UM's Launch Pad Becomes Model for StartUpAmerica Program

CORAL GABLES – The University of Miami Launch Pad, the entrepreneurship resource center of the University’s Toppel Career Center, is a part of a White House strategy to expand U.S. innovation and job creation across the nation. In Washington this week, StartUpAmerica, President Barack Obama’s national effort to stimulate economic growth and the creation of quality jobs, announced the creation of the Startup America Partnership, an independent private-sector alliance to dramatically increase the development of innovative high-growth firms nationally.

As part of that effort, the White House announced that The Blackstone Charitable Foundation has committed to a $5 million expansion of the Blackstone LaunchPad program piloted at two Detroit colleges. Based on a model created by the University of Miami, LaunchPad will be replicated over the next five years in five other distressed regions around the country.

The Launch Pad at the University of Miami uniquely treats entrepreneurship as a career path and encourages University students and alumni to start new ventures in South Florida. A $2 million pledge from The Blackstone Charitable Foundation replicated the University of Miami Launch Pad model in two schools in Detroit: Wayne State University and Walsh College. Since then, Blackstone LaunchPads in Detroit have attracted nearly 1,000 users and are developing new ventures on their respective campuses.

“The University of Miami is grateful for the visionary support of the Blackstone Foundation for The Launch Pad’s distinctive model of entrepreneurship education, and we are pleased that our work in Miami can help other universities and colleges develop entrepreneurial opportunities for their students and communities,” said William Scott Green, Senior Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education at the University of Miami.

The Launch Pad provides concrete tools and guidance from experienced venture coaches to help aspiring entrepreneurs transform untested ideas into vital businesses. Fostering and supporting a new generation of entrepreneurs can have a profound impact on the economic revitalization of a particular region. Promoting entrepreneurship is a core component of President Obama’s national innovation strategy for achieving sustainable growth and quality jobs.

The initiative announced today by the White House are the initial response to President Obama’s “call to action” to unite a range of public and private commitments that will expand access to capital for high-growth startups throughout the country, and to develop entrepreneurship education and mentorship programs that empower more Americans to not only get a job, but to create one.

Carl Schramm, CEO of the Kauffman Foundation, will serve as a founding board member of the StartUp America Partnership, which is funded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and Case Foundation, the Partnership will be chaired by Steve Case, co-Founder of AOL, CEO of Revolution LLC and chairman of the Case Foundation. For more information on the StartUp America Partnership, visit www.startupamericapartnership.org