New Orleans Entrepreneur Week (NOEW) is the annual festival of entrepreneurship and innovation in the Big Easy, highlighting the local ecosystem through panels, pitches, keynotes, and networking events.
This year, thousands of attendees converged at the new NOEW headquarters, the Ace Hotel in downtown New Orleans. The festival culminates in a high-stakes pitch competition featuring three of the most promising startups in New Orleans vying for a $50,000 investment prize.
IDEApitch gives local, high-growth startups the chance to reach world-class investors, including billionaire Jim Coulter (IDEApitch was formerly known as the Coulter IDEApitch).
What makes the IDEApitch unlike most competitions is that in addition to the panel of judges — Coulter included — the audience members can also cast their vote for who they think should win the grand prize.
The participating finalists included:
- RentCheck, an app that streamlines the security deposit deduction process for landlords with rentals
- SampleChain, a technology company in the market research (MR) space that helps fight fraud, enhance data quality, and increase efficiency in the MR ecosystem
- TrayAway, which provides hotels with a combination of hardware and software-as-a-service to effectively manage their room service operation.
After 10-minute pitches with an extensive Q&A session after each, and much deliberation by the judges, RentCheck was announced the winner of the 2019 IDEApitch.