Local founders who have recently completed $1 million or more financing rounds discuss what it means to build a company for exponential growth in Louisiana. What changes as you grow, how do you surround yourself with the right resources and community, and what are the pitfalls on the road ahead? Collectively, how do we design the system to make $1M+ funding events the rule rather than the exception? Moderated by Corey Tisdale, founder of highly successful Baton Rouge-based ecommerce startup BBQGuys, this panel uses the startup successes of the last year as a base to explore everyone's favorite question: "who's next?"

The United States’ large and persistent racial wealth gap flows from centuries of government policies that have systematically disadvantaged BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) Americans’ ability to build, maintain, and pass on wealth to the next generation. Anchor institutions can be important levers of change and drivers of equitable and inclusive economic growth through their spending, investment, employment, and contracting by creating opportunities for local BIPOC business owners and residents. Local government and economic development organizations are engaging anchors as critical partners in advancing more inclusive economies by creating opportunities for all residents, and particularly communities of color, to fully participate and be the business owners, workers, innovators, and leaders who will propel the economy forward. We bring together this panel of institutional leaders who have successfully shifted internal institutional and small business procurement policies and practices to even the playing field for BIPOC business owners in New Orleans.

On this episode of Big Easy Ideas, investors share about their early investment(s) in the NOLA tech companies that realized significant liquidity events in 2021, and tell the story from the "other side of the table" -- giving the investor point of view on what they saw early on in these companies, their vision, the founders behind them, and their teams.

In sharing the journey from their perspective on the investor side, speakers offer insight as to what lessons should be learned by the next generation of energetic NOLA entrepreneurs. And discuss what are the things that make NOLA a fertile ground to continue growing companies with the potential to realize similar success of Lucid/Cint, Levelset/Procore, Turbosquid/Shutterstock, and other homegrown superstars.

This episode was originally presented at NOEW 2022 by Jones Walker as "The Holy Trinity - How Home Cookin' Produced Successful Exits for Three Organically Grown New Orleans Tech Companies in 2021."

New Orleans startups continue to innovate with an increasing number of high growth potential companies being started every year. The Idea Village's later staged accelerator programs have supported over 298 early stage companies to date that have cumulatively raised over $500M in outside capital and are currently generating over $530M in recurring revenue in the last fiscal year. Meet members of the 2022 VILLAGEx accelerator class who share their journey of building the next big thing. Moderated by Peter Liu of Revelry Ventures, this panel will dive into what makes a vibrant startup community in New Orleans and how we can continue to drive and create ever more successful companies.

Finance New Orleans presents the Resilient New Orleans Finance Plan and Resilient New Orleans Innovation Fund that will spur entrepreneurial growth by providing pre-development capital to startups and developers for sustainable and eco-friendly projects.

Louisiana has struggled to keep pace with the modern economy. While the state is blessed with an abundance of natural resources and creative people, its adherence to tradition has held it back from growth in new sectors of the economy, especially cutting edge technology. But due to the nature of new innovation in technology, Louisiana now has an opportunity to seize the opportunity and become a tech leader in key sectors. Eric Peterson, Director of the Pelican Center for Technology and Innovation, will highlight some areas where Louisiana is well positioned to excel. 

The first turn of the flywheel takes the most effort. When Lucid exited to Cint in late 2021 for $1.1 billion, it became New Orleans’ first ‘unicorn’ startup – but founder Patrick Comer is determined that it won’t be the last. The New Orleans startup community is starting to gain momentum, however, Comer argues that the hardest part of entrepreneurship isn’t the business idea, or raising capital, or attracting talent. It is convincing yourself that you CAN do this -- that you have the capacity, the skills, and the worthiness to achieve great things. And that belief isn’t just with the founder, it is within the team and across the community around them. That’s what we’ve been working to build, change, and foster in NOLA for 20 years. How do we sustain it for the next 20 and what could that mean for the future of an exceptional place like New Orleans?

Welcome to the Big Easy Ideas podcast, recorded live at New Orleans Entrepreneur Week (NOEW), Big Easy Ideas is a thought leadership podcast focused on startups, innovation, entrepreneurship,  technology, and culture. You’ll hear from a diverse range of successful business leaders, startup founders,  investors, culture bearers….and more!

Big Easy Ideas features a host of industry-specific expertise – from entrepreneurship, to climate tech, to Web3, and more - to inspire founders at all stages across New Orleans, the Gulf Coast, and beyond.

Join us at the intersection of innovation & culture.