Agenda - 06-21-2016 - 5-k - Contract Amendment to the Existing Interlocal Agreement between Orange County and the Town of Chapel Hill for the “LAUNCH Chapel Hill” Small Business Incubator

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Attachment 1 4 4611111111111111 11111111111111111111 munge .10 111111 1111111 1111111 0111 1111111 1111111 MEMORANDUM To: Orange County Board of Commissioners Orange County Manager's Office From: Dina Rousset Program Manager-LAUNCH Chapel Hill &Associate Director, Center for Entrepreneurial Studies University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Kenan-Flagler Business School Subject: Launch Chapel Hill Funding Request Date: June 8, 2016 Overview and Accomplishments In early 2012 members of the Becker family and UNC's Kenan-Flagler business school began discussing the idea of a student business incubator at UNC. In May 2012 this was formalized into a proposal that was followed by commitments from UNC's Chancellor's office, the Town of Chapel Hill, Orange County and a Chapel Hill digital marketing company (3 Birds) to establish Launch Chapel Hill. The stated mission at the time was to "serve as a physical space where students and recent graduates come together with the broader entrepreneurial community to engage in innovation and entrepreneurial efforts. The high-profile space will offer resources to innovators and entrepreneurs who do not have a natural home in a specific campus unit and will serve as a common facility that celebrates and supports our campus wide innovation culture." Four years later Launch Chapel Hill is a best-in-class accelerator program serving students, faculty, staff and the wider community. Launch Chapel Hill has delivered on each of the objectives set in the original proposal as well as on many other important objectives of the Town Of Chapel Hill, Orange County and UNC. Launch has been lauded as a major success by the town and county, by UNC, by the local and regional press and also by UBI Global, the leading global agency that ranks university incubators and accelerators. In their biannual ranking released in November 2015 UBI Global ranked Launch Chapel Hill as the 4th best University based accelerator in North America. To date, Launch Chapel Hill has served 55 companies and every six months accepts another 8 to 10 companies into the program. The vast majority of these companies remain in business. Almost all businesses have received outside funding and are continuing to build their companies. Total funding is approaching $10 million. These companies have also contributed to enhancing the student learning experience at UNC by hiring interns, presenting in classes and offering project based learning opportunities to students at both the undergraduate and graduate level. The companies are also moving back out into the community leasing space and adding jobs. As more