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New Orleans is full of start-up companies

By Christopher Johnston

Real Estate Agent with The Johnston Team

March 26, 2009 02:00 AM

Are you an entrepreneur looking to found a startup? Have you been depressed by the price of real estate and startup cost in cities like Boston, Raleigh, and in the Silicon Valley? Why not consider New Orleans?

I know, your first thought is 'New Orleans, the place I went to for Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest? What do they know about startups?' It turns out quite a lot.

We have many, many startups in the are right now. Here is just a sample taken from the wiki of my friend Chris Schultz of Voodoo Ventures.

Robbie Vitrano announced Trumpet Ventures, a new arm of the Trumpet Group working with startups providing capital and access to Trumpet's brand studio services. Out of Trumpet ventures comes Dukky, a company does for mailhouse direct marketing what Adwords did for online advertising. Trumpet Ventures is also working with KODA, a new talent community connecting Gen Y'ers to companies in a open, transparent way.

Nic Perkins announced that he has closed $7.75 series B round for the Receiveables Exchange. The Exchange is providing much needed liquidity during the recession to participant companies.

Chris Schultz, Will Donaldson & Barre Tanguis will open the Launch Pad, an incubator & co-working space in Brian Gibb's Tech Quarter building on May 1st. Renovation is starting soon, and we are focused on building the community of startups & free-agents who will thrive and grow together.

Kyle Berner has secured orders for Feelgoodz in Whole Foods across the country and is planning a road trip this summer to showcase the brand and spur community involvement.

Naked Pizza submitted to Mark Cuban's stimulus package and successfully secured funding from Cuban. They plan to franchise the pizza to 1000 stores across the country.

Tim Williamson and Idea Village hosted the IDEACorps week in New Orleans with MBA students from six top national universities working with local entreprenuers.

Ben Reece and Reid Stone have Deltree on a roll with work being done for Idea Village, GNO Inc, as well as several confidential very high profile clients. Ben was invited to showcase 50 People 1 Question at a film festival in Italy and will film another installment while there.

Tom Fischman has been brought on board by VCE Capital and Richard Montgomery to lead Body Evolution, a new company being funded by VCE to commercialize body image distortion software created at LSU.

Christopher Boudy, Sr. has interwoven his love for technology into different other ventures that he is invovled in. Working with CBX WebDesigns to provide affordable web development services to local New Orleans start-ups and non-profits. Partnering with SENO as their Technology Committee Chair to push more social change throughout the city. Also bringing technology into the catholic church with Technology In Youth Ministry.

Jeff Madison at Cool Hand Nuke has moved into private beta and projects a move into full public beta April '09. During this time you can read the Cool Hand Nuke blog with tips for job seekers, site updates and industry news. Cool Hand Nuke is a Web 2.0 virtual community and job engine for the engaged nuclear professional.

Eric Morgan & Damien LaManna of Morgan and Company recently launched Zymeaux - Local Grown Mobile Marketing. The New Orleans based tech-startup aims to help small businesses and local retailers in the region by leveraging one of the fastest-growing and cost-effective communications tools available - SMS based mobile messaging.

Net2NO led a delegation of Digital Media professionals and Social Entrepreneurs to the SXSW Interactive Conference in Austin, TX. The wildly successful outreach effort, sponsored in part by GNO Inc., The DDD, and the City of New Orleans, put our region's thriving tech startup community on display and encouraged potential new businesses to take a look at the incentives our region has to offer.

Zach Kupperman and the PolicyPitch team are developing new features for Policypitch.com. New features include legislative tracking in all 50 states, tools to collaborate with likeminded citizens, and the ability to pitch new public policy proposals directly to your elected officials. Policypitch is also a finalist in the Tulane Business Plan Competition on April 17, 2009.

Myfirstpaycheck CEO Austin Lavin has been hired to run NOLA YURP's new startup WorkNOLA.com. WorkNOLA, currently in private beta, is a job connection platform for creatives and entrepreneurs in New Orleans.

Don Kelly Productions launched the first ever totally "green" music festival in Louisiana - project30-90. The festival will take place in New Orleans on 9/5/09 and will feature solar and wind turbine powered staging & lighting and a full slate of environmentally conscious initiatives. Artist lineup and location will be announced on April 22 - Earth Day. www.project3090.com

Katie Del Guercio will be managing business development in New Orleans for an internet start-up called KODA, which was co-founded by Tulane grads Jeff Berger and Tony York. KODA is a shared space that connects people to opportunities through a transparent approach to hiring. KODA's platform facilitates holistic connections based on talent, personality and corporate culture. The Beta site will launch in the Bay Area and New Orleans markets this fall. KODA is collaborating with Robbie Vitrano's team at the Trumpet Group.

NOLA Brewing, a local post-Katrina start-up, launched two beers (NOLA Blonde and NOLA Brown) in New Orleans this month bringing craft brewing back to New Orleans, a city rich with brewing history.

Tiffany Starnes of Fabre Smith & Coco will be speaking at WordCamp Nola on social media and how it can be utilized in business practices to elevate your brand and create buzz.

This is by no means a complete list. I think you can see that we have a thriving startup community here in New Orleans. I think when you combine this with real estate prices far below typical startup cities and a cost of living to match we provide a viable alternative for your business. When you add the fact that your already here at Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest time I think you'll see that its no contest.

If you have any questions about finding a space for your company or a home for yourself when you move here please feel free to call me. My number is (504)208-1766 and its also on the right near the top of the page. You can also email me at chris [AT] thejohnstonteam [dot] net

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