The LaunchPad extends a special thank you to George Dawson ’08 who made a special trip from Techstars headquarters in Boulder, Colorado to join us and speak at a Fireside Chat this past weekend. As Techstars Fund Controller, Dawson leads Techstars’ fund and investment finance team which oversees 50+ venture capital funds and internal investment vehicles, and a portfolio of approximately 4,000 investments. He was so generous of his time with SU student innovators, and helped inspire other alumni and SU parents to step up and become mentors as part of a festive corporate leaders event. As the Blackstone LaunchPad powered by Techstars at SU has grown exponentially over the past three years, our next goal is building out a mentor team to assist with capacity-building, using the Techstars mentor-driven model. We are grateful to Dawson and the Techstars team for helping grow our ecosystem and inspiring others to #GiveFirst — and build a network to help student entrepreneurs succeed.