On this 5th anniversary of Katrina, there has been much reflection about New Orleans.  We have made many strides as a city, yet there remains much work to be done.  The city is broad and diverse and I wouldn’t for a minute pretend to know the challenges that so many have faced over the last five years.

One bright spot has been the emergent entrepreneurial community in New Orleans.   I been a New Orleanian equal parts pre & post storm now, and it amazes me how different the business climate is today.  There is a collaborative, bootstrapping, can-do spirit driving us and the last few years have been the most inspirational of my business career.  There is something truly special going on in New Orleans right now, and I am humbled that the people of Launch Pad, our community, is playing such an vital role in this resurgence.

There has been plenty of coverage this week about what is going on in New Orleans, and I wanted to share some of it with you here.  Thanks to everyone in New Orleans for being here and to everyone else for your love and support!

• The Daily Beast
• NBC Nightly News
• NPR – All Things Considered
• CNN

Two brand new events are coming up at Launch Pad in July.  We invite you to join us for both of them.  Please RSVP below.

Wed, July 7th @ Noon – Lunch & Learn: Accounting for the Emerging Business with Don Engler & Jonathan Koenig

We’re kicking off a new luncheon educational series with Don Engler & Jonathan Koenig of Wegmann, Dazet & Company.  They are a local accounting firm that works closely with entrepreneurs and will be sharing some great information about every entrepreneurs most important but often overlooked subject: accounting. A open, informal presentation and group discussion will cover the topics below and more.  Come prepared with your questions:

• The importance of and how to get to having good financial statements to present to lenders, investors and mergers & acquisitions.
• The importance of good internal controls and steps to create them in your growth.
• The availability of state tax credits that can bolster your financial picture as you grow.

The one hour session will be held in the front conference room of the IP building at noon on Wednesday July 7. Wegmann, Dazet & Company is very generously buying lunch so please RSVP below so we can get a head count.

Wed, July 21th @ 5:30 pm – Talent Dating Event @ GNO Code – Mixing business & tech

We try to fill gaps in the startup ecosystem here in New Orleans with the events we host.  This event is designed to bring the tech community (developers & engineers) together with the startup business community (biz peeps & MBA’s).  We want to connect the idea people with the people who can build the ideas.  Modeled after the successful Founder Dating series in the Bay Area.  Give this article a read. The reason we’re calling it Talent Dating and not Founder Dating, is we want to introduce talented people to each other for the purpose of founding a company together or hiring one another to work on a project.

The mixer will take place at 5:30 pm at Capdeville and then will be immediately followed by the GNO Code meeting where the topic will be Apple iPad development.  We invite everyone to attend both.  So we can get a headcount, please RSVP below. See you there.

This was our 1 year anniversary episode! We had some great guests on today with Matthew Moseley on to talk about his book Dear Dr. Thompson & also Alex Hochron to talk about HealthCampNola!
Our next episode will be June 25th as we’ll begin having one LPTV a month the last Friday of each month!

We had a very exciting 2010 Launch Fest with a lot of passionate entrepreneurs.  Take a look at the impact of the conference in our Impact Report below.

Launch Fest featured three days of half-day conference sessions between the two weekends of Jazz Fest. Topics included social entrepreneurship, straight-talk with local entrepreneurs, and a pitch session to get companies funded. Of course, in the spirit of Jazz Fest we had four nights of mixers, music, and fun topics. Free and open to the public, the sessions were be held at the IP building. With Launch Fest, we put a new twist on the annual right of spring in New Orleans.

Please see the Launch Fest Impact Report below.  In addition, we wanted to share all of the media from the event:

• Preso Slides: http://hu.la/launchfest2010slides
• Pics Tue: http://hu.la/ccKdQk
• Pics Wed: http://hu.la/9DeYjv
• Pics Thu: http://hu.la/aRscVN
• Video Archive: http://bit.ly/lptv

Launch Fest by the numbers:

• 200+ attendees
• 16 sessions over 3 days with 3 evening mixers
• 10 companies pitched to 18 investors
• 70% of the companies were invited to be introduced to investors
• 2 guests ended up this close to Eddie Vedder: http://yfrog.com/89y1kj

Launch Fest Impact Report

Scene Magazine recently covered Launch Pad in its coverage of the SXSW festival and the Louisiana delegation that was orchestrated by Net2NO to promote digital media and highlight the technology scene happening in New Orleans.

You can check out the digital edition of Scene here. (Very cool)

The final aspect of the hugely comprehensive festival was the SXSW tech scene. “For the second year in a row, New Orleans showcased authenticity, passion & community that has been brewing in the tech scene in Louisiana.” said Chris Schultz of Net2NO and Launch Pad. “The panel about ‘The future of work’ focused on the trend of co-working and highlighted Launch Pad which we are expanding to Baton Rouge and Lafayette this year. And the panel ‘Seed Accelerators’ gave us the tools we need to fill the seed capital gap in Louisiana and start competing on the national startup scene.”

It’s great to see the highlights of the Dear New Orleans pictures that Robert Fogarty took based on the sponsorship of the trip provided by TribeCon.

When Tina Antolini and Al Letson stopped through NOLA to tape their NPR show last month, we were thrilled to be included in their itinerary, and we were excited about all of the great folks and organizations like Robert Fogarty’s Evacuteer they covered.  The show made it to air this week, and we were in there.

Give it a listen here.

You can hear Launch Pad at the 15:18 mark of the full show, or right at the start of segment B.

In a media turnabout, we featured them on an episode of LPTV on March 26th when they were here.  Watch it here.

We were very excited to be featured in City Business regarding our expansion to Lafayette.  Check out the article here.

Launch Pad eyes Lafayette for new office

POSTED: 08:36 AM Friday, April 23, 2010
BY: Jennifer Larino, Staff Writer
TAGS: Chris Schultz, FiberFete, Intellectual Property building, Lafayette Economic Development Authority, Launch Pad

New Orleans-based collaborative workspace group Launch Pad said it plans to open a new office in Lafayette within the next few months.

The announcement, made Thursday at the FiberFete conference in Lafayette, comes at a time when grass-roots technology communities in the two cities are attempting to bridge a gap across the Interstate 10 corridor, said Chris Schultz, founder of Launch Pad.

“We want people from Lafayette to come work in New Orleans and the other way around,” Schultz said.

Launch Pad has not signed a lease for a particular location but has viewed commercial spaces in the city.

Schultz said he approached the Lafayette Economic Development Authority about a Lafayette Launch Pad two months ago following a Twitter message about the possibility that generated immediate positive response from both the New Orleans and Lafayette technology communities.

“It’s reflective of all of these things kind of clicking for digital media. Things are happening,” Schultz said.

Launch Pad is interested in leveraging the speed and economy of the Lafayette fiber-to-home network expected to be up and running by the end of summer, Schultz said.

Launch Pad New Orleans pays just under $1,000 a month for Internet service; the much faster fiber service in Lafayette will cost $29 a month.

“It’s one of the only networks in the country like that,” he said. “I really think it’s a wonderful thing and will attract our type of technical, creative people to Lafayette.”

As Launch Pad approaches its one-year anniversary it will also be adding another floor to its office in the Intellectual Property Building as well as testing the waters for a Baton Rouge opening.•

We were highlighted in a recent NY Times post that covered the 504ward business plan competition one year later.  While 504ward did not produce its business competition for 2010, it did produce BizCamp which was hosted at Launch Pad, and continues to execute

on its mission of retaining talent in New Orleans by providing career opportunities.

Why a New Orleans Business Competition Decided to Shut Down

By LORA KOLODNY April 6, 2010, 12:48 pm

As it was getting started in 2008, the New Orleans nonprofit 504ward wanted to make a big splash while advancing its primary goal: to retain or draw talented young professionals and their businesses to New Orleans, a city still recovering from Hurricane Katrina.

The main beneficiaries of last year’s 504ward competition were the winner of its grand prize, playNOLA, and the second-prize winner, LaunchPad.

Meanwhile, LaunchPad — a k a  LaunchPadNola — which was started by Chris Schultz, offers co-working space and business classes in New Orleans. It has 43 tenants today.

This week was a great outdoor episode filmed just outside of Capdeville with Chris Schultz and Chris Boudy hosting. Robert Fogarty was in to talk about DearNewOrleans.org and his trip to sxsw. Jessica White was our featured guest as she discussed BizCampNola.com. Andrew Larimer LAM-ed with Evan of the Land of Opportunity (http://kck.st/aBAg9G).

This week we were back on the 1st Floor of LaunchPad and Andrew Larimer co-hosted with Benjamin Reece. Andrew talked with Rex and Bella of the Rex and Bella Show to announce their launch. Vera Lester was on to talk about the Young Leadership Council’s Wednesdays at the Square. Tim Williamson stopped in to discuss Entrepreneur Week. We also had Rachel Puckett and Mark Heck of NOIR Collective on the show to discuss Foburg Festival. Finally, we had musical guests, the Craft Brothers, on to close the show!

4:00 – 4:02 – Title Sequence // Standard Welcome
4:02 – 4:04 – Who’s on, What they do
4:04 – 4:07 – News & Headlines with Andrew & Ben
4:07 – 4:10 – Upcoming Events // Tim Williamson // Entrepreneur Week
4:10 – 4:14 – Vera Lester // Young Leadership Council
4:14 – 4:18 – Andrew Larimer // Rex and Bella Show Launch
4:18 – 4:21 – Chris Boudy // Specialty Segment
4:21 – 4:28 – Rachel Puckett & Mark Heck // Noir Collective // Foburg Festival
4:28 – 4:31 – The Craft Brothers // Musical Guest
4:31 – 4:32 – Goodbye