New Orleans Entrepreneur Week, the annual celebration of startup businesses, turns 16 this year.
And, like many teenagers, the event is trying out a new identity.
NOEW debuted in 2010, when business leaders in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans were looking for ways to create and keep jobs in the city. In the years that followed, its nonprofit producer experimented with different formats, teamed up with various partners and piggybacked on other events to boost awareness and attendance.
Now, for the first time, Loyola University New Orleans has taken over production of the event, shifting the focus away from high-growth ventures and toward supporting budding entrepreneurs of all types and increasing the school’s role as a gathering place for the region’s business community.
Highlights of the five-day event include a conversation between New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno and national political podcaster Tim Miller; a keynote address from former Tesla and Lyft executive Jon McNeill; and a talk from Nicola Corzine, of the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center, which recently released a report praising New Orleans’ startup growth.
In all, more than 70 speakers have been curated to support the next batch of “tech founders in hoodies” along with entrepreneurs of all types that reflect the diversity and reality of the south Louisiana economy, according to Lisa LaCour, part of the NOEW programming team.
“Entrepreneurship in New Orleans has always looked different, whether it’s musicians building hospitality empires, restaurant owners becoming tech founders, or community organizers turning social impact into sustainable business models,” said LaCour, founder of the marketing firm The Vault Collective. “We haven’t celebrated that as loudly as we should.”
‘Don’t have to play ringleader’
NOEW gets underway Monday, March 9, at various satellite locations around the city and continues throughout the week, moving to Loyola’s campus for a two-day summit on Thursday and Friday, March 12-13.
Several panels will examine business models based on music, art and community. Another will spotlight Louisiana’s plans for tech innovation. There will be fundraising advice, a look at multigenerational family businesses and a talk about historically Black colleges or universities as engines of Black innovation. A “crazy ideas” challenge will offer up to $5,000 in scholarships and other prizes.
New Orleans Entrepreneur Week attendees inside a building on the campus of Loyola University New Orleans in March 2025. This year, Loyola is the event’s sole producer. (Photo: Malcolm Johnson Jr.)
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New wellness programming includes a “networking walk” around Audubon Park, breathing exercises and a demonstration of a 10-minute meditation. Event organizers say the moments of mindfulness are designed to improve clarity, decision-making and composure — all critical to running a successful business.
“Our school’s mission and the goal of the event is to bring as much of the community together as possible,” said Sam McCabe, director of Loyola’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Community Development, which is responsible for NOEW programming. “Whether you’re starting an ice cream shop or a new tech venture, this community wants to build you up.”
Organizers say the holistic approach reflects Loyola’s Jesuit values — and NOEW’s changing role in the evolving New Orleans startup scene.
Sixteen years ago, The Idea Village, the nonprofit business accelerator that started NOEW, was one of the few institutions in town serving that community, so the event was a way to create momentum. Now, the scene has grown and spread out.
Tulane University and Ochsner Health have both launched innovation-focused entities to support new ventures. The Nieux on St. Charles Avenue hosts a steady stream of innovation-themed events. Economic development groups like Greater New Orleans Inc. and Louisiana Economic Development have made innovation key priorities. New venture capital firms, like Boot64, Corridor Ventures and 1834 Ventures, have cropped up to search for promising young companies. And at least one new private equity fund is planning bigger bets on more mature enterprises.
As a result of that growth, organizers say, NOEW’s mission is less about kickstarting a scene as it is getting everyone together and on the same page for a few days each year.
New Orleans Entrepreneur Week attendees congregate on the campus of Loyola University New Orleans in March 2025. This year, Loyola is the event’s sole producer.
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“Originally, they had to manifest something out of nothing,” said Matt Wolfe, chief marketing officer at GNO Inc., the nonprofit economic development organization that provides NOEW with financial and programming support. “Now we have legitimate startups, capital on the table and successful company ‘exits,’ so they don’t have to play ringleader in the same way anymore.”
For Bobby Savoie, dean of Loyola’s Joseph A. Butt, S.J. College of Business and founder of several successful software companies, NOEW also is a chance to connect promising students with potential employers while bringing energy to the business program he’s led for the last two years.
Savoie said last year’s event, which attracted roughly 3,000 people citywide and 1,200 to Loyola, was well-received by students, faculty and participants.
“Mixing entrepreneurs, investors and speakers with the campus really gelled,” he said. “We saw that this could work.”
‘Like rock stars’
The seeds of NOEW date back to 2006, when The Idea Village partnered with Tulane to connect MBA students with entrepreneurs looking for help after Katrina. Over the next couple of years, out-of-town students from Stanford University and other schools jumped into the fray, along with employees of corporations like Google and Salesforce.
In 2009, organizers brought all the teams together for a one-week challenge at Tulane’s business school. In 2010, they changed the event’s name to NOEW and added a pitch competition for outside entrepreneurs.
New Orleans Entrepreneur Week attendees and passersby walk across the campus of Loyola University New Orleans in March 2025. This year, Loyola is the event’s sole producer.
Provided photo
That year, West Coast investor Jim Coulter, who has ties to New Orleans, joined as a financial backer and programming partner. For several years after, he was instrumental to NOEW’s growth.
By 2012, the annual gathering was attracting hundreds of attendees to raucous “fan vote” pitch competitions that had Mardi Gras parade energy.
“The people on stage were like rock stars or Saints players,” said Tim Williamson, co-founder and former CEO of The Idea Village. “Entrepreneurship had become part of our culture.”
NOEW continued to grow throughout the 2010s with help from partner organizations. After a pandemic break, organizers experimented with different formats, adding a live music festival one year, and launching the “NOEW in Your Neighborhood” series of events across the metro area.
But the biggest change came with the handoff of production to Loyola, which co-produced the event last year with The Idea Village and took it over completely this year.
The Idea Village CEO Jon Atkinson said the move helps his organization focus on the needs of venture-funded, high-growth startups and it allows NOEW to return to its roots and be the “place where New Orleans comes together to envision the future.”
Filling a gap on the map
The change has freed up The Idea Village to produce a related event, the 3rd Coast Venture Summit. The invitation-only gathering scheduled for the same week is designed to connect promising Gulf South companies with deep-pocketed national investors.
New Orleans Entrepreneur Week attendees sit in a lecture hall on the campus of Loyola University New Orleans. (Photo: Malcolm Johnson Jr.)
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Andrew Albert, programs director at The Idea Village, said the goal of the 3-year-old summit is to leverage the region’s expertise in industries like maritime, energy and manufacturing while getting investors accustomed to coming to New Orleans to look for opportunities, filling in the gap on the map between Houston and Atlanta.
“We want to serve anyone who’s ‘Gulf South curious,'” he said. “JPMorgan Chase alone is investing $4 trillion in the region, and that’s a signal that investors see value in what we create here.”
The summit will take place Tuesday and Wednesday, March 10-11, at the Common House New Orleans, then move to Loyola’s campus for an investor breakfast that will tie the two events together.
Savoie said the one-two punch will show the potential of the city’s business community.
“We have a great ecosystem that’s been built here,” he said. “If you give these companies permission to succeed and give them support, they’re going to kick ass.”