Shaker LaunchHouse Wins Award

The Shaker LaunchHouse and the City of Shaker Heights won an award for its business accelerator program from Team NEO at the annual Economic Development Plus Awards ceremony last week.

LaunchHouse, located at 3558 Lee Road, is a business accelerator that works to recruit, nurture and grow promising startup companies. 

Last year, LaunchHouse worked with the city of Shaker Heights to put 10 recruits through a boot-camp style accelerator program that provided startup grants along with mentorship and networking opportunities.

More than 50 start-ups from all over the globe applied for the program. At the end of the program, the startups were able to pitch their customer-driven ideas to hundreds of investors.

The companies have since created 20 jobs and continued raising follow-up funding.

LaunchHouse and the city won their award in the "Fostering Entrepreneurship" category. 

"We are the only place in Northeast Ohio where entrepreneurs can come to get a collaborative environment, resources and early stage investment," partner Todd Goldstein told Shaker Patch last year. "We thought the idea of bringing resources, capital, working space, networking and educational events would really be a way to revitalize the region."