New Orleans- A City for Entrepreneurs

This past weekend, I spent some time at the Idea Village in downtown New Orleans. I was asked to help out with a group of Teach for America corps members who have an idea to create a program that will help middle school students begin the "college process" earlier. The Idea Village is an incredible organization here that helps entrepreneurs like them get their ideas off the ground. They offer support, advice and backing for any kind of concept that entrepreneurs come up with; their slogan is "Trust Your Crazy Ideas!". White boards make up the walls of the rooms in the Idea Village and Kevin Wilkins, one of the Idea Village's many entrepreneurs-in-residence (and subsequently also a Tulane professor!) was there volunteering his time to help us bounce our crazy ideas all over those walls.

And if there is one city at the center of new (and crazy) ideas right now, it's New Orleans. In fact, over the past six years, New Orleans has quickly grown into one of the leading cities for entrepreneurs anywhere in America. Tulane and our students get actively involved in this as well; our business school's Levy-Rosenblum Institute for Entrepreneurship annually puts on the "THINK BIG" Youth Entrepreneurship Networking Event, and that is just one of the many programs and events that are available for Tulane's future entrepreneurs on campus. The Levy-Rosenblum institute is a great resource for our students to get their great ideas off the ground through resources, mentoring, community service, grants and internships. In fact, for me as a former student at the Freeman School, I can honestly say that the entrepreneurship courses I took here were some of the best classes I took in college. Our Management undergraduate major (which was my major!) has a great entrepreneurship track that you can choose to take advantage of all of these resources.

So many start ups!
(Source: siliconbayounews.com)

But its not just on campus that this passion for entrepreneurship has been ignited. The city of New Orleans has been a hotbed for this kind of activity since we began this huge "Brain Gain" that has occurred following Hurricane Katrina. According to a recent Brookings Institute report, entrepreneurial activity here in New Olrenas is 40% above the national average. According to this article in Forbes, much of the reason behind this is that this city became a start up city very rapidly with all of the changes and growth we experienced in our rebuilding. Its great spots like the Idea Village that are supporting this, with over 1,100 entrepreneurs supported since they were founded.

And people are starting to take notice. The Wall Street Journal named New Orleans the 2011 Most Improved City for Business. That is huge news for us! After that, the good news just kept coming. NOLAbound capitalized on this great wave of new ideas and business by creating a platform for national entrepreneurs and start ups to bring their ideas and plans to New Orleans. The project will bring 25 soon-to-be-named winning individuals to New Orleans for a week long explosion of entrepreneurial events. Looking through the applicants, I saw countless  Tulane alumni, including my fraternity brother Pat who has created an ESPN type of network for sports that ESPN does not cover. You can read more about NOLAbound here and here.

I could post article after article all about New Orleans and its great start up and entrepreneur boom, but I will spare you. (okay, fine, just this one more from NPR. It's great!) This start up boom and fostering environment for entrepreneurs is great for Tulane and our students. It means that many more internship opportunities, that many more resources, and that many more jobs available for you once you graduate. My fraternity brothers Joe and Brendan are taking advantage of it right now too, they are some of the best young entrepreneurs that this city fosters; their company ChapterSpot was accepted into the Idea Village's accelerator program. You can read all about their start up here. With so many Tulane students taking advantage of all the resources that New Orleans currently offers, it's great to see so many incredible success stories.

My trip to the Idea Village was such a great peek into this bustling industry here in New Orleans. Trust me, the resources are endless; check out 25 great resources for entrepreneurs in NOLA. Then, come down for and check out Tulane and New Orleans and start planning the ways that you will trust YOUR crazy ideas!

My buddies, and Tulane alumni, 
Joe and Brendan who started ChapterSpot