When Angelo (A.J.) Damiano ’18 came up with the idea for PowerSpike—an influencer platform that connects gamers with potential sponsorship opportunities—as a first-year student, he had no idea his venture would one day grow into a company with more than $5 million in annual revenue.

But after “learning everything there was to launch a business” from the Blackstone LaunchPad, the University’s hub for innovation and entrepreneurship on campus, that’s exactly what happened to Damiano.

“The LaunchPad gives so many students the skills necessary to go out and build very successful businesses,” says Damiano, who earned bachelor’s degrees in entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises and marketing management from the Whitman School of Management. “What was so magical was that we all helped each other learn from what was working with our business and what was not and then use that knowledge to develop our business.”

Damiano’s journey from Lawrinson Hall to a $5 million company exemplifies what the LaunchPad has accomplished since opening 10 years ago.

Located on Bird Library’s first floor, the incubator has helped:

• 7,600 innovators from more than 135 countries,
• launch more than 2,300 venture ideas,
• raise more than $164 million in funds and
• incorporate 220 ventures.

The University community celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the LaunchPad on Oct. 16, with Dean of Libraries and University Librarian David Seaman praising an innovative and dynamic space that enhances the student experience on campus.

“This is truly a cross-campus, centrally located, collaborative and interdisciplinary space for our students to develop and launch innovative ventures and to thrive,” Seaman said during the celebration.

Unwavering Support and Mentorship

The LaunchPad helped Damiano develop his product pitch skills, secure funding through campuswide competitions and foster strong on-campus mentorship relationships.

Damiano learned valuable business lessons from Linda Dickerson Hartsock, LaunchPad’s first executive director, and from serial entrepreneurs like Sean Branagan, founder of the Newhouse School of Public Communications’ Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship, and John Liddy, creator of the Student Sandbox, an accelerator that helped students create businesses.

In 2022, Damiano sold PowerSpike to Live Current Media, and now he is co-founder and chief product officer of the social media automation platform, ScrollMark.

“We started from absolutely no experience and grew because of our involvement with this really awesome place called the LaunchPad, which gave us unwavering mentor support and assistance,” says Damiano, who was one of the University’s first entrepreneurs to be accepted into the prestigious Techstars program.

“The community within the LaunchPad gave us the business training, connections and strong foundation to build our companies and go full-time once we graduated.”

Collaborative Entrepreneurial Hub

Students from every school and college on campus are invited to take part in the LaunchPad’s more than 200 different offerings, ranging from classes, workshops and business presentations to networking opportunities with alumni entrepreneurs and peer mentorship with the program’s approximately 16 student staff members, says LaunchPad Director Traci Geisler ’90.

This includes more than a dozen different funding opportunities each academic year for student entrepreneurs to cover the early-stage startup expenses, she says.

“We have LaunchPad entrepreneurs who are generating revenue by their sophomore year in college, students who are closing seven-figure investment rounds and founders who are hiring full-time employees before they graduate,” Geisler says.

“Whether you possess a business idea or are already revenue generating, all are welcome at this collaborative space. There is endless potential here,” she says.

Founders Circle Alumni Prioritize Giving Back

The LaunchPad also connects students to the University’s global network of Founders Circle alumni—graduates who launched or led ventures while contributing to the LaunchPad’s development as students.

These alumni support aspiring entrepreneurs through mentorship, advising, judging competitions and donating prize money.

Class of 2025 member Waqar Hussain G’25 founded Iconnic.Cloud, a cloud hosting platform engineered with proprietary software that creates customized solutions. Hussain’s company won first place at the annual ’Cuse Tank entrepreneurial event two years in a row, part of more than $60,000 in annual grants and awards won through pitch competitions.

“LaunchPad helped me tremendously, not only in acquiring funding for my startup, but also by connecting me with alumni and businesspeople who helped me make Iconnic.Cloud what it is today,” says Hussain, who earned a master of business administration degree from the Whitman School.

While on campus, Motolani Oladitan ’24 found herself struggling to access the proper skincare and wellness products tailored to her needs. She wanted to make those products more widely available, so she founded Tà Beautie (Latita Wellness LLC), a virtual marketplace connecting African beauty and wellness brands to global markets.

As she pursues a master’s degree in integrated innovation for products and services at Carnegie Mellon University, Oladitan says her experiences with the LaunchPad served as a steppingstone to her passion for skincare innovation for underrepresented consumers.

“The LaunchPad was the incubator for my career, allowing me to learn all about entrepreneurship and figure out how I want to make a career out of social entrepreneurship, because helping people is really important to me,” says Oladitan, who earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the College of Arts and Sciences.