BC Business
Managing Director
AGE: 26
COMPANY: Launch Academy
“Six years and one acquired company later, Chuang has moved on to preaching that entrepreneurial zeal in his role as managing director of Launch Academy”
The Story: When the class average in Alexander Chuang’s third-year UBC biology class unexpectedly crept upward, his professor became suspicious; after a warning email, Chuang ceased his early foray into selling notes. Six years and one acquired company later, Chuang has moved on to preaching that entrepreneurial zeal in his role as managing director of Launch Academy, a Vancouver co-working space for startups. Chuang knows startup life well. He went through each stage, from schmoozing investors to tweaking software to hammering out a revenue model, when he founded Weeve.it, which bills itself as a “kickstarter for nonprofits,” at age 23. After Weeve.it was acquired for an undisclosed sum, Chuang moved on to Launch Academy, where he has put his own lessons to work.
Markers of success: Under Chuang’s tenure, Launch Academy has helped 225 companies establish themselves and has increased the organization’s revenues from $2,500 to $45,000 a month. Its portfolio companies, which pay fees as Launch Academy members, have raised a total of $28 million from investors. —Jacob Parry