Why New Orleans Is the Coolest Start-up City in America

Everyone in New Orleans has a Katrina story, and those tales are typically tinged with loss, frustration, and grief. Five years after the storm, you still hear them, of course, and you still see evidence of the devastation that killed over 1,800 people and left more than one million homeless. But Katrina gave New Orleans another story to tell, and it's one that just may have a happy ending for the city's entrepreneurs. Each year from 2007 to 2009, 450 out of every 100,000 adults started up businesses in the New Orleans metro area, well above the national average of 320, and more than double the number six year ago. 
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Benardett Wins Statewide Award

Benardett K. Jno-Finn, owner of Sénica, LLC was announced as the winner of the 2011 Small Business Administration (SBA) Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for the State of Louisiana. The SBA announced the regional winners of the Small Business Champion Awards On March 8, 2011.

"I was surprised and humbled when I found out I received this award. There are so many young entrepreneurs with viable businesses that will help sustain their communities, I'm truly honored to be among them and the one who was chosen to receive this distinction," said Jno-Finn.

The award recognizes entrepreneurs under the age of 30 who demonstrate entrepreneurial potential necessary for long-term business success and economic growth, utilize innovative or creative business methods and serve as a majority owner and operator or bear principal responsibility for operating a small business with a three year track record.

“Small business owners embody the spirit of entrepreneurship and strong work ethic that lie at the heart of the American dream. They are the backbone of our Nation’s economy, they employ tens of millions of workers, and, in the past 15 years, they have created the majority of new private jobs. During Small Business Week we reaffirm our support for America’s small businesses and celebrate the proud tradition of private enterprise they represent.” Barack Obama, President of the United States, 2010 Small Business Week Proclamation.

Founded in 2007, Sénica is a New Orleans-based company whose mission is to promote a holistic approach to health, beauty, wellness and restoration by providing quality natural products for bath, body, hair and home. Product offerings are complimented by resources that link nutrition and a healthy lifestyle as integral parts of achieving natural beauty. Sénica has won several notable awards and has begun to garner a solid reputation on local and national levels. Most recently, the Company was featured at the 2010 Miss Universe Gifting Suite. For more information on the company, please visit www.senicanaturals.com.

National Small Business Week 2011 will be celebrated the week of May 15, 2011. During this week, Ms. Jno-Finn along with seven other SBA business champions will be honored at a reception at the Governor’s Mansion and a local luncheon.

Students team up for New Orleans Entrepreneur Week

Jack and Jake’s Local and Organic Market is a new business that plans to bring locally grown food to customers in underserved neighborhoods within three days of harvest, but to achieve that goal, the company first needs a top-notch distribution system.

That’s where a team of MBA students from Tulane, Loyola and UNO comes in.

“They’re helping us not just with the warehouse but with the overall distribution network as well,” says John Burns, founder of Jack and Jake’s. “They’ve done a couple of months worth of work in literally just a few days. It’s amazing the amount of help they’ve already provided us with.”

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Entrepreneur Week Kicks Off In New Orleans

Entrepreneur Week in New Orleans is a meeting of the minds for upstart businesses and up-and-coming talent.

The week is about matching top business talent from across the country with entrepreneurs and encouraging innovation.

WDSU caught up with some local business owners who said events like this helped them come up with the perfect mix.

Why You Should Start a Company in... New Orleans

FastCompany
by Laura Rich

It used to be, if you were serious about starting a tech company, you went to Silicon Valley. But emerging entrepreneurial hubs around the country are giving startup aspirants options. In this series, we talk to leading figures in those communities about what makes them tick. Here, part eight in our series.

What do entrepreneurs do? They find an itch that needs to be scratched and go at it. After the devastating hurricane of 2005, New Orleans definitely had a lot of itches.

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Sunday Video Series: the New Orleans entrepreneurial ecosystem after the storms

For this week's video, we looked to Entrepreneur magazine for their profile on the entrepreneurial ecosystem inNew Orleans and how it has been revitalized since the hurricanes in 2005. The video features a number of entrepreneurs in the community, many with historical ties to the area and others who have moved their post-Katrina, discussing how they have all come together to but the city of a new path.

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Four Years After Katrina, New Orleans Now A Hub Of Entrepreneurship

Four years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans has emerged as a flourishing city for entrepreneurship.

With the four year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina on the horizon, New Orleans' rebuilding efforts are still underway.

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Entrepreneurs Take to 'Big Easy'

Four years after Hurricane Katrina's devastation, New Orleans is experiencing a rebirth of entrepreneurship.

Small-business owners who left are now coming back, driven by a sense of mission to help the struggling city and to take advantage of generous tax breaks. Young professionals have moved to the Big Easy to help with its recovery, enjoy its cultural offerings and start businesses. Surviving companies entered niche business lines as competitors folded or left.

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New Orleans, Back on its Feet, Finds a New Entrepreneurial Spirit

Before Katrina, New Orleans was known more for the free-wheeling atmosphere of its streets than the free-thinking of its business leaders. The economy was largely controlled by manufacturers and the oil and gas industries, with a business culture that valued seniority and lineage over raw talent. In stark contrast to that commercial stodginess was the city’s intrinsic creative energy — something any visitor can feel the moment they set foot there.

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SENO's Accelerator Corps

Dear Social Change Agents:

SENO is proud to introduce the our pilot version of a new program, Accelerator Corps. We are recruiting volunteers to participate in this program. Please see below for more information.

Introducing SENO's Accelerator Corps!Green Light New Orleans is partnering with SENO - The Social Entrepreneurs of New Orleans - in a pilot program they are developing called the SENO Accelerator Corps, a program within the Executive Mentoring program. What is Green Light New Orleans? Using volunteers, Green Light New Orleans enables low and fixed income households to switch from incandescent light bulbs to energy efficient compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) which reduce carbon emissions and utility costs. The mission of the program is to have a positive environmental impact by increasing the use of CFLs, helping low income residents reduce their utility bills and creating a connection between the volunteers and recipients of the service. The Problem: Social ventures like Green Light New Orleans need more than just operational support from volunteers. Many can benefit from the applied expertise of experienced professionals. Just as many corporations enlist professional consultants to help make their businesses more profitable, non-profits are often in need of similar support to help increase community-impact. The Opportunity: The SENO Accelerator Corps is a unique opportunity to use the skills and expertise you've developed in your professional life to help a social entrepreneur more effectively serve our community. The Goal: Make Green Light New Orleans operationally sustainable. Right now, the organization has a long waiting list of citizens who would like to receive CFLs and home visits from volunteers. The organization also has plenty of volunteers who are willing to participate. What they do not have is financial stability. They are constantly worried about whether they will be able to afford to continue operating. The Commitment: We are seeking young professionals who are interested in a several-month-long engagement with this social venture through the SENO Accelerator Corps program. The time commitment will be roughly two hours per week. The program will commence in September 2009. The Framework: In order to fully understand the unique value proposition of Green Light New Orleans, you'll have to first spend a day volunteering by making home visits to New Orleans citizens and installing CFLs. You and your team will then conduct interviews with Andi Hoffman and his staff. You'll meet to discuss your findings, and then identify the steps you'll take to accelerate Green Light towards sustainability. Qualifications: Our team should be comprised of professionals with a variety of strengths, qualifications and experiences. We think we need: * A financial expert. Someone with experience in financial/strategy consulting and accounting. This person should be equal parts analytical and creative. * An operations expert. Someone with experience running the operations and logistics of a non-profit, business, or operational department at a larger corporation. This person should be a strategic, inquisitive, objective thinker who will think outside the box with regard to Green Light's operations. * A development expert. Someone with experience fundraising for a non-profit, specifically from corporations. Green Light has successfully written several grants but would like to more fully explore philanthropic opportunities in the private sector. Strategic partnerships with corporations need to be explored. This person should have successfully initiated large-scale fundraising projects in the past. They should be a charismatic influencer with strong interpersonal skills. * A social media marketing expert. Someone who fully understands all aspects of social media marketing and is familiar with search engine optimization techniques. This person should be an avid user of social media and should have effectively used online tools to market goods/services, promote events, and/or fundraise in the past. To apply: Send an email to Katie Del Guercio (kdelguercio@seno-nola.org).Include a resume or link to a KODA profile (http://koda.us). Explain which role you think you can play and why you will be effective. If you think that you can fill a needed role that we haven't identified, please define. Explain why you care about helping an organization like Green Light New Orleans. Explain what kind of commitment you are willing to make to the SENO Accelerator Corps. To learn more about Accelerator Corps and SENO, click here.

Best,

The SENO Team

New Orleans firms ranked on magazine's growth list

Thirteen New Orleans area companies were ranked on this year's Inc. Magazine list of the 5000 fastest-growing private companies in the nation, the magazine announced Wednesday.

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WATER TO THE WELL: Transformational Practices for Social Entrepreneurs and Organizations

Date: Friday, August 14th

Time: 12pm-6:30pm

Location: 201 Thomson Hall
Richardson Memorial Hall (Tulane School of Architecture)
Tulane University 6823 St. Charles Avenue
New Orleans, LA 70118 


Registration Required: please register at www.watertothewell.eventbrite.com

Workshop Cost: $25.99 (non-members); $20.99 (SENO dues-paying member)

Workshop Description:

Almost by definition, the work of social change is stressful. And, the complexity of current reality calls for new forms of leadership. Throughout history, effective leaders from all traditions have understood the inextricable links between spirituality and social justice, between individual and social liberation. Transformational practice offers us a profound framework and set of tools to deepen sustainability and effectiveness. This daylong session will introduce practices that can strengthen our capacity to lead, create a deeper well from which to draw, and bring about concrete change on the issues we care about.

We’ll explore four gifts of transformational practice: the ability to understand and hold paradox, how practice deepens sustainability and our capacity for wisdom, how presence can shift the dynamic of any conflict, and how to speak with a voice of truth and compassion. Then we look at our organizational culture: what is the operating metaphor and languages that defines the culture, what sustains and depletes organizational life, where are the strengths and the “edges,” and how specific practices can transform meetings, space, communication, teamwork, planning, and programs.

Claudia Horwitz works at the intersection of practice, community experience, and social change. She founded stone circles in 1995. Her previous work includes developing youth leadership, supporting struggles for economic justice, and strengthening social change organizations. Claudia practices walking a yogic path of awareness, on and off the mat. She lives on the land at The Stone House in Mebane, NC with her dog, Zak.

Other Upcoming SENO Events

• Executive Mentoring Program: Recruiting mentors and mentees now! http://www.seno-nola.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=64:execmentor&catid=3:programs

• Accelerator Corps- Recruiting experts now! http://www.seno-nola.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=65:accelerator&catid=3:programs


• PitchNOLA--Recruiting audience members and participants now! http://www.seno-nola.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=63:pitchnola&catid=5:participate&Itemid=52

2009 PitchNOLA: Social Entrepreneurs for Change

Have an innovative idea to effect positive social and/or environmental change?

Interested in refining your “pitch”?

Want to learn how to better promote your idea to investors and collaborators?

If you answered “YES!” to any of these questions, please consider submitting your idea to:

2009 PitchNOLA: Social Entrepreneurs for Change

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Entrepreneurs Leverage New Orleans’s Charm to Lure Small Businesses

IT has been a long time since the word “optimism” was spoken in the same sentence as “New Orleans.”

But a small group of entrepreneurs has been using that word lately to describe their efforts to attract small businesses to New Orleans. For now, their enthusiasm may be greater than their results. But they say the city’s low rents and business tax incentives along with its music and culture have proved to be powerful lures, despite the still-halting efforts to get past the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

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2009 PitchNOLA: Social Entrepreneurs for Change

2009 PitchNOLA: Social Entrepreneurs for Change

Social Entrepreneurs of New Orleans (SENO), Tulane University’s Office of Social Entrepreneurship Initiatives, the Tulane Entrepreneur’s Association, and WorkNOLA.comare proud to announce:

2009 PitchNOLA: Social Entrepreneurs for Change

Have an innovative idea to effect positive social and/or environmental change?

Interested in refining your “pitch”?

Want to learn how to better promote your idea to investors and collaborators?

If you answered “YES!” to any of these questions, please submit your idea today.

PitchNOLA is an "elevator pitch" competition that will showcase 15 entrepreneurs with ideas for ventures that will effect positive change in New Orleans.

Entrepreneurial hubs are springing up across the city and spurring economic development

The old adage about strength in numbers is ringing true for some start-up companies in New Orleans.

Entrepreneurial ventures in New Orleans are increasingly clustering together under the same roof in a bid to share ideas, support each other and spur economic development. Since Hurricane Katrina, three entrepreneurial hubs have been established in the city. A fourth is scheduled to open later this month. And GNO Inc., a local economic development group, is close to finalizing details for a similar hub on the north shore.
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