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 8 below:
Max Gaudin
Since late 2014, Max has been COO of Operation Spark which began teaching at-risk youth how to code and has since expanded its programming. He was previously involved in multiple other ventures such as Sidework, an online resource for employees to learn everything they need to know about their restaurant and deliver outstanding customer service, and Airpnp, Airbnb for bathrooms. On LinkedIn. On Twitter.
Maya Ramos
Maya is the Assistant Director at Electric Girls who is working to improve science, math, engineering, and math education for girls in the Greater New Orleans area. She is currently teaching customized Arduino projects and programming to girls ages 9-14 every Saturday morning, and spends a majority of her free time researching the projects and how to improve them. On LinkedIn.
Michael Hecht
After working with small businesses in New York City and directing business recovery services for Louisiana Economic Development, Michael Hecht has made his mark locally by running the steamship Greater New Orleans, Inc. GNO, Inc. is a regional economic development alliance serving the 10-parish region of Southeast Louisiana and has been integral in bringing attention the digital media scene in New Orleans. On LinkedIn. On Twitter.
Mike Eckert
Mike was a member of the launch team of The Weather Channel and served as its President and CEO for 14 years. Mike is now involved in the New Orleans startup community. He was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence for The Idea Village beginning in summer 2013, and is currently the vice chairman of the board of directors of Angel Capital Association, and the chairman of the NO/LA Angel Network. On LinkedIn.
Molly Hegarty
Molly is the founder and CEO of RDnote, a platform that provides clinical decision support to capture nutrition- related diagnoses. She is a licensed nutritionist and passionate about combining nutrition and technology. The startup received $250,000 in seed funding from the Lafayette General Foundation’s Healthcare Innovation Fund in 2017, as well as prizes at the BioChallenge in the fall. On LinkedIn.
Natalie Noel
Natalie is a Louisiana native with an MBA from LSU’s executive program. The year after graduation, she founded Tech Advocate Group in Baton Rouge, a digital marketing, sales, CRM, and web design company. Their focus is on the current climate of technology, and the way businesses can use it. On LinkedIn.
Ned Fasullo
Ned, a lifelong resident of Baton Rouge, is known to many as the “Southern Sinatra” because of his involvement in one of the only two big band orchestras in Louisiana. Ned has been involved in the tech industry since 1995, successfully helping many startups with their sales and marketing goals. In 2017, Ned began his role as Chief Strategy Officer at software company Envoc. He is currently working on organizing TechX, a tech conference and expo. On LinkedIn.
Neel Sus
Neel is an engineer by education but a true business man by trade. He’s currently the CEO of Susco Solutions, a productivity software development firm, and Touch Studios, a mobile development firm, both based in New Orleans. Outside of his own businesses, he is a founding member of Net2NO, a mentor to young entrepreneurs, and is involved as a board or committee member in many local organizations including the American Marketing Association, Louisiana Technology Council, and GNO, Inc. On LinkedIn. On Twitter.
Nicholas Laborde
Nicholas is the CEO, creative director, and executive producer at Raconteur Games, an independent video game development company he founded and brought to life by several other twenty-somethings. The mission of the company is to tell stories. He is also the CEO of NOLA Crawfish Bread, an e-commerce site that ships the product to customers all over. On LinkedIn.
Noah Kressler
Noah is the Co-Chair of Baker Donelson’s Louisiana Life Sciences and Technology Practice, focusing on emerging and mature companies. He is known for his work at Baker Donelson as a corporate finance and transactional attorney whose practice covers a wide range of capital markets, securities law and general corporate matters. On LinkedIn.