Matt Keenan ’22 always makes a great first impression. He usually approaches you with a warm smile and a friendly hello. His kindness is only matched by admirable work ethic and love of people and community. Keenan, a senior majoring in marketing and minor in public communications, was exposed to a lot of different environments growing up.
“I grew up in the Boston area for the first part of my life and then I moved to England for a couple years and then I moved to Boulder, Colorado going into middle school,” Keenan says. His diversified experiences growing up made him interested in people and their motivations. Before coming to Syracuse University in 2018, Keenan interned twice with Techstars which is where he learned his foundational knowledge about the Blackstone LaunchPad.
“When I was an operations intern, part of my job was to write emails to university LaunchPads across the country so it was cool to see the great entrepreneurial ventures coming out of the network.”
Keenan grew up building things himself, starting a sports website that he maintained for three years. “I really like to be creative and really enjoy seeing all these founders and their different ideas take off.”
When Keenan came to Syracuse, he immediately felt a connection with the LaunchPad. “I remember stopping in and at the time they didn’t have room for employment but I wanted to keep in touch.” Luckily, Keenan was able to connect with current LaunchPad program manager Sam Hollander who connected him to an open position as a Global Media fellow running marketing and managing the team’s social media. He is also the incredibly talented and patient behind the scenes guru who pulls the LaunchPad weekly news blasts together — typically on crazy deadlines.
“I’ve really enjoyed the community here and being a part of people’s entrepreneurial journey. The people I’ve met here are super nice and awesome.” Keenan is also excited by the applicability of the skills as well as the networking he’s experiencing at the Launchpad.
He says, “Understanding the social media landscape is really important and doing it on the business side is essential for any marker. I’ve also really enjoyed meeting so many people and feeling deeply rooted in the entrepreneurial community. I am hopeful these connections will help build my career path.”
Story by Jack Lyons ‘22, LaunchPad Global Fellow; photos and graphics supplied