ABOUT LAUNCHPAD
We build the leaders who build the companies.
The platform for Southeast founders building high-growth software and AI companies. Programs, capital, and a community that outlasts any cohort.
Meet the Team
OUR MISSION
We exist to turn founders into leaders and ideas into exits, in Southeast markets that stopped waiting for coastal permission.
Anyone can teach a founder to ship an MVP. Fewer people can build the leader who manages forty employees through a layoff, raises a Series A, or survives the year the product does not work. Leadership development is the work we care about most, because it is what gets companies through.
For a decade, Southeast founders boarded planes to Atlanta, Austin, or the coasts because capital and community sat there. We are anchored across the Southeast because we live here, and because the next wave of tech is coming from markets the coasts are not watching. Five cohorts run, ninety founders served, four Southeast markets active, an NYC satellite. The model travels.
A program that only makes introductions does not fully believe in its own founders. Ignite Fund exists so we can put capital where we put our time. Our Community persists after graduation because the relationships a cohort creates are too valuable to end at week twelve, and because leaders compound.
Jordana Megonigal
From nothing to idea, to app, to company. What a strange trip it's been! Thanks for giving everything you got - we'll be sure to pass it on to the next!
Mark 20
CORE VALUES
Three things we do not compromise on.
Short enough to remember, specific enough to act on. We hire, fund, and design programs against these three.
ACCELERATING ADVANCEMENT
We pursue an ever-increasing rate of positive change for ourselves and our companies.
PRIORITIZING RELATIONSHIPS
We build valuable companies on a foundation of valued relationships.
DEVELOPING OPPORTUNITY
We seek positive outcomes for all parties, making the pie bigger for everyone.
Team
Who Runs Launchpad
Operators first. Everyone here has built, sold, funded, or failed at something before joining. Experience is the credential we look for.
Alan Blakeborough
Co-founder, Sherpa, Investor
Trainer of champions and builder of ecosystems
Dan Rundle
CEO
Software/AI operator, venture studio founder, ecosystem builder
Liesel Blakeborough
Community Manager
Purpose driven leader, thinker, and connector
Tom Brown
Director of Operations
30-year technology veteran and operations leader.
GET INVOLVED
There's a role for everyone here.
Founders get the programs. Everyone else who shows up, from Hosts to Investors, makes those programs worth running. Find the card that describes you.
Founders
You have a company, or an idea that could become one. We will help you become the leader who builds it.
Start Your Application
Hosts
You lead a Southeast market that should have a Launchpad cohort running in it. Let's talk about bringing one home.
Bring Launchpad To Your City
Mentors
You have built companies and want to shorten the learning curve for someone else. Our founders need people like you.
Become a Mentor
Sponsors
Your brand wants to be in the room with Southeast founders, operators, and the investors backing them.
Become a Sponsor
Partners
You bring something Launchpad does not have yet: space, distribution, introductions, networks. We grow faster together.
Become a Partner
Investors
Accredited investors interested in Ignite Fund can request the full prospectus and speak directly with our capital team.
Request a Prospectus
