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What is Launchpanion?

Launchpanion helps you start a viable business or social enterprise tailored to your needs. It's an AI mentor for startups, including social enterprises. Think of it as your AI launch companion. It can be used by people wanting to build a not-for-profit/charity or a traditional small business too.

Launchpanion was designed to help young and new entrepreneurs in particular by making it easier to start a successful business or social enterprise, especially those living in a rural or remote location where paid jobs or mentoring support might be hard to find.

It works by simplifying the decisions and processes down to just what you need at each stage of starting a business or social enterprise. Our mission is to help more young people start a business by making the processes and tools accessible. Anyone can use our tools to build a successful business.

I need a business idea. Can I use Launchpanion if I don't have an idea for a business yet?

Absolutely. A lot of people want to start a business but don't have an idea yet. It's really common! Working out your best business ideas is a process, and Launchpanion has tools designed for this exact scenario. Use our AI-enabled business idea generator tool to find ideas that work for YOU. Then use our business viability quiz to check if the idea is likely to work in your location.

What do I get with a free Launchpanion account?

You can use our free readiness quiz, whether or not you have signed up to a free Launchpanion account. If you do the quiz once logged in, you will be able to come back to your saved readiness report. Otherwise the quiz results won't be saved.

We definitely recommend using our readiness quiz to see where you might need to build your own skills and resources before you start. The most important skill to build is your 'grit' and determination to find a way to succeed. Check out our social media channels and our monthly newsletter for more help and support.

Our paid Launchpanion account gives you full access to the entire suite of tools to help you launch your own venture. You'll need to sign up to a free Launchpanion account first. Then you'll be able to get your paid account.

Who is the team behind Launchpanion?

Launchpanion is based in Australia. It was founded by New Zealander and social entrepreneur Christina Curley, especially to support new, young, and/or remote and rural entrepreneurs all around the world. Christina has worked in four countries so far and lived in five, with extensive experience in marketing, self-leadership training, community development and helping organisations solve tricky problems. Launchpanion is her fourth business after a decade spent working in her own social enterprises, and supporting others with theirs.

Christina started Launchpanion with a team of advisors to help her existing social enterprise clients, after noticing that the practical steps of starting a business can be very confusing for new entrepreneurs. She grew up in a family of serial entrepreneurs and knows what it's like to live with not much money on a farm in the middle of nowhere....

What's a social enterprise?

Businesses are increasingly being asked to justify their 'social contract' or reason to exist. The number of not-for-profit charities is growing rapidly, and competing for limited philanthropic funding or donations.

Social enterprises are a solution to both these challenges. These are businesses which exist to 'make a profit for good', aiming to make enough profit to keep the business going, and use the rest for 'social good'. Sometimes these are called 'social impact' businesses.

Why is Launchpanion focussed on business and social enterprise? What about charities and not-for-profit?

The traditional pathways to a 'good life' are no longer the safety net they were, so now is a great time to start a business! The internet has allowed people to share information, make money and new connections across the world. This means it's easier than ever for anyone across the world with a phone and an internet connection to start a business, and we want to help you be successful at it.

Launchpanion is different from most AI-enabled tools because it incorporates Christina's decade of knowledge working with and alongside others using Western alternate and social enterprise business models. Launchpanion works for not-for-profit and for-profit businesses, as well as social enterprise. So you can use Launchpanion if you just want to make some money for yourself and your family too, or you want to start a charity.

We've focussed on for-profit and social enterprise businesses because we believe this is where we can make the most impact in the world. The not-for-profit and/or charity models are struggling and increasingly less viable, because the sector as a whole is often largely sustained by unpaid volunteer labour. And we know that too many entrepreneurship courses worldwide only teach the 'hockey stick' business model. This model extracts value from communities and funnels it to the top. We believe social enterprise is the way forward.

Why are social enterprise business models important?

Social enterprise or social impact businesses are starting to become more well-known as people invent them and share them with the world. They allow us to be infinitely more creative than a traditional business in terms of how we use our business operations to help others.

We want to support more people to build socially-minded businesses that grow by spinning off related and new businesses, and spread the value across a community. (Christina has always called these offshoot businesses 'fractals'. It's interesting to see that other people are picking up the 'fractal' terminology too.)

There are also many indigenous business models (such as Māori business in Aotearoa New Zealand) which belong to those specific indigenous groups. Indigenous business models are also more likely to be classed in the Western frameworks as a social enterprise, because they often include 'triple bottom line reporting'. This means that they consider people, profit and planet in running their businesses.

Social impact or social enterprise business models are continually being developed. We want to encourage you to invent your own models too! It's still a developing field. If it's working for you and it's getting the outcomes you wanted, it's valid.