The Silicon Bayou has been buzzing with tech and entrepreneurial news. Here are the most popular stories published on Silicon Bayou News in the past seven days:
Two Winners Take Home Prizes From Launch Fest Online Pitch Competition: Two concepts took home tickets to Jazz Fest over the weekend. The first business idea to win was a “B2B platform makes sourcing from and exporting to new markets easy, safe, and cheap for small businesses <1% of US companies now export.” The second, “A smartphone case with an extra battery and a 650K volt stun gun. Patented, prototyped, and presented at Launch Fest!”
Why I’m Downloading Google Drive Right Now: Google Drive is the newest cloud-based storage platform that works a lot like Dropbox. @Heyitsmegan suggests downloading Google Drive if you use Google Apps or have an Android phone and cautions people who do not use Gmail or are already satisfied with Dropbox.
Online Technology Platform 365 Connect Integrates with Pinterest: New Orleans based 365 Connect, an online technology platform provider for the multifamily industry, announced last week the integration of Pinterest. “Pinterest delivers a full circle Social Media solution to the multifamily housing industry, which maintains a high emphasis on community images being displayed,” stated 365 Connect CEO, Kerry W. Kirby. “Pinterest is the ultimate sharing channel for community links to photos, images and videos; which the 365 Connect integration allows with one-click.”
Launch Pad Ignition Company Brings Trivia Night to Mobile: Red Ticket Games has recently launched ExpertTrivia for iOS. The social, completely interactive game for mobile provides a brand new experience to trivia fans and mobile users by combining user-generated content with a social and user-friendly interface that brings friends together in a battle of the brains. Players can formulate their own topics and questions to challenge their friends and foes with obscure or mainstream questions that will challenge even the most adept trivia aficionado.
Silicon Valley Duo Inspired by New Orleans Startup Scene: Blogger and Community Manager for Lawyerfy, Kat Stromquist, interviewed Laywerfy co-founders Jeff Lin and Arjan Singh for this post, finding out why the bay area team decided to move to the Big Easy to start a company.
GNO Inc. Seeks Proposals for WorkNOLA Redesign: Greater New Orleans, Inc. (GNO, Inc.) has sent out a request for proposals for a WorkNOLA.com website redesign.The organization is looking for proposals with ideas for a new visual layout as well as enhanced features to make the simple but comprehensive no-cost employment resource greater. Proposals are due May 16, 2012.
New Orleans Biotech Company Announces Funding to Improve Access to Contraception: Bioceptive, a biotech start-up at the New Orleans BioInnovation Center, just closed their seed funding at $385,000 and are moving towards more accessible and safer method for intrauterine device (IUD) insertion. Bioceptive is a women’s health company developing a patent-pending intrauterine device (IUD) inserter hoping to expand access of IUDs to hundreds of millions more women across the globe.
Teams Take Home Big Prizes From Cajun Code Fest: Cajun Code Fest was held in Lafayette over the weekend. Lafayette is known for being a regional medical hub, so it was the perfect fit for the code fest. The focus is on transforming data into healthcare solutions through the free, two-day competition. The theme this year was improving childhood obesity outcomes. The $25,000 grand prize went to PlayFit by team BE CAMP VB and a $10,000 surprise went to student team winners The Eating Game by team Flying Fighting Mongooses.
5 Tools Small Businesses Love: In a guest post by Kenny Nguyen, CEO/Founder of Big Fish Presentations, he shares the five tools small businesses love including Wave Accounting, Clockspot, Asana, Dropbox, and Google Voice.
UX for Good tackles social issues facing New Orleans musicians: Over the weekend, New Orleans hosted the second annual UX for Good, an event that aims to use design systematic solutions to solve some of society’s most pressing issues. Adriana Lopez explains that with the partnership between The Grammys and MusiCares, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, and the Clinton Global Initiative, UX for Good brings together a group of esteemed “user experience” designers from across the country to create solutions that tackle critical social issues affecting the music community in New Orleans.
6 Tips for Drafting a Social Media Policy: Since the consequences of social media postings can lead to fired employees and lost customers, Andrew Legrand writes of the importance that your employees understand your expectations for their use of social media. You can set these expectations in a social media policy.