New Orleans Offering Big Tax Incentives To Attract Startups

We already know the New Orleans‘ startup community is growing. Ever since Hurricane Katrina, the people of New Orleans have turned to starting their own businesses, launching tech companies, medical device companies, and other types of startups. They’ve adopted a “fend for yourself” mentality while sewing the fabric of the city back together.

For decades, New Orleans has been known for its music and culture. Mix in the growing startup community, and it’s a great place to relocate to launch that new startup. Sure many people want to flock to Silicon Valley or New York, but New Orleans has a flavor all its own.

If that’s not enough for you, New Orleans is now offering huge tax incentives to startups. Tourism and hospitality are huge industries in New Orleans, but technology, on the other hand, is not. According to The Atlantic, New Orleans still lags behind most of the country in tech workers. According to The Examiner, 1.4% of workers in the Big Easy are in the “computer and mathematical” fields; that number is 2.7% across the nation.

To correct that New Orleans is offering an incentive called the “Digital Interactive Media and Software Incentive.” This incentive offers startups with at least one employee a 35% tax credit on payroll for instate employees. The program also offers a 25% tax credit for development expenses.

“This means that 35% of your payroll for your in-state project managers, developers, testers, designers, and engineering management and 25% of your servers, developer and tester workstations, and development-related software, supplies, and rent are credited back to you at tax time. All of this, with no minimums required and no cap on the amount that you can credit,” The Examiner reported.

Could we see a rise in the Silicon Bayou?

Check out this video interview with New Orleans startup Red Ticket Games.

Baton Rouge Startup: LocalMed To Create 52 New Jobs

Louisiana’s Economic Development Secretary, Stephen Moret and startup LocalMed CEO Keith English, announced last week that his company would be creating 52 new direct jobs in Baton Rouge. The new jobs will support LocalMed’s continued growth in their online and mobile technology platform that allows doctors, dentists and patients to handle appointment scheduling, management and reminders 24 hours a day.

The average salary of the new jobs will be $52,000 dollars a year and they will also include benefits. The Louisiana Economic Development Commission estimates that another 53 new indirect jobs will result as well bringing the grand total to over 100.

LocalMed was created by twin brothers Daniel and Derek Gilbert after Daniel had to deal with more than 8 doctor’s appointments per week while battling cancer. Once the cancer went into remission the brothers teamed up to create this new platform for better self management of appointments. They launched LocalMed in 2011.

LocalMed began attracting investors including English who joined as CEO in May. LocalMed’s platform will also be added to over 2000 Stay Healthy Kiosks nationwide in stores like Kroger. The kiosks will provide patients without their own access to mobile devices and the internet to make and keep up with appointments. The company plans to announce even more strategic partnerships in early 2013 as well as introducing Android and iOS apps.

Gov. Bobby Jindal said, “LocalMed is a homegrown, ‘made-in-Louisiana’ story that makes us proud. LocalMed is an extremely attractive, high-tech venture that could have chosen other states to build its headquarters – the company even looked at establishing its offices in Texas or Florida before choosing Louisiana. The company’s decision to come to Baton Rouge is the latest example that our state is becoming a beacon for the digital media and technology industries. We have a proud heritage of supporting jobs in the oil and gas industry or the chemical industry, but now we are diversifying our economy, and cities like Baton Rouge are becoming the next Austin and the next Silicon Valley where entrepreneurs and risk-takers are coming to change the face of technology and create good-paying jobs for our people.”

“We are pleased to welcome LocalMed to Baton Rouge,” said Mayor-President Melvin “Kip” Holden. “This innovative and new software development company truly exemplifies the Creative Capital of the South. We look forward to helping them grow and expand their business in the Capital Region.”

Linkage:

Find out more about LocalMed here

No one covers high growth technology in the South East like nibletz, the voice of startups everywhere else

Come on down to everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference

New Orleans Food Ordering Startup: Couchster, Set To Debut Dec 17th

After a long day at work, school or even at the gym, a lot of people just want to chill on the couch and order in. That’s the idea that’s driving New Orleans entrepreneur Sean O’Neill and his food ordering startup Couchster.

The New Orleans startup is an online food ordering site, optimized for mobile, but O’Neill is hoping to add native mobile apps in the not so distant future. While mobile food ordering isn’t necessarily new, it is new to New Orleans. According to our friends at Silicon Bayou News, O’Neill is aiming to make ordering food easy and more accessible.

Couchster serves up online menu’s so that ordering from your computer, mobile device or tablet can be a cinch. In a city known for it’s delicious food and variety at that, Couchster is a welcomed addition. O’Neill already has over 125 restaurant locations on board. While he’s not officially launching until December 17th, the menus for all of Couchster’s restaurant partners are already posted for users to view.

Couchster is bootstrapped to the hilt. O’Neill believes he shouldn’t try and raise money until he has proven his concept. So after having this idea for over a year, he went out and worked 8-5 everyday and saved every dime he could so that this past June he could quit his day job and work on Couchster full time.

As long as the rollout in New Orleans goes well O’Neill plans to expand to other cities in Louisiana like Shreveport and Baton Rouge, and then after that he wants to take Couchster outside of the state.

Linkage:

Couchster can be found here

Source: Silicon Bayou News

Nobody covers high growth tech news in the southeast like Nibletz, the voice of startups “everywhere else”

Are you coming to “everywhere else” the largest startup conference in the US? Tickets are affordable and the line up is spectacular

New Orleans Startups Prepare For Silicon Bayou 100 Event December 12th

New Orleans thriving startup scene is about to celebrate the second annual Silicon Bayou 100 release party. The event, being held December 12th at the Eiffel Society, will highlight a crowdsourced group of 100 top movers and shakers across the region known as the Silicon Bayou.

Registering for the star studded event will get you into see all the action live and if you can’t make it Silicon Bayou News will send you the list of winners so you’ll know who’s who for the next year.

Three of the regional organizations that support high growth startups and entrepreneurism will hold their monthly meeting in conjunction with the gala. Those organizations are NOLA, Net2NO and the Baton Rouge group, SeNSE.

Thanks to LaunchPad, Louisiana Technology Park, New Orleans BioInnovation Center and the Eiffel Society, tickets to the event are free (You just need to register).

Hit the links below:

Check out Silicon Bayou News’ story here

No one covers high growth tech news for the southeast like nibletz.com the voice of startups “everywhere else”

A lot of New Orleans startups are coming to the largest startup conference in the US

New Orleans Car Advertising Startup Advercar Raises $2 Million In Seed Round

Advercar is a New Orleans based startup that lets people make money by wrapping or putting other advertisements on their vehicle and driving around.

The startup was founded by Neil Turner who was the former Chief Strategy Officer at iSeatz. Advercar pays drivers to put advertisements on the front, sides and backs of their cars. It’s very similar to taxicab advertising except on private vehicles. The company charges advertisers $280 per month which is roughly the same amount charged by taxi cabs.

Advercar passes up to $100 per month to the driver. They also say that some advertisers give drivers the opportunity to make more than the $100 per month.

Advercar’s $2 million dollar seed round was led by Canaan Partners. 1-800-Flowers, Branford Castle Private Equity, New Orleans Startup Fund, Jit Sexana and TiE Angels Boston also participated in the round. With this round 1-800-Flowers CEO Jim McCann and Canaan partner Deepak Karma have joined Advercar’s Board of Directors.

The startup’s idea was originally pitched last year during New Orleans Entrepreneur Week as part of their Power Pitch competition where they won first place.

Advercar already has 5,000 drivers. The company tracks their drivers with a GPS tool that allows them to report back to advertisers and show them where their ad was seen. They also use a calculation method set forth by the Traffic Audit Bureau that allows them to calculate, roughly, how many people saw the ad. Advercar has a special group of AdverMoms that allows advertisers to reach other moms.

TechCrunch’s Anthony Ha asked Turner if it felt strange for an Advercar driver to drive around with advertising on their car. Turner replied;

“You notice for your first 20 minutes, but after that you forget they’re on. You do notice if you go to a grocery store, because people will be staring at your car.”

Linkage

Find advercar online here

Source: Silicon Bayou TechCrunch

More startup news is here

And here’s the big conference info

New Orleans EdTech Startup Dash Technologies Releasing Dash For Teachers App Interview

Three educators in New Orleans have teamed up to form Dash Technologies a new startup focusing on educational apps for teachers. Their first app “Dash For Teachers” will hit the Apple iTunes app store on Wednesday.

Dash4Teachers is almost like a CRM app for teachers to keep tabs on students performance, log that performance and than generate a quick speed dial list so that teachers can make those ever important calls to parents. With the Dash4Teachers app, when the student’s performance is logged the app knows what parameters are set that distinguish parents that need to be called over parents of students who’s performance is up to par.

This is a valuable tool for busy teachers and busy parents. It also increases the communication between teacher and parent for the students benefit.

We had a chance to interview Dash Technologies about their exciting new app. Check out the interview below and look for the app in the iTunes app store tomorrow.

New Orleans Startup: Red Ticket Games Shows Off Extreme Trivia At TechCrunch Disrupt VIDEO INTERVIEW

Here at TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2012 we got a chance to meet Barrett Conrad, CEO and PlayerOne at Red Ticket Games. Red Ticket Games is based in the Silicon Bayou, New Orleans to be exact.

We talked with him a bit about their innovative trivia game called Extreme Trivia where you can become an expert on anything, especially because the user creates the questions.

The game is a break from traditional trivia games. One of it’s mean differentiators is the fact that the users create the questions. To conceptualize that idea, think of a it like this: You’ve got a group of friends and you probably have some common interests. Well most trivia games will have the generalized questions based on your topic, but with Extreme Trivia you can do relevant questions based on your knowledge.

Imagine if the guys from Big Bang Theory played a game like this. Obviously their intellectual ability far outshines the game writers at Parker Brothers, but with creating your own questions you have a better chance at stumping your friends, or helping them out.

As a special part of this interview our managing editor Cameron Wright talked to Conrad a bit about the thriving startup scene in New Orleans and what it’s been like to rebuild after the storm. Admittedly there wasn’t much of a startup scene in New Orleans prior to Hurricane Katrina. After the storm New Orleans was like an open canvas in their rebuild.

While New Orleans hip hop scene migrated to Atlanta, Houston and Dallas, their tech scene started to bubble. In fact there was just a launchpad event earlier this month right smack dab in the middle of Jazz Fest.

Whether you want to know more about Red Ticket Games, Extreme Trivia or the New Orleans startup scene, you should definitely check out this video.

Linkage:

Find out more about Red Ticket Games and Extreme Trivia Here

Check out more of our TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2012 coverage here

We’re on a sneaker strapped, nationwide, startup road trip, for more on that (and to support our cause) click here

New Orleans Startup: Bioceptive Raises $385,000 For Safer Birth Control

A New Orleans biotech startup called Bioceptive has just raised $385,000 in seed money today.

The startup, which is based at the New Orleans BioInnovation Center downtown, is developing the idea of a young Tulane graduate which will hopefully lead to safer intrauterine birth control. This type of birth control, called IUD’s, currently requires to use multiple tools to insert the birth control device into a woman’s uterus.

While the procedure is relatively safe and performed thousands of times a day, the more tools involved the more likely there is a risk for puncturing the uterine wall. With Bioceptives insertion method it reduces the number of tools needed to insert the birth control.

The $385,000 in seed money came from private investors, venture capital funds, physicians and Tamara Kreinin. Kreinin is the former executive director of women and population with the United Nations Foundation in Washington DC.

The BioInnovation Center opened last fell. Bioceptive is the latest center tenant to receive funding. The center is an incubator for Biotech startups in the region.

Linkage:

Source: New Orleans City Business

Nibletz is the voice of startups “everywhere else” get your startup featured email us here

We’re on a nationwide sneaker-strapped startup road show, for more on that and to help click here

New Orleans Startup: Neighborland Offers Social Networking For Neighborhoods

One of the fastest growing segments in mobile and web life these days is the social network. Of course MySpace and then Facbeook put the social network on the map but now there have been slices of the social networking pie, carved out in unimaginable ways, that work.

Earlier today we featured a social networking app for pets. There are social networks for picture takers, business people and crafters. Now that people have stopped sitting out on the stoop and grilling in the front yard, a social network is a great way to connect.

Speaking of that stoop and grilling in the front yard, that’s the foundation behind New Orleans’ startup Neighborland.

One thing that makes Neighborland especially intriguing is the fact that co-founder Candy Chang actually took something physical and made it digital. There have been a lot of startups launched to do the opposite, take printstagram and stitchtagram for instance.

Chang came up with the idea after doing two, almost installation art projects, one in New Orleans and one in Fairbanks Alaska. In New Orleans she stuck stickers to structures that said “I Wish This Was________”. In Alaska she draped an abandoned apartment building in a sign that said “Looking for Love” she also installed chalk boards all over the place around the building and encouraged passerby’s to write things down.

More after the break
Read More…

Launch Pad Ignition Hosting Launch Fest In New Orleans During Jazz Fest May 3rd

Looks like New Orleans may be looking to turn their annual jazz festival into a jazz and tech festival reminiscent of the evolution that south by southwest has taken in recent years. Launch Pad Ignition is hosting a Launch Fest event on May 3rd in New Orleans .

The Launch Fest promises to bring together mentors, speakers, and investors to raise funding for the entrepreneurs in New Orleans. The Launch Pad Ignition 2012 class will present their first public pitches at the event including Kinobi, VoteIt, Red Ticket Games, Giftmeo,Unawkward, Lawyerfy, and Connect for a Cause.

The event also features a great list of speakers:

Andy Weismann – Union Square Ventures
Noah Kagan – AppSumo
Paul Singh – 500 Startups
Galia Benartzi – Particle Code
Richard Mumby – Bonobos
Dan Parham – Neighborland
Andrew Yang – Venture for America

If you’d like to attend follow this link to register.

Source: Siliconbayou