That Aha Moment
At LaunchSquad, I wear the hiring manager hat. I interview almost every candidate who walks in our door. Many candidates ask me about our name. LaunchSquad. Some folks like it. Some don’t. Some think it implies we just do launches or that we’re still just a very small firm. “Squad” seems to delineate a set, defined, and usually small number. The word has military roots, and in the U.S. Army, quick research shows that a Squad is generally 8 – 16 soldiers. We’re a bit bigger than that now, having just hired our 38th person. But the question remains: if we do a whole lot more than launches, and we’re bigger than a Squad, why the name?
The truth is that when we started the company, the name fit like a glove. We were three folks initially, then four when I joined in 2001, and we focused on bringing new companies to market. Today, while we still focus on bringing new companies to market, our name is very much a metaphor for what we do and what fuels us. We are a tight-knit team. We are fast moving. We have a lot of kinetic energy. And we love new ideas. Disruption. Entrepreneurs. Doing new things. In short, a launch squad.
I’ve been at LaunchSquad for almost eight years now, and the second question I almost always get in interviews is: Why do you love your job? My answer, which ironically almost never changes, is “change.” Every day is different. Things are coming at me from a thousand different directions and my job, when I do it well, is to look for the patterns, the ideas, the trends, and figure out where and how our clients’ stories can play a role, hopefully a leading one. In short, I’m looking for that aha moment, where it’s crystal clear that we’re onto a great story.
Our “squad” is in the middle of one of these moments now. We just launched a phenomenal company called Brightstorm. They have an online learning network for teens consisting of a series of video-based courses covering a variety of subjects such as history, geometry and SAT prep; and the team behind the company are all profoundly passionate about what they are doing, which if it all goes as planned, will massively impact how young people learn.
We’ve been working with Brightstorm for about two months now and have loved every minute of it. My mother was a high school English teacher for 25 years at a public school in Massachusetts, so the art of good teaching is near and dear to me. Brightstorm is trying to bring the best teachers to students everywhere and give millions of learners that aha moment.
With a company like Brightstorm, we have aha moments on top of aha moments. When our team/squad first dug into the Brighstorm story, our own minds began sending out those adrenaline-fueled signals saying: “Great story. Great story. Great story.” And then you dig a little deeper and you realize, here’s a company that’s also trying to change the world. Disrupt current models. Try fundamentally new things. And all at blazingly fast speed. That’s what we live for. That’s why I get excited to come to work every day.
The newest question that keeps coming up in candidate interviews is how will the current economic crisis affect our business. To paraphrase Steve Jobs from Apple’s earnings call this week, your next door neighbor is as likely to forecast the economy as a LaunchSquad executive. But at the core, we believe there is no shortage of aha moments to be had. Downturns and slowdowns can foster and feed innovation as well as hinder it. The economics may change, but the need for good ideas and stories won’t ever go away, and the role of PR as a facilitator and seeker of interesting stories is needed more than ever. Despite all the turmoil surrounding the business world, I feel very good about that.
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marvin throckmorton