Jake Hare presented himself as someone dedicated to helping aspiring entrepreneurs build successful startups. People invested thousands of dollars—many through a lending company affiliated with the program—in hopes of receiving the guidance needed to turn their ideas into reality.
The incubator consisted of video lessons that walked participants through the startup process, from securing a domain name to preparing an investor pitch. For many first-time founders, this was one of the few opportunities to receive structured startup education and mentorship.
After the company announced it was filing for bankruptcy, participants were told the courses would remain available until they completed them. Within about a week, however, the courses disappeared, and no one could reach Jake Hare or his team.
Many people invested heavily because, contrary to popular opinion, millions of mentors are not waiting to help founders they don’t know. I trusted this program to help me build my startup, and instead I was left thousands of dollars in debt with no access to the education that had been promised.
DO NOT TRUST OR SPEND A DIME OF YOUR MONEY WITH ANY COMPANY OR SCHEME JAKE HARE CREATES NEXT. HE IS A FRAUD!!!!!!! This happened back in around November 2022-February 2023 .
By Darryl V.
COMPANY FILED BANKRUPTCY
COMPANY FILED BANKRUPTCY AND JAKE HARE GHOSTED WITH $25k of my funds…
DO NOT TRUST JAKE HARE
By Dean K.
LP BANKRUPT!! FOUNDERS LOSE!!
On January 27th, 2023, only four days after Mr. Hood’s review on the 23rd, Mr Jake Hare, CEO of LaunchPeer sent an unexpected email declaring that Launchpeer was electing bankruptcy.
This meant that me, and dozens of others have lost all the coaching, calls, support, insight, reframing, or whatever was supposed to come to us when we paid an entry fee ranging between $10k-$15k to get into the program.
All of the human factor that made the fee into Launchpeer suddenly went up in smoke. An employee there had explained to me in a private email that he and the rest of the staff were laid off suddenly.
I have since lodged complaints with the BBB, the South Carolina Dept of Consumer Affairs, and the Federal Trade Commission for the collective damage done to the non-technical founders relying on a seemingly safe, stable-if-not-growing, 8-year old company and the fee-for-service agreement we had was reliable.
To say this is a disappointment is an understatement. I can’t speak for others but when I learned of LP’s closure, that loss, equating to a third of my annual income, had been wiped away as if it never existed… it became a driver to my own mental unwellness. My husband and the community members who donated to my effort to cover Launchpeer’s fee have remained faithful in me nonetheless. A grace that I am immensely grateful for.
Still, it’s not even more upon me to follow through somehow, now without what I paid for.
Shame on Jake Hare and his enabling attorneys. Y’all done us dirty!
By David A.
Lemon Salesmen (with no path to Lemonade)
Skeevy, had a call with one of their sales reps. Gave off a very used car salesman vibe. Very clearly prey on people who are not knowledgeable about the tech space to get people to give them money. Don't sign up!!! Everything they offer can be found elsewhere on the internet for free.
By Wesley T.
Response from Launchpeer· Dec 16, 2022
Hi Wesley, I apologize that you left your call with our team feeling this way.
I tried to take a peak into the call logs and see if I can pinpoint what might have gone wrong, but unfortunately did not see a call under your name.
What I can say is that Launchpeer is admittedly not for everyone, and we do not invite every applicant to move forward in the process unless we know that they have what it takes to be successful. We recognize that this process is hard and takes a certain kind of Founder.
We also recognize that a lot of what we teach here is readily available elsewhere on the internet. The value of Launchpeer is not found solely in the coursework, but it is also found in coaching and mentorship, a community of fellow founders who are eager to walk with you on this journey, partnerships with experts, and the guidance along the way.
We take the guess work out of getting started, defining your customer and offer, and getting yourself investor ready. We set our founders up with a path that we have laid out step by step.
Thank you for your interest in Launchpeer, and maybe in the future we will have the opportunity to work together!
Be very wary of launchpeer.
My experience at launchpeer was very disappointing. They continually overpromised and underdelivered. After paying the 10,000 I had to spend around another 2,000 dollars doing everything they told me to do with a website, facebook ads, and other weird programs I had to subscribe to. In the end they helped me as much as a good book would have, a book that cost me 12,000 dollars. I ran out of money and they did not refund me.
If you need launchpeer to start a company your not ready to start a company. If you are ready to start a company you don't need launchpeer. Buy a book instead.
Update: In the comment they offered to give me a refund if I would give them my information. When I reached out to them they refused to promise me a refund if my account checked out. Again overpromising and underdelivering.
Also, go over the 5 star reviews and notice how many of them were "invited" to do so. Also check out YELP, seems like those reviews are a more accurate representation of this company.
By Asher D.
Response from Launchpeer· Aug 10, 2022
Hi Asher! We'd love to help if we can. We guarantee the results of our program which is something no book would be able to do.
That said, we are unable to locate any record of you ever participating in our program (based on the first and last name you've used in your Trustpilot profile).
If you email [email protected] with your correct information so we can find you in our system, we'd be happy to issue you a refund.
Hope to hear from you soon!
This is a scam
****UPDATE TO RESPOND TO THEIR REPLY***
Original message: This is a scam. Don’t waste your time or money on this accelerator. I joined because I am a non-technical founder. When I was ready to move toward building my app, I had a call with Jake. He promised to get back to me within a week. I have followed up in the Launchpeer slack with him and email for two weeks and have not heard back.
The program is elementary, and you can get better support and information from other accelerators.
Update: Wow. I love how far Lanuchpeer will go out of their way and flat-out lie in their replies. Please take a look at how they attack every other negative review.
Take a lesson out of their own playbook, and to avoid future entrepreneurs from falling for this scam, I wanted to reply and provide documentation to expose the untruths in their reply.
First, I reached out to Jake because Jake has always been the point of contact on all my calls throughout the program. I was moved into a general incubator slack, so I reached out to him directly to determine what steps I needed to take to start building my app. We originally spoke on the phone on July 27. I was promised a reply by July 29th. There was no reply, so I followed up on the same message we used to coordinate our call on Aug 3rd and Aug 6th. I also decided to send an email follow-up on August 10th. Neither on Slack nor via an out-of-office on his email was there an indication Jake was out of the office, and I should reach out to someone else on the team.
Frustrated, I decided to visit this site to read the reviews to see if others experienced the same thing as me. Low and behold, others have. After several weeks of no response from the founder, I decided to share my experience.
Within hours of my Trustpilot review, Joseph from Launchpeer reached out. Also, at the same time, my access to Launchpeer slack was removed with no advanced warning or explanation. Joseph shared with me that Jake has been traveling since August 4th to explain his lack of response. However, that date is still a week after the original follow-up date provided by Jake. So the timelines don’t add up.
Additionally, I paid $5,000 to be a part of this program, which I had yet to finish. My access to the program was removed without cause, and my request for a refund has been completely ignored. In good faith, I even offer to remove my post so we could both move forward with goodwill. Instead, they chose to post this ridiculous reply.
I am happy to provide the physical exchanges to avoid future entrepreneurs from making the same mistake I did.
By Jonathan M.
Response from Launchpeer· Aug 14, 2021
Hi, Jonathan (and everyone else reading this review response). We like to be thorough in our responses so below we’ll outline our position below.
First, about us ‘attacking’ negative reviews, I won’t argue with that, although ‘attack’ is a strong word.
We have fewer negative reviews than we have years in business (we've been in business for 7 years), and when we do receive a negative review, we want others to know our point of view.
We always back these ‘attacks’ up with evidence and proof, which I’ll be doing below.
1. To your point about Launchpeer being a ‘scam’, I’d like to address that first.
You joined the program on January 28th. Not one time between January 28th and the time you originally left this review in early August did you ever mention being unhappy with the program or thinking it was a scam. It was actually quite the contrary, as evidenced below.
February 9th - Met with Jake to talk through fundraising. Followed up the next day asking for more feedback on your materials (an odd thing to do if we were a ‘scam’). Screenshot below (I’ve blocked out your Google Drive link to keep your privacy).
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1b2qdLehCS23d_1tAz-opm86jAPoNeA5E/view?usp=sharing
February 12th - Again, requested and booked a meeting with Jake to talk about fundraising, and shared more materials for review. Screenshot below (again, I’ve blocked out your Google Drive link).
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rAL2gAa7CgKEpdJicEXKvuXSDPfuTGoB/view?usp=sharing
February 22nd - Requested another call, and 2 days later requested funding documents from our team. Screenshot below.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/13nwuL_OZeTtehKOh8xAUe-DCUgD1NT4g/view?usp=sharing
March 25th - You stated you ‘loved’ the work our team did, approving it. Screenshot below.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NovXA74N4Jk0xQfFgBCvfBFqFToKqxwv/view?usp=sharing
March 29th - You formally approved the work our team did, again stating that it was ‘great’. Screenshots below.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FlY31rgy_mD7ClZTP4LQxyZNuUcKO4CB/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rj_pxcsfGtxFOW08OgSZsBj0F0MGkKGA/view?usp=sharing
Then, to further show how happy you were with the program, our team, and our process, on June 24th you reached out to inquire about hiring our team for a new, larger project. Screenshot below.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zQisNhg0Y3Tv9O8Vi_SAuVdoSli6q9FZ/view?usp=sharing
That would have been a very odd thing to do if our team was a ‘scam’.
After having that meeting, on Aug 3 you provided me the follow-up information our team needed in order to have our development team do the needed research to see if we can support that new project. Again, in this messaging, you were excited about moving forward with us and seeing if we had the capacity. Screenshot below.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iSOTvNGB1ZTObjj6Yv5-4qY8Fotio4bB/view?usp=sharing
The issue here is that it was the same day my family made arrangements to travel to visit family in California on short notice. Screenshot below:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HmbTipykN5hiSs8neC8oGYQeljBr-Y9J/view?usp=sharing
During my travels, you ended up direct messaging me personally in Slack on Aug 6th, and also emailing me once on August 10th (again stating how you were ‘eager’ to move forward). Screenshot below.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/11iwJdTQea3K9Eur4gHYfyrz474Gt69dv/view?usp=sharing
Normally this wouldn’t be an issue as I’m always willing to work one on one with our founders to help them (as evidenced by several screenshots above), but as I was out of town dealing with last minute family issues, I wasn’t able to respond.
But instead of reaching out to any number of other people on the team, posting in any other Slack channel, chatting in through our publicly available support widget on the site, attending a coaching call, etc, you instead decided to jump straight to writing your initial negative review on Aug 10.
We also outline all these support methods everywhere in the program, most recently before your review on July 28th. Screenshot below.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1v32DA2BFzaqyh99N7fmxyuTEyqELQa32/view?usp=sharing
We also send out weekly proactive surveys to everyone in the program so they can let us know if there are any issues they’re dealing with or things they need one on one help with (this is outlined at the bottom of the previous screenshot). We received no response from you on either the Aug 6th or 13th surveys. If we had, a team member would have reached out immediately.
Bottom line, help was available from any number of resources, but instead of tapping into it, you jumped to writing a negative review, calling us a scam, despite your actions above stating quite the contrary. Not receiving a response to 2 slack messages and an email over the course of 10 days doesn’t justify that, quite honestly.
2. To your point about removing you from the program, I’d like to address that as well.
Once our team was taken aback by your negative review, we decided it best to remove you from the community Slack workspace to ensure communications were kept private and we could address this one on one. We immediately reached out via email to address your concern. Screenshot below.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ft-H1RyEBr3tDzRyxrC3-Fpcwt_rU0rt/view?usp=sharing
Our team offered to coordinate a call with you on multiple occasions over the next week, but you refused each time, instead requesting a refund. You even went as far as to threaten us with a ‘worse review’ if we didn’t refund you. Screenshot below. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nhXd4IMjYpN13XTZmi2Mso7x376sWFkH/view?usp=sharing
Despite that, I wrote you on Aug 17 once I was back in town from traveling and offered to hop on a call, and continued to offer a call but you refused each time. Screenshot below.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OgytIswcsEvzqZILiL5FwJgQ7Ip2Vfnz/view?usp=sharing
After you continued to refuse that offer, I then gave you our final offer of adding you back into the program if you agreed to a phone call, but again you refused.
3. TL;DR
You say that we’re a scam, though from all your actions since you joined in January through until mid-August you never expressed that, and to the contrary seemed to enjoy and get a lot of value out of it. So much so that you wanted to hire us for another, higher-tier project.
You say that we’re a scam, but seem upset that you were removed from the program, and then when given an offer to get added back in with a simple call, you refuse that offer in favor of writing a negative review.
You say that we're a scam, but threaten us to make your 'negative review' worse if we don't offer you a refund, despite the fact that you completed the entire program to the point where you wanted to work with our team for a higher tier project.
It’s an interesting 180-degree turn to go from happy enough to hire us again, to thinking we’re a scam, because you didn’t receive a response to two private Slack messages and one email over a 10 day period despite not tapping into any other means of communication prior to writing a negative review. It truly has our team scratching their heads.
Our offer still stands, but regardless of what you decide to do, we wish you the best of luck in the future.
Launchpeer is a company that prays on…
Launchpeer is a company that prays on other peoples dreams and inexperience. The "videos" that I received were 30k foot views with almost no usable information. Jake is the most dishonest person you will ever meet. Look at the number of 1 and 2 star reviews that are posted from Yelp to Trustpilot. Thank god I only signed up for the video series and only got taken for $1000. I called Launchpeer within the first 30 days, but Jake still refused to refund my money for the absolutely worthless videos that they produced. I find it hard to believe that anyone watching the videos would then go ahead and hire Launchpeer to do any development. work. Read the reviews on this company people it is a total scam. Tell Launchpeer you will pay them 25% up front and 75% when the project is finished and Jake will run because their business model is based on selling you dreams of an app they can NOT deliver on. Once you pay Launchpeer any money you will have to sue them to get any funds back and they know it. I have had 2 other victim's reach out to me after reading my Yelp review both were totally scammed. I feel lucky that I only lost $1000 for worthless second rate videos that provided me with no help or useable knowledge whatsoever. I feel terrible for those new start ups that put their hopes, dreams and money with Launchpeer in hopes of delivering a usable product because it is never going to happen. I will continue to post reviews about Launchpeer in hopes of stopping them from making you their next victim. Run from this company as fast as you can it is a total scam and as you can see by the other "real" reviews a lot of people feel that way.
By Ed R.
Response from Launchpeer· Sep 15, 2020
Hello Ed! As evidenced by the only 5 negative reviews we've received over 6 years in business (averaging less than 1 negative review per year) others don't feel the same as you.
But we'll attempt to address your concerns nonetheless.
First, you are correct, you would have received a refund if you called within 30 days (we have a 30 day money back guarantee), but you were not refunded because you spent 6 months in our program (screenshot linked to below) and then asked for a refund after your startup was unsuccessful.
Unfortunately we can never guarantee the success of a startup (no one can), and anyone who wants us to do that should definitely go elsewhere.
Lastly, regarding our 'payment terms' where you state we would 'run' from a customer asking to pay 25% upfront and 75% on completion, we actually do better than that (which you would have seen if you stuck around); our customers pay bi-weekly as work is completed, so they would be able to stop paying during any two week period if they didn't feel work wasn't being done appropriately.
We definitely don't like getting negative reviews, but we understand it's part of doing business with so many startups and like mentioned before, if we weren't doing a good job for the number of startups we work with we would definitely be averaging more than just 1 negative review a year (as opposed to many more positive reviews).
Regardless, we wish you best of luck in your endeavors in the future and hope you find success in whatever you do!
Launchpeer failed to even call on the…
Launchpeer failed to even call on the scheduled time. At least you should have informed me that you will not call. I have received emails, reminders confirming the cheduled call. At least the start should be better than that)))
By Brandon H.
Response from Launchpeer· Jun 25, 2020
Hi Brandon! We did call twice at the scheduled time but unfortunately the call was not accepted. Our team also emailed you to let you know with a screenshot of the call history once we got this review. If you'd like to reschedule please reach out to [email protected] and we'd be happy to set up another time. Have a great day!
