Laurie Stach ’06 founded Launch X in 2012 to help high school students build real companies through an intensive summer program. Even as a teenager, Stach had a “crazy ambition to take on the world and solve problems.” At MIT, she noticed traditional education wasn’t preparing youth for real-world impact. Students form teams, identify a problem, and build an actual product or service, often generating preorders or revenue before the four-week program ends.

Stach majored in mechanical engineering at MIT and earned her MBA from Harvard Business School in 2011. She ran the first summer program on MIT’s campus in 2013 with 30 students, and it “kind of snowballed.” Launch X now serves about 500 students per year across in-person and online programs. Read more at www.technologyreview.com/alumni-profiles.