The Startup Launchpad is a 12-week long program to help you to launch your startup. The program is led by HEC and Ecole 42. It gathers students from X-HEC Entrepreneurs, HEC Digital, Ecole 42 and sometimes from other schools / universities (NYU...).

Many subjects / issues are tackled throughout the Launchpad, from knowing who are your customers and what they want, to crafting your value proposition, acquisition strategy, pricing strategy, funding... Each week, you address a new topic and have related conferences / lessons and coaching sessions with relevant experts. The spirit of the program is that you learn a new concept / a new knowledge by using it / applying it to your project. By average, you will work in the Launchpad 2 days / week which enables you to meet new clients / partners meanwhile.

The program was initially designed for digital startups (SaaS mainly) but it now recruits less digital startups. X-HEC Entrepreneurs students have to apply to the Launchpad through the major. A selection process will be settled and will be mainly composed of pitches. Students who are in High Touch and are not selected in the Launchpad, or don't join a Launchpad Team, will go to Mission Reprise.

Guillaume le Dieu de Ville manages the program, working with Mathias Abramovicz and Remi Rivas. They often invite very talented and reknown entrepreneurs such as Jean de la Rochebrochard, Catherine Barba, etc.

Hereafter are the main focuses of each week (2020 program) :

• Week 1 : Problem & Interviews
• Week 2 : Impact & Find the need
• Week 3 : Impact & Codev
• Week 4 : Design Sprint*
• Week 5 : Pitchs & Codev
• Week 6 : Value Proposition Crafting
• Week 7 : Analytics & Branding
• Week 8 : Value Proposition Testing
• Week 9 : Revenue model / Pricing
• Week 10 : Financing / Funding
• Week 11 : Pitch Day
• Week 12 : Demo Day

* The Design Sprint is probably the most important week of the Launchpad. You spend the whole week (5 days) working on the bases / foundations of your company. To achieve this goal, you need to know perfectly who are your customers and what they want (cf. week 1-2-3).

The Launchpad also offers your mentorship. Each team will have a mentor who is here to help you regarding deliverables asked by the Launchpad and also to help you in any subject related to your company.

From W5, each 2 weeks you have to pitch in front of a jury composed of VCs / Business Angels / successful entrepreneurs. In total, you pitch 3 times in front of the same jury (W5, W7 and W9).

A trip to London is organised in order to discover the English ecosystem and meet VCs / startups. Last year around 2 out of 3 members of the startup were invited to join this trip (selection is made by the Launchpad staff). Due to the Coronavirus crisis, the trip was cancelled last year.