The 2017 Silicon Bayou 100 is the annual list of the 100 most influential and active people in tech and entrepreneurship in Louisiana over the last year. The list is compiled by the community through an anonymous nomination process.
Over the next two weeks we will be sharing the bios of each of the 100 in alphabetical order. View the full Silicon Bayou 100 here and meet group 5 below:
Jeff Pellegrin
Jeff has been in the video game industry for seven years and now works as a producer at inXile Entertainment, a California-based company with offices in New Orleans that develops interactive entertainment software for all popular game systems, personal computers and wireless devices. On LinkedIn.
Jen Medbery
Jen is a former Teach For America corps member and a founding teacher of New Orleans Charter Science and Math Academy. After frustrations with paper management of her classroom, Jen started Kickboard, which helps schools track, manage, and change the actions that help students stay engaged and act positively. On LinkedIn. On Twitter.
Jim Coulter
Jim is the co-founder of private equity firm TPG Capital and plays an important role in New Orleans Entrepreneur Week. He is the host of the annual Coulter IDEApitch for local startups seeking venture capital, and works the winning entrepreneurs to provide the resources for them to successfully raise funding.
Jimmy Roussel
Jimmy is the former Entrepreneur in Residence and now CEO at the New Orleans Startup Fund in addition to working as a consultant at MakeBuzz, LLC. He specializes in starting up small tech firms and taking them through the initial few rounds of venture capital. Jimmy is experienced on both the business and finance side and the technology side. On LinkedIn.
Joe Ellis
In 2017, Joe began working as a senior software developer for Seat Scouts while continuing his role as Javascriptologist at Olark. He has been a long standing member of the New Orleans tech community and is known for his work with the New Orleans Developer Meetup. On LinkedIn.
Joe McMenemon
Along with fellow Tulane graduate Brendan Finke, Joe founded ChapterSpot to solve the problems of group management. ChapterSpot’s online application allows groups (initially fraternities and sororities) to communicate efficiently, collect membership dues, share important files, maintain a member database and design a website all on one platform. On LinkedIn. On Twitter.
Joel Wietelmann
Joel is the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Revelry Labs, a New Orleans-based software development studio. He has been a software engineer since 2004 and an entrepreneur since 2013. While he now lives in New York, Joel continues to support the local technology community through his team at Revelry. On LinkedIn.
John F. George, Jr.
The Entrepreneurial Accelerator Program (EAP) at the BRF was spearheaded by Dr. George, who formed the team of leaders in July 2014. The program nurtures and educates entrepreneurs while introducing them to qualified investors to increase their chances of success. The EAP portfolio currently has 27 companies across industries such as medical, security, and entertainment.
John Fraboni
John is making a name for himself in the New Orleans startup scene through his company, Operation Spark, which teaches local kids how to code and gives them the skills needed to enter into the workforce and do great things. Prior to launching the company in 2013, he was a developer at companies such as Behaviour Interactive and Ludia. On LinkedIn. On Twitter.
Jon Atkinson
Jon worked as the fund executive for South Coast Angel Fund II until late 2015 where he led the development of a new member managed, committed capital angel fund. He is now coordinator and Curator in Chief at Lagniappe Angels, a member-managed, early stage, investment group, as well as the director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Community at the Loyola University College of Business in New Orleans. On LinkedIn.