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.

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

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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

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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

Google+ becomes Brad Pitt’s first social network

Google+ welcomed Brad Pitt to his first social network. I have been a fan of Brad Pitt’s for a long time. My appreciation for Mr Pitt grew significantly while I was living in New Orleans doing recovery work after Hurricane Katrina. Brad Pitt has been extremely active in the continuing recovery in New Orleans. He co-founded Make It Right.
His first post was focused on “A Night to Make it Right Gala” happening on March 10th 2012 at the Regency Hyatt Hotel in New Orleans. Ellen DeGeneres and Brad Pitt will host the Gala. Dr John (one of my favorites), Rhianna, Sheryl Crow, and Seal will all be performing. The charity gala will raise funds to build sustainable, affordable homes for New Orleans’ families who lost everything to Hurricane Katrina and promote Make It Right’s work to provide sustainable housing in Newark, NJ and Kansas City, MO for disabled veterans and disadvantaged communities.

A brief history of Make It Right:

On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina flooded 80 percent of the City of New Orleans and killed 1,577 people. Hardest hit was the Lower 9th Ward where more than 4,000 homes were destroyed by the storm and the surge of water caused by the breach of the Industrial Canal levee.

Two years later after Katrina when actor Brad Pitt toured the city, no progress had been made in the Lower 9th Ward. Still, the community was determined to rebuild. After meeting with local families, Pitt established Make It Right to build 150 green, affordable, high-quality design homes in the neighborhood closest to the levee breach.

Make It Right kicked off in December 2007 with the Pink Project – an art installation designed to bring attention to the challenges and possibilities of rebuilding the Lower 9th Ward. The Pink Project raised 12 million dollars.

21 local, national and international architects donated designs for single family and duplexes to Make It Right. Today, Make It Right has built 75 sustainable, LEED Platinum certified homes for Lower 9th Ward families. According to the U.S. Green Building Council, Make It Right is the “largest and greenest community of single-family homes in the world.”

Make It Right Timeline
Incorporated: August 2007
Announced: September 2007 (Clinton Global Initiative)
Launched: December 2007 (Pink Project)
Groundbreaking: March 2008
Construction began: June 2008
First six homes completed: August 2008
First 50 homes completed: December 2010
First 75 homes completed: May 2011

Source: Hollywood Reporter Further Reading: http://www.makeitrightnola.org/ http://www.nighttomakeitright.com/

The Nibletz team will be in New Orleans the following week and we will try to bring you some coverage from the Gala. New Orleans is my adopted “home city” and the story is still being written regarding the recovery.