Today (September 15) The Idea Village, an entrepreneurial hub in New Orleans, announced the 15 startup ventures to join their three accelerator programs: IDEAx, ENERGYx and DIGITAL MEDIAx.
New Orleans Entrepreneur Week (NOEW) is the culmination of Entrepreneur Season, which 15 startups have been selected to participate in.
40% of the ventures are led by female founders, 33% are ethnically diverse and two of the 15 founding teams recently moved to New Orleans to launch their ventures.
The programs are part of the larger Entrepreneur Season, which kicks off each year in July and runs through New Orleans Entrepreneur Week (NOEW) in March, which will highlight many of the accelerator entrepreneurs.
Building on the momentum of last year, the organization is executing new and enhanced initiatives to scale local participation, while growing strategic, national networks.
Participants will pitch at a Demo Day in December to The Idea Village network of mentors, investors, and professionals.
The new members of the IDEAVILLAGEx program includes:
IDEAx:
- Freesource – John-Michael Alderson, Adam Mitchell & Dustin Renaud
- Grok + Banter – Staacy Cannon & Keegan Brown
- iSeeChange – Julia Kumari Drapkin
- Juggle – Brendan Minard & Sonny Smith
- Lend Stand – Aaron DeLong
- The Sweat Social – Rupa Mohan & Manoj Mohan
DIGITAL MEDIAx:
- Culturalyst – Sam Bowler
- DreamStarter – Arielle Jordan & Kaitlin Kubisch
- Kudoboard – Aaron Rubens
- MySpiltMilk.com – Alex Rawls
- TOURED – Karynn Verrett
ENERGYx:
- 3rd Dimension Media – Brett Gauthier
- Data Specialties Group – John Tauriac
- Louisiana Technical Instruments – Chad Deville
- OBOCS – Julie Kuchta & Michael Miller
“We are excited to welcome this group to New Orleans’ entrepreneurial community,” said Tim Williamson, co-founder and CEO of The Idea Village. “These entrepreneurs will join the network of 180 IDEAVILLAGEx alumni who have secured over $80 million in private capital, created over 1300 jobs and $155 million in annual revenue.”