We’re celebrating the graduation of 3 Launch Pad companies on Tuesday, March 1st. We’ll have pizza from Noon until 1:00 and you can join us in congratulating our graduates and explore office openings at Launch Pad.
I am excited today to announce Launch Pad Ignition, our new startup accelerator program.
This is the culmination of several years of planning and preparation, and we are particularly excited to be launching as a part of the TechStars Network, and by extension the Obama administration’s new Startup America Initiative.
Ignition has been a personal passion project. The conversation started a year ago, after I wrote my open letter to David Cohen (see, they really work). Andrew Hyde has been a huge supporter and Taylor Davidson has been instrumental in helping us model this out and make it happen. Thank you to the fantastic mentors who have already committed to being onboard. If you’re interested, please contact me. I’m excited to be working with my co-founders of Barre Tanguis, Will Donaldson, Peter Bodenheimer and Mark Graffagnini, this really is like a startup itself.
An exciting leap for the New Orleans startup ecosystem, Ignition creates a framework to help founders refine their product offering, invigorate their business plans, and raise funding to fuel their growth. So, if you are a startup in New Orleans, or willing to move to New Orleans to accelerate the growth of your company, definitely check out the info and get your application in before March 18.
We’re doing a Five Minute Pitch on Wed at Launch Pad. Here is the coaching guidance that I just sent out to the companied presenting.
format - we are going to hold you to 5 min, so be sure to keep your pitch tight and focused. this is plenty of time if you are rehearsed and gives you an opportunity to communicate about your company or project in a way that will keep the audiences attention and hopefully spark conversation with you afterwards.
goal - what do you want to accomplish? start there, think about that deeply. are you trying to raise funding, attract users/customers, generate press? utilize this forum to accomplish something for your business. focus on achieving that goal and don’t worry if your pitch isn’t broad enough to be interesting to everyone. that’s why we’re keeping them to 5 min. this is not an exercise, this is an opportunity to accomplish something for your business.
ask - close (and maybe open too) with your ask. be specific and be clear. ie: 1) we’re looking to find new school customers, so if you know anyone in education, please refer me to them. 2) we’re currently raising a seed round of $500k and have $200k committed. 3) we are looking to generate awareness about our platform so please follow us @yourname and tweet about us 4) we’re looking for beta users to please sign up on www.yourwebsitename.com for an invite.
practice - please, please, please give your pitch out loud, standing up. if you don’t you will run too long. You will have 100x improvement in your pitch by giving it several times, getting feedback, doing more of whats working, less of whats not. ask for candid feedback. treat this as the real-deal, not a practice. you want to be proud of your pitch.
show, don’t tell - if you have a product, show it, demo it if you can do it very quickly. 1-2 min videos are great, b/c you can prepare them in advance and they can be extremely professional. live demos are difficult to do, if you are going to do it, please have someone else to “drive”. screenshots of your product are actually much better than a live demo. remember, the audience doesn’t know your product nearly as well as you do, so showcase the “wow” factor, but don’t expect them to understand it and don’t try to do a deep dive about how it works. focus on the sexy and sizzle.
elevator pitch arc - there are lots of blog posts about what people want to hear in an elevator pitch. this obviously varies depending on what your goal is. but have a clear outlined format, don’t just talk. you’ll be judged by the audience as much on your professionalism and clarity in approach as you will on your product. remember to touch on things like: problem, solution, market, team, traction, business model.
deck - i’d recommend keeping it to 5-8 slides, unless you are able to run your preso very tightly and succinctly. don’t read whats on the slide, use the slide for backup and then give context, explanation or tell a story. make sure that what you are saying connects with the slides but you are not reading bullet points, nothing is more dull.
get excited! relax and have fun - the coaching advice here is to help you be prepared and confident. practicing beforehand will give you confidence and help you relax. make sure your excitement about your company comes through, excitement is contagious. this is a friendly audience, everyone is rooting for you. you will be great.
LPTV Episode 57 - Lela Cloud, Lionel Milton, George Mauer, Nick Sagano
We had our Thanksgiving Episode this week with a packed list of guests, turkey tasting, & even a cranberry eating contest!! Watch here and see what happened!
4:00 - 4:04 - Standard Welcome with Chris Schultz & Andrew Larimer
4:04 - 4:10 - News, Headlines, & Upcoming Events
4:10 - 4:11 - Who’s on & What they do
4:11 - 4:14 - Kate Grace Bauer & Arthur Mintz - Fantastic Mr. Fox
4:14 - 4:19 - Tech Segment - Barrett Conrad // Nick Sagona // PhireCMS
4:20 - 4:23 - George Mauer // Fringe Festival // The Asstronots
4:23 - 4:26 - Lela Cloud // Cloud Candi
4:26 - 4:30 - Lionel Milton // LionelMilton.com
4:29 - 4:30 - Thanksgiving contest!! most in one minute!
Nov 16
LPTV - Episode 56 - November 12 - Suzy Rivera, PJ’s Coffee, Kristen McEntyre, & Darren Hoffman
For Episode 56 Megan Hargroder and Chris Boudy hosted outside of Capdeville. Suzy Rivera came on the show to discuss Life-Yoga New Orleans and also her company “Shoe”. Kristen McEntyre & Darren Hoffman of Tutti Dynamics were also on the show discussing their latest kickstarter project. Watch and find out more! :)
New Orleans is home to many exciting happenings in the world of Ruby on Rails this week as RubyConf comes to New Orleans for the first time. We’re excited to be hosting events at Launch Pad and sponsoring events through Flatsourcing. I wanted to take a minute to share everything that is going on this week.
RoR Training Fundraiser - 11/10 9am-4pm - Jumpstart Lab is hosting an all-day training session at Launch Pad on Wed. This class is an excellent TDD/Rails3 primer. I’m personally looking forward to taking this class and challenging Anton to a code-off next time I’m in Kazan. All proceeds from the class are going to a Teach For America classroom. Sign up here.
RubyConf - 11/11-13 - RubyConf will be held at the Hilton Riverside and features three days of fantastic content.
Ruby Bayou Meetup - 11/11 7pm - Following the happy hour, take part in New Orleans’ own Ruby Bayou monthly meeting at Launch Pad. Register now.
I’m excited to be supporting these through Flatsourcing & Launch Pad, and most of all, I’m excited to take the class on Wednesday and start rocking the rails myself :)
Oct 14
Episode 54 - Oct 8th - Lisa Robinson - Edie Cagnolatti - ChampSuperstar
Andrew Larimer & Chris Boudy (@andrewlarimer & @chrisboudy) hosted our October 8th episode starting off with Lisa Robinson of Urbandogmagazine.com. Chris then talked with Champsuperstar about NerdNiteNola & finally Edie Cagnolatti joined us and discussed “save our cemeteries”. See you next week! :)
Episode 53 - Sept. 24 - Mehmet Ergelen, Dr. Frank Martin, Dr. Igwe, & Joey Vanas
This week Megan Hargroder & Andrew Larimer hosted as we had Mehmet Ergelen on to tell us about lovebluebag.com. Dr Frank Martin & Dr. Igwe were on to talk about SUNO’s programs & finally, Joey Vanas stopped in to discuss Delivering Happiness Bus Tour.
LPTV Episode 52 - 9/17/2010 Alex Schott, Steven Adjimi, & Rachael LaRoche
This week’s episode was Sloane Berrent’s final episode as a guest host (though she will be back as a guest star host in the future we’re hoping!) She was on to interview Alex Schott of Entergy. Rachael LaRoche joined us to talk about her latest venture, Ruffian Swap (follow @RuffianSwap). Finally, Steven Adjimi was on to show us some of JeanTherapy’s designs and talk about the future of JeanTherapy. Neel Sus was on to talk about Touch Studios LLC & also, Barrett Conrad popped on to tell us some news…watch here and find out what it was :)
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!
This week’s show was LPTV’s first Summer Fashion Show episode! Guests were Lauren Thom of Fleurty Girl, Jeremy Miller & Aimee Shultz of Shultzilla, & Blake Haney of Dirty Coast. Blake also announced the launch of ArtsNewOrleans.org with Rachel Puckett & Lindsay Glatz. The show closed with a t-shirt fashion cat walk dj-ed by Ben Reece and Chris Schultz!
LPTV Episode 50 - 6/25/2010 Gerard Ramos, Chris Tortorich, Roger Ivens, & Andrew Larimer
Our June 25th Episode included guests from PhoneBalls with Gerard Ramos & Chris Tortorich. Andrew Larimer was on and did a “dramatic reading” of Pike Barkerding’s latest news & Ben and Chris also interviewed Roger Ivens from Defenders of the Coast.
3:45 - Pre-roll Starts
4:00 - Broadcast Starts
4:00 - 4:04 - Title Sequence // Standard Welcome with Chris & Ben
4:04 - 4:10 - News & Headlines*
4:10 - 4:11 - Who’s on, What they do
4:11 - 4:14 - Upcoming Events
4:14 - 4:18 - Roger Ivens // DefendersoftheCoast.org // Gulf Hazwoper training with Dan Pierson
4:18 - 4:22 - Andrew Larimer // Pike Barkerding
4:22 - 4:29 - Gerard Ramos // Iphone PhoneBalls
Jun 30
Two July Events @ LP - Accounting Lunch & Talent Dating
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.
LPTV Episode 49 - Matthew Moseley & Alex Hochron - June 4, 2010
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!
I am excited today to announce Launch Pad Ignition, our new startup accelerator program.
New Orleans is home to many exciting happenings in the world of Ruby on Rails this week as RubyConf comes to New Orleans for the first time. We’re excited to be hosting events at Launch Pad and sponsoring events through Flatsourcing. I wanted to take a minute to share everything that is going on this week.