Launch Fest is the New Orleans demo day and startup conference heading into the next daylong event on Thursday, April 30th, 2015 at a new venue, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Center.
Launch Fest is held annually in conjunction with The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, also known as Jazz Fest, the 10 day celebration of local culture, music and food.
Launch Fest brings together investors, mentors, and speakers for a half day of a traditional conference and a half day in a pitch event format.
This year, six startups have been selected to pitch from the 2015 Launch Fest Pitch Class. Launch Pad, organizers of the conference, say that all companies are attacking their markets and moving full speed ahead.
The class includes:
- Advano – Alexander Girau presents the cotton-gin of nanoparticle manufacturing.
- HapTech – Kyle Monti and Martin Holly will demo a shocking new haptic feedback technology.
- Locally – Blake Haney shows how you can find and purchase the best brands and products just around the corner.
- MobileQubes – Sean Carrigan will keep us powered up with mobile charging right when we need it.
- PlantBid – Cameron Cantrelle takes the mess out of purchasing for landscapers and the wholesale horticulture industry.
- Welcome to College – Justin Bayer will bring us back to one of the most formative teenage moments: the college visit.
Additionally, Launch Fest will be showcasing entrepreneurs who are “making waves in slightly different ways.”
“Charles Carriere will walk us through how he went from angel investor to founder of Scandy, a 3D scanning and printing startup, and Tabitha Bethune will show and tell how she and her husband Micaiah are disrupting the world of fashion design with The Wild Life Reserve.”
Other speakers include: Chris Messina, inventor of the #hashtag and creator of BarCamp; Ryan Holiday, author, Trust Me I’m Lying; Amy Knapp, Red Point Ventures; Justin Mares, author, The Traction Book; Don Dodge, Developer Advocate, Google; and Richard A. Pomes, co-founder and CMO, RapJab.