Nicholas Laborde is an MBA student, entrepreneur, and the founder of Raconteur Games, a Lafayette-based video game development studio. Raconteur was begun by Laborde and several others with a single mission: tell stories worth telling.
Laborde is also the chair of the Lafayette chapter of the International Game Developers’ Association (IGDA), and in his free time serves as a business development mentor to independent game developers around the world through the San Francisco-based Core Labs Accelerator.
Find out how he answered our All About You questions below:
What is the most exciting thing you are working on right now?
I built a video game company in Lafayette while in college at ULL, and I don’t actually know how to make video games! Our first game releases this month.
If you wrote a regular column for Silicon Bayou News what would it be about and what would you name it?
Interactive Louisiana, a guide to all video games and/or interactive software being built here in Louisiana. The game industry is small here, but we’ve got a few passionate studios making great things — I would highlight the existing ones, as well as the aspiring students and amateurs looking to make it big!
If you could win any award in the world, which would you be most proud to possess?
Pun-Dit of The Year!
If you were stuck on an elevator for two hours, what one person (dead or alive) would you choose to be stuck with?
Theodore Roosevelt.
IYO, which institution is most due for disruption?
Marriage/family life.
If you had to pick a drink to describe yourself (alcoholic or non-alcoholic) what would it be?
Dr. Pepper. He worked hard for that degree, and no one thinks twice about it.
Tell us about your biggest failure.
My biggest failure? I’ve never failed! Failure, to me, means that you either gave up because things got too difficult and you could have pushed a little harder, or that you didn’t achieve your goal and you learned nothing in the process. By that logic, I have never – and will never – fail.
My biggest failure, in the traditional sense, was not conducting proper market research before working on our project. Turns out that our game is in the least profitable market in the entire video game industry, and we sunk 2+ years into it.
What’s your favorite thing to do on a Sunday afternoon?
My perfect Sunday afternoon is when I get to disconnect, break out my journal, and brainstorm. It helps put all the BHAGs in perspective, while also enjoying quiet time and planning what’s next.
If you had to eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Pasta. I’m French in origin though, don’t tell anyone about my Italian preference! 😉
If you could live in any other time period, which would you choose?
The future. I want to live in a world where we’ve colonized other planets.
What are you most excited about happening on the Silicon Bayou that you aren’t directly involved in?
New Orleans Entrepreneur Week is fantastic, and the Idea Village is a wonderful organization that we in Lafayette are watching very closely.
The standard superpower dichotomy:
The power to cause positive change in as many people as possible.