Chapman University’s Launch Labs is part of the Ralph W. Leatherby Center for Entrepreneurship and Business Ethics.
The Vision of the Argyros School of Business & Economics - Leatherby Center is to serve as a central hub for Chapman University’s collective entrepreneurial expertise and support its community to address tomorrow’s challenges today.
The Mission of the Argyros School of Business & Economics - Leatherby Center is to make real what matters, our expertise in business strategy, financial analysis and new product-service commercialization allow us to develop our students, enrich faculty and connect alumni with idea generation.
During their formation and growth, companies go through 5 phases:
- Idea Generation – recognizing a problem, solution, customer value, and how you’ll make money
- Startup – organizing your team and your finances
- Survival – getting, keeping and growing revenue
- Growth – scaling up to meet the growing demand for your product or service
- Maturity – when demand and operations results have stabilized and it’s time for a new feature, product, service, market, or an exit strategy
Launch Labs is an incubator for Teams in the Development and Startup phases, meaning your Team is pre-revenue (that is, has not yet earned revenue from your product or service). Progression through the other phases is facilitated by external business funding to which you’ll be networked.
Teams in the Launch Labs participate for a maximum of two semesters. Teams in the Launch Labs must be led by – and have a majority of team members comprised of -- Chapman University undergraduate or graduate students, faculty, staff or alumni from any Chapman University school or college, targeting any industry, at any stage including just having an idea for a product or service.
Participants don’t need to be enrolled in the Entrepreneurship Minor or Emphasis programs, though it’s encouraged.
At no cost to you, Launch Labs offers you the following education, training
- Mentoring formal reviews of your progress and participation
- Advising by Chapman University faculty, external business leaders, staff
and experienced students – providing general business guidance and encouragement - Access to collaborative meeting rooms to meet with your Team, conduct market research, develop your product or
service, and meet with advisors and mentors by appointment for non-business hour access - Leadership and Team-building social events
- Assistance in preparing business plan marketing strategies
- Introduction to investors and business accelerators
- Opportunities to collaborate with other Launch Labs Teams, other Chapman University business-related student organizations, Chapman University business-related research projects, Chapman Alumni Entrepreneur Network and other universities’ entrepreneur centers
- Opportunities to support business-related civic events at the Launch Labs
- Opportunities to support Launch Labs publicity events
- Notification of business and networking events in the larger SoCal entrepreneur ecosystem (registration fees might be charged by the external organizers)
- Opportunity to return as a Mentor, Speaker, Board member or member of the Chapman Alumni Entrepreneur Network
In exchange for the above, those admitted to the Launch Labs will sign a Participation Agreement committing to active involvement and progress through the Launch Lab programs.
For consideration for admission to the Launch Labs, please complete all fields in the following application. If a field does not apply, please indicate "N/A".