Recent Event Highlights: Entrepreneur Season Begins, N.O. is Coolest Startup City, Digital Connect Pitch, New Orleans Entrepreneur Week, Digital Connect Launches, IDEApitch Winners Meet VCs, and 19 more...
Created by theideavillage on Aug 16, 2011
Last updated: 09/27/11 at 12:56 PM
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Jen Medbery of Kickboard by Drop the Chalk is named to Inc. Magazine’s 30 Under 30.
http://www.inc.com/30under30/2011/profile-jennifer-schnidman-medbery-founder-of-drop-the-chalk.html
New Orleans is named #2 best city for jobs by Forbes.
William Kethman of NOvate Medical Technologies travels to San Francisco to meet with national venture capitalists as a result of winning NOEW 2011’s IDEApitch.
http://novatemedical.com/
NOLA Brewing Company receives a $390,000 loan from ASI Federal Credit Union to launch a canning line.
Pictured left: Kirk Coco, founder of NOLA Brewing, pitching during a Banker-Client meeting during the IVEC program.
http://www.nolabrewing.com/
The 2011 Entrepreneur Challenge class graduates at NOLA Brewing Company.
The New Orleans Startup Fund, a local angel investment fund, invests in 2012 Idea Village graduate, Kickboard by Drop the Chalk.
Inc.com names New Orleans the coolest startup city in America.
"...Katrina gave New Orleans another story to tell, and it's one that just may have a happy ending for the city's entrepreneurs. Each year from 2007 to 2009, 450 out of every 100,000 adults started up businesses in the New Orleans metro area, well above the national average of 320, and more than double the number six year ago."
http://www.inc.com/articles/201104/why-new-orleans-is-the-coolest-start-up-city-in-america.html
Each year, student teams from top business schools convene in New Orleans to partner with entrepreneurs from The Idea Village portfolio and provide strategic consulting on a catalytic business challenge. In the spirit of competition, the MBA teams present their recommendations to a panel of business and academic experts during IDEAcorps. The winning team receive the IDEAcorps trophy and a Louisiana-style crawfish boil hosted at their school. The Kellogg team, who partnered with Henry Albert’s Rare Cuts, is crowned 2011 IDEAcorps champions.
This investment pitch competition puts the 5 best New Orleans entrepreneurs, as selected by a nominating committee, up against each other in an American Idol-style contest complete with questions from a panel of national venture capitalists and audience voting. William Kethman of NOvate Medical Technologies wins, presenting SafeSnip, a product designed to reduce the possibility of infection when cutting the umbilical cord at birth.
Senator Mary Landrieu, Chair of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, hosts a roundtable dialogue on national best practices to seeding an entrepreneurial eco-system. Participants included local entrepreneurs and national entrepreneurial thought leaders.
Four Digital Connect clients participate in the program’s final pitch competition demonstrating what they have learned during the program. Gia Hamilton of Gris Gris Lab, a socially-minded company that produces cultural events, wins receiving $3,500 in seed capital and an All-in-One HP computer.
http://www.grisgrislab.com/
NanoFex, a Tulane technology venture led by David Culpepper, wins, receiving a prize package that included a suite of HP office products, $50,000 in seed capital, $5,000 in legal services from Jones Walker and eight weeks of technical assistance from The Idea Village.
NOEW 2011 engaged over 1,000 of the best and brightest local and national minds to invest $1,023,946 in capital, strategic consulting and resources to 475 New Orleans entrepreneurs at 48 events throughout the city.
http://www.ideavillage.org/NOEW2012summary.php
New Orleans is named #1 brain magnet by Forbes.
http://www.forbes.com/2011/02/10/smart-cities-new-orleans-austin-contributors-joel-kotkin_slide.html
New Orleans is listed as one of seven most entrepreneurial cities in America in the February issue of Details.
http://www.details.com/culture-trends/critical-eye/201102/the-new-entrepreneur-big-idea-entrepreneurial-america#slide=4
Naked Pizza opens it's international headquarters in Dubai as N_k_d Pizza.
http://www.nakedpizza.biz
The Entergy Innovation Center, a project of The Idea Village and business incubator supporting entrepreneurship in the Upper 9th Ward, hosted the “Digital Connect” program from January to March providing individualized digital media training for entrepreneurs interested in tapping into New Orleans’ growing digital media industry. Participants were invited to demonstrate how they implemented lessons from Digital Connect in their respective businesses during New Orleans Entrepreneur Week. There were four winners, pictured left: Gia Hamilton of Gris Gris Lab - 1st place, Audry Evans of Earth Energy NOLA - 2nd place, Glynis Eugene of GTE Design Spolutions, LLC - 3rd place and Henry Meredith of Wheel to Live, LLC - 4th place.
Greater New Orleans, Inc. releases a study, Greater New Orleans at the Inflection Point, demonstrating that New Orleans is on the brink of rapid acceleration in entrepreneurship, human talent, positive perception and business development.
http://origin.library.constantcontact.com/download/get/file/1011298117015-248/Greater-New-Orleans-at-the-Inflection-Point-2010.pdf
The Trust Your Crazy Ideas Challenge teams pitch their businesses to a panel of judges including representatives from the Brees Dream Foundation, Google and The Idea Village at the inaugural IDEAbowl. Edna Karr, who “repurposed” old band uniforms into fashionable messenger bags, wins, receiving a $10,000 grant from the Brees Dream Foundation and the opportunity to pitch their business in front of the visiting MBA IDEAcorps teams during NOEW 2011.
http://ideavillage.org/BreesDream.php
Cordina co-founders Craig Cordes, Antonio LaMartina and Sal LaMartina travel to San Francisco to meet with national venture capitalists as a result of winning NOEW 2010's IDEApitch.
The Idea Village announces it's next class of entrepreneurs.
http://www.ideavillage.org/Entrepreneurs.php
Hewlett-Packard announces a $100,000 grant to The Idea Village to support entrepreneurship in New Orleans.
http://origin.library.constantcontact.com/download/get/file/1011298117015-233/HP+Press+Release.pdf
Chevron building is renamed the Exchange Centre in honor of New Orleans startup and anchor tenant The Receivables Exchange.
MBA students from XLRI School of Business & Resources in Jamshedpur, India spend a week at The Idea Village working with entrepreneurs Cordina, Culinaria, Federated Sample and Schedulist on specific projects critical to the growth of each business.
Innovations is about entrepreneurial solutions to global challenges. The journal features cases authored by exceptional innovators; commentary and research from leading academics; and essays from globally recognized executives and political leaders. The journal is jointly hosted at George Mason University's School of Public Policy, Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and MIT's Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship.
Scott Cowen and Walter Isaacson each wrote an essay in this journal and David Gergen responded to our case study. Walter’s essay is a transcript of his speech at New Orleans Entrepreneur Week.
http://tulane.edu/socialentrepreneurship/modelcity.cfm
The annual Idea Village Entrepreneur Challenge (IVEC) is The Idea Village’s central business development program managed by a team of Executives-In-Residence [EIR’s]. Each year, a select group of New Orleans entrepreneurs is invited to partner with The Idea Village to identify and address key growth challenges during this six-month acceleration program. Participating entrepreneurs gain access to a variety of resources.
Five years after Katrina, entrepreneurship spikes in New Orleans after almost ten years of lagging the nation. The article validates the movement that we have seen firsthand and reinforces the need to focus on entrepreneurship to build a strong resilient community.
http://www.gnocdc.org/TheNewOr...ve/index.html
Drew Brees is featured on the cover of Entrepreneur Magazine. This is the second year in a row New Orleans was featured on an August cover.
This cover was eventually put up for a national award for best Single Issue Cover.
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/207504
Institutional Investor names New Orleans startup, The Receivables Exchange, to the top 40 most innovative companies in the world.
http://www.institutionalinvestor.com/Article/2632323/Search/Justin-Brownhill-and-Nicolas-Perkin.html?Keywords=receivables+exchange&OrderType=1&PeriodType=4&StartMonth=1&StartYear=2000&EndMonth=9&EndYear=2011&ScopeIndex=0
Kauffman Foundation study finds that U.S. job growth is driven entirely by startups and ranks Louisiana number 8 for entrepreneurial activity.
"The Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity measures the rate of business creation at the individual owner level. Presenting the percentage of the adult, non-business owner population that starts a business each month, the Kauffman Index captures all new business owners, including those who own incorporated or unincorporated businesses, and those who are employers or non-employers."
http://www.kauffman.org/uploadedfiles/kiea_2010_report.pdf
Each July the next cycle of entrepreneurship begins again with a new crop of entrepreneurs.
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