Launch Pad Venture Challenge

Course Activities

The live verticals your team was dropped into — a real company, real customers, and an eight-day race to revenue.

The Live Verticals

6 tracks

Every playbook below is the full project recipe your team executed, from customer discovery to Pitch Day.

Vertical 01

MCAT Education Platform

Evaluate, improve, and validate an MCAT tutoring and QBank platform. Twenty-plus customer interviews, three validated personas, a pricing model, and a marketing funnel the sponsor can actually run.

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Vertical 02

Aura Sports Recovery Cream

Validate U.S. market demand and build a low-cost, direct-to-consumer entry strategy — landing page, influencer pipeline, and a shot at the first online sale.

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Vertical 03

Consumer AI App Growth

Reverse-engineer viral consumer growth mechanics, interview creators, test three growth hypotheses, and launch a real viral experiment.

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Vertical 04

Environmental Impact / Sargolico

Turn storytelling into supporters and customers — segment the audience into three groups, build a content calendar, and grow merchandise sales behind an environmental mission.

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Vertical 05

Music Marketplace Platform

Solve the chicken-and-egg problem between venues and musicians — thirty interviews across both sides, a friction map, UX recommendations, and a real event booked through the platform.

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Vertical 06

Embroidered Apparel Brand

Build a profitable niche brand from scratch on top of real embroidery and manufacturing capabilities — brand identity, store mockup, content strategy, and first sales.

Open playbook (PDF)