​â¶Ä‹â¶Ä‹â¶Ä‹â¶Ä‹LaunchNET Turns 10 and Moves to DI Hub
LaunchNET celebrated its 10th anniversary on Oct. 20, 2022, and officially opened its offices in the Burton D. Morgan Foundation Entrepreneurship Suite, on the second floor of Kent State’s Design Innovation Hub.
Kent State President Todd Diacon and LaunchNET Director Zach Mikrut, BBA ’10, MEd ’19, were among those who spoke. The event included a showcase of current and former student entrepreneurs, a gallery exhibit displaying LaunchNET’s impact over the past decade and a reception for guests.
The suite of offices serves as the new home for the business startup advising program (formerly housed at the University Library), which provides advice, guidance and workspace for fledgling entrepreneurs as they develop and determine the viability of their ideas.
The new suite includes the Marty Erbaugh (I3) Lab, a workspace where student teams can ideate, innovate and incubate to build their businesses. This product accelerator program launched in 2022 Spring Semester and is led by LaunchNET and Design Innovation programs.
LaunchNET began as Blackstone LaunchPad and, after partnering with the about six years ago, rebranded into LaunchNET. Kent State became part of NEOLaunchNET, which includes four other collegiate partners: Case Western Reserve University, Baldwin Wallace University, John Carroll University and Lorain County Community College.
In its first decade, Kent State’s LaunchNET has served more than 2,200 clients, most of whom are Kent State students, and it boasts success stories across Northeast Ohio. For its next decade, Mikrut says, “We will continue to focus on the needs, gaps, questions and problems that our KSU entrepreneur community is facing and will support with responsive programming.â€