Launch House: far from a home

Is networking really worth it? (Photo: Vox)

Picture this: a bunch of charismatic and tech-savvy 20- and 30-somethings living in a cushy mansion in an upscale city. And no, it’s not a pitch for an upcoming reality TV show like The Apprentice, The Hype House, or Shark Tank. 

However, with all the business dealings and drama happening under this $12.9 million estate, it might as well be. 

The hard launch

Launch House was co-founded by Jacob Peters, Michael Houck, and Brett Goldstein after the three moved into a rental house together to kick off their own startup. This little experiment paid homage to old-school Silicon Valley hacker houses, where aspiring tech CEOs could share living spaces with fellow entrepreneurs. 

“The goal was to recreate Silicon Valley magic,” Houck said. And eventually, other tech buffs wanted in on the action.

Launch House is the 2020s version of the hacker house; it is both a social club and an incubator for startup founders to decentralize venture capitalism, network in digital spaces, and democratize the internet (i.e. crypto economy, the metaverse, and Web3).

There are only two ways into the Launch House: a $1,000 annual membership fee or a one-time-big-time $3,000 fee for month-long admission to the Beverly Hills mansion with other young tech founders.

What attracts so many up-and-coming entrepreneurs are the networking opportunities that are deemed far more valuable than what traditional college degrees provide. By building knowledge communities, tech founders don’t need to create products, they just need to make the right connections. 

But after a year of operations at the Launch House mansions, maybe tech entrepreneurs should think twice about the circles they run in.

Burning down the house

An unsupervised mansion with young risk-takers and thrill-chasers? You know that’s just asking for trouble.

Former Launch House member Kevin—who wished to go by this pseudonym—recounted an incident wherein his fellow cohort member was found unconscious in his room, barely breathing. As he and the rest of the cohort were mortified, Goldstein boasted about landing two fintech TikTokers for their New York cohort and ordered Thai food 30 minutes later. He obviously didn’t read the room. 

If cohort members’ safety was out of the window, so was their security. Members cited that the bedroom locks never worked and visitation policies were rarely followed. Random people often showed up at the mansion claiming to know someone affiliated with the company. More often than not, “as long as they were hot or had a lot of followers,” they were allowed to enter according to cohort members. 

Not sketchy at all, especially with both women and men living under the Beverly Hills roof.

Speaking of women in tech, Launch House did everything but empower women. A female member who wished to remain anonymous reported overhearing her male housemate saying “disgusting things” about what he wanted to do to his female housemates. 

Words turned into action when in April 2021, several Launch House members harassed  a female cohort—who we’ll call Jessica—during an alcohol-fueled outing on a party bus. Goldstein and Peters sent home only one of the many men who sexually harassed her. 

A few weeks later, Jessica attended the startup’s monthly gala, only to wake up on her bed without her tampon. She was pretty sure she was roofied, like many other women at the party. Multiple people reported seeing partygoers enter the bedroom where Jessica was unconscious. I think you can put two and two together.

In the name of innovation

While Launch House’s goal to democratize tech and to make the world a digitally-better place is ideal, the startup creators forego plenty of regulations and conventions to achieve this goal.

Yet many people who witnessed and who were victims of these incidents saw past the project’s and its founders’ shortcomings. There seems to be this ongoing rhetoric that as long as you are brilliant, you have a free pass to be, pardon my French, an *sshole.

Big tech bad boys like Zuckerberg, Musk, and Bezos get off the hook with their more than questionable practices, while people like you and me continue to make them some of the richest and most powerful people in the world.

And this insufferable genius trope is not exclusive to the tech landscape. You don’t have to look farther than your political leaders, your favorite celebrities, or even figures of authority at home or work. The general public often forgives talented and intelligent people for, well, forgetting the basic human principle of ethics in the name of progress.

I, for one, am a firm believer that being a genius and being a good person are not mutually exclusive. So to those who continue to make excuses for the questionable people they admire, I implore you to reevaluate your choices. Because there’s more to people than fame, flair, and fortune.