When Mark asked Josh and me to join him, I immediately said yes. I believe that Launchpad has an incredible mission, an amazing community of VCs, tech executives and entrepreneurs, and an ability to change the lives of many southern-California based entrepreneurs each year.

I have been starting Internet companies in Los Angeles for over 15 years. With each success and failure, I learned the lessons of capital raising, hiring great teams, market timing and position, organic growth vs investing in scaling faster. I’ve built a large local network but it took a very long time. I was lucky. I raised money from Silicon Valley years ago and learned many of these lessons from up North because they live and breathe it everyday. Over the last 5 years, I’ve seen the landscape of Southern California venture capital and start-up formation change. It’s been exciting to see. An LA-based company has a better chance than ever to take an idea and make it a big business. It’s still not easy and still requires A LOT of work.

For those exciting companies that are accepted into Launchpad, they are given just that: a Launchpad for their company. They get education, advice, and connections with individuals and companies that have already reached the level that they aspire to achieve. They get to directly connect with top Venture Capitalists in Southern California. They get help in avoiding the costly mistakes that are common when you just don’t know.

I’ve witnessed it firsthand. As a mentor in Launchpad last year, I helped an amazing company, AudioMicro, and it’s CEO, Ryan Born, navigate through its growing pains. I helped it connect with potential partners, work through its business model, and decide what path to take in fundraising. I was a small contributor to Ryan’s growth but Ryan also had a community to tap into that would have taken him years to build without Launchpad.

If you think you’re at the stage for Launchpad, I recommend you sign up fast. Applications are due on the 6th of April and we’ll be introducing the new class on April 15th.

Adam Lilling

Los Angeles – March 18, 2010 – Launchpad LA, a mentorship organization designed to help early stage companies in Los Angeles, announced today that it has opened applications for its second year class. Launchpad LA will select 10 companies to participate in the six month program that brings together Southern California’s best venture capitalists and most experienced CEOs who are committed to working with early-stage companies to get the guidance and relationships needed to help take their businesses to the next level. Launchpad is open to companies that have raised less than $1 million, have not already raised institutional venture capital and are located in or are willing to relocate to Los Angeles. Applications are due April 6th and can be submitted at www.launchpad.la.

Launchpad LA was created a year ago to help the area’s most promising young companies get the mentorship and funding they need. The program allows entrepreneurs to work intimately with senior executives at Los Angeles’s biggest technology companies, as well as partners in local venture capital firms. In addition, Launchpad LA also provides entrepreneurs with pro bono guidance from entrepreneurial friendly, hand selected service providers to assist them with legal advice, executive recruiting support, founder dating, public relations and more. This year, the program is expanding to offer educational programs taught by real practitioners from LA and across the country covering all aspects of building a startup.

“Many of us involved with Launchpad LA are former entrepreneurs ourselves so we have an intimate understand of the challenges young companies face. Based on this, we created a program that addressed these needs,” said Mark Suster, founder, Launchpad LA. “The results of our first year speak for themselves. The outcome for the participating companies was excellent, ranging from fundings to an acquisition. Looking forward, we are enhancing the program with deeper educational activities, more community workspace, greater integration with Silicon Valley, Boulder, Seattle and other tech communities and broader mentorship with a range of individuals.”

Launchpad LA’s inaugural class featured 13 Los Angeles-based startups and had active involvement from every major venture capital firm in Southern California, as well as a host of senior industry luminaries such as Mike Jones, Keith Richman, and Adam Bain. Eleven of the companies received funding from firms including US Venture Partners, Steamboat, DJF Frontier, Greycroft, Rincon Ventures and GRP Partners. In addition, one of the companies, FlipGloss, was acquired by Forbes, and the final company chose to stay self-funded and is profitable. Graduates of the 2009 program include MobileRoadie, TechForward, Sometrics and GumGum.

“The entire Southern California ecosystem has agreed to work together to help create more SoCal success stories. This isn’t just a win for an individual company – it’s a win for our market,” said Dana Settle, partner, Greycroft.

The Los Angeles market, with 16 million people and the second largest DMA in the country, has produced companies that have changed the way the Internet is monetized including Overture, CitySearch, LowerMyBills, PriceGrabber and Break Media. Los Angeles has a generation of entrepreneurs who are now seasoned executives creating the next wave of innovation including DemandMedia, GameFly, GreenDot and ReachLocal.

About Launchpad LA

Launchpad LA is a mentorship organization designed to help young entrepreneurs based in Los Angeles get the guidance and relationships needed to help take their companies to the next level. It combines the best venture capitalist in Southern California, many experienced CEOs and a very select group of service providers who are committed to working with early-stage companies. Launchpad LA was founded by Mark Suster (2x founder & CEO, VC at GRP and author of www.BothSidesoftheTable.com), who runs the program with Adam Lilling (3x founder & CEO including Pentagon Music acquired by Virgin and BiggerBoat backed by First Round Capital and Tim Draper) and Joshua Roth (3x startup CTO including Viva Group (dba Rent.com/eBay) and NTI / Blackboard, 1x founding CEO of Amuzu). For more information, visit www.launchpad.la.

CONTACT: Dena Cook
(310) 600-7160
dena@brewpr.com

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