A CONVO WITH CARRIE

took a while, and then we had a lot of growth in a few years. Then things kind of steadied off, and now we’re in the middle of another growth season. So I think you have those ebbs and flows. Especially since we don’t have a lot of consistency, because our students who work here tend to graduate. That’s why we always tell everyone who works here, you have to replace yourself. It keeps that consistency as close as we can to make sure that we don’t have a lot of stops and starts.

LL: In what way has the LaunchLab been able to come out of its shell this semester?

C: Well moving into the Research Corporation I think has opened up a lot of opportunities for us. We can now work with not just students, but we can work with community members, researchers, faculty, and veterans. Now with our veterans grants we have a lot of funding opportunities under the Research Corporation. That has really allowed us to open up our services to pretty much anybody and everybody who wants to grow their idea and commercialize.

LL: Looking back at all your bright moments this semester, are there any that stand out as having been a result of the

help of others?

C: Every single thing that we do is with the help of others. Everybody in the LaunchLab works together, there’s not one person in here that can do all of this by themselves. So the team and the LaunchLab is critical for the success of our clients. But also we have this ecosystem outside of the WVU network and we have the statewide entrepreneurship community. Everything that happens around entrepreneurship is a result of having to rely on other people and working together.