Week in Review: December 23, 2013

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:

 

The Next Genre of Entrepreneurs Take Center Stage in New Orleans

In three short months, The Idea Village has taken a brand new endeavor from idea phase to a demo day showcasing the five participating entrepreneurs yesterday evening. The Food Challenge was created, in partnership with Reily Food Company and Rouses Markets, to boost the entrepreneurial activity in New Orleans focused specifically in the food and beverage industry. Entrepreneurs Creole Crackers, Locally Preserved, Garden District Bloody Marys, NOLA Pie Guy (DBA Sugah), and Taryn’s Crab Cakes Factory all demoed and pitched last week; Locally preserved won seed money and a slot at the Big Idea.

Baton Rouge-Based Gaming Company Surpasses Kickstarter Goal

On December 6th, Baton Rouge-based gaming company BitFinity topped its $30,000 Kickstarter goal by thousands of dollars for new gameTadpole Treble. The game, which is an auto-scrolling adventure game with an emphasis on music., will be released digitally on the PC and Mac within a year. With the help of 1,033 backers, BitFinity raised $34,250.

Access Health Louisiana Joins Baton Rouge Business Incubator

The cloud-based insurance software company Access Health Louisiana is the newest Louisiana Technology Park Member, a move confirmed by the Tech Park on Thursday morning. Access Health is committed to bringing quality, convenient primary care to communities and people who have difficulty accessing healthcare.

New Orleans Health Commissioner Dr. Karen DeSalvo to Lead ONC

City of New Orleans Health Commissioner and Senior Health Policy Advisor to Mayor Mitch Landrieu, Dr. Karen DeSalvo, has been announced as the next leader of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) at The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). DeSalvo’s impact on New Orleans and the region will now be taken national. She will be joining the Obama Administration on January 10th, 2014, taking over for Dr. Jacob Reider, the acting national coordinator.

Digital Archive of New Orleans Hip Hop and Bounce Nears End of Kickstarter Campaign

NOLA Hiphop Archive is a digital archive encompassing videotaped oral histories from some of the greatest local musicians. During a 20 day funding period, creator Holly Hobbs and team hope to raise $6,000 throughKickstarter. Over the last two years, the first 30 oral histories were collected, all to be launched in conjunction with the Where They At bounce exhibit materials, including music and memorabilia, beginning in Spring 2014 at the Amistad Research Center at Tulane University. Update: NOLA Hiphop Archive successfully raised $6,173 through Kickstarter.

Financial Fridays: Understanding Small Business Financing

Hibernia Bank explains that while starting a business, there has to be business plans created, marketing ideas brainstormed, employees hired, advice sought, and most importantly, financing to be had. “Without some start-up funds, there’s very little (if any) businesses that can be created. But many entrepreneurs are a little more creatively minded than financially minded, so here’s a brief overview of what you need to know when considering small business financing.” According to the statistics from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), the median startup capital used by new employers is roughly $50,000.

Call For Papers: BSides Nola 2014

BSides is a free, all-day information security event that takes place around the world. Diana Hellickson from 504ensics.com put out a call for papers for the upcoming BSides in New Orleans. For those interested in learning more about incident response, digital forensics, malware analysis, enterprise security, or many other topics concerning digital and information security, click here.

Top 10 Reasons You Should Help New Orleans WIT FundDat!

Torrie Adams, founded New Orleans Women in Technology to increase the salaries of women in IT in New Orleans to be equal to what men in the field are earning and to increase the number of women in IT in New Orleans by 75% by 2020. The group began their efforts in August of this year and are now running a crowdfunding campaign on FundDat to expand their operations in 2014. The group is raising just over $10,000. Here are the ten reasons why you should fund the campaign.

Godfather of Growth: Stop Telling and Start Selling – How to Get More Action in Your Turf

New New Orleanian and contributor Don Lazzari has risen up through the ranks of the technology sales over the last 25 years and wants to share his advice on sales and growth with readers. Last week, he wrote about selling versus telling. “I see too many companies who think they are doing a good job communicating what their products do. But here’s the rub, almost all of these companies aren’t being as effective as they could be when they get a chance to meet with a customer. They tell me that they are puzzled as to why they aren’t selling more. It is a common problem.”

Bienvenu Talks Corporate Activism and TheStreet

Ron Bienvenu, Co-founder and Co-CEO of the Louisiana-based buyout group Spear Point, is well-poised to identify and invest in undervalued public companies that would benefit from a strategic shift in power. Spear Point has become widely known for its potential rework of the financial news site TheStreet.com. Bienvenu and partners are demanding that Co-founder and Chairman Jim Cramer earn his keep and take actions to remove potential conflicts at the board level.