Dozens gathered in support of entrepreneurship and research Tuesday at Happy Valley LaunchBox in State College.

The event, hosted by Representative Glenn Thompson, was an opportunity for new small business hopefuls to share their stories and insights and to put their product out there.

Since Happy Valley LaunchBox opened its doors earlier this year, it has served as a hub for aspiring entrepreneurs.

“LaunchBox is amazing. It started out with just Kenny and I, and an idea,” Andrew Simpson said.

Simpson and his team are working on an app called “Someonew,” which will launch next month. Their goal is to connect strangers through technology.

“All you have to do is download the app and then when you enter a close proximity of someone who shares one or more of your interests, then you both get a push notification letting you know what you have in common,” Simpson, Co-Founder of Someonew, said. “It’s easy to jump right into conversation.”

It’s a business, they hope, will grow into a multi-million dollar company.

“I don’t say that with arrogance, I say that with confidence in the people who we’re surrounding ourselves with and the movements that we’re making,” Simpson said.

Representative Glenn Thompson wants to encourage other eager entrepreneurs like Simpson to help grow Pennsylvania’s economy.

“To hear about the teams that they’ve put together and to meet their teams, to see how they’ve taken things that were ideas and they’re really moving toward commercializing them, moving toward moving them into the marketplace, that’s good for the economy, that’s good for jobs, financially,” Thompson said. “Many of the things that they’re working on are solving problems that we have been dealing with and struggling with for some time.”