Meet the Founders and Builders Powering New Orleans
Rather than trying to replicate the playbook from coastal hubs, New Orleans is building infrastructure that plays to local strengths: industry access, capital efficiency, and founder retention.
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New Orleans, Louisiana minted its first tech unicorn, the billion-dollar research software startup Lucid, in 2021. At the time, The Idea Village’s Jon Atkinson told Hypepotamus that such events were the “first turn of the flywheel” for the city’s startup ecosystem.
As we look towards 2026, there are plenty of signs that such a flywheel is spinning even faster. One such metric pointing in that direction is startup exits. New Orleans has produced eleven notable recent exits according to Startup Nola's database. That includes Gilded (acquired in 2023), TurboSquid (acquired in 2021 by Shutterstock), and Levelset (acquired by Procore).
The city is now seeing a growing crop of new startup founders who are taking a stab at building inside New Orleans’ innovation ecosystem.
"We're in a hinge moment," says Andrew Albert, Programs Director at The Idea Village, the city's flagship startup accelerator. Now twenty years after Hurricane Katrina, the city is focused on writing its next chapter, and it is seeing tech as a key part of that story. "We now have seasoned startup execs that have made a conscious decision to build and live in New Orleans."
A “Place” Play
Albert, a former executive analyst at Lucid, said that New Orleans offers structural advantages to tech startups at different stages of growth. It's not about lower costs or quality of life compared to coastal tech hubs. It is about being where the infrastructure is and where customers are.
"There are unique advantages to being in New Orleans, and really the Gulf South in general,” Albert said. "When you think about industries like logistics, the future of energy, climate, and advanced manufacturing…these are literally in our backyard. Those are hard things to build, and anybody building in this space needs direct access to customers first and foremost, because you can't necessarily fundraise your way to success."
Some of the startups to watch in town today reflect that in-town opportunity. Some of the standout companies in the city reflect this focus, including PosiGen (solar energy), Glass Half Full, Advano (advanced manufacturing), and RiskReady (InsurTech).
Building Gulf South entrepreneurship
The Idea Village itself has evolved to keep up with the demands of the local startup ecosystem. The programs have shifted to be much more “bespoke” and “curated,” ensuring that the program can help founders throughout their nonlinear journey, Albert added.
This tailored approach reflects a broader maturation in the ecosystem. Rather than trying to replicate the playbook from coastal hubs, New Orleans is building infrastructure that plays to local strengths: industry access, capital efficiency, and founder retention.
The Idea Village’s programming includes IDEAinstitute, VILLAGEx (for venture-scale startups that aim to raise at least $1M in the next 24 months), IDEAfuel (for startups founded by Black, Indigenous, and BIPOC entrepreneurs), and METRONOME (for the city’s MusicTech industry).
Where New Opportunities Take Root
Another growing part of the ecosystem is TechPlug Ventures. The venture firm focuses on scaling technologies that drive equity and innovation in the city.
Led by Managing Partner Kornelius Bankston, TechPlug was founded in 2019 with a focus on combating health disparities in the city. From an education perspective, Bankston has the strongest of Atlanta ties (he has an undergraduate degree from Morehouse College, a graduate degree from Emory University, and an MBA from the Georgia Institute of Technology). But he sees opportunity in New Orleans and across Louisiana, which ranks near the bottom when it comes to health outcomes in the country.
“TECHPLUG was birthed from an unmet need in the tech innovation ecosystem,” Bankston told Hypepotamus. “I felt that health tech was not connecting the human experience/condition to the technological advancements and innovations in culturally localized ways. At the core of our work in health tech is the human experience. As more technological innovations were being made, I felt that tech was creating a barrier of entry for our vulnerable and marginalized communities…We believe you can do good and be a profitable company.”
TechPlug runs the Queen Mother (QM) program, a nine-month business development program for early-stage health tech companies. Companies are selected based on their company’s commitment to address health access in vulnerable populations. The program partners with local universities as well as Louisiana Blue and Healthy Blue Louisiana.
TechPlug portfolio companies include Simple Healthkit (Sheena Menezes) and Bloomlife (Eric Dy). Its current accelerator cohort is made up of Latitude Health (Chuck Feerick), Okkanti (Karen Laing), and Wiggl Health (Mason Orme).
TechPlug is now raising its first venture fund focused on health access companies, while continuing to expand the Queen Mother program through national partnerships.
Want to keep your eye on New Orleans? These are a few startups to check out:
Advano (advanced manufacturing)
Align (growth management software)
Anedot (FinTech for nonprofits)
CampusKnot (EdTech)
Civilized AI (GovTech)
Glass Half Full (coastal restoration)
Gophr App Inc. (supply chain/logistics)
Ingest (data management for restaurants)
Locally (ecommerce)
MobileQubes (mobile charging)
Nest Health (HealthTech)
PosiGen (solar energy)
Prokeep (construction tech)
Rep Data (survey research and data)
Resilia (nonprofit software)
RentCheck (property management software)
RiskReady (InsurTech)
Spot2Night (Travel software)
Wavegate (medical device)
WickedHyper (transportation and supply chain)
