There’s been a lot of attention devoted to the start-up scene in the Lansing area over the last few years. New ideas and talent have been welcomed and nurtured at incubators like Lansing’s NEO Center and East Lansing’s Technology Innovation Center, or TIC. Early next year, The Runway, an incubator for fashion designers, opens in the old Knapps Department store building downtown.
Tonight at the Broad Art Museum, there’s a celebration of all this local innovation and entrepreneurialism. The event, called LAUNCHED, is in its fifth year. But this is the first year they’ve partnered with The Hatch, a student-business incubator in East Lansing, to hand out $10,000 in seed money to one local start-up. Nick Chilenko is the co-founder of the event and founder of Nicholas Creative, a local web design firm. Jeff Smith is the director of the new economy division at the Lansing Economic Area Partnership. The pair joined Current State to discuss the event.
