New Orleans Entrepreneur Week (NOEW) is the eight-day festival of entrepreneurship that takes place each spring to highlight the city’s top talent, innovation, and startups.
Coulter IDEApitch, named after billionaire investor and New Orleans lover Jim Coulter, was created in as part of NOEW in 2010 to give local, high-growth startups the chance to reach world-class investors. The event will take place on Friday, March 18th at 2pm at Manning’s on Fulton Street.
“Over the years I’ve witnessed firsthand the remarkable growth of New Orleans’ startup ecosystem, as it increasingly attracts and retains incredible entrepreneurial talent,” said Coulter. “This year’s IDEApitch participants signal that New Orleans is a significant hub of entrepreneurship in our country.”
Participating entrepreneurs are competing for an opportunity to meet with venture capital firms in Silicon Valley. Meet the Coulter IDEApitch finalists below:
Sean Carrigan of MobileQubes
MobileQubes offers the first fully automated, self-service, mobile phone charging network.
KG Charles-Harris of Quarrio
Quarrio has developed a language-powered analytics and data discovery platform that lets business users spot trends, analyze data, and find information by asking questions and through conversations.
Courtney Williams of Torsh
Torsh drives significant gains in student success by improving instructional effectiveness. TALENT, their main product, is a SaaS platform that manages the capture, upload, storage, and management of user-generated, in-classroom video content.
Along with the judging panel of investors, an audience vote will will help determine which startup will receive access to $100,000 toward their next round of funding. Coulter IDEApitch finalists are typically seeking at least $1 million to grow their companies.
Judges include Jim Coulter, Anu Duggal of the Female Founders Fund, David Hall of Revolution Ventures, David Mount of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Chris Mangum of Servato.
In addition to the potential for investor meetings in Silicon Valley, all three of the finalists will be representing New Orleans startups at Collision Conference, taking place April 23-25, during the Launch Pad PITCH.
This coverage is brought to you by Callais Capital Management and Susco.