In eighth grade Sloane Sexton sewed herself a pair of pajama pants. Having not touched a sewing machine since then, during quarantine she sewed her sister a bucket hat, learned how to crochet, and bought a vinyl cutter and began to overlay clothes with her self-created designs.

The embodiment of joy in self-expression, Sexton is bursting with passion for the art of design.

A senior studying Communications Design in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, she hasn’t always known design as the work of her life. From Center Valley, Pennsylvania, both her dad and stepmother were doctors and she grew up believing she wanted to pursue a similar medical path.  But when she took a graphic design class in high school, she fell in love with a field that channeled her artistic talents and immediately decided to pursue design as a career.

Since her studies began at Syracuse, Sexton immersed herself in a world of creativity and ingenuity. Last year, she and her classmates created an exhibit commissioned by the United Nations to showcase the Sustainable Development Goals for the 2020 world exposition in Dubai. She collaborated with interior design majors to create an exhibition space that told the story of the UN’s progress towards development throughout history. For her, this project is just an example of the capacity design has to create impact in multiple fields- whether that’s humanitarian, political, cultural, or corporate.

“Designers get put into a box of making posters for music festivals or making logos, when in reality it’s creative problem solving.”

There’s no doubt that Sexton knows how to creatively solve problems. Her latest project? She’s currently expanding her portfolio as a freelancer, doing projects such as designing pitch decks for L.A. innovators and investors.  On campus she’s the marketing director for Women In Design, spends her free time drawing art and this year- illustrating clothes and selling them.  Her love for the work she does is so deep that even her activities outside school and her free time are spent designing.

“I’m such a creative person that my breaks are still creating.”

Sexton is joining the Syracuse Blackstone LaunchPad and Techstars this year as a Global Fellow as lead designer. Her exceptional creative talent and overflowing warmth add joy to our entrepreneurial community, and we at the LaunchPad couldn’t be more excited to welcome her.

She hopes to help entrepreneurs in the LaunchPad understand the importance of design in making crucial impressions in marketing to investors and consumers and help them to create designs that tell their story in the clearest and most aesthetically pleasing way.  Especially in a world that currently exists largely in a digital format, aesthetic presentation often speaks the loudest. 

Sexton’s creativity shines brightly through all her work because through everything she commits to being her authentic self. She hasn’t always been sure that she wants to confine herself to the image she viewed of working in the corporate world- afraid that her dazzling creativity and self-expression might be stifled. But after spending summers at internships in corporate companies, she realized that boldly embracing herself and her ideas made her a more creative designer.

“I can still be my blue-haired, tattooed, crazy, bubbly self, and still fit in this industry. The best design comes from people who are going to be unapologetically creative as possible. “

Sexton’s deep love for the work that she does and her commitment to fearlessly being herself a testament to the fulfillment found in pursuing what we love. The world’s best ideas come from those who chase what enthralls them and live their life expressing their true selves. The LaunchPad is so excited to welcome Sexton and see our own crazy community flourish from the presence of an individual who is so passionately herself.

Story by LaunchPad Global Fellow Claire Howard ’23; photo supplied

The well-planned life is not always the successful life. Though we try to order our college lives into perfection with our four-year academic schedules, stable jobs, and long-term career visions, the truth is that life and its chaos will often find a way to upset our best-laid plans. 

An important value in achieving success is the ability to adjust, re-route, and make the best of any situation. This is one of the hallmarks of entrepreneurship — the ability to see unpredictability not as a foe but as an opportunity for creating something new. Using life’s disruptions to one’s own advantage and to chart a new path is a powerful way to discover possibilities and innovate. 

Marcus Cook ’19, a Whitman School of Management grad, is an individual who exemplifies the power of using change to create something wonderful. Cook, who graduated with a double major in supply chain and marketing, worked purposefully throughout school to create a high-level career for himself. After he graduated, he went on to work a finance job, confident he was setting out on a stable upward career path. However, his plans went awry when he and a group of other employees were let go within his first few months of starting out.

With what some would view as a disaster, Cook took his layoff as a push to pursue his passions and take a bold chance towards success. He started a company centered around a passion that had always been an integral part of his life: entrepreneurship. 

Cook’s drive towards entrepreneurship started when he realized as a kid it gave him the ability to make what he wanted of life. Like every kid, when he went to the store, he uselessly begged his mother to buy him candy bars and the things he wanted but had no money of his own. His mind churning with ideas, Cook decided to find a way to earn his own money. At around the age of nine, he started selling water and soda in his local park every summer. After successfully doing that for a few years, he began to look for other outlets to earn revenue that weren’t dependent on seasonal cycles. So, he chose to start his own dog-walking business. 

The business grew so much that he maintained it through his junior year of high school when his mother took it over as her full-time job. This side hustle to make spending money that Cook started when he was just a young kid turned into his mother’s full-time business for almost four years.

Through his entrepreneurial experience, Cook realized that many people are intimidated by entrepreneurship because it is usually associated with rare unicorns such as Mark Zuckerberg or Jeff Bezos. The mythology of entrepreneurship centers on those who started Fortune 500 companies or made it to the Forbes 30 under 30 list, while Cook saw so many success stories of entrepreneurship in every small business created just like his own. 

Wanting to change people’s outlook on the seeming impossibility or grandeur of entrepreneurship, Cook decided to start The Success Bug, a company dedicated to helping budding entrepreneurs by showcasing stories of everyday innovators and business owners.  The mission- to ‘make entrepreneurship achievable’ manifests itself through an impressive collection of resources, advice, and stories to help entrepreneurs achieve success and feel confident in their pursuits. “How do you make entrepreneurship seem achievable? Don’t focus on crazy, unachievable stories, but everyday people who got successful without any press coverage. Some of these people are millionaires, some are not.” 

Cook used his layoff and his saved income from his dog-walking business to pour his energy into creating The Success Bug and finding team members and writers to create a successful platform. They’ve grown over the past few months to publish an eBook on search engine optimization and are starting online courses on monetizing blogging. The Success Bug’s rapid growth is a testament to Cook’s own entrepreneurial skills and his ability to build companies.

“In entrepreneurship, everything you manifest is a showing of the work you put in- that idea makes you want to work harder.” 

Cook’s own love for entrepreneurship and his connection as an undergraduate to the Blackstone LaunchPad and Techstars at Syracuse University, helped him pursue a career to make entrepreneurship possible for others. His ability to utilize an unfortunate layoff to start a successful company speaks to the realm of possibilities one can pursue after shut doors or disappointments. Particularly now, through the piles of setbacks and lost opportunities all of us have experienced because of COVID-19, Cook’s story serves to inspire us all that when misfortunes occur, we have the power to use those misfortunes to reshape our lives for the better and plot courses in new, exciting directions. 

Story by LaunchPad Global Fellow Claire Howard ’23, photo supplied

Entrepreneurship is a word often reserved for business majors who have always aspired to work in startups, or geniuses who have started a massively successful tech company.  But it is for anyone with ingenuity and creativity who has an idea and for all who dream of applying ideas in new ways or creating something worthwhile.

One individual who does not fit the mold of a business entrepreneur but has done incredible things within the world of entrepreneurship, leading her to the career of her dreams is Kayla Simon ‘19, a Syracuse graduate and a Blackstone LaunchPad alumna who literally was shooting for the stars as an undergraduate.  Thanks to her SU experience, she’s literally doing that now at the job she long yearned for – a propulsion engineer at Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit.  It’s an opportunity to put her startup thinking and engineer skills together at one of the world’s leading innovation companies.

Simon, who graduated from the College of Engineering and Computer Science with a degree in Aerospace Engineering, was not someone intrinsically drawn to entrepreneurship. She came to Syracuse to pursue a degree in her chosen field, engineering, not drawn to work in business or to incorporate entrepreneurship into her college career. “I didn’t think I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I was going to school to be an engineer. But I always had this creative side but I didn’t know how to express it.”

Simon found a place for her creativity and at the intersection engineering and entrepreneurship. In 2017, her sophomore year, she signed up for Invent@SU , a summer accelerator program where students design, prototype, and pitch an invention. Originally drawn to the program because its technological innovation and engineering to solve problems, she ultimately fell in love with the business and marketing side of innovation.

Through the program, she and her partner created a wearable asthma inhaler called InSpire. Yet Simon’s passion for InSpire didn’t stop at the engineering aspects of designing the device but continued into building a business model for what she had created. She and her partner competed and won in several different business competitions hosted by Syracuse University, including Panasci Business Plan, Hult Prize, the Impact Prize, and as campus winners of the ACC InVenture Prize.

Simons was not deterred by the challenges of business but was rather her enthusiasm for the innovation in her on field was kindled by what she could create with it. Simon’s newly found passion for entrepreneurship led her to immerse herself in networks of innovators and eventually led her to the LaunchPad, where she worked her senior year as a Global Media Fellow and as a Hunter Brooks Watson Scholar. “The vibe of the LaunchPad – I just fell in love with it.” In her work at the LaunchPad, she found a place for her creativity —  a mix of business and engineering where she could design what she dreamed of.

Today, Simon credits the LaunchPad and her journey through entrepreneurship as vital to the success of her career. She currently works as a propulsion engineer at Virgin Orbit, a company that creates launch systems for small satellites. As a small company with under 1000 employees, Simon was there for the company’s development from just a startup into a company that had its first successful rocket launch this past year in May. For her field of aerospace engineering, it is a fascinating and ideal job. She continues to pursue entrepreneurship beyond her career and but works in multiple startups on the side. She’s currently learning web development to help a friend set up her business.

Simon has gone far in her career in part because of the confidence and initiative she took from her experience in the business field. When she first began her studies at Syracuse, she was shy and lacking in self-confidence of her own talents. “I was insecure about my abilities in my career and as a businesswoman. Throughout the process at the business plan competition I had to learn so much so fast.” The fast-paced environment of business competitions forced Simon to rely on her best abilities and the warmth of the LaunchPad’s encouraging environment grew her self-confidence.

These skills of connecting with others and presenting herself with assurance assisted her to grow into the successful businesswoman she is today. Like Simon, many people view entrepreneurship with aversion because they have no interest in business or are doubtful of their own abilities.  Yet entrepreneurship does not belong to the confident business owners, but anyone with an idea.

The work that goes into realization of ideas inspires personal growth and learning of skills that lasts a lifetime and helps students become trailblazers in their lives and careers.  “I definitely wouldn’t have gotten my job if it wasn’t for the LaunchPad.”

The LaunchPad is so proud of Kayla Simon, and never doubted she would not only set her sights on the stars, but bring them into focus and reach them.

Story by LaunchPad Global Fellow Claire Howard ’23, photo supplied

The dream of making the world a better place is often an elusive one. Many of us want to spend our hours and days not simply spinning our wheels but on work that feels meaningful. We want our lives to produce positive impact. Finding such work can often be difficult and seemingly non-existent. A career that both fills us with passion and drives practical social change may be career that we must create for ourselves. What if we took the initiative to create our own solutions to the problems we saw and the ways to help others?

Social entrepreneurship, the practice of creating ventures or products designed to help others or tackle social issues, is a term unfamiliar to most. Entrepreneurship is something often equated with cutthroat competition and chasing profits, when in reality it is simply the act of turning ideas to improve the world into reality. Social entrepreneurship takes a further step and focuses ideas on helping others and create positive change.

Kennedy Patlan, a 2018 graduate from Syracuse University, is an individual whose passion for social entrepreneurship has shaped her work after Syracuse. Patlan, who received bachelor’s degrees in three different fields- Advertising, Women’s & Gender Studies, and Civic Engagement- has always held passion for understanding the world around her and using herself to impact it positively, but she hasn’t always known how to intersect her breadth of skill and studies. She sought how to combine her marketing and business skills from advertising, her understanding of the world from women’s and gender studies, and her hopes of working with communities from civic engagement.

In her junior year, Patlan took a social entrepreneurship course through Whitman, where she discovered how business could create impact. She then went on to take an experiential credit course through her Civic Engagement major that partnered her with the Blackstone LaunchPad, where she discovered for herself the how she could fuse her business-savvy expertise and dreams of doing good in the realm of entrepreneurship. She had the innovative boldness to start social change and the business mind to scale and sustain it. “All of these things really formed my curiosity and burgeoned interest and passion- understanding how you use business and ideas to come up with ways to create impact in the world. “

Patlan’s newfound passion for social entrepreneurship transformed her path in college. As someone constantly focused on bettering the community around her, she jumped into making social entrepreneurship an available and accessible field for the campus community. In her senior year, named as an Engagement Scholar with the LaunchPad, she helped create The Impact Prize, one of the LaunchPad’s business competitions specifically focused on ventures with a social impact. The prize, which she and Linda Hartsock developed together with generous support from donors such as Gisela vonDran to SU Libraries continues today to fund students who create companies to better the world.

Helping young entrepreneurs develop their social enterprises became so meaningful to Patlan that she chased it long after she graduated from Syracuse University and LaunchPad. She started her career at a well known national non-profit advertising company, but nothing came close to the experience of working with those invested in social impact and entrepreneurship that she had experienced through her work as an Engagement Scholar at the LaunchPad.

Just this past year, Patlan took a job as a U.S. Venture Operations Associate at Ashoka, a global company dedicated to funding budding non-profits and social entrepreneurs. The work of enabling others to chase their dreams and drive change through social issues such as economic disparity and public health is work that Patlan finds incredible because she’s a part of an ecosystem aimed at improving conditions in the United States.

This work which has become so important to her that she formed her career around it, was a possibility discovered through the LaunchPad. “Blackstone Launchpad was the spark of interest in social entrepreneurship. Business is great but business with impact is even better.”.

Patlan’s enduring commitment to social impact is one that perfectly illustrates the far-reaching impact of involvement in entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is not reserved for those starting their own business but is open to anyone who dreams of improvement.

The term ‘intrapreneur,’ as Patlan says, is someone with the skills to initiate or re-imagine existing structures to continually advance the work and world around them. Patlan’s journey through entrepreneurship opened possibilities for her and inspired work for her that she hadn’t known existed and provided her with the invaluable skills and knowledge that goes into creating positive change. Today, she spends the hours and days of her life on work that she finds meaningful and contributes to significant social change.

Story by LaunchPad Global Fellow Claire Howard ’23; photo supplied

Entrepreneurship looks glamorous. The rewards and fulfillment of creating a successful enterprise often attract many people, but what we often overlook are the efforts and hard work that go into becoming successful at it. Entrepreneurship is fraught with challenges, rejections, and failures and the life of every successful entrepreneur tells a story of courage and resilience. An entrepreneur who exemplifies this dedication is Maxim Glagolev.

Glagolev started Geeklama, an online coding school that makes quality live coding lessons available to all kids – regardless of where they live. Geeklama builds content, products, and educational technologies to support coding lessons, including in tier-2 cities and countries.

Glagolev is a Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. From Russia, he has several international degrees in Engineering and Business Economics and obtained a postgraduate degree in International Leadership from Maxwell.

With three other founders, Glagolev started Geeklama to prepare the next generation for the future. In a tech-driven world where coding powers everything, the ability to code has become a must-have skill. According to Glagolev, no one is too young to learn how to code. Geeklama started in January by teaching students in-person but later adopted online classes. This model supports the company’s growth as the world manages the COVID-19 crisis.

Glagolev credits his entrepreneurial experience in the US for his knowledge on how to start a company. “Startup culture is much more developed in the US – it’s the motherland of great companies.” Glagolev became involved in the Blackstone LaunchPad and Techstars while studying at Syracuse University. He participated in the LaunchPad’s Startup Weekend and gained insights into entrepreneurial practices in the US. “Environments such as the LaunchPad are crucial in creating a continuing innovative culture and inspiring future innovators.”  The LaunchPad then later helped connect him with US experts in specialized areas such as incorporation and finance as Geeklama launched in this country.

In starting Geeklama, Glagolev found that user research was one of the most important keys to success. “Our main difficulty was that we didn’t have strong insights into kids’ education. We had to go through test marketing”. After extensive market research and a dedication to creating a user-friendly product, Geeklama has become a fast-growing company. They currently teach coding classes in the United States and Ghana and plan to expand to other countries in the future.

Glagolev’s interest in entrepreneurship is motivated by his desire to make a difference. “It gives me room to do a lot of different things and live for someone other than myself. A challenging environment is a good thing for growth.” Glagolev’s lifelong pursuit of innovation speaks to his commitment to entrepreneurship despite its difficulties. Although filled with constant adjustments to user needs, agility in responding to arising challenges, and continuous market research, entrepreneurship is a path that Glagolev agrees is worthwhile and rewarding.

Proven by the brilliant companies and products created by people like Glagolev, the LaunchPad agrees wholeheartedly.

Story by Claire Howard, ’23, LaunchPad Global Fellow, photo supplied by Maxim Glagolev