LaunchPad INW

There is still time to vote on our poll, see below!

Attention Innovators (founders, entrepreneurs, researchers, business leaders, Technology and Life Science professionals, and investors) please help us determine which topics we cover at upcoming Innovator Connect events. We are limited to 4 options with this poll so if you have other suggestions please add these to the page comments. Thank you!

The Spokane and Inland Northwest region has become an active and emerging innovation hub attracting new Series A funding for innovative companies like Treasury4, Selkirk Pharma and CarbonQuest. New substantial grants announced by Health Sciences & Services Authority (HSSA) for several promising local companies and organizations. New programs and services for startups including Ignite Works, a startup accelerator program recently announced by Ignite Northwest, and new coworking spaces like MODE and Fuel recently announced by Cowles Ventures and much more! The future is bright for our regional innovation ecosystem but at LaunchPad INW we believe we can do more to connect our regional innovation assets and elevate our regional innovation economy to new heights! Today we’re thrilled to partner with Eastern Washington University CSTEM to launch Innovator Connect—a monthly forum bringing together founders, entrepreneurs, researchers, industry leaders, mentors, investors, and Entrepreneur Support Organizations (ESOs) to spark new partnerships and foster new innovation focused business growth in the Inland Northwest. Inaugural Event: 📅 Wednesday, October 30 🕓 4–6 PM 📍 The Catalyst Building, Eco-District, Spokane Event Features: - John Gibson, Director, Avista Innovation Labs - Shane Johnson, President & CEO, CarbonQuest Each session will feature reverse pitch style discussions with experts addressing real-world industry challenges and local businesses presenting innovative solutions. We invite founders - new and experienced - investors, business mentors, technologists, policy makers, and ESOs to join us and build collaborative solutions to solve real problems. Don't miss this opportunity to connect, collaborate, and grow! #InnovateINW #Connect #EWU #Partnerships More information is available below and you can register here:https://lnkd.in/gRcpGXb7

UPDATE: Please note our flier is mistaken! This is held the first and third Tuesday, not Wednesday. The next event will be Tuesday, September 17th. Hope you’ve all had a terrific labor day weekend! We’ll see you all bright and early tomorrow morning at 7:30am to plants some seeds at MØDE’s Grit and Grind Coffee! As Kris Fuehr enjoys her time out of town, Jessica Simpkins will be hosting tomorrow’s Seed and she’s excited to put her hallmark community building spin on this idea-exchanging event. It’s early, but the coffee is fantastic, the company is terrific, and you’ll be sure to have a blast exchanging ideas with other entrepreneurs and community members. Rumor has it Andrea Parrish will be in attendance! Who else is planning to join? Address is 2110 N Molter Rd in Liberty Lake #launchpadinw #theseed #libertylake #launchmode #innovationeconomy #brainstorm

Attention Founders, Entrerepeneurs, Mentors and anyone wanting to connect with the LaunchPad INW Community to help fuel the innovation ecosystem! We are excited to accounce a morning roundtable meet-up called The Seed hosted monthly on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday @ 7:30 am at Grit and Grind Coffee in Liberty Lake at the MØDE Campus. Our goal is to help plant the seeds for your ideas, make connections, get feedback, discover resources to cultivate and fuel your inspiration. No guest speakers—just peers talking and sharing to help each other grow. No need to RSVP—come as you are. Enjoy a cup of coffee, find meaningful conversations, and be part of a community dedicated to growth and support. We would like to thank our host partner MØDE and our ecosystem partners Innovation Collective and StartUp Spokane for teaming up with LaunchPad INW to create this opportunity for people to share ideas and continue to build a stronger community! #findyourmode #launchpadinw #Innovation Collective #Community #INWInnovates

What a terrific turn out at our Summer Kick-Off yesterday! A huge thank you to our new partners at MØDE for hosting us in their incredible space. We had over 120 attendees signed up and I'd say we packed the space pretty well! Bill Kalivas and Lucas Kjar opened the event to share about our new collaboration, the importance of community building, and bringing intention to to the way we live, work, and educate. Lucas Kjar hails from Utah and moved to the Inland Northwest in search of a better way of living for his five children. Liberty Launch Academy and MØDE are two by-products of his journey. Dr. Jessica Simpkins, a newcomer to the Inland Northwest in the last two years, shared about the value of finding your own career path despite the fear and uncertainty we may face in starting down a new road. Our panelists Julian Guthrie, Dr. Susan Newman, and Jim Morrisroe grew up in the Inland NW, moved away, and in coming back brought unparalleled success and inspiration with them. Dr. Susan Newman emphasized the importance of curiosity and taking chances. At Integrated Lipid Biofuels LLC, Dr. Newman notes they've used curiosity to turn waste into fuel and bioplastics with an unlikely worker: yeast. Julian Guthrie shared with us how her passion for words that began when studied the dictionary as a child led to her career in journalism, her success as a prolific author, and now her new role as founder of Alphy. We learned that not only is Jim Morrisroe the genius behind many businesses' successful scaling and later acquisition to the tune of over $1 billion, he's also a highly skilled golfer! It's no wonder so many companies perform better with the help of his company, 15Five. Thank you, Todd Bishop for coming to our event and spreading the word about our terrific tech hub in the Inland Northwest. Thank you to Blue Zone Marketing LLC and KATRINA ROGERS for the great photos of the event. Thank you to our founding partners at STCU, Washington Trust Bank, Ignite Northwest, WTIA, Windermere Real Estate, and Cowles Ventures. See you next time! #launchpadinw #launchmode #communitybuilding #innovationeconomy #inlandnw #libertylake

Meet Dr. Susan Newman. After receiving her PhD in Physiology, Dr. Newman worried she was not well-equipped to mold college student minds at WSU. Today she's a sought-after expert in scaling new businesses on a global level, serves as a Stanford University design thinking coach from the world-famous d.school in Palo Alto, CA, and is the CEO of Integrated Lipid Biofuels (ILB). ILB creates impact through novel production of bioplastics, biofuels, and biomanufacturing. Don't miss this terrific opportunity to hear from Dr. Newman and pick her world-famous brain at our Summer Kick-Off next Thursday, June 27! 🎟Get your tickets today: https://lnkd.in/gJcX2ByW #inlandnw #libertylake #launchpadinw #designthinking #innovationeconomy #localevent

Meet Jim Morrisroe. Once a Zag, Jim brought his education and experiences to Silicon Valley where he became a force of nature, catapulting companies in the software and hardware industries into tremendous growth. His adept leadership culminated in four company acquisitions and yielded over $1 billion for stakeholders. Living in Hayden Lake, ID, Jim is the CEO of 15Five, a performance management platform dedicated to facilitating business and employee success. You're going to want to hear what he has to say during our Summer Kick-Off on June 27! https://lnkd.in/gJcX2ByW #inlandnw #libertylake #LaunchpadINW #findyourmode #innovationeconomy

I was thrilled to be included in a GeekWire article written by Todd Bishop, GeekWire Co-Founder and Tech Journalist, in April as part of their GeekWire on the Road: Spokane Series. The article focused on the migration of remote tech workers to the Spokane and Inland Northwest area. Following the article, I wanted to invite tech and life sciences executives who new to the area to join us for a panel discussion to learn their stories and get their perspectives and all I can say is we are all in for a real treat! Over the next 2 weeks we will highlight each of the 4 speakers so people can learn a bit more about them prior to the LaunchPad Summer Kick-Off Event at MØDE in Liberty Lake on June 27. To kick things off we are highlighting Julian Guthrie, CEO and Co-Founder of Alphy. an AI company. Check out the post below to learn more about Julian and her amazing career and journey. You can learn more about the event and register below, hope you can join us! https://lnkd.in/gF3quhM8