the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem update

Execution:

KODA launched yesterday (public beta – see note below about how it’s connecting). www.koda.us

Dukky’s fully automated site launched on Friday. Shawn Burst’s brilliant concept has been brought to life. www.dukky.com

Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Trumpet Alum and part of our extended family, quit his day job yesterday to launch his grand vision – Mike plugs his huge, international network into nola generously – you’ll be hearing a lot about it soon.

Kyle Berner embarked on his road show in support of the buzz around Feelgoodz and the very cool Whole Foods distribution partnership.

NAKEDPizza has become a socio-economic phenomenon – literally, poised to become a national player by this time next year (Investor/partner Mark Cuban demonstrating the power of the bully pulpit tossing shout outs on ESPN just yesterday). They’re test driving Twitter beta tools. Very heavy.

EcoPark made its first important hire – Mary Jo Webster, formerly a senior heavy with Starbucks to lead the effort.

SENO is putting its board together and in collaboration with the New Orleans Institute is putting is in talks with IDEO about some very cool things for nola.

Sean Cummings’ Entrepreneurs’ Row is like the ’27 Yankee’s batting line up- The Receivables Exchange, Lifestyle Revolution, Free-Flow Power, Audio Socket et al

Chris Schultz goes live with Launchpad at The IP sharing the good with Turbo Squid, IV, et al. and golden boys iSeatz. Also, great scheming with him and Steve Rehage on Tribe/Con collaboration with Voodoo – stay tuned. Rehage is monster, nationally recognized multi-media machine and amazing local asset.

Barbara Cranner’s vision for a family recipe called Bruise Relief has gone coast to coast, now on almost 7000 CVS pharmacy shelves across the country, with big interest from Whole Foods, Walgreens, etc – a little marketing is going a long way.

Al and Todd Andrews’ new natural-fabric sports performance line – thriv – will also be debuting this holiday season at Sports Authorities across the country. Their proprietary natural fabric blend of bamboo and organic cotton is generating buzz throughout the industry. Byron Scott is on board as an advisor and investor.

Tom Fischmann’s leading a great team in bringing IP created at Pennington to life as a fully realized business with a potentially transformative impact.

Karen Gabois is plotting the full scope of citizen journalism – a poignant concept as traditional media evaporates around us.
Pike Barkerding’s Bideo has returned home from Austin to launch.

Cool Hand Nuke beta- launched last month.

Project 30-90 is getting buzzed, plugged in and ready for its close-up.

Stay Local is investigating ways to scale the great things they’re accomplishing in New Orleans.

The pipeline is full at GNO Inc., etc.

Idea Village has been funded to scale up IDEAcorps, etc. Tim and the gang are everywhere from Harvard to Google these days.
David Crais is EVERYWHERE, sharpening policy, connecting ideas and provoking

And there’s a mayor’s election in 11 months that will present an unprecedented bully pulpit on which to tell the authentic story of the new New Orleans – not spin, but the one we’ve committed ourselves to. There’s been a pretty good flow of context-correct media of late – from Fast Company to the New York Times, to BBC. Thanks to Skipper, Sean, Tim, Nic, Mike H, etc. a bunch more press coming later this year. The indication is that people with big audiences like our story. That about as sure as it gets for justifying investment in communications.

The cool thing is that I’m forgetting about a dozen other cool things – and this is just the stuff Trumpet’s touching. There’s so much more I have no idea about. That is a good thing.

The Entrepreneurial Eco-System is coming together. To be certain there are no guarantees – such is the way of entrepreneurship – each of these will survive on their grit, merit and a bit of pixie dust. Early stage, pre-revenue money is still one of the fundamental needs – proving concept is vital and pretty much what Trumpet Ventures and many of you are engaged in, but challenging with no cash flow. But the new economic reality is being populated with startups and/or those who think like one. Again, a place NOLA holds pole-position.

Regardless, there’s no denying that all of it is happening because innovators and risk-takers in our area are now able to reach out and more easily get the technical, financial and perhaps most importantly, the philosophical support they needed to ACT and EXECUTE. Better alignment of resources.

Another happy, maybe-not-so-much-an – accident is that so many of these companies are operating as, what our own uber-entrepreneur John Ellstrott would call, Conscious Capitalists. Social benefit, social innovation, sustainable profit. Very cool brand for New Orleans. Some people think it’s about the most seductive thing in the world to the new generation of knowledge workers. Suppose the trick is to convert on it while protecting what makes us compelling and unique. So tension. And necessary for innovation.

Spread the word.

P/S
Jeff Berger of KODA will be with us today and in NOLA through the weekend. He’s staying at IH. Please say hello and I encourage you to congratulate him on the launch of KODA. Jeff’s a Tulane graduate, from Boston, who built his concept with the bright lights at IDEO, honed the tech at Pivotal Labs (Twitter, etc.) and is now working with us (and with the great support of Tulane and Loyola) to take KODA to market. Jeff’s been a good partner to Trumpet and New Orleans. I’ve enjoyed getting to know him through the process and business relationship. I believe in his vision and I’m glad we’re having the opportunity to add value to it.

It’s relevant to Trumpet in that our relationship is about helping to turn a business idea into a sustainable brand. In the very different context of the runway, investment, fail-fast tech development (agile), etc. of a Startup. Startups are different. That’s pretty much what our evolution has been about.

It’s relevant to New Orleans in that KODA is investing its resources in the community with the goal of expanding its presence: A smart, high-tech – low impact business, that facilitates the hiring/retaining of intelligent, engaged and passionate people and a tool for facilitating the success of other organizations by assisting them in more authentically living their business mission and unleashing the full capacity of the next generation of workers. Recent study says that Sounds like hand-in-glove for that new New Orleans we’re working toward.

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