The recurring theme that Launch House founders Brett Goldstein, Michael Houck, and Jacob Peters had in mind when they founded the organization in 2020 could be summed up in a single word: change.
They didn’t just want to offer a traditional incubator like those that have populated Silicon Valley for decades. They wanted to provide a legitimate community in every sense of the word — one where like-minded individuals and promising entrepreneurs could come together, share access to resources, and focus on innovating in the areas that mattered most to them.
Flash-forward just a few short years and Launch House has already racked up a bevy of impressive milestones — particularly in 2022. That March, for example, it appeared on Fast Company’s list of the 10 Most Innovative Social Media Companies of 2022. This raises the question: Is Launch House actually a social media company? No — at least not in the straightforward sense.
At the same time, this acknowledgment is the perfect symbol of what Launch House set out to enable — and what it’s been able to accomplish along the way.
Innovating Industries, One Step at a Time
Fast Company gave Launch House a place on its list for creating what’s described as the “hacker home 2.0.” Even though Launch House’s Mexico location looked very similar to most other Silicon Valley hacker homes that had existed up to that point, it didn’t stay that way for very long.
The goal was always to enable enthusiastic young entrepreneurs to live together in a shared space, pooling their resources and offering the type of mutual support that they couldn’t find anywhere else. It was here that synergistic relationships were formed, allowing members to boost their own qualities as a result.
As the pandemic began to make its way across the world, everyone agreed that this more traditional model of co-living made sense. The Launch House founders also recognized the need for something new. It was then that Launch House began to expand, adding its offerings to the digital world of the internet in addition to the physical one.
Even as pandemic restrictions were first lifted in the early months of 2021, Launch House was still on track for revolution. Its offerings expanded again, and are now available in physical locations in New York City and Los Angeles. With the help of Sequoia Capital, Launch House also built Gather, a massive online community where people from all over the world could have the same experiences online that members could have in person.
It was then that Launch House built its vast social network that was finally accessible to people all across the globe. It dramatically increased the accessibility of what it offered. Launch House even took the unique step of forgoing any right to equity in the members’ startups, instead funding a grant program that reduces costs for entrepreneurs from underrepresented communities.
This willingness to pivot seems to have paid off. In 2022, Launch House secured no less than $3 million in seed funding. It was then able to close on a $12 million Series A round. It also launched its new venture arm, dubbed House Capital, backed by a multimillion-dollar fund.
2022 was also the year that it debuted Homescreen, its entrepreneur-focused newsletter. It already has more than 18,000 subscribers, even though it’s only been live for just a few months.
All of this raises another reasonably important question: What will 2023 have in store? Will this be the year Launch House and its founders forever change how we think about what it means to be a media company? Time will tell, but it will also be exhilarating to watch.
