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:
Covington-Based Pamlab Sold to Nestlé Health Science
Medical foods company Pamlab is being sold to Nestlé Health Science, a subsidiary of Nestlé. The sale is currently pending regulatory approval. Nestlé Health Science said that they found a strategic fit with Pamlab because the company is working on building up its Brain Health and Metabolic Health portfolio.
CenturyLink Breaks Ground on Technology Center of Excellence in Monroe
Telecommunications and Fortune 500 firm CenturyLink announced earlier this week that the company broke ground on the 250,000 square foot expansion onto the already 365,000 square foot headquarters in Monroe. The expansion, which will add 800 new direct jobs, was announced in 2011 and will be known as the Technology Center of Excellence.
Rebirth Financial Launches Nationally and Introduces Touch Program
Rebirth Financial, a now nearly three-year-old company with roots in New Orleans, has announced a national launch of its small business-lending program. The company creates customized solutions for small businesses with borrower needs. By launching nationally, Rebirth can take its perfect lending record, meaning zero defaults or delinquencies, on a larger scale to help small businesses outside of just Louisiana and Tennessee.
Hanley’s Foods Expanding Again After Successful November Launch
Richard Hanley, Jr. is quickly making salads better in the Baton Rouge area. He is a startup food entrepreneur who launched the first Hanley’s Salad Dressing flavor, Sensation, in November 2012 with his company Hanley’s Foods. Based out of Baton Rouge food incubator Edible Enterprises, Sensation is a handmade, gluten free dressing with no GMOs or other, “junk,” as they call it. Richard said that business is going really well, they are selling out at farmer markets and some stores are even selling 20 cases per week. Right now, they are only selling in Baton Rouge, but plan to expand to a few New Orleans stores in June.
Dojo: Co-working for New Orleans’ tech ninjas
The newest of the co-working spaces to open in New Orleans is the Dojo, a collaborative working environment specifically for developers, designers, programmers, and creators. Housed on the 16th floor of The New Orleans Exchange Center in the CBD, the Dojo is designed to bring together like-minded individuals in a space that fosters creativity, as well as productivity.
Retaining Key Employees and Their Ownership
You have a growing business and one of the keys to your success has been your people. Finding good people is tough, keeping them can even be more of a challenge. So how do you keep your key employees? There are basically four ways to secure the long-term commitment of key employees: grant employee stock options, establish a share savings plan, equity buy-in, and establish an employee profit sharing trust.
Help Out Those Helping Musicians With Louisiana’s Online Lagniappe
This week’s Louisiana Online Lagniappe by Flynn Zaiger covers groups that help promote musicians: WWOZ, WTUL, and Frenchmen Street Live. The extra shout-out this week goes to the two radio stations above that are doing donation drives right now. They’re both great organizations that do a lot for this city, so help them out! WTUL’s donation page is here, and WWOZ’s donation page is here. Is your Louisiana-based business doing absolutely wondrous things online? Send Flynn Zaiger of Online Optimism a note at Flynn@onlineoptimism.com and it just might be included in next week’s column.
ArcMail Expands Product Lineup, Adds Defender VM
Bossier City-based email archiving solution company ArcMail has announced the expansion of its product lineup. A new information archiving solution, Defender VM, has been developed to organize a business’ most valuable data, including information in the network, hardware, and software. The Defender VM was designed from the ground up offering a virtual functional and secure archiving platform. All archived data is encrypted and can only be un-encrypted by the Defender VM instance, providing data protection for even regulated industries.
K-12 STEM Gala to Feature Demonstrations by Students in FIRST® Robotics Competition
The Louisiana Technology Council is preparing for its fast-approaching inaugural K-12 STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) Gala, Robotics Revelry. The gala will be held on Saturday, March 9, 2013 from 7:00 pm to 10:30 pm at the U.S. Freedom Pavilion, a newly constructed space at the World War II Museum. The black tie preferred gala will feature an auction and include robotic demonstrations by the students in the FIRST® Robotics Competition.