Welcome! If you’re reading this, you may have an idea for how to make improvements in the youth sexual health space. You may not know whether your idea can become a viable, functioning thing. You may be wondering whether Launch Innovation Accelerator is right for you. I can imagine the questions you currently have—because I was once in your shoes.

I’m the co-founder and Executive Director of OkaySo, a nonprofit using technology to build a space where young people can have honest conversations about sex, relationships, and identity with experts they can trust. At OkaySo, we create safe spaces, enabling young people to be their authentic selves. Since launch, we’ve had over 14,000 conversations with people across the United States. 

My co-founder and I created OkaySo after realizing we wanted to use technology to help improve public health, specifically by helping young people feel safe while reducing stigma and misinformation. We explored and built upon our ideas by participating in an incubator and two different accelerators. Having now been a part of three programs that are similar to Launch, I can confidently say this model can push innovative ideas to the next level. These programs helped us grow OkaySo from little more than an idea to a functioning solution where we could actually talk to young people.

Now, over two years after graduating from my last accelerator, I’m also part of the faculty for Launch Innovation Accelerator. I know the accelerator model has huge benefits, and I’m excited to be on the other side of it, helping teams advance their innovations and watching them learn important lessons that will help them be more successful.

During our first accelerator, we learned to fight against perfectionism in favor of getting features to people more quickly. We had the idea that it would be valuable for people using OkaySo to read the conversations that other people had—and in order to do this, we needed to get users’ consent to share their stories and conversations. We initially wanted to build an entire op-in feature complete with a push notification and a check box, but then accelerator staff helped us see that we could simply ask for their permission in the same space where the conversation took place.

This shift was key because it allowed us to test our idea. We tracked how many people agreed to share their stories, and eventually the data showed that enough people were interested, so building the opt-in feature would be worthwhile—eventually. However, without testing, we could have just as easily come to the realization that very few people wanted to share—after wasting the time to build a feature that did not get much use. 

During our time with accelerators, we also learned what it would take to make OkaySo a sustainable company. We had the opportunity to work with executive coaches who taught us about best practices to hire top talent, as well as soft skills like how to build a company culture and manage a team.  

The connections we made within our cohorts were also invaluable. Not only did we get connected to funders, but we also met so many founders who really understood the path we were on because they were also living it. Even today, more than two years after wrapping up our last accelerator, we still lean on the Slack community created for accelerator alumni. It’s been a huge support to have that network of people who have experienced similar challenges. 

One of the most important things an innovator can have is someone who’s been there—someone who understands that building something from the ground up can be an emotional rollercoaster with exciting highs and frustrating pitfalls. These people can help new innovators understand that what they are experiencing is normal and can help motivate them to continue working on their ideas. Through the accelerators I participated in, I found plenty of these people to be in my corner. I can’t wait to do the same for innovation teams that participate in Launch. I’m excited to cheer them on and help them find tools so they can weather the harder times and keep innovating.