Episode
The Fund That Creates the Founders It Invests In | Alan Blakeborough, Launchpad Ignite Fund
- Podcast
- Top Decile Podcast
- Published
- Jun 1, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 1521
- Processing state
not_requested
Actions
POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/top-decile-podcast-7851283/episodes/the-fund-that-creates-the-founders-it-invests-in-alan-blakeborough-launchpad-ignite-fund/transcription-requests
Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/top-decile-podcast-7851283/the-fund-that-creates-the-founders-it-invests-in-alan-blakeborough-launchpad-ignite-fund.md
Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.
Summary
Alan Blakeborough is a military veteran and 35-year serial entrepreneur who built startup accelerator Launchpad after discovering South Carolina had no support system for tech founders. People were leaving for Atlanta, Charlotte, and Austin just to find a community. Now he's running the Launchpad Ignite Fund, which primarily invests in companies that stay on after graduating the accelerator. We get into why South Carolina's manufacturing culture creates a blind spot for tech founders, how Alan is converting local real estate investors into their first VC checks, and why the fund's Opportunity Zone status offers a tax advantage no other tech fund has figured out.