Louisiana Economic Development (LED), which is responsible for strengthening the state’s business environment, is currently ramping up its efforts to strengthen the local economy. For starters, under SB 494 last spring, LED passed a bill that reorganized the department’s leadership structure, creating new leadership roles.
As such, LED has hired Josh Fleig for the newly created position of chief innovation officer. Fleig, who previously served as senior vice president of the business development group at GNO, Inc., is tasked with creating and executing a strategy that supports high-growth, technology-enabled startups in Louisiana. He is working closely with GNO, Inc. to do just that.
LED Leads the Charge
Globally speaking, Fleig said that the high-growth, high-wage jobs needed in Louisiana come from innovation industries (such as technology, healthcare and energy). And not only is it important to attract these types of companies, but even more imperative to build them.
“Louisiana deeply lacks in headquarters — the types of high paying jobs that create greater economic impact on the community than any other,” Fleig said. “Headquarters have an outside positive impact on their communities: wages are higher; philanthropy is heavier in their own backyard; they create more indirect jobs; and [they will make] purchase decisions for Louisiana in Louisiana. We will continue to attract expansion opportunities from innovative companies, but … we need to build the innovation headquarters of tomorrow.”
To that end, Fleig works to provide everything startups need to thrive, from products (such as capital programs like the Angel Investor Tax Credit program, or SSBCI) to services (like technical assistance, and accelerators and incubators). He also steers policy that helps to build and support an innovation ecosystem, and he works with colleges and universities to better commercialize research and development in higher education.
“My first order of business is redesigning aspects of our SSBCI program to allow the $113 million from the U.S. Treasury to freely flow into high-growth, technology-enabled startups,” he said. “Nearly $90 million is earmarked for seed capital, and the remaining $23 million is for small loan-assistance programs.”
Fleig said that so far, in the Greater New Orleans region, there are six funds participating in the program—meaning they are responsible for getting the money into the hands of the startups: New Orleans Startup Fund; Momentum Fund (The Idea Village); Boot64 Ventures; Tulane Innovation Fund; Ochsner Louisiana Innovation Fund; and Propeller.
“Each fund is writing seed capital checks to startups across the region that align with their individual mission and goals,” Fleig said.
LED (a limited partner in the Ochsner Louisiana Innovation Fund) pushed through $5 million in SSBCI funds, which was then matched by the fund. This money is being used to invest in healthcare-related companies across the region and the state.
Fleig said that global investment in AI also is growing at a rapid pace. “During the last legislative session, we acted quickly to pass a bill to capture some of the growth in AI infrastructure,” he said. “Act 730 was designed to quickly enter the AI hyperscaler investment race, which is predicted to hit $200 billion globally by next year, [according to] Goldman Sachs.”
As company attraction relates to Act 730, Fleig said there are some fish on the line. “It’s brand new, so we will see how effective our competitive program can be,” he said. “One company that has recently expanded into the Greater New Orleans region that I’m proud of is Outlier, a sports-intelligence app company based in Austin that is building an engineering team in the Warehouse District.”
According to Fleig, it is also critical to focus on growing startups in the entertainment industries (such as film and television production, game development and music production). “[New Orleans] has a strong head start in all three industries,” he said.
In addition to hiring Fleig, LED is now able to procure its own contracts with third parties as part of the revamp. “We just built out a new advisory board, the LED Partnership Board, composed fully of individuals from the private sector to help steer the strategic direction of the department and bring an active, pro-industry voice to the table,” Fleig said.
Support from StartupNOLA
Meanwhile, Evie Poitevent Sanders, who has served as director of innovation and entrepreneurship at GNO, Inc., for nearly three years, primarily focuses on regional ecosystem development via the StartupNOLA strategic initiative. “There are three main pillars of work that fall under the StartupNOLA umbrella: community; connections; and capital,” she said.
In terms of community, Poitevent Sanders launched and manages the monthly StartupNOLA Now meetup series to bring together players from the ecosystem — often with a specific topic and speaker or panel. She also oversees other StartupNOLA programming geared toward educating founders, including the new quarterly Access to Capital series that kicks off in September.
Additionally, Poitevent Sanders manages GNO, Inc.’s, StartupNOLA website (startupnola.com), which serves as an online directory and aggregator of all startups and resource providers in GNO, Inc.’s, ecosystem.
When it comes to connections, Poitevent Sanders also supports high-growth startup founders, funders and ecosystem service providers (such as entrepreneur support organizations, accelerators, incubators and higher education centers for entrepreneurship). “This includes ecosystem overview meetings with startups, venture capitalists and numerous out-of-state parties,” she said. “From those meetings, I regularly facilitate warm introductions to a wide variety of stakeholders for networking purposes.”
Finally, Poitevent Sanders also facilitates introductions between equity investors (both local and statewide) and founders, national venture capitalists, and various local and out-of-state parties for deal-flow purposes. For example, prior to most of the Access to Capital sessions, startups can pitch and directly interface with funders within that given funding area.
Working Together for the Greater Good
GNO, Inc., works closely with its partners at LED across all departments. “Greater New Orleans is by far the largest startup ecosystem in the state, so whatever LED unveils statewide on the innovation front, GNO, Inc., and StartupNOLA will surely be involved in due to the size of our ecosystem,” Poitevent Sanders said.
Likewise, Fleig credits GNO, Inc., for being the boots on the ground to help reach startups and the broader startup support ecosystem. “We co-develop programming, cross-promotion of products and services, and we work closely to measure growth and success,” he said.
Both organizations also offer training and resources for workforce development. For example, GNO, Inc., which has been designated a Region 1 STEM Network Center by the Louisiana Board of Regents LaSTEM Advisory Council, offers the GNOu Workforce program, economic mobility initiatives and more.
The efforts of both organizations are beginning to spin the flywheel. “For startups to thrive in Louisiana, they need the 3 C’s: capital; coaching; and customers,” Fleig says. “We’ve been seeing [progress] since the wave of startup exits began with Levelset [in 2021], and now with the influx of capital from those exits plus SSBCI turbocharging opportunity for innovation in the region. Step one was improving our capital program. Next, we will turn to enhancing coaching and customers. If innovation companies can find all three—in abundance and in working order—we can win.”
