Aaron Donegan was just about to graduate from Stony Brook University in 2022 when he got an email from Rich Kneller, a senior vice president at a start-up called RealTime Reservation, which has its corporate headquarters in Uniondale.
The email piqued the interest of the now 23-year-old Donegan, who lives in Wheatley Heights in Suffolk County.
“It’s a start-up and you can grow with the company,” said Donegan, who has been with RealTime – which helps put together vacation packages for travelers – for nearly two years now.
And, Donegan said, one of the things he likes best about RealTime is where it has an office – at LaunchPad in Huntington village.
RealTime is one of about 20 companies located at LaunchPad, a workspace in what, from the outside, looks like a nondescript building on Main Street.
But once inside, LaunchPad looks like anything but an ordinary place to do a day’s work.
An elevator takes a visitor to the second floor. One enters a large room with red-brick walls. There are several guitars sitting on a platform at the front of the room. There is also a ping-pong table and a small café with a stainless steel counter and stainless steel chairs. The room features high ceilings, skylights and wood floors. There are two conference rooms in the 8,700-square-foot space. There is also a fireplace, a stage with a podium, and a wireless microphone. There are DJ lights and a large, flat-screen television set.
LaunchPad is open 24-7, and people are known to walk in and work at all hours.
Welcome to the work world of the 21st century.
LaunchPad, which has been at the Huntington village location since 2014, attracts mostly start-ups, young people and entrepreneurs, said its director, Phil Rugile, who also runs a nonprofit, the Institute for Workforce Advancement, that used to be known as the Long Island Forum for Technology.
“The purpose of LaunchPad is to provide a low-cost, easy place in a nice environment,” Rugile told the Press. “It’s a place where you can cultivate ideas.”
For those who want just a desk for parking a laptop, Rugile said the cost is $239 a month in rent. A more permanent spot is $349 a month.
The number of companies at LaunchPad ebbs and flows, Rugile said. During the height of Covid three years ago, there were as many as 30 start-ups. People whose offices were closed wanted to get out of their homes, Rugile said, and LaunchPad was a convenient place.
LaunchPad is not the only workplace of its kind on Long Island. ListNet operates a facility in Plainview, called the Digital Ballpark, which hosts about 20 companies, many of them also start-ups.
The casual atmosphere of Launchpad appealed to Donegan, who graduated from Stony Brook in 2022. Jobs at big corporations, he said, held little appeal.
“You are replaceable there,” he said. “Here, I feel my job is super important.”
At Real Time, Donegan is a client success analyst. The company helps vacationers who are planning stays at resorts or hotels that offer variety shows, special events, or deals on skiing or other sports. Rather than the traveler going through the trouble of picking past what can be a large menu of events, Real Time puts a package together for them. Donegan’s job is to place a traveler with a package and then see that the traveler is happy with it.
There are only a few at Launchpad who are older than 30. But Bob Williams is one of them. Williams, 64, is an investor in biotechnology companies and a shareholder in some of them.
“I live in Huntington,” said Williams. “I like Huntington. This (Launchpad) serves my needs.”
