Tuesday, I joined Charles Buhler and Matt Nishiguchi, the founders of inLife (www.inLife.co), for a quick tour of the LaunchPad accelerator and a visit with Sam Teller.  The quick takeaways….the space is very cool, and Sam has more energy than any other 3 people I know.

First, the space.  Very Santa Monica…you enter off the alley, follow a series of miniature signs to find the space and Sam.  They are giving you an intelligence test before you even meet.  If you can’t follow the clues, well……   Kidding aside, its an airy space filled with very focused people who are obviously working hard.  And you are (literally) two blocks from the beach and just off the Third Street Promenade.

The inLife team then gave Sam Teller, the Managing Director of LaunchPad, their elevator pitch, and he fired questions back at them.  inLife is a place to book fun things to do in your city….in Santa Barbara, they have kayak trips, wine tasting, yoga, happy hours, etc.   And yes, they really can book paddle yoga.  Sam had a rapid-fire series of questions about techology, marketing, and competitive differentiation.  He had enough depth of knowledge to seriously debate various alternatives in each area, and make useful suggestions.  This wasn’t a one way quiz…Sam was very collegial, and made a real effort to get the founders to focus on specific issues and their resolution.  The team went away smiling, but thoughtful. 

Based on this quick visit, I’d say LaunchPad is adding real value for entrepreneurs and is a great addition to the LA tech ecosystem.