In March 2022, Fast Company named Launch House one of the 10 Most Innovative Social Media Companies of 2022. This membership-based collective for pre-seed and seed-stage companies has been on the rise lately, but you might be surprised to see it featured on this particular list. We’ll look at why the company ended up here and how Launch House is helping people look at the online global community a little differently.
Redefining the Norms
The founders of Launch House — Brett Goldstein, Michael Houck, and Jacob Peters — are all about energy. When Silicon Valley first started making waves, it was little more than a tangle of ideas and ambitions. When Launch House had its first co-living space in Mexico, you might have thought that it was located in Silicon Valley around the time of its rise.
The reason why they ended up on Fast Company’s list was thanks to this underlying foundational belief. It began as an in-person concept, but the pandemic would end up taking its toll on the whole operation. It was then that they decided to take the whole thing to the next level.
Known as hacker house 2.0, the founders decided to offer the same valuable opportunity to connect, but via Web3 offerings instead. Entering the URL space may not have started as a way to redefine social media, but the founders were willing to run with it. There was clearly a lot of value in the original model offered by Launch House, and there was no reason they couldn’t translate some of that potential into the digital space if people couldn’t actually move into the house.
The Latest Kind of Network
As pandemic restrictions started to loosen up at the beginning of 2021, Launch House upgraded its model. Instead of one space in Mexico, they expanded to the coastal cities of New York and Los Angeles. However, those who weren’t there in person still had the chance to collaborate. In the web3 world, the Launch House’s members could join the digital community on a virtual workspace called Gather.
This 2D product was backed by Sequoia Capital, and it gave Launch House members a way to talk to anyone in the world. Much like you would bump into your neighbor down the hall of your dorm room, organic connections could be formed in a virtual university setting where people were invited to rethink the world of business. It led to questions about everything from education to investment. Above all: With so much to learn in a space like this, was it necessary to shell out six figures for an education at a traditional university? The pivot meant that Launch House gained a tremendous following, and led to a number of sensational stories. Perhaps the most notable was that of Showtime, the product of Alex Masmej. This Launch House member built an NFT social network that caused some serious disruptions in the sector.
Innovation at Its Finest
There has been so much happening for Launch House in 2022, and the numbers show it. After getting $3 million during its seed round, the enterprise closed its Series A round at $12 million in 2022. It also announced the launch of its latest venture, House Capital. This latest offering from the company is fueled by a multimillion-dollar fund. While members will be given first priority when it comes to the distribution of funds, nonmembers will also be able to throw their hats into the ring. Launch House has also reduced the requirements for membership access, waiving the rights to equity for startups and reducing costs for founders in underrepresented communities by funding a grant program.
Launch House also has big plans on the horizon. It recently rolled out Homescreen, a digital newsletter that boasts a subscriber base of 17,000. With content specifically curated for entrepreneurs, Homescreen offers readers advice — and the numbers to plot out exactly how they’re going to move from one stage to the next of their business.
