Each year during New Orleans Entrepreneur Week (NOEW), business school students convene in New Orleans to work with local entrepreneurs to propel their businesses over the course of an intensive few days. The IDEAcorps MBA Consulting Challenge is hosted by Loyola University New Orleans in partnership with The Idea Village, the organization behind NOEW.
Loyola brought together student teams from Auburn University, Loyola, Mississippi State University, Tulane University, Xavier University (Cincinnati), and University of Alabama.
Each team presented at the culminating pitch event at The Shop on March 18 that was judged by a panel of local business leaders who determined which team made the biggest impact on the entrepreneurs and their businesses. The participating startups included 3D Media, Acrew, Brass City Shrubs & Soda, CampusKnot, On Scene Services, and Vizzit.
The team from Tulane that worked with Vizzit’s founder Arthur Bart-Williams who has created a location-based publishing platform for self-guided experiences around places and events.
“This program has been one of the first steps for many local entrepreneurs and participants in the entrepreneurial ecosystem both here and in other markets,” added Jon Atkinson, Founding Director of Loyola’s Center for Entrepreneurship. “IDEAcorps is truly a ‘front door’ to entrepreneurship for some of our region’s most talented MBAs and has started the seeds of an entrepreneurial movement in New Orleans.”