Known for its vibrant music, flavorful cuisine and unique architecture, New Orleans is a city that celebrates individuality, creativity and innovation. Over the past decade, this spirit of innovation has spilled over into the city’s tech industry, transforming the Big Easy into a hub for entrepreneurship and technological advancement.
From co-working spaces to biotech startups, the Crescent City is home to more than 300 tech companies, according to a report by GNO, Inc. The tech sector employs more than 20,000 New Orleanians and generates $3 billion in annual revenue, according to the Brookings Institution, which noted that 76 new companies were founded in New Orleans just in 2020.
With remote work becoming more common — especially in the tech industry — people can more commonly choose where they want to live. And often, people choose places with unique cultures and a strong sense of community. In other words, places like New Orleans.
“One of the interesting things about Louisiana is you have a lot of people who come here or have deep ties here, who may leave to take jobs in the industry in other places like New York,” said David Facey, co-founder and CEO of Event Tree, a startup described as a “ticketing platform that helps eliminate problems that currently come with selling tickets and promoting events” (think Ticketmaster, minus the exorbitant fees and sordid history with Taylor Swift). “But because of the culture and lifestyle, they always come back. So, when they come back here or decide to move here, they bring those different walks of life and experiences, and it makes the tech scene even stronger.”
This year’s New Orleans Entrepreneur Week (NOEW) this past March, took a step further in marrying the city’s culture and tech scene with the launch of NOEW Fest, a three-day lineup that featured more than a dozen live music artists at Generations Hall and the Broadside. Now in its 12th year, NOEW is the premier tech networking event in the Gulf Coast, and an important resource for both established companies and brand-new startups alike.
“The people at this event go on to become advisors, co-founders, partners,” said Facey. Along with co-founder David Jones, Facey said NOEW has been critical for the survival of startups in the region. “Last time we were here, we met someone who ended up serving on our advisory board. We met investors,” Facey said. “We met engineers that we worked with. It’s all those different hubs, spokes in the wheel, we met from NOEW.”
NOEW is produced by Idea Village, a nonprofit business accelerator that plays a vital role in building and sustaining the vibrant startup community in the city. Jon Atkinson, CEO of Idea Village, said that Event Tree and companies like it are perfect examples of what he calls “culture tech.”
“I would say that they’re a good example of why we do it. To be able to bring someone like them in and provide some value there,” Atkinson said. “They’re innovating within the business model of culture. They create an opportunity to basically engage your community as an event promoter and pay them instead of paying Ticketmaster, and I think that’s a great idea.”
For Atkinson, the economy of building startups and building innovative companies from the ground up really starts and becomes much more impactful, the more density that can be created. He pointed to companies that had recent substantial (i.e. massive) exits totaling more than $2.5 billion in the last two years, like Lucid and Levelset, as huge wins for the local tech industry—but also as examples that success stories aren’t just one-offs.
“I think that overall, we’re proving that innovative industry-leading companies can be built here, and we’re starting to prove that we can do that in a repeatable and scalable way,” Atkinson said. “It’s becoming more of a system and less of isolated incidents. It takes a lot of effort to get that sort of first turn of the flywheel moving, but now things are starting to move a little bit faster and they’re starting to build on each other, which is really exciting.”
Similar to Idea Village and NOEW’s support of tech startups, the New Orleans BioInnovation Center (NOBIC) supports new startups in the bioscience industry. A private 501(c)(3) biotech business incubator that was founded with the mission to create a successful biotech ecosystem in New Orleans, NOBIC has helped create more than 500 jobs and generate $144 million in economic activity since its opening in 2011, according to a report by the Louisiana Economic Development (LED) agency.
Kris Khalil, executive director of NOBIC said that in the years following Katrina, New Orleans became a hotbed of innovation and entrepreneurship, with a thriving community of tech startups and established businesses. Additionally, the city’s unique blend of culture, history and talent has attracted a diverse range of companies, from healthcare startups to gaming studios to software development firms.
“There is also a strong focus on collaboration and community building in the New Orleans tech ecosystem,” Khalil said. “Events like New Orleans Entrepreneur Week bring together entrepreneurs, investors, and industry experts from around the world to share ideas and network. Universities like Tulane, LSU Health, UNO and Xavier are constantly spinning out new technologies and building out internal innovation support capacities, which is exciting.”
Successes in the local biotech industry are also becoming more common. Khalil said Fluence Analytics, a company that provides industrial process monitoring systems using hardware and software technology to measure and control real-time changes in materials, is a great example. The company received funding from BioFund in 2014, which helped them develop their first prototype. “They were able to leverage the funding and resources provided by NOBIC to develop a product that addresses a critical need in the industrial sector,” Khalil said.Â
Fluence Analytics’ technology has a wide range of potential applications, from improving the quality control of pharmaceuticals to optimizing the production of polymer materials. Khalil said the company’s innovative approach and potential for global impact made it an ideal candidate for NOBIC and BioFund support.
Since receiving BioFund funding, Fluence Analytics has continued to grow and succeed. In 2022, they were acquired by Yokogawa Electric Corporation, a global leader in industrial automation and control. For Khalil, this acquisition demonstrates the quality of Fluence Analytics’ technology and the potential for innovation in our region.
“The sale of Fluence is a testament to the long-tail of specialized innovation, particularly as it relates to university-affiliated technology,” Khalil said. “For BioFund, this sale means that we have proven our fund’s investment thesis, and we will be able to deploy these investment capital returns into an additional 15-20 new deals in the next 36 months.”
Recently, LED announced $113 million in State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) funding, which Khalil said will greatly impact the early-stage capital landscape in Louisiana. “This means that firms such as the New Orleans Startup Fund that provide funding and mentorship to early-stage startups will have more dry powder to deploy,” he said. “Despite all of the macro-economic headwinds, there’s never been a better time to start a business in Louisiana than right now.”
Did you know? Startups are growing! In Tulane’s 2022 GNO Startup Report, 68% of startups said they plan to hire new employees in the next 12 months — up from 60% in 2021.
