchBox showed him new markets he could tap into, such as social networking sites, he said.
Then there is the Heekya team. Adewumi and his friend Kawsi Nti came up with the idea at home in Pennsylvania on Christmas. Back at school they cobbled together a rough version of the site and started reading up on venture capital. They discovered LaunchBox via a blog.
The seed money helped them get by over the summer as they worked 16-hour stretches banging out their product. They rebuilt their site and refined their marketing pitch with help from Greene, McKinley and Genachowski. At times they went days without leaving their apartment.
The mentoring kept them focused, Adewumi said.
"You can have all these big, hairy, audacious goals, but you need someone to break it down for you and say, 'What can we do in these 12 weeks?' " he said.
After a few hours of being grilled by investors, Adewumi was getting ready to fly to California, where he would pitch Heekya again to another round of investors. He said the process of wooing investors was nerve-racking, like trying to find a wife, but on a deadline.
"If you can't get funding, it's kind of hard to run a business," he said.
