By JOHN INGOLDSBY|Engagement Insider
NORWOOD, MA April 23, 2014 – Ty Law has “launched” his NEXT career, and little did he know when we was jumping pass routes as an All-Pro cornerback, that jumping would become a burgeoning business empire for him.
In catapulting to four locations in less than 18 months, Law’s “Launch” trampoline parks are now flying high and expanding beyond New England to the Mid-Atlantic States.
To oversee this expansion, the former Patriot has called upon the knowledge he gained at NFL Player Engagement’s Business Management & Entrepreneurial Program at Harvard in 2008, and just as importantly, the faculty connections he made then that are still helping him now.
“I was always fascinated by business, and wanted to create my own so I could do what I wanted to do while giving back to the community,” said the newest finalist just nominated to the Patriots Hall of Fame. “The NFL program at Harvard was a huge help in teaching me how I should look at business, and how they make money, and when I saw the opportunity to perfect the trampoline park concept, I said ‘this is me.’”
But the Aliquippa, Pennsylvania product didn’t just learn and leave at Harvard, he connected.
“The relationships I built there became integral to my future, and I went back there to bounce ideas off Harvard Business School faculty members whom I got to know, and one was from my hometown and another was a former Patriots executive.”
It was ideas early on, but became business plans later.
“That experience at Harvard helped me with my business plan, particularly having Harvard faculty review my strategy, and I certainly consider their expertise a blessing as I transition to life after football,” said the 15-year NFL veteran.
But expertise is only as valuable as the idea to which it is applied, and for Law, the light bulb went off early.
“I bought a trampoline for my children to use in the backyard, and I simply could not get them off it,” said the University of Michigan alumnus. “This struck me, since we had other toys that they tired of quickly and never touched again.”
That was the beginning, and then there was a breakthrough.
“My son had a birthday coming up, and he wanted to go to a trampoline park, so he told me about one in the area, and I thought “cool, let’s check it out. So I took him to it, and the businessman in me thought ‘Wow,’” he recalled.
That wow moment then just grew from there.
“My head just started spinning, and since I was searching for something at that time, I decided to do some research to see how popular these parks were, and started visiting different facilities,” he exclaimed. “I liked what I saw, and considered buying a franchise, but none captured what I thought they could be, so I started my own company.”
The rest, as they say, is history.
“I called a business partner, who said, ‘if you do it, I’m in,” and we went ahead with our game plan of wanting to start something from scratch and do something special,” said Law.
What he created is indeed something special, as this writer witnessed on a frigid New England Sunday when visiting the Norwood, Massachusetts location (www.launchnorwood.com). Located just a long Tom Brady pass down Route 1 from Gillette Stadium, overflow crowds were literally bouncing off the walls in the ultra-high energy atmosphere.
“We created our own concept that would get the kids off the couch while keeping the parents happy as well by offering a family experience, featuring Wi-Fi, food such as pizza and Pepsi, TV, music, and an arcade for kids waiting to use the trampolines,” stated Law.
Opened in December, 2013, Norwood joins Law’s other “Launch” locations in Warwick, Rhode Island, Hartford, Connecticut, and Nashua, New Hampshire.
NEXT up, the Mid-Atlantic States, where Law has been scouting potential parks in the Philadelphia and New York areas.
If history holds, Law’s leap into this new region will lift off like it did in New England.
“As I learned playing in the NFL, it’s all about the experience, which is exactly what we have created with ‘Launch,’” emphasized Law.