Entrepreneurs on the Northshore no longer have to cross the lake to receive business development support from The Idea Village thanks to the August launch of IDEAinstitute Northshore. Jon Atkinson, CEO of The Idea Village, joins Chris Masingill, CEO of St. Tammany Corporation, and Vincenzo Caronna, entrepreneur in residence and program manager of IDEAinstitute Northshore, to discuss the importance of this new venture.
about
Jon Atkinson: Atkinson is an expert in startups, customer development methodologies, and entrepreneurial finance. His experience combines a diverse knowledge as a professional investor and ‘recovering’ banker with skills gained as a professor, CEO, CFO, business advisor, board member, and strategic consultant to deliver unique business insights in guiding and financing unique business insights in guiding and financing growth-oriented companies. Atkinson was previously the founding director for the Loyola University Center for Entrepreneurship and Community Development and a visiting assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship at Loyola University New Orleans. He is also a co-founder and the fund administrator for Lagniappe Angels, LLC.
Chris Masingill: Masingill has led the St. Tammany Corporation as CEO since July 2018. Masingill was recruited to redefine economic development in the community and build a high-performing economic development organization with an expanded scope of service, and under his leadership, the organization initiated, adopted, and is now implementing THRIVE2023, St. Tammany’s 5-Year economic development strategic plan. Since July 2018, St. Tammany Corporation has announced multiple major business recruitment and expansion projects representing over $60 million in capital investment and 1,520 new and retained jobs.
Vincenzo Caronna: A biological engineer by training and entrepreneur by vocation, Caronna’s background includes work in advancement of early-stage tissue engineering companies, encompassing research and development, project management, commercialization of transplantable products and partnership cultivation. Caronna founded a technology company — Thrivvy, The Search Engine for Groceries — which allowed him to gain valuable experience in the techniques of idea generation, customer discovery, designing for customer experiences, marketing, business and financial modeling, as well as pitching a vision.
