Kedreon Cole, LaunchPad City<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nKedreon Cole, Director of Esports at LaunchPad City<\/strong>\u00a0said:\u00a0<\/span>“People who consider themselves ecosystem builders believe that Frisco and the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area will become a major esports hub that continues to attract top business talent and large capital investments in the space over the next few years.”<\/span><\/p>\n
The Stadia\/LaunchPad accelerator will receive around 300+ applicants for the fall cohort and of those only 10 will be invited to Frisco for a “Shark Tank style” panel with veteran esports professionals and experts. From then, about five will be chosen to participate. The accelerator itself will last 14 weeks and aside from investing $100,000 (\u00a375,300) into each company Stadia will provide business development advice, assist with market strategies, financial modeling and assistance from mentors to learn how to take their product to the next level.<\/span><\/p>\n
When the 14 weeks are completed, each startup “graduates”, but companies aren’t simply sent out into the world on their own. Stadia continues to support them with resources and mentorship after the accelerator ends.<\/span><\/p>\n
Hayden told Esports Insider no company really leaves the Stadia Ventures family: <\/span>“I’m Italian so what we tell all of our accelerator companies ‘once you’re in the family, you don’t really leave [laughs].<\/span><\/p>\n
“Our goal is to get them to an area where they can move on to the next phase of their life. We have an entire alumni program that’s setup with a full staff and our network is always open to them even after graduation. We do road shows around the country where all the companies in our portfolio can interact.\u00a0 We’ve been around for about two and a half years and we’ve already had two successful exits which usually take around four to five years.”<\/span><\/p>\n
Esports investments are announced ever so often now, and there are still companies with potentially groundbreaking ideas looking to break into the space but without the capital or means to do so. As Stadia Ventures and LaunchPad City use the same model from their traditional sports accelerators in the past, the forthcoming esports cohort will be a welcome opportunity for these unknown companies.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Who knows, the next big esports company might just emerge out of this very program.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
How does an esports company get its footing? A simple question with an infinite amount of possibilities. Venture capital firm,\u00a0Stadia Ventures is hoping to answer that for startups entering the esports space.\u00a0\u00a0 Based in St. Louis, Missouri, Stadia currently holds accelerators (incubators) for startups focused on traditional sports. During these accelerators the firm not only … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":15744,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","esi_template":"default","excluded":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15023,50,15024,55,106,240,53],"tags":[40,2422],"class_list":["post-15643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-features","category-financial","category-esports-titles","category-latest-news","category-north-america","category-opinion","tag-esports","tag-feature"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLaunchPad City and Stadia Ventures hold incubator for esports startups<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"LaunchPad City and Stadia Ventures are partnering to hold an esports incubator in Frisco, Texas to support startups interested in entering the esports space\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2018\/06\/launchpad-city-stadia-ventures-incubator\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"LaunchPad City and Stadia Ventures hold incubator for esports startups\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"LaunchPad City and Stadia Ventures are partnering to hold an esports incubator in Frisco, Texas to support startups interested in entering the esports space\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2018\/06\/launchpad-city-stadia-ventures-incubator\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Esports Insider\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-06-26T18:29:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Screenshot-2018-06-25-at-8.21.22-AM-e1529933001301.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1008\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"440\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lydia Mitrevski\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@esportsinsider\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@esportsinsider\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lydia Mitrevski\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2018\/06\/launchpad-city-stadia-ventures-incubator#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2018\/06\/launchpad-city-stadia-ventures-incubator\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lydia Mitrevski\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#\/schema\/person\/cef73c9eebf30e61eed303d66396c517\"},\"headline\":\"LaunchPad City and Stadia Ventures hold incubator for esports startups\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-06-26T18:29:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-06-26T18:29:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2018\/06\/launchpad-city-stadia-ventures-incubator\"},\"wordCount\":829,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2018\/06\/launchpad-city-stadia-ventures-incubator#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Screenshot-2018-06-25-at-8.21.22-AM-e1529933001301.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Esports\",\"feature\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Education\",\"Features\",\"Financial\",\"Games\",\"Latest News\",\"North America\",\"Opinion\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2018\/06\/launchpad-city-stadia-ventures-incubator\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2018\/06\/launchpad-city-stadia-ventures-incubator\",\"name\":\"LaunchPad City and Stadia Ventures hold incubator for esports startups\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2018\/06\/launchpad-city-stadia-ventures-incubator#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2018\/06\/launchpad-city-stadia-ventures-incubator#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Screenshot-2018-06-25-at-8.21.22-AM-e1529933001301.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-06-26T18:29:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-06-26T18:29:44+00:00\",\"description\":\"LaunchPad City and Stadia Ventures are partnering to hold an esports incubator in Frisco, Texas to support startups interested in entering the esports space\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2018\/06\/launchpad-city-stadia-ventures-incubator#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2018\/06\/launchpad-city-stadia-ventures-incubator\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2018\/06\/launchpad-city-stadia-ventures-incubator#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Screenshot-2018-06-25-at-8.21.22-AM-e1529933001301.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Screenshot-2018-06-25-at-8.21.22-AM-e1529933001301.png\",\"width\":1008,\"height\":440},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2018\/06\/launchpad-city-stadia-ventures-incubator#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"LaunchPad City and Stadia Ventures hold incubator for esports startups\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/\",\"name\":\"Esports Insider\",\"description\":\"Definitive source for everything esports business\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Esports Insider\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/esi_logo_white.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/esi_logo_white.jpg\",\"width\":900,\"height\":900,\"caption\":\"Esports Insider\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/x.com\/esportsinsider\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#\/schema\/person\/cef73c9eebf30e61eed303d66396c517\",\"name\":\"Lydia Mitrevski\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/16aed7bb8897c8aed2a3ae32843fcaea?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/16aed7bb8897c8aed2a3ae32843fcaea?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Lydia Mitrevski\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/author\/lydia-mitrevski\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"LaunchPad City and Stadia Ventures hold incubator for esports startups","description":"LaunchPad City and Stadia Ventures are partnering to hold an esports incubator in Frisco, Texas to support startups interested in entering the esports space","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2018\/06\/launchpad-city-stadia-ventures-incubator","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"LaunchPad City and Stadia Ventures hold incubator for esports startups","og_description":"LaunchPad City and Stadia Ventures are partnering to hold an esports incubator in Frisco, Texas to support startups interested in entering the esports space","og_url":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2018\/06\/launchpad-city-stadia-ventures-incubator","og_site_name":"Esports Insider","article_published_time":"2018-06-26T18:29:44+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1008,"height":440,"url":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Screenshot-2018-06-25-at-8.21.22-AM-e1529933001301.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Lydia Mitrevski","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@esportsinsider","twitter_site":"@esportsinsider","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Lydia Mitrevski","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2018\/06\/launchpad-city-stadia-ventures-incubator#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2018\/06\/launchpad-city-stadia-ventures-incubator"},"author":{"name":"Lydia Mitrevski","@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#\/schema\/person\/cef73c9eebf30e61eed303d66396c517"},"headline":"LaunchPad City and Stadia Ventures hold incubator for esports startups","datePublished":"2018-06-26T18:29:44+00:00","dateModified":"2018-06-26T18:29:44+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2018\/06\/launchpad-city-stadia-ventures-incubator"},"wordCount":829,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2018\/06\/launchpad-city-stadia-ventures-incubator#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Screenshot-2018-06-25-at-8.21.22-AM-e1529933001301.png","keywords":["Esports","feature"],"articleSection":["Education","Features","Financial","Games","Latest News","North America","Opinion"],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2018\/06\/launchpad-city-stadia-ventures-incubator","url":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2018\/06\/launchpad-city-stadia-ventures-incubator","name":"LaunchPad City and Stadia Ventures hold incubator for esports startups","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2018\/06\/launchpad-city-stadia-ventures-incubator#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2018\/06\/launchpad-city-stadia-ventures-incubator#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Screenshot-2018-06-25-at-8.21.22-AM-e1529933001301.png","datePublished":"2018-06-26T18:29:44+00:00","dateModified":"2018-06-26T18:29:44+00:00","description":"LaunchPad City and Stadia Ventures are partnering to hold an esports incubator in Frisco, Texas to support startups interested in entering the esports space","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2018\/06\/launchpad-city-stadia-ventures-incubator#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2018\/06\/launchpad-city-stadia-ventures-incubator"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2018\/06\/launchpad-city-stadia-ventures-incubator#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Screenshot-2018-06-25-at-8.21.22-AM-e1529933001301.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Screenshot-2018-06-25-at-8.21.22-AM-e1529933001301.png","width":1008,"height":440},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2018\/06\/launchpad-city-stadia-ventures-incubator#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"LaunchPad City and Stadia Ventures hold incubator for esports startups"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/","name":"Esports Insider","description":"Definitive source for everything esports business","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#organization","name":"Esports Insider","url":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/esi_logo_white.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/esi_logo_white.jpg","width":900,"height":900,"caption":"Esports Insider"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/esportsinsider"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#\/schema\/person\/cef73c9eebf30e61eed303d66396c517","name":"Lydia Mitrevski","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/16aed7bb8897c8aed2a3ae32843fcaea?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/16aed7bb8897c8aed2a3ae32843fcaea?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Lydia Mitrevski"},"url":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/author\/lydia-mitrevski"}]}},"modified_by":"Sam Cooke","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}