Launch Pad’s role in New Orleans recovery

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On this 5th anniversary of Katrina, there has been much reflection about New Orleans.  We have made many strides as a city, yet there remains much work to be done.  The city is broad and diverse and I wouldn’t for a minute pretend to know the challenges that so many have faced over the last five years.

One bright spot has been the emergent entrepreneurial community in New Orleans.   I been a New Orleanian equal parts pre & post storm now, and it amazes me how different the business climate is today.  There is a collaborative, bootstrapping, can-do spirit driving us and the last few years have been the most inspirational of my business career.  There is something truly special going on in New Orleans right now, and I am humbled that the people of Launch Pad, our community, is playing such an vital role in this resurgence.

There has been plenty of coverage this week about what is going on in New Orleans, and I wanted to share some of it with you here.  Thanks to everyone in New Orleans for being here and to everyone else for your love and support!

Get Involved in TribeCon 2010

We have been hard at work for the last month getting things fired up for TribeCon 2010.  Thank you to all of you who made last year such a success, and we can’t wait to have you back to New Orleans again for this year’s edition of the conference.

We’ve started to get things fired up for this year, and want to engage you to help us shape the conference and the programming.  It’s a community-powered conference and we really appreciate your engagement.

THE BASICS

SPEAKERS

Interested in speaking, or know someone who would be great, we want to know about it.

We really appreciate any ideas you have, help us create the content you want to see.

SPONSORS

We are looking for sponsors for this years conference.  Please contact Chris Schultz at chris@voodooventures.com to receive a sponsorship proposal.

ENGAGE

Last year this Google Group (our Tribal Council) truly shaped the conference.  It was a huge help to Tiffany and me, and we deeply appreciate your support in pulling this together.  We hope that you’ll once again share ideas, feedback, brainstorms with us right here.  We truly value our community.

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Why I invested in Jackson Square Group

2010-07-19_1017I’ve talked about my investment in Jackson Square Group previously, but since the company has just closed the round of funding, I wanted to highlight why I think Jackson Square Group is going places.

First, a little context:  In March, I invested in Jackson Square Group through Voodoo Ventures and took a seat on the board of directors.  Jackson Square Group just closed its seed financing round on July 15.

I invested in Jackson Square Group because:

  • Patrick Comer, the CEO is as driven a founder as I’ve ever met.  He has extensive background in the market research industry and as an entrepreneur.  Industry experience and multiple startup experiences are a winning combination.
  • The team is top-notch. It’s been eye-opening to me to see the talent that New Orleans has to offer and the energy that this team has brought to the company (of course this is hindsight, b/c I was already committed, but its a good start).
  • The technology is disruptive. This is a bit of a cliche, if your technology isn’t disruptive that might be a problem.  But the Federated Sample platform that Jackson Square has launched increases quality & deliver-ability, automates transactions, and provides many-to-many connections in a industry dominated by one-to-one manual relationships.
  • The market is rapidly evolving. The world of market research surveys adapts as new data collection methodologies come online: door-to-door begat telephone begat email lists begat social networks. Jackson Square’s Federated Sample technology is well-positioned to to move the industry to its next phase.
  • Data. Enough said.

Here is some recent press from Time Picayune, Research Magazine, & Market Research Online.

I’m very pleased to be an investor in Jackson Square Group.  If you are interested in the company, please contact Austin Lavin. As always, if you have questions for me, hit me up.

An Open Letter to David Cohen of TechStars

Dear David -

Last night we had the pleasure of attending the TechStars demo day in Boston where we saw 10 great companies present to 250 mentors, investors, and members of the tech community.  Wow, what an impressive evening and showcase for TechStars.

I’d like to respectively submit for your consideration New Orleans as the next city for TechStars.

You and I have had several conversations over the last year, facilitated by Andrew Hyde, about my desire to launch a mentorship-based seed fund in New Orleans.  We’ve done our homework: studied the models, attended your session at SXSW, and talked to mentors, entrepreneurs and investors all involved with TechStars. You said to me last night “New Orleans is on my radar…” to which I respond: I’m making it my mission to do what it takes to attract TechStars to launch in New Orleans in January of 2011.

I believe we can demonstrate to you that the tech startup community in New Orleans and Louisiana is activated and it would be a winning move for you to launch your Winter session in New Orleans.  Here is what I plan to demonstrate:

  • we have a roster of local and national mentors ready to commit
  • we have sources of capital that will get behind a TechStars New Orleans
  • we have an startup ecosystem of intelligent, passionate, creative, driven entrepreneurs who will provide the core of and be impacted greatly by TechStars
  • we have a favorable climate for tech startups with the 35% digital media incentive which makes Louisiana one of the best places for software and Internet companies in the country
  • we have a collaborative workspace, Launch Pad, ready to house TechStars companies
  • we have activated local leadership lined up to get behind TechStars and make it a success

I have been passionate about the need for a mentorship-based seed fund in New Orleans for the last two years, and I fully believe that the stars are aligned to make it a reality right now with TechStars.  We are committed to making our case to you, learning what we need to know, and answering your questions to make as convincing an argument as possible.

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Introducing Hu.la – our new URL shortener

I am excited to introduce Voodoo’s latest project, Hu.la, a URL shortener.  If you’re reading this post, you probably got here via a tweet or Facebook post via a short link.  While largely a commodity now, we decided to get in on the action too.  We secured this domain name earlier this year, and decided to launch our own URL shortner.  We’ve been using it internally for a couple months and now are rolling it out publicly so you can too.

One of the fun things about having the great engineering talent at Flatsourcing is being able to pursue projects like this, and occasionally they require a few hacks.  So, we want to share the story of how we built Hu.la:

  • bit.ly is the leader in the URL shortner space and we applied to and were accepted in the beta of their bitly.pro program.
  • The bitly.pro service powers New York Times, Amazon and TechCrunch’s own URL shorterns too.  You can sign up here.
  • In order to get a homepage that allows others to access the service, we took a lesson from the guys who created 511cc.org using bitly.pro.
  • And voila: we’ve launched Hu.la – take your links for a spin today.

Any questions or suggestions, please let us know.  We’d love your feedback and for you to make it your default URL shortening service.

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