The Idea Village Blog

New Orleans Entrepreneur Week 2010 Video

2010-04-30T12:09:00.005-05:00

Since 2000, The Idea Village has led a movement to develop New Orleans into a world-class entrepreneurial community with a mission to identify, support and retain entrepreneurial talent in the community. After ten years, a ‘new’ New Orleans has emerged, one that is becoming a magnet for talent and hub of innovation. It is in this spirit that The Idea Village, together with a collaboration of local and national partners, hosted New Orleans Entrepreneur Week 2010.

From March 20-27,2010, top MBA students, corporate volunteers, and our nation’s most accomplished entrepreneurs congregated and collaborated in New Orleans to provide over 9,000 hours of direct service to 329 early-stage New Orleans ventures and address emerging business opportunities in our community.

Downtown New Orleans was transformed into an entrepreneurial village, characterized by a line-up of world-class activities including investor presentations, business workshops, networking events and speeches from our nation’s most respected thought leaders. Inspired locations such as the IP building, the Contemporary Art Museum, National World War II Museum, Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, Fulton Street and Lafayette Square were home to the promising entrepreneurial movement that is underway.

Our collaboration of partners, including Downtown Development District, Economic Development Administration, Google, and the New Orleans Saints are building on the surge of entrepreneurial activity in hosting this annual festival of entrepreneurship, providing impact in New Orleans for generations to come.

Looking Backward, Looking Forward

2010-04-21T16:14:00.006-05:00

It's been over a month now since the start of NOEW 2010. Things have calmed down a bit, one could say, although preparations for next year's big event are already nearing into sight again. At the Idea Village, we're always looking forward!

At the same time, we should reminisce briefly and thank all of those who made this year's event as stunning and vitalizing as it was. With the help of the nation's best and brightest, we made massive strides in placing New Orleans on the national map of innovation and entrepreneurship. Even after the craziness of Entrepreneur Week, the momentum at the Idea Village and in New Orleans remains insuppressible.

Big things have been happening for the Idea Village's entrepreneurial class since Entrepreneur Week. Of course, the guys at Big Easy Blends are preparing for their big trip to San Francisco, which they received for winning the Coulter Challenge during NOEW. While in the Bay Area, they will have the opportunity to pitch their already-booming business to prominent investors organized by Jim Coulter himself.

Drop the Chalk's Jen Schnidman also recently participated in Tulane University's 2010 NewDay Challenge and received first place (accompanied by a pleasant $20,000 in seed funding) for her business's financial sustainability and potential to effect social change.

Not that the Idea Village has missed out on the action, of course-- the IDEACorps Program, which now forms a part of the annual Entrepreneur Week, was recently named the Southern Policies Board 2010 Innovator Award Winner from Louisiana! The award recognizes the Idea Village's initiatives for improving economic opportunities and quality of life in the region.

There's no doubt, then, that it remains ON in NOLA!

Stanford Re-cap

2010-03-31T15:02:00.018-05:00

What a week! I (Eric) am now safely back in Palo Alto and just wanted to reflect a bit on the incredible week that my teammates and I had in New Orleans.

First, it was awesome experience working with Jen at Drop the Chalk. Jen has an incredible mix of domain expertise (teaching, computer science) and business savvy and she's targeting a need that absolutely must be addressed. Jen's tool is spot on in terms of what needs to change in education - analysis of student performance done in a way that frees up time for teachers. Here's Dave and Leonard hanging out with the boss.

From my perspective it was great working to help along such an important product. If I can give some credit to my teammates, I think the Stanford team did an awesome job of opening up some growth avenues for Jen's products and figuring out a plan to get the company from A to B. Of course we left town with lots of work to be done (Jen at 7pm on Thursday night: "I think you guys are off to a great start!"), but I think the right questions were raised and the path forward is a little clearer. The picture to the left is of Rachel bringing us home in our presentations.

Finally, what can I say to adequately describe my new found love of New Orleans? I'm not quite sure if it was the food (crawfish, gumbo, oysters, catfish, Mr. B's, Cafe Dumonde), the people (hospitality from the Beers and James Carville/Mary Matalin) the fun (Trombone Shorty, betting it all on red at Harrahs, mint juleps) or the entrepreneurial spirit that came up nearly everywhere, but this city is DEFINITELY on a roll. I have a completely different perspective on what can be accomplished down in New Orleans. It's incredible and it's contagious!

Thanks again to Drop the Chalk, the Idea Village, Berkeley, Cornell, Northwestern, Chicago, the local schools and my teammates for making it such a memorable and rewarding week. I'll definitely be back soon...

And We're Out!

2010-03-28T17:29:00.016-05:00

The fact that I'm writing to you on Sunday evening at Louis Armstrong airport ought to indicate that the Haas team survived Friday, and for that matter Saturday and Sunday. After a week of crawfish, too little sleep, controversial speakers and mint juleps we're out of here. Back to our homes devoid of grits, fried green tomatoes and people whom you're sure are speaking English but remain completely unintelligible.

Let's break down the exodus.

After the all-night marathon that was Thursday night one might be curious about how the Berkeley team held up. Here's how it went...

Two of us, myself included, peeled off at around 4:30am. Jim Coulter of TPG was set to present the next morning at 9am, leaving precious few hours to catch some much needed rest. Jim's a man who's not to be denied, so our team's approach was to make sure at least two of us got some rest thereby ensuring at least partial representation at 9am. Sandeep and I made it. Assembling downstairs way later than the expected 8am shuttle departure, we nonetheless made it over to the World War Two Museum theater by the appointed hour. Mike, our intrepid leader and one of the many who slugged it out well through the dawn to 7:30am, joined us. He's man made of some tough stuff.

But here's the problem. When we arrived at the WW2 museum we stumbled upon the ruined leftovers of a breakfast enjoyed. Bacon, biscuits and scrambled eggs lay warming in their trays, but the most sought after item had run dry. Coffee. Precious, precious coffee. All gone. Not a drop. I grabbed the urn by the handles and tilted it forward in desperation, hoping to extract a thimbleful more. No luck. I'd have to settle for decaf.

<tangent>
About ten years ago I attended a dance music campout up in Willitts in Northern California. After a night of moving my body to progressive house beats I got in line for the breakfast. Moving down the stations I made it to the coffee. There was plenty and my cup was filled. The person in front of me questioned the server as he poured the live-giving liquid into my mug.

"Do you have any decaf?" he asked.

"I've got a better idea," retorted the server, "how about I give you some pot to smoke that won't get you high?"

Well put. There's no way to improve upon the statement by adding any further commentary.
</tangent>

Only decaf?!?! That's a desperate situation. Jim's an engaging speaker and you probably don't need me to tell you that. His private equity credentials are without peer and when a man of his stature gets up to speak paying attention is the best thing to do. But paying attention without adequate sleep and only decaf coursing through one's veins is something that belongs on a Japanese torture show. I looked at Mike. He'd had far less sleep than even me and yet he shrugged off the lack of stimulants as if this was all part of a normal day. Jim started speaking.

Then comes the realization. When Jim Coulter speaks stimulants are irrelevant. He's a captivating speaker whose command of the stage equals his command of business concepts. He laid out the entrepreneurial tableau for the audience, and he's eminently qualified to do it. Perhaps most striking of his comments was his firm's avowed mission to reject the assholes, even when their more craven corporate minds might pressure them to do otherwise. This is a refreshing thought, and in the wake of the turgid financial mess through which the world has slogged it represents the direction that many of us wished Wall Street had taken years ago. For many of us the financial industry as a whole has for too long been held under the sway of the assholes. With the industry in disarray there's a good chance that the Jim Coulters are the force of the future rather than the Gordon Gekkos. Okay, Jim's a real person and Gekko's a fictional character and that's where things start to fall apart but you get the idea.

The remainder of the Haas team streamed in at a steady pace. Each looking terrible and each still somehow managing to tap their last drops of adrenaline. The panel presentations loomed in the afternoon and Anoobhav still felt short of practice. Carmie-C, leader of the pack, seemed more calm, but there's a good chance that calm was really just a manifestation of extreme exhaustion. They soldiered on.

The short of it all was that we did in fact make it through the day. It's easy to get nervous when pitching a five minute presentation to a room filled with the likes of General Wesley Clark and the afore-mentioned Jim Coulter. To their credit, Anoobhav and Carmen kept their bottle. Most sane people would have been overwhelmed by a sense of intimidation and I wouldn't have blamed either Anoobhav or Carmer for leaving something warm and sloppy in their underpants. Of course they didn't. They kept their cool and in spite of their extreme exhaustion, managed to represent both our entrepreneur and Haas in a positive light.

And did we win? No, that honor went to Cornell. Although it should be pointed out that at no stage was the week ever about winning in the traditional sense. All that I think any of us sought to win was the confidence of our entrepreneurs and the support of our peers. Anything beyond that was cake. Winning might also include seeing Sandeep shuffle his feet one more time and we were certainly treated to that.

As the sun set on Friday we piled into the bus and made our way over to the palatial home of James "Ragin' Cajun" Carville and Mary Matalin. Scattered amongst the hundreds gathered there were the team members who over the course of the week had looked New Orleans in its metaphoric eye and said yeah, I'll have me some of that. Roll call please...

Carmen "Team Momma" Chan

Anoop "Heart to Heart" Mathew

Anoobhav "Problem Child" Singh

Vikas "End of the Day" Meka

Kenny "K-Dog" Do

Sandeep "Flash for Beads" Kohli

Rohan "Sassy Pants" Thompson

Mike "Stayin' Alive" Dansbury

I'm not sure any of us mastered the use of "y'all". See you next year.

A Rose By Any Other Name

2010-03-25T23:10:00.010-05:00

The team that Haas sent to the Idea Village this year is by any measure a diverse group. The team boasts only one whitey and he's bald and not even American. While last year's team was similarly diverse, see if you can pick what separates Haas NOEW 2010 from 2009. Let me help: the male to female ratio. There's no rhyme or reason to it, this year there are simply more men than women on the team—a lot more. The ratio is seven to one. Spare a thought for our lone woman, Carmen, forced to spend a week locked away in an office with seven boisterous men, many of whom have poor hygiene habits and eat too many onions and too much spicy food.

Back in Berkeley when it dawned on us just how far out of whack our gender balance was going to be, we set about cooking up a decent name for our team. It was fodder for a bit of fun. Here were a few of the ideas we conceived. Don't dwell on them too long. Hold them in your mind for a moment and then think about how we arrived at our preferred option.

The Suburban Lawns, The Stinkin' Hippies, The Left Coast Tree Huggers, Gold Mansachs...

Each name was supposed to be evocative of something (except the Suburban Lawns thing which is just totally meaningless) and the list went on a few longer, but ultimately the team settled on a winner: Carmie-C and the Sensuous Seven. It captures the team well. Led by the incomparable Carmen Chan, the remaining assemblage of seven men immediately responded to her woman's touch and rapidly accepted her direction. She's a natural in the role.

Team mom, Carmie-C, seeks midnight solace in a delicious dessert

Now maybe you can guess the dynamic that eventually emerged as the week in New Orleans wore on. The Sensuous Seven, at least those who are accustomed to life with our significant others, came to view Carmen as the team mom. It's not fair and none of us would openly admit that they wanted the interpersonal dynamics to go that way but that's sort of how things played out. Carmen's a born leader, and for most us the first woman whose leadership we learned to follow was our mothers. It's sad but it's true. So true. We're weak. Somehow us menfolk are conditioned to slot into deeply ingrained roles when the situation demands it. Let's see how she's able to push, shove and kick us towards our deadline tomorrow. I'll not-so-live blog the end.

We finished dinner downstairs at Capdeville a couple of hours ago. Back then the end seemed nigh. Now it's nearly midnight on Thursday and we're probably kidding ourselves if we think we're done. Carmie-C and the Sensuous Seven are preparing to practice our presentations. We're tired, a bit cranky and each one of us is eager to get back to the hotel and sleep. Nonetheless, we're determined to squeeze in a round of practice. Let's see how we go.

Goddammit, it's 3:35am. We're still here and I'm not sure when we'll be done. I just heard someone mention something about light bulbs. Who's going to make it to breakfast?

Sometime around 3am shit got weird and Rohan busted out the Rambo strap. He was obviously confused.

We're at 3:55am now and eyelids are dropping heavily. We need to get out of here and actually get some rest. Things are getting weird in here. Too long cooped up in a room does not do a mind good.

Holy crap! It's 4:22am and I'm done. I'm just browsing TMZ.com and paying no attention whatsoever. I need to get out of here. Here's the deal: I'm going to back to the hotel for about three hours' worth of sleep. I'll make it to the morning session at the World War II memorial. As for the rest of the team, who knows?

It's Thursday???

2010-03-25T18:57:00.002-05:00

The Kellogg team has been hard at work with our entrepreneur, Cecile Hardy. We kicked off the week visiting some stores in New Orleans where NOLA Couture is sold. It was great seeing her products in action and visiting with local business leaders. Yesterday, the team got to task strategizing NOLA Couture’s growth strategy. We took a break in the afternoon to listen to mayor-elect, Mitch Landrieu. The perfect cap to the day was a dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse with local business leaders and Kellogg alumni. Thank you to John and Michelle Payne (our hosts), David Darragh, Henry and Karen Coaxum, and Karl Hoefer. Yesterday, we spent the day hard at work and capped it off with Wednesdays at the Square at a trip to Capdeville.

And today… it was like joining the real world again – working on a deck all day. This experience presents teams with the challenges of real business. The Kellogg team spent our efforts identifying a growth strategy for NOLA Couture. We placed our previous work experience and classroom learnings into action in order to develop recommendations across all aspects of Cecile’s business: Operations, Marketing, Sales, Product Management, Finance, and Strategic Development. It was a unique experience to work with a business that is at a critical inflection point and be able to evaluate it holistically.

We couldn’t find seersucker suits to rent for tomorrow… but we’re ready to rock it. And more importantly, we’re excited to have helped Nola Couture prepare for and meet continued success.

Ciao,
Jessica

PS – How do you get the powder sugar out from Café du Monde?

Pictures of Team Cornell

2010-03-25T15:33:00.001-05:00

Day 1 - Cornell Team pics from St. Bernard Project

War and Peace

2010-03-25T08:31:00.007-05:00

I guess it's kind of ironic that the team working with a client whose company uses the name "Piece by Peace" should call its Idea Village work space The War Room. Honestly, when Mike slapped the sign on the exterior door no-one batted an eyelid. When it comes to self awareness and a basic cognition of things such as these the Berkeley Haas team is evidently a bit slow. It must have something to do with all of the pot dispensaries that litter the region surrounding the Berkeley campus. Berkeley's got a reputation, you know. I'm just sayin'.

Rohan prepares for a day of combat with his ideas

At any rate, sometime late yesterday the sign was mysteriously vandalized. Scratched over the word "war" was the well known peace symbol. Maybe we can take a hint after all, and within a few minutes of our arrival back at the IP this morning a retooled version of the sign found its way onto the door. We're the Berkeley Haas team. We've got a reputation to uphold. And nobody knows how to draw peace symbols better than us. We're also rather decent at getting mad about things.

<tangent>
You might remember late last year there were a series of protests across a number of UC campuses, the first of which transpired at UCLA. I recall walking by the Berkeley campus with another Haas classmate who remarked how unconscionable it was that UCLA should hog all the protest glory. "Berkeley won't stand for this," he observed, "I can pretty much guarantee you that something's going to happen tomorrow that will reassert Berkeley's status as the protest capital of the UC system." The next day forty protesters barricaded themselves behind the doors of Wheeler Hall, thereby ensuring that UC Berkeley recaptured its mantle as the undisputed center for latching onto a cause and getting really mad about it.
</tangent>

The re-christened door had its effect. The creative tension of the prior days melted away and the Haas team basked in the newly established resonant harmonic frequencies reflecting off our chamber walls. We were awash in some major good vibes and man, did it feel great. Innovation is an iterative process, circling back around on itself with increasing degrees of refinement. As Wednesday drew to a close, and as the detritus of emptied coffee cups and Oreo wrappers piled up on the table, we came to understand that what had at times been a confusing doubling back had in fact been exactly what we needed: a continual refinement of ideas and concepts. Hell or high water (no pun intended), Traci is going to receive a thick wad of output from the Haas team. We're determined to ensure that the output is actionable and of some ultimate use. Reaching that point has required the repeated discarding and reincorporation of ideas that at one point lacked a meaningful context but later found one. We've got a day to go.

While the light of the day faded, the Haas team emerged from the Peace Room to soak up a bit of local flavor at Wednesday in the Square. Music and booze are integral components of the New Orleans DNA. We enjoyed a bit of both. It was a fitting end to a day that saw the Haas team wage battle with its concepts and secure a lasting peace. It's kind of fitting that on Friday we'll present to none other than General Wesley Clark. I think he might know something about these things.

Cornell Team - Day 2

2010-03-24T19:00:00.003-05:00

Day 2: Mark Cuban is Ridiculous

Day 2 started early with an 8 o’clock stroll to the city’s Contemporary Arts Center, where we set up shop for the first half of the Monday program. We were welcomed by the Idea Village team, and treated to a nice opening session with Walter Isaacson, the current CEO of the Aspen Institute, recognized author and businessman, and a native to New Orleans. The Week’s corporate sponsors and faculty advisors then rounded out the rest of the morning by introducing themselves and offering to help in any way possible. After a quick lunch break, Dr. Scott Cowen, President of Tulane, spoke to the changing course of both Tulane’s path and curriculum, and the city’s education system as a whole. He again proved as a great example of the ingenuity and spirit currently guiding the city.

We then walked our way down to the IP Building, the home of Idea Village, Launch Pad, and a large number of entrepreneurs and start-ups to kick off the work portion of the week with Chris and Schedulist. We used the segment to strategize about the team’s goals and deliverables, and set up a great framework to help meet Chris’ objectives, and to help his business succeed. Chris and his team have developed a true software-as-a-service solution to deal with nurse staffing issues currently plaguing acute and long term care health facilities. With a clear and present market opportunity, the team set out to help build the company’s launch plan and sales process, and to inform a number of other initiatives.

The evening started off with a dinner at the Superdome, provided by NakedPizza, and a short presentation by none other than Dallas Maverick’s owner Mark Cuban. True to form, Cuban made sure to blur the line between reasonable and completely ridiculous, and in between some pretty entertaining anecdotes, he did ultimately manage to provide some pretty pertinent advice for today’s entrepreneurs; work ethic, dedication, and sales are all part of the components that make a company successful. We then wandered over to the Hornet’s arena to catch the evening’s game, which saw the Hornets come back from a big deficit to pull out a nice win over the Mavericks. And of course the night wouldn’t have been complete without the obligatory stop at Bourbon Street to chat up the locals and to further check out the local fare…

New Orleans Entrepreneur Week :30 Spot

2010-03-24T16:20:00.002-05:00

New Orleans Entrepreneur Week 2010 // :30 Spot from Deltree on Vimeo.

The Value of an MBA?

2010-03-24T12:57:00.005-05:00

This week is putting our MBA skills to test. Can we provide the business strategy Tutti Dynamics needs to develop and market an innovative product concept? Is it possible to do all this work within four days? More importantly – though – last night’s events at two cocktail parties full of New Orleans power elites put our hard won networking abilities to the test. Had all those late nights in Lincoln Park bars finally paid off?

Booth – and this may just embarrass our school – has an orientation program called ‘mocktail’ for first year students. Second years pretend to be corporate recruiters while first years pretend to be eager job hunters. In a contrived cocktail party/networking, second years teach first years the subtle fineries of networking etiquette: (1) how to enter conversations - always introduce yourself (2) how to exit conversations - “I need a refill” is acceptable while “you are so boring that you make me want to poke myself in the eye” is not (3) how to ask for business cards – say ‘please’ instead of grabbing the person’s purse, riffling through it, in order to find their ‘digits.’

The challenge: Could we apply these networking principals in an actual setting? Would we choke under the pressure of meeting the president of the Hornets? Could we converse with people who actually have important jobs –not just other MBAS who talk about the prestigious positions they will have? Do we have the ability to convert that pleasant chat into an actual connection?

I could go into the details of these conversations, but that wouldn’t be in true Chicago style, so I’ll let the numbers tell you the value of our MBA.

· Chicago Booth Representatives at Networking Events: 8

· Important People at Events: 41

· Business Cards received: 97

· LinkedIN Invitations Already Accepted: 12

· LinkedIN Invitations Pending: 32

· Potential Job Leads: 3

· # of invitations to “get in touch with me later:” 24

· Follow-up emails sent to new contacts: 31

· Percent of Conversations Converted into Business Card Exchange: 82%

· NPV Value of Contacts: $92,350

· Enjoying benetes and iced coffee with your 15 new best New Orleans friends: Priceless

Insights, Imperatives and Home Cookin'

2010-03-23T17:16:00.010-05:00

MBA students, almost by definition, are a bunch of alpha types. We've got opinions—sometimes informed, sometimes not. And we like to share them. The Haas team engaged in a lot of vociferous opinion sharing today. What was making the air in the room so hot? Perhaps it was the sun beaming through the window. Yeah, it was the sun. That's it.

Who says Berkeley students are all namby-pamby peaceniks? Tempers fray as Mike settles his score with Sandeep.

More seriously, we made a lot of headway today. The challenges facing our client are not trivial, and we're determined to tackle those challenges in a way that makes the best of our knowledge and experience. There are eight of us on the team—we're Carmie C and the Sensuous Seven—and we've all got something useful to add to the conversation. Today was an exercise in navigating each of our respective inputs and moving them through the innovation process.

Stanford, Kellogg—who are are always called "Kellogg" and never "Northwestern"; interesting, huh?—Chicago and Cornell are bona fide top-tier schools. That's beyond question. And they all boast outstanding faculty members. At Haas we've got Sara Beckman, and today was so much about the direct application of Sara Beckman and Michael Barry's framework for innovative thinking. I could go into it at length but I'll hold back for now. Suffice it to write that you should spend a minute reading about it. While plenty of observations, frameworks and imperatives were cast around "The War Room"—as we've affectionately come to call our digs—we nonetheless managed to find our way through to a few solutions. Or so we think.

But that was in many ways a distraction from what initially presented itself as today's main event: an address by the eminently charismatic Mayor Elect of New Orleans, Mitch Landrieu. The man has a way about him. His delivery is at once punchy and poignant. He's adept at maintaining an accessible narrative replete with anecdotes pertaining to children and Wendy's chicken nuggets and the framing of the tribulations of New Orleans as major national security issue. Mitch's verbal tapestry is colorful, rich and hung right there in front of the audience to enjoy or reject.

Mitch led me to cast my mind back to the night before and our hour in the company of Mark Cuban. Both men possess salient personalities, and in my mind's eye I toyed with the thought of Mitch and Mark going mano-a-mano in a Battle Royale of soaring invective. Mark would yell "bullshit!" at Mitch and Mitch would rub his head, gesture forcefully at Mark and tell him that he'd never truly testing himself until he'd run for public office, or something to that effect. Ah, what food for thought. It'll probably never happen. But if it did, it sure would be fun to watch.

I honestly thought that would represent the highlight of my day—Mitch and his laser-like ability to extract from an audience question the absolute essence of what was being asked. But I was wrong. The true highlight was the dinner the Haas team spent in the company of our local hosts (keep your web site jokes to yourself), Tom and Dian Winindger. That hoary old cliche about Southern hospitality; it's true. Perched on the upper level of an old yet tastefully remodeled building overlooking Prytania Street, the Haas team joined their entrepreneur in the company of Tom, Dian and their band of associates. It was a private event and we'll leave it as such. Although in what we now know to be true New Orleans style, we ate well, we drank much and we shared a few good stories about bad times and good... Mostly good.

It was a dinner that didn't suck.

Cornell Team - Day 1

2010-03-23T16:30:00.004-05:00

Day 1: Southeast Louisiana is huggin’ country

The members of the Cornell team were finally able to navigate the late winter travel obstacles and come together just around dinner time on Saturday night, the inaugural evening of the New Orleans Entrepreneur Week. We raised our glasses around a typical New Orleans table piled high with lobster, oysters, and shrimp and prepared ourselves for a pretty great week with our partner organization, Schedulist, and its CEO and founder, Chris Laibe. I even conquered my own aversion to sea life and indulged in an oyster wrapped in herbs and butter. I’m still alive.

Sunday morning served as a somewhat unexpected, but crucial and rewarding start to the week. The Cornell team knew that it was headed to the St. Bernard Parish to lend its hands to the St. Bernard Project, but I’m not entirely sure that the team was aware of the gravity of the troubles still facing the region, almost 5 years after Hurricane Katrina. The St. Bernard Project is a non-profit organization that was started in March 2006 to help rebuild houses in the local neighborhood that were affected by the hurricane. Since then, the group has rebuilt over 260 homes, and has served as a source of inspiration, hope, and service to the community. The project employees are quick to point out that there are still approximately 9,000 or so homes that remain unlivable. We spent the first portion of the morning listening to the organization’s co-founders, Zach Rosenburg and Liz McCartney, speak to the experiences and mission of the group, and then we headed out to sand and mud drywall at a working site. I’d be remiss if I didn’t give a shout-out to Danny Hest and Henry Parry-Okeden for their pretty keen mudding skills; both led the way during an enjoyable and productive morning.

After a short lunch break we were able to have a chat with Mr. Mendoza, a client of the Project’s, and a former resident of the St. Bernard Parish. Mr. Mendoza, who is still living in a contaminated FEMA trailer, spoke to his own displacement, and the scattering of his family, including his mother and brothers, friends, and associates. He talked about the altered neighborhood dynamic, the loss of his job, the trust, and lack thereof, between certain businesses in the community and its residents, and the family spirit and ethic that were damaged as a result of the hurricane. We concluded our lunch by visiting Mr. Mendoza’s new house, which upon the completion of some remaining electrical work, will serve as his first proper home in over 4 years. If I was a greater poet I would perhaps be more subtle in describing the profound nuances of the visits, but unfortunately I'm not. And at the risk of being overly transparent, I have to say that much of the experience with Mr. Mendoza and the St. Bernard Project was inspiring and humbling, to say the least. It also served as a great glimpse into the New Orleans community, and all of its humility, hard work, altruism, and desire to grow together. There’s certainly a tangible family spirit in this town. In Mr. Mendoza’s own words, “Southeast Louisiana is huggin’ country.”

The day proceeded with a more than entertaining bus tour of the city, both its good parts and bad, and ultimately concluded (or so we thought), with a fantastic dinner at Café Reconcile. Café Reconcile is yet another inspiring story inside New Orleans, of which I would encourage everyone to click on the preceding link to learn more about the endeavor. After a pretty fantastic serving of the Café’s award winning banana foster bread pudding to finish up the meal, Chris packed up most of the crew for a trip to Snug Harbor, where we ended the night with a great jazz set, before hitting the hotel to ramp up for a new day...

Walter Isaacson versus Mark Cuban

2010-03-22T22:50:00.010-05:00

I thought my blog post today would be mostly about Walter Isaacson, President and CEO of the Aspen Institute, and his exhortations regarding doing well and doing good. There's a lot one could blog on the topic and I fully intended to do so. Walter delivered an inspiring speech that got to the heart of what we're in New Orleans to do as part of the Idea Village's Entrepreneur week: render a bit of MBA smarts to social ventures that seek to make a some cash while giving a little something back to the community at large.

But then we were treated to an animated talk by Mark Cuban later in the day. Mark's a known quantity. His controversies are well storied and his colorful remarks really shock few people at this point. He's got his "I don't give a shit" persona down pat and that's just how he describes his brand: "My brand is I don't give a shit." Apparently he gives a shit enough to make a lot of money. People who don't give a shit usually wind up living in their parents' basements, get fat eating Twinkies and grow excessive amounts of facial hair. Mark gives a shit.

Sandeep registers delight at the loss of Mark Cuban's Mavericks — Mark couldn't give a shit.

But what he doesn't agree with is Walter Isaacson. At the conclusion of his highly entertaining talk he took questions from the audience. Well, that's not entirely true. He took questions that had been submitted in advance. One asked about his approach to Walter's thoughts on doing well by doing good.

Marks response: "That's bullshit to me!" I guess when you're Mark Cuban you're free to proffer opinions of that kind. Far be it for me to tear strips off a man whose net worth is larger than more than a few nations. But I wonder if somehow Mark's way isn't the only way. I'm sure he'd get along well with Milton Friedman. Or perhaps Ayn Rand. Or maybe not Ayn. I doubt he'd have time for her laborious prose. But my guess is that he's got time for some more of what he calls his "f*ck you money". Pardon the expletives.

Truth be told, Mark Cuban didn't exactly crowd out the rest of the day; we spent time refining our entrepreneur's business plans and we were thoroughly entertained by the Hornets versus Mavericks basketball game. Yeah, the Mavericks are owned by Mark Cuban. They lost handily to the Hornets. You know I almost felt sorry for Mark. Almost.

Booth Update #1

2010-03-22T12:10:00.002-05:00

We got to the blogging game a little late, but we wanted to share the highlights of our NOLA visit thus far. Yesterday started with a visit to the St. Bernard Project, www.stbernardproject.org , followed by an unplanned hour long tour of the 9^th ward (lesson: bring your own directions on bus tours). The founder of the St Bernard Project welcomed us with a passionate speech about the continued need for housing in this city. After all they have been through there are still an estimated 12,500 families who are without housing. Prior to Katrina most of the families in St Bernard Parish were home owners, there was 4% unemployment and extended families all lived within a few blocks of each other. This tremendous asset became a liability when Katrina hit, as all the resources for entire families was destroyed. Having heard about this great need, we got to work on rebuilding a home. We only had a few hours, but we managed to hang some drywall and make a little progress. It was really inspiring to see the St Bernard Project’s work and the huge impact they have had on the lives of over 300 families.

You can’t come to St Bernard and not think about Katrina- evidence of it is everywhere. The homes still have the grim spray painted markings that were left by the army and National Guard searchers indicating how many bodies were found inside. Many homes are boarded up, and there are empty lots everywhere from homes that were torn down. Amongst this damage are beautifully restored homes that have no sign of damage.

After using our MBA finance skills to hang drywall, we used the other half of our degree at a Sustainable Greenbuild house networking event. Outside of the delicious Cajun jumbalaya, the “write on your hand photo event” was the undisputed high point.

What is that, you’re thinking? Here’s how the process worked: (1) Have someone write your desired message for New Orleans across the palm of your hands (2) Enter a small white room converted into a temporary photo studio (3) Awkardly (speaking for myself) stand in front of light, put your newly inked hands extremely close to your face, and send off your message with a smile.

Both participatory art and party activity, this photo event united us through our shared messages of hope and progress for New Orleans. Even though one or our photo-shy team members twice deviously evaded the pressure to sully his hands, most people appreciated the activity à recommend for replication at future events.

In the evening, we gathered at Café Reconcile for dinner. Amazing food and we got to really gather as a team for the first time. Here I have to brag that the Booth team is lucky enough to have the best entrepreneur- Darren is a musician, entrepreneur, a Macrobiotic (you know- ying, yang, salt, sugar) and all around great guy. We took our team out to one of the city’s best jazz clubs and heard a great set played by Jason Marsalis and band. Sitting in the balcony, sipping a Ribbeta Strawberry beer was the quintessential NO experience.

Monday Morning:

We gathered at 7:15 to head to the Contemporary Arts Center. The unseasonably cold weather persisted, making us feel like we never left Chicago.

The events started at the new Contemporary Art Center in downtown New Orleans, a massive building full of open concrete plans, curving stairwells and exposed ductwork. I didn’t see any of the art, but I hope it is as cool as the building.

Walter Isaacson, CEO of the Aspen Institute/New Orleans Native. A man with both a local and global vision, he focused his speech on the role of entrepeneurship in revitalizing New Orleans. He highlighted Katrina’s role in reawakening the city’s creative roots, causing the city to cast off the tradition of returning to a post-hurricane ‘malaise.’ A TFA board member, he was particularly enamored by viral growth of charter schools in the New Orleans Area, as the city moves towards having one of the most decentralized school districts in the country. He now (jokingly) suggests that ailing cities get their own hurricane to help them start over again. (I wouldn’t suggest repeating that unless you’re from New Orleans.) He also discussed the uniquely creative New Orlienean culture. One of the more racially integrated cities, New Orleans history and present as a place of where cultures clash, New Orleans is a natural home for new ideas and creative industries.

What a welcome!

2010-03-22T10:39:00.005-05:00

Well it is on in NOLA. It is a pleasure to join the Idea Village blogging community as the representative from the Kellogg School of Management.

It’s the third day that I’ve been here getting to know the Idea Village and the entrepreneurship community in New Orleans. For the past two days, I have gotten immersed in New Orleans. We kicked off the trip with a crawfish boil, second line parade, home build in St. Bernard parish with the St. Bernard Project, tour of New Orleans, and dinner at Café Reconcile – among many other fantastic experiences.

Today, the team is excited to see our entrepreneur’s wares in local boutiques. Cecile Hardy, a New Orleans native, created NOLA Couture. NOLA Couture is a New Orleans based clothing line known for its unique prints that are inspired by New Orleans and the South.

So what am I most looking forward to today? It’s a long list: getting to know Cecile better, seeing her business in action, and capping off the day watching the Hornets play the Mavericks.

We’re starting this morning with a speech from Walter Isaacson, CEO of the Aspen Institute. See ya later!

~ Jessica

Dusty But Worth It

2010-03-21T22:39:00.006-05:00

Business school is really about two things: networking and time management. Full schedules are an expect part of any MBA student's lifestyle. Today, we were put to the test.

The cold, windy New Orleans morning didn't deter the bleary-eyed teams from piling into their respective buses sometime around 7:30am. A handful of students appeared somewhat rough around the edges, bearing all the hallmarks of a night spent compromising sleep in favor of more active exploits. A cloud hung over whether or not everyone would actually make it downstairs in time to make our appointment with St. Bernard Project Build. Those doubts were unfounded.

I'm familiar with Katrina fatigue. I've felt it personally. Sometime around the second week after the hurricane hit I found myself tuning out any news about the event and the devastation that followed in its wake. Five years later my attitude hadn't changed. To my mind so far removed from New Orleans, five years seemed like enough time to do just about anything. Why would nearly every every trace of the disaster not now be eradicated from sight? Well, the reasons are manifold and today my personal Katrina fatigue was put to rest.

The UC Berkeley Haas team spent the better part of the morning lending a decent amount of elbow grease to the nascent home of Delia Doty. Like many residents of St. Bernard Parish, Delia's life was thrown into chaos in the wake of the hurricane. Five years later she and her daughter are on the bring of seeing some measure of normalcy return to their existence courtesy of a steady stream of volunteers who have worked on her house. The work is coming along nicely.

The Haas team got to work smoothing over the efforts of a prior set of UMass Amherst undergraduate students. I mean that literally; the Haas team spent the entirety of the morning sanding over Spackle—or mud as the locals call it—and dry wall. The dust that erupted from our labors was tremendous. It navigated its way into every open orifice: ear, nose and mouth. Plus the eyes. Mine still sting a little.

Were it not for those UMass students we'd not be doing any of this.

But we got the work done and it was rewarding. The owner, Delia, took the time to stop by and thank us for our efforts, thereby directly connecting our meager labor to its impact. There's no better reward.

Team leaders, Carmen & Mike, after partying with Scarface himself, Tony Montana

With the morning's work complete we were ready to dash back to the hotel for a quick shower to remove the thick layer of white grime from our bodies. "No," we were informed, "there's no time." So resigned to our filthy fate, and looking like we'd spent a night partying with Tony Montana, we carried on through the rest of our day's schedule. It didn't let up almost without a break until 10pm. But with the thought of the impact we'd had on Delia's life, who cares about how much we stink?

Becoming a New Orleanian at Entrepreneur Week: Lots of Crawfish and a Second Line Later... (Day 2)

2010-03-21T10:09:00.001-05:00

New Orleans Entrepreneur Week got off to a dazzling start today as the students, business leaders, and entrepreneurs who are making it all possible congregated for a real “N’awlins” experience—a Welcome Party Crawfish Boil, replete with all of the culinary and cultural extras.

The location—the 9th-floor lobby of 930 Poydras, one of New Orleans’s newest, most original living spaces—provided the perfect setting for the vibrant gathering. Already, the business students were presented with the opportunity to communicate directly with business leaders. And, of course, they did what they do best; enthused by the opportunity to make a lasting difference, they exchanged ideas with one another and huddled around the entrepreneurs to hear about their products and begin discussing plans for the future.

A little bit of “water moisture from the new condos,” as the Downtown Development District’s Kurt Weigle cleverly phrased it, didn’t dampen the mood, either. Everyone moved inside to the lobby, where the conversations and a bit of weekend brain churning continued.

That is, of course, until a little surprise showed up.

A classic New Orleans brass band, just a little taste of things to come!

Given that the team meetings for the national teams don’t officially begin until Monday, you might ask, "All of that, only on a Saturday afternoon?"

That’s called passion, and it’s the reason why Entrepreneur Week will galvanize the entrepreneurial movement and propel New Orleans—already a city laden with potential—to new heights, creating a sustainable model for the rest of the nation to follow.

If you missed out on today’s event, footage can be found here. We will also be posting photos from the event, so stay tuned!

IT'S ON IN NOLA

New Orleans Entrepreneur Week: Day I

2010-03-19T21:03:00.003-05:00

You may have woken up this morning and assumed that it was just another Friday. But, as you read the morning paper, waiting for your coffee to brew, a group of local New Orleans business students from Loyola, Tulane, and UNO had already gathered to collaboratively provide ideas and strategic assistance to two local entrepreneurs, Sustainable Environmental Enterprises (SEE) and Jack and Jake’s.

That means that today marked the official first day of New Orleans Entrepreneur Week 2010!

This is a special time for New Orleans. Whether you’re a participant, an entrepreneur extraordinaire, or someone who simply enjoys supporting the cause, we want you to get involved! Especially during Entrepreneur Week—an event that thrives on collaboration and the free exchange of ideas—it would be great if you could send us your pictures, ideas, experiences, questions, comments, and anything else you may find conducive to the celebration and fostering of entrepreneurial talent and ideas in New Orleans!

AND IT IS NOW OFFICIALLY ON IN NOLA!

Stay posted as we update you on all of the great things that are sure to happen in New Orleans this week! Also, if you haven’t done so, be sure to check out noew.org to learn more.

Turning the Light On Entrepreneur Week: Aspen Institute Leadership Seminar

2010-03-17T19:47:00.002-05:00

On Tuesday, sixteen of New Orleans’s most creative entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to learn from each another in one of the world’s most distinguished forums for cultivating leadership—the Aspen Institute Leadership Seminar. For almost sixty years, these exclusive seminars have challenged the world’s leaders to engage with their peers and think critically about their leadership and the good society.

Using works from history’s greatest minds, the seminars take place in a skillfully moderated environment that encourages the collaboration and open dialogue so fundamental to the Idea Village and the New Orleans entrepreneurial community in general. Thus, this is a unique and special opportunity that is sure to prepare those creative individuals whose ideas and actions both exemplify and precipitate New Orleans’s incredible revival.

IT’S ON IN NOLA!

And with the help of the Aspen Institute, it's going to be brighter than ever!

Entrepreneur Week

2010-03-15T18:54:00.013-05:00

To Launch a Successful Business, it takes A Village ... 17 Google executives, Mitch Landrieu and eight teams of MBA students.

Backpacking through Southeast Asia has its hassles and,
usually, a broken flip-flop would barely deserve a mention in a traveler's Moleskine. But for Kyle Berner, one snapped strap was a life changer. He stopped in a market in Bangkok out of necessity and slipped on a flip-flop he would never forget....

See article here

Turning the Light On Entrepreneur Week: The Speakers Continued

2010-03-14T17:04:00.008-05:00

As if yesterday’s list didn’t suffice, here are three more speakers who have helped define the faces of their businesses, their cities, and even their countries. Now, they gather in New Orleans because they, like many others, have been inspired by the city’s enormous potential as a new hub of innovation and creativity.

Speech by The Honorable Mitch Landrieu, Tuesday, March 23
The newest Mayor of New Orleans, Landrieu recently made history and further added to the city’s momentum when he was elected with 66% of the citywide vote, an unprecedented result for a typically hotly contested seat. Already, he has taken direct action to promote New Orleans’s entrepreneurial movement, forming a jobs task force that includes the best and brightest of New Orleans and putting an emphasized focus on economic development in the region. Hearing Landrieu speak will be a special opportunity to observe the great potential for New Orleans as an innovative business hub.

Keynote Speech by Jim Coulter, Friday, March 26
Jim Coulter is a Founding Partner of TPG Capital, Inc. TPG Capital, Inc. (also known as the Texas Pacific Group) is a leading global private equity firm with 15 offices around the world and assets under management in excess of $50 billion. Coulter has served on numerous corporate and charitable Boards including the Stanford Board of Trustees, Lenovo Group International, Continental Airlines, Northwest Airlines, IMS Health, J Crew Group, Inc., Neiman Marcus Group and Common Sense Media. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

The keynote will kick off the Coulter Challenge, a day of intense action that will mark the culmination of New Orleans Entrepreneur Week. Even if you can’t make it, we will be streaming this live, so you can visit noew.org to tune in!

Speech by General Wesley Clark, Friday, March 26
General Clark serves as Chairman and CEO of Wesley K. Clark & Associates, a strategic consulting firm; Chairman of investment bank Rodman & Renshaw; Co-Chairman of Growth Energy; senior fellow at UCLA's Burkle Center for International Relations; Director of International Crisis Group; Chairman of City Year Little Rock; as well as numerous corporate boards. General Clark has authored three books and serves as a member of the Clinton Global Initiative's Energy & Climate Change Advisory Board, and ACORE's Advisory Board. He is a retired four-star general who graduated first in his class at West Point and was a Rhodes Scholar. His impressive military accomplishments, which include serving in Vietnam and saving 1.5 million Albanians from ethnic cleansing, have earned him numerous prestigious accolades.

Also, as we move yet another day nearer to the start of Entrepreneur Week, here’s a great article from BusinessWeek discussing the entrepreneurial fervor that is gripping business school campuses nationwide.

Entrepreneurial Spirit Soars on B-School Campuses

New Orleans is adeptly crafting its niche as a city that offers a collaborative, stimulating environment conducive to entrepreneurial action. Now, with the help of an ever-growing team of inspired, intelligent, and innovative students and business leaders, we’ll ensure that the success stories continue to accumulate and the nation sees the revitalized, re-energized New Orleans.

Tomorrow we continue our series with the Entrepreneur Week sponsors, without whose generous assistance this event would not be possible!

IT’S ON IN NOLA!

Turning the Light On Entrepreneur Week: The Speakers

2010-03-13T18:06:00.010-06:00

As the best and brightest gather to foster an inventive entrepreneurial culture in New Orleans, they will be encouraged by the words of some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs, investors, and leaders. These are men and women whose innovation, innate knack for spotting and seizing opportunities, and ability to lead—regardless of setting, from billion-dollar businesses to pioneering policy institutes and professional sports franchises—have propelled them to the forefront of their respective fields. They imbue us with a sense of action as well as a desire to create lasting impact through the translation of great ideas to an even better reality. And luckily, all share a common interest in seeing the “New” New Orleans thrive, setting an example for the rest of the nation to follow. All week, their voices will be heard. Their words will represent the principles that form the foundations of Entrepreneur Week. Most importantly, their ideas will inspire us to action.

Welcome Speech by Walter Isaacson, Monday, March 22
Walter Isaacson is the President and CEO of the Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan educational and policy studies institute based in Washington, D.C. Through its renown seminars, conferences, and leadership development initiatives, the Aspen Institute seeks to promote enlightened leadership, as well as the pursuit of common ground and deeper understanding. In addition to being the author of several critically acclaimed biographies, Isaacson has been the Chairman and CEO of CNN and the editor of Time Magazine.

Speech by Dr. Scott Cowen, Monday, March 22
The Idea Village welcomes Dr. Scott S. Cowen, Tulane University's 14th President, to round out the speeches on Monday. Dr. Cowen has been largely responsible for reviving and redefining New Orleans at the educational level, turning Katrina into a catalyst for innovative renewal. He spearheaded one of the largest university fundraising efforts in the history of Louisiana and has guided the implementation of innovative academic and research program initiatives at Tulane University, as well as an increased focus on community outreach. He also holds joint appointments as the Seymour S Goodman Memorial Professor of Business in Tulane's A.B. Freeman School of Business and Professor of Economics in the School of Liberal Arts.

Speech by Mark Cuban, Monday, March 22
Mark Cuban is an American entrepreneur and owner of the Dallas Mavericks. The founder and owner of several extremely successful businesses, Cuban embodies the entrepreneurial vitality that is now burgeoning in New Orleans.

Check back in tomorrow as we continue with the speaker series! And remember:

IT’S ON IN NOLA!

Turning the Light On

2010-03-12T17:59:00.007-06:00

You’re ready. We’re ready. The energy is flowing; the excitement is brewing; the sun has made a dashing appearance, marking the start of a beautiful New Orleans spring. As we all dreamily await this year’s highly-anticipated Entrepreneur Week—which will bring together some of the nation’s best and brightest entrepreneurs, students, and business leaders to make a lasting impact and celebrate entrepreneurship, New Orleans -style—we’ve decided to provide you with a blog series that will highlight what it’s all about.

Every day over the week leading up to NOEW, we’ll present you with some exciting aspect of this year’s event, from the speakers and events to the sponsors and all of the great experiences you’ll have in New Orleans. So for those whose nerves have begun to fray out of anticipation, you can rest easy and imagine you’re already here. Stay tuned and, as always, remember:

IT’S ON IN NOLA!

And the Countdown Begins!

2010-03-09T09:45:00.017-06:00

Friday marked the official unveiling of New Orleans Entrepreneur Week 2010. And, in case you missed it, what a start it was!

While local entrepreneurs Bayou Brew, Big Easy Blends, and Jack and Jake's served up their respective specialties—delicious iced teas and margaritas-in-a-pouch complemented the office’s wide selection of fresh fruit and vegetables—many of the entrepreneurs and business leaders driving New Orleans’s innovative economic resurgence united to celebrate the introduction of this year’s event, which promises to help define New Orleans as one of the most progressive and promising business hubs in the nation. Successful New Orleans Entrepreneurial Challenge alumni, such as Naked Pizza (who are now taking their product national with the support of Mark Cuban!), joined other innovators and local business leaders for the press conference, where the participating organizations and week’s activities were announced.

Also, as many of the nation’s most innovative entrepreneurial minds prepare to gather in New Orleans for Entrepreneur Week 2010, here’s an interesting article that will help explain why they should be—and why they are—coming.
http://www.fastcompany.com/article/why-you-should-start-a-company-in-new-orleans-0

It's Official: New Orleans Entrepreneur Week 2010

2010-03-04T17:57:00.006-06:00

Over the past weeks, the Idea Village team has been busily grinding away at the immense task of ensuring that this year’s New Orleans Entrepreneur Week, “The Jazz Fest of Entrepreneurship,” continues to build on the momentum provided by New Orleans’s recent historic achievements. An indescribable energy has taken hold of the office, as everyone works together to ensure that this year’s NOEW dazzles even more than events in years past. Already, the nation’s brightest and most entrepreneurial minds have committed their time and minds to tackle the up-and-coming Entrepreneur Class of 2010’s most pressing challenges. From March 20-27, they will congregate in New Orleans to provide strategic resources to start-ups, celebrate the city’s progress, and further establish New Orleans as a nationally significant center for innovation and entrepreneurship.

Join us on Friday, March 5, at 3pm, at the Idea Village Office in the IP, at 515 Girod Street, for the official unveiling of this year’s event, during which the participants and the line-up of events will be announced.

And don’t forget: IT’S ON IN NOLA!

Peer Investment Model for Entrepreneurs Tested in New Orleans, San Francisco and Mumbai

2010-02-21T21:50:00.001-06:00

As the Saints come marching in from their historic victory, and with Mardi Gras and New Orleans Entrepreneur Week just around the corner, the reasons to celebrate in New Orleans are piling up! Amidst this festive frenzy, The Idea Village is participating in history of its own. First Light Ventures is partnering with The Idea Village and its Entrepreneur Challenge Class of 2010 to launch Village Capital, a novel idea in the venture financing field that offers a new way to go about financing early-stage entrepreneurs.

The Idea Village -- which shares the role of testing the concept with other incubators in Mumbai, San Francisco, and Denver -- is an opportune launching environment because it provides a tightly-knit community of entrepreneurs in a city that attracting national attention as a focal point for bright young minds and as a catalyst for new ideas.

Instead of distributing the money directly to individual entrepreneurs, Village Capital provides a peer-selected investment and line-of-credit fund, which allows the entrepreneurs to organize the use of the funds amongst themselves. Together, the group of entrepreneurs decides both how to allocate the funds and who they should go to.

The concept behind Village Capital is grounded in the premise that the most informed, effective, and efficient distribution could come from the entrepreneurs themselves. After all, not only do they share knowledge about each other's businesses, but they also understand the intricacies of running a budding business and can thus more accurately analyze both the needs and the potential of their peers. In addition to gaining access to additional funding, Village Capital forces the entrepreneurs to sit on the other side of the investor's table, examining the proposals of their peers and thus furthering their own understanding of how to succeed in securing investment.

Watch First Light's Investment Analyst, Ross Baird, discuss the concept behind Village Capital:

Interviewing the Investors Behind Village Capital from Teju Ravilochan on Vimeo.

First on deck for the cohort of entrepreneurs to assess was Kyle Berner’s of Feelgoodz pitch to the group for $100,000 in short-term working capital. The pitch was a true entrepreneurial moment – the group was expecting to allocate the money later in the spring, but Kyle needed the money as soon as possible to finance growth as Feelgoodz expands to Whole Foods stores nationwide. Convincing the group to make the investment in his company sooner rather than later, Kyle secured the needed capital which he will repay within 6 months for the IVEC class to reinvest in another team member business.

Feeling that buzz of energy and innovation in New Orleans? The city’s entrepreneurs certainly are!

Entrepreneurs Play in NOLA

2010-02-10T17:11:00.032-06:00

PlayNOLA, one of the Idea Village’s Entrepreneur Challenge alumni and winner of the 504ward business plan competition, was recently featured in an article in Black MBA Magazine. The start-up, which organizes sports leagues for young professionals in New Orleans, is helping to reverse the city’s brain drain by providing a fun and easy way for these professionals to connect with their peers (but don’t think that means that things can’t get competitive!) Check out the article here:

Black MBA Magazine Article:
http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/naylo r/NBMQ0409/#/58

It’s always great to see New Orleans’s entrepreneurs being recognized for their success!

In other news, this year’s New Orleans Entrepreneur Week website is officially up-and-running! For those of you eagerly awaiting this year’s events, this will provide you with a sneak preview. Details and events will be posted on the site - stay tuned!

New Orleans Entrepreneur Week 2010:
http://www.noew.org/

Participants Blog About Their Experiences

2009-04-09T09:16:00.003-05:00

Throughout the week, IDEAcorps Challenge '09 participants blogged about their experiences. Read what they had to say!

A Googler Learns that Heart + Head = Hope

Stanford is Feelin-goodz

Kellogg + Sound + Sustainability = It IS Easy to Be Green

DePaul Gets Naked

The Naked War Room (DePaul)

Chicago Booth - Lessons from New Orleans

Diary of a CRM - a Company Responding to a development Mission (salesforce.com)

No Carpenters Here
(Chicago Booth)

A Googler Learns that Heart + Head = Hope

2009-04-03T15:39:00.004-05:00

I have a confession. Until almost four years ago I had never visited the South, nor did I really ever think I would. You see, I had perceptions about what the South would be like based upon history I had read, movies I had seen and a barrage of media coverage - unfortunately much of which did not always paint the region in the best light. But that all changed on August 29, 2005.

Like millions of others, I watched in horror as home after home, parish after parish, city after city was destroyed and its inhabitants left helpless for days before any aid was to reach them. Despite my previous reservations about the region, what I witnesses compelled me to immediate action and what I experienced as a result, change my perspective on the South and its people forever.

I met people who in the face of atrocities many of us could not conceptualize maintained a sense of dignity, gratitude and determination like no other. I saw cities that, though buried beneath the rubble and devastation, whispered of a long and culturally rich history that was often overshadowed by bleak eras that tainted its true beauty. At that moment I became resolute that these people - these quintessential American cities deserve to be lifted up and rebuilt in order to show the world that we are a nation that thrives in the face of adversity.

Two speakers demonstrated to me that this same determination is alive and well in New Orleans 3 1/2 years after the storms. During his time with us, Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu warned us with a cautionary tale of how New Orleans is in essence the proverbial "canary in the coal mine" - that what happened there, could happen anywhere in America and therefore it is our duty to insure that New Orleans not only returns to its former glory, but surpasses it. I was as equally moved by Dr. Scott Cowen, President of Tulane University, whose actions pre and post Hurricanes Katrina and Rita not only assured the safety and well being of his students and faculty, but of other universities in the region and the city as a whole. For me, he was the embodiment of leadership that is only recounted in oft-told fables. The passion with which these gentlemen spoke about their city gave us all a sense of hope not only for the future of New Orleans, but for the future of all cities across the nation.

Hope was also evident in the 54 students, faculty and corporate teams who joined The Idea Village for a week of unparalleled impact. My primary role during the week was to lend my expertise as a Googler to the students in hopes of providing them with additional tools that would benefit the entrepreneurs as they worked to tackle the daunting tasks ahead. Even I, a seasoned veteran of the company, was pleasantly surprised at the effect tools such as Google Earth, Google Maps and AdWords could have on these small businesses in the hands of these talented individuals. For me it was a firsthand account of how technology truly can change lives for the better.

Hope was a theme that also resonated with the local leaders, business owners, tour guides and gracious hosts many of whom opened their homes and lives to us without reservation. They were quick to recount the tragedy that drew many of us there, but even quicker to thank us for our time and efforts - to remind us that what we were doing was going to provide lasting impact beyond what we could comprehend at that moment. But for the 54 of us, hope truly lay in the entrepreneurs who had dedicated their lives to changing the current climate of their beloved city through their business ventures. As a result of our work, their stories have been recounted in the numerous media sources that will catapult their life’s work onto the national stage but to us they will always be:

The young man whose is rapidly building a sustainable flip flop empire, winning hearts and believers along the way;
Two guys using the nation's favorite go to food, pizza, as a catalyst for a national dialog around diet, nutrition and a sustainable food system;
The attorney who is using the universal language of music to bring awareness to environmental issues - the hotly debated cause of the increasing number of hurricanes in the gulf coast region;
The team who, like Google, understands that data/information is power and is looking to make it more widely available to promote housing redevelopment in the region;
The team who feel that the green housing revolution is not only for the wealthy, but should be accessible to all regardless of soci-economic status;
And the team who understands that a city is comprised of many socio-economic levels and alternative housing options are necessary to attract some of the most vital member of the community

These entrepreneurs are true heroes. They are the ones ones who will work day-in and day-out long after we return home to establish the solid foundation upon which New Orleans will once again rise. They are the ones who will one day "pay it forward" to future entrepreneurs who share that same raw determination and drive that they once possessed, in what we anticipate will soon be a bustling mecca of art, culture and enterprise.

During our last evening, the team lead for Chicago Booth gave a whimsical toast which I will never forget. He compared our week in New Orleans to The Wizard of Oz, complete with Tornadoes (Hurricanes we knew, but Tornadoes?) and even our own Wiz (Thanks to Dr. Baum). For me, his speech brought to mind the last scene of the movie where Dorothy came to the realization that she always had the power to return home as it was always in her heart. Many would think that this San Franciscan left her heart, well, in San Francisco. But if it's true that your home is where your heart is, then I have another confession to make. Mine will forever be in New Orleans.

Tara Canobbio
google.org

IDEAcorps 2009 Brings Bright Minds to New Orleans Businesses

2009-03-31T17:11:00.003-05:00

Written by Meghan Jones
www.neworleans.com

Something amazing has been quietly happening in New Orleans recently. Unless you know where to look, or caught one of the television news or radio interviews, you may not have heard the good news. This week was the annual Idea Village IDEAcorps Challenge, where business students and corporate volunteers from all over the country pay their own way to New Orleans to spend their spring break helping local entrepreneurs realize their dreams.

This year's Challenge found 50 of our nation's top MBA students and corporate brains - from the likes of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, DePaul University and Google - paired up with six budding businesses centered around sustainable industries that will attract and retain 22-35 year olds in the Crescent City. After working with companies like Naked Pizza and Feelgoodz eco-friendly flip flops for the week, today is the day the student teams will present their ideas: the business models, marketing strategies and expansion plans that will hopefully make these companies a household name in the near future.

Free consultations with such educated, innovative thinkers are a dream come true for someone struggling to bring his business to fruition. But they can be traced back to two things omnipresent in New Orleans: Hurricane Katrina and a cocktail napkin.

According to Tim Williamson, president and co-founder of Idea Village, the organization was born in 2000, when a group of New Orleanians who had been spread out across the country came back home, "energized by experiences in thriving communities across the United States." In their adopted hometowns, these citizens realized that an entrepreneurial community was essential for leading and inspiring positive changes in a city. Small businesses could be just what New Orleans needed to re-energize and modernize itself. They decided to help.

READ MORE HERE

A Message of Thanks from Project 30-90

2009-03-26T10:42:00.007-05:00

Project 30-90 is overwhelmed by the Kellogg team assisting us for the week.
We honestly weren't quite sure what the week would bring, but its been
simply amazing. The team is crazy intelligent, passionate and invested in
our project after only a few days. The intellect, critical thinking,
feedback, assumption challenging and ideas they have brought forward are
pushing this project to a new level. Add in their boundless enthusiasm and
this has been a wonderful influx of new energy.

I think the best thing about this team is that as individuals they have
each showed great understanding of the significance of this undertaking to
me as the entrepreneur. Its not their name on the project, but they act as
though it is. Put simply, they "drank the koolaid" on day one and have
been fully vested since. They may have only planned on being here for a
week, but they're all on the team for good, from now until September.

Tomorrow there is a judging of some sort of their work. We'll welcome any
feedback the panel wishes, but I know that project 30-90 is the HUGE winner
by having these wonderful folks assisting us.

Don Kelly
Founder, Project 30-90

Local and National Media Coverage

2009-03-25T13:34:00.003-05:00

USA Today:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/workplace/2009-03-24-idea-corps_N.htm

MBA candidates test skills in New Orleans


By Rick Jervis, USA TODAY By Sean Gardner for USA TODAY
Depaul student Lucas Weingarten, second from right, and assistant professor Patrick Murphy, right, lend a hand Tuesday.

NEW ORLEANS — Just a year ago, students at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business would be elbowing for an internship at a Wall Street investment firm.

Instead, this week eight of them are spending Spring Break in New Orleans helping a local entrepreneur develop a business strategy for selling his eco-friendly flip-flops.

Wall Street's troubles have master's degree candidates rethinking life after graduation, said Matt Nash of the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship at Duke University.

One of the main benefactors of this trend has been New Orleans, a city nearly destroyed by the 2005 floods. The Idea Village, a non-profit created after Hurricane Katrina to help businesses get on their feet, launched IDEACorps in 2006. It is a business-oriented Peace Corps concept that pairs MBA candidates with local entrepreneurs, said Tim Williamson, president and co-founder.

"Other communities will be going through what New Orleans has went through the past three years," he said.

The initiative has grown from five students in 2006 to 40 last year. This year, it has attracted 50 students from Stanford, DePaul University, the University of California-Berkeley, Northwestern University and others.

At a meeting of minds Monday between Stanford students and the owner of Feelgoodz, the eco-friendly flip-flop maker, ideas for new business models were scribbled on a large dry-erase board. Not far from the Stanford gathering, the team from DePaul University bantered around ideas to help grow Naked Pizza, an all-natural health-conscious pizzeria.

More MBA candidates are venturing into impact-conscious roles, and they could end up solving the economic crisis, said Lucas Weingarten, 32, a DePaul MBA candidate.

"I recognize that it's business and unrestricted free-market capitalism that has caused a lot of the problems we have today," he said. "But they're also going to fix them."

One of the goals of the program is persuading the visiting students to move to New Orleans, said Bob Brown, head of the Business Council of New Orleans and the River Region, a non-profit group of area CEOs.

"If we become a mecca for smart entrepreneurs, it could have an enormous impact on recovery," Brown said.

The Times-Picayune Article:
http://blog.nola.com/tpmoney/2009/03/speakers_tell_visiting_graduat.html

Tulane University New Wave Article:
http://tulane.edu/news/newwave/0309_newssplash.cfm

WGNO ABC Video:
http://www.abc26.com/pages/video/?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=3577276

Culture, Crawfish and Crazy Ideas!

2009-03-23T09:25:00.016-05:00

Saturday morning my colleague, Tara Canobbio, and I landed in the beautiful city of New Orleans. Since we were unable to check into our hotel room early in the morning, we explored the French Quarter and were pleasantly surprised at how busy all the shops were! The last time we were here with the Black Googlers Network in September 2008, Hurricane Gustav just hit and most of the shops were still closed. However now, some shops owners have reported that their patronage is back to pre-Katrina numbers!

In the afternoon, we headed to the "Welcome to Orleans Party" at the Idea Village, sponsored by GNO, Inc. This was the first time that all the teams from Stanford, DePaul, Kellogg, Chicago Booth, Berkley Haas, salesforce.com and Google would meet, along with all the great entrepreneurs, and representatives from the city. Although we went through 80 lbs of crawfish, the party was a great event for everyone to share thoughts and ideas about the entrepreneurial opportunities in the ever growing city of New Orleans.

On Sunday morning, Sally and Alton Doody were gracious enough to host us all for a Jazz Brunch and another opportunity to further interact with the entrepreneurs and city officials. I also got a chance to get to know some of the students better and find out why they came to the MBA Challenge in New Orleans. I found myself surrounded by bright minds and eager hearts ready to explore the possibility of helping a historic city re-emerge.

In the afternoon, we took a bus tour of New Orleans where the tour guide took us around to historical sites of the city, as well as the affected areas of New Orleans such as the lower 9th Ward. Although the Lower 9th was very affected by Hurricane Katrina, very affluent areas were greatly affected as well. It definitely added more perspective to the catastrophe: everyone in the city - rich or poor, black or white - was affected.

On Sunday evening, the Idea Village held a Team Building New Orleans School of Cooking Olympic Challenge at Jax Brewery. At this event, each of the 6 teams had 15 minutes to complete each challenge which included a Scrabble challenge, an all-aboard challenge where each team had to fit within a shape on the ground, a cooking challenge, a Price is Right challenge, Marshmallow Engineering and a mixology competition. Each of these challenges presented a different problem that each team had to solve and we (the judges) had to award points based on team work, use of time, presentation and quality. The camaraderie that occurred at this event was invaluable and further solidified the bond between each MBA school with their local entrepreneur partner.

What's happened at the end of these events? Idea Village created a new community of young, creative, entrepreneurial minds - who otherwise may have not come together - to fall in love with New Orleans.

View Event Pictures!

WDSU Video: Idea Village Plans To Increase the Number Of New Orleans Businesses

2009-03-23T08:32:00.003-05:00

Check out the WDSU Video here: http://www.wdsu.com/video/18989353/index.html

Idea Village, MBA students to work with local businesses next week

2009-03-23T08:26:00.000-05:00

Posted by Jaquetta White, The Times-Picayune March 20, 2009 5:23PM
Categories: Entrepreneurship

Naked Pizza needs to figure out how to go from operating a single pizza shop Uptown to opening as many as 1,000 nationwide. Flip-flop purveyor Feelgoodz has to ramp up its distribution system to accommodate a new deal with Whole Foods.

The New Orleans companies are two of six that will participate in a week-long workshop that begins Monday and is designed to help them figure out how to meet the challenge of growing their business quickly. Fifty graduate business students and a group of corporate executives will work with them to write business plans and otherwise help with their expansion.

The Idea Village created the workshop, called the IDEAcorps Challenge, with three goals in mind. The primary goal is to grow the local businesses, said Tim Williamson, president of the Idea Village.

But Williamson said the program's secondary and tertiary goals of providing hands-on experience to graduate business students and introducing them to New Orleans in the hopes that they might consider living and working here are just as important.

"Because of the economy, New Orleans is now a becoming a good place to work," Williamson said. "We want to use this as a recruiting tool."

The students, from the University of Chicago, the University of California at Berkeley, Northwestern University, DePaul University and Stanford University, paid their own way to visit the city during spring break. They will get a taste of New Orleans through tours, meetings with officials and dinners with residents.

The students and a team of executives from the California company salesforce.com will each be matched with one local entrepreneur.

The team assigned, for instance, to Don Kelly Productions will help the New Orleans firm devise a plan to pull off the city's first "green" music festival later this year.

The teams will meet from Monday through Friday to help each company craft a business strategy. Also participating in the weeklong workshop are local firms Alternative Housing Support Corp., Sustainable Environmental Enterprises and InSite.

"At the end of the day, we're looking at how to generate the highest impact for the entrepreneur," Williamson said.

Googlers trust a crazy idea

2009-03-19T16:00:00.000-05:00

In September 2008, I was privileged to meet the team at The Idea Village during my most recent visit to New Orleans. 32 of my fellow Googlers (as we affectionately refer to ourselves) and I were embarking upon a community outreach trip which came to a screeching halt as a result of a city-wide evacuation for Hurricane Gustav. Fortunately the damage to the city was minor in comparison to past devastation, but our planned projects had to be canceled due to much of the city still being closed to non-essential workers and non-residents. In a serendipitous turn of events, one of my colleagues informed me that she "had a friend" who might be able to help us. Despite being dispersed all over the United States, the team at The Idea Village rallied to make it home and open their doors to a determined group of volunteers willing to brave the elements to make a difference. During our visit, we learned a lot about ongoing redevelopment projects within greater New Orleans and assisted with the development of the launch plan for 504ward's $200,000 Business Plan competition, hosted in partnership with The Idea Village. Since then, I have kept in close contact with Tim, Lauren, Daryn and team, even hosting them at Google last winter for a presentation aimed at garnering west coast support for our southern friends. So when they asked me to take part in The Idea Village's IDEAcorps Challenge '09 , it was an offer I couldn't refuse.

What peaked our interest most and convinced us to participate is how closely the challenge mirrors much of what we do at Google - connecting people with useful, innovative solutions and information. It has been said that information is the seed for an idea, and only grows when its watered. By bringing the country's brightest minds and cutting edge corporations to New Orleans, projects like this will guarantee the growth of tomorrow’s future leaders and spawn a new generation of local business entrepreneurs.

Over the coming week, fellow Googler, LaFawn Bailey, and I will be working with The Idea Village, salesforce.com and the MBA students to provide information on Google tools and processes that will allow them to assist local entrepreneurs in tackling critical growth challenges facing New Orleans today. We will also be visiting bloggers for the week, updating this and other media sources with information on the participating students, entrepreneurs and The Idea Village team. So check back for regular updates, photos and live coverage of our week of entrepreneurship - we promise a crazy and rewarding adventure resulting in a lifetime of impact.

With a little bit of hard work, a lot of determination and most of all, trusting our crazy ideas, I know that New Orleans will once again regain the world class status it so richly deserves.

Tara Canobbio
Google.org

***

New Orleans Hosts Nation’s Leading Business Schools to Drive Economic Impact

2009-03-19T10:00:00.001-05:00

New Orleans Hosts Nation’s Leading Business Schools to Drive Economic Impact

The Idea Village Ignites Entrepreneurial Community with IDEAcorps Challenge ‘09

March 19, 2009 – New Orleans, LA – Today, The Idea Village announces plans to host 50 students from the nation’s leading MBA programs, who will join forces with top corporate volunteers and the New Orleans entrepreneurial community from March 21st – 28th. Together, they will create economic impact by solving critical growth challenges facing New Orleans entrepreneurs. The IDEAcorps Challenge ’09 marks an intensive week of business consulting provided to six high-impact entrepreneurial ventures in New Orleans.

Five MBA teams will be matched by a corporate team from salesforce.com, as well as employees from Google who will lend their Google expertise to participating entrepreneurs and will lead a blog from the inaugural IDEAcorps Challenge that showcases New Orleans as a hub of innovation and entrepreneurial activity.

“We are bringing the best and the brightest talent in the country to New Orleans with a short-term goal of providing high-impact solutions to New Orleans entrepreneurs, and a long-term goal of positioning New Orleans as a laboratory of innovation and entrepreneurship,” says Tim Williamson, President and Co-Founder of The Idea Village. “We hope to foster a lifetime affinity for New Orleans among tomorrow’s future business leaders while reinforcing our city as a strategic place to be an entrepreneur.”

Participating universities in the IDEAcorps Challenge include:

* Booth School of Business, The University of Chicago,
* Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley,
* Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
* Kellstadt Graduate School of Business, DePaul University
* Stanford Graduate School of Business

“The experience gives students a chance to step out of their ‘everyday selves,’ a chance to realize their own true potential not only as business professionals but as active members of a community,” says Stanford Business School faculty member Dr. Rick Aubry, who has participated as a faculty advisor on two IDEAcorps trips. “The Idea Village gives the students the opportunity to leverage who they are and what they’ve learned at Stanford to address real world challenges with real world solutions.”

Ventures that will benefit from IDEAcorps Challenge ’09 include:

* Naked Pizza – An all-natural pizza delivery place that recently entered into an agreement with Mark Cuban, as a result of a competition that drew over 1,400 applicants nationwide. Naked Pizza is the only pizza delivery in the world that is good for you and Naked Owners and Cuban together are considering franchise models with a goal of 1,000 shops nationwide.
* Don Kelly Productions - Producing project 30-90 on September 5, 2009, the first "green" music festival in Louisiana to be powered by alternative energy sources and a full slate of environmentally conscious initiatives.
* Feelgoodz - Recyclable and biodegradable flip-flops made from sustainably harvested natural rubber. Secured a distribution deal with Whole Foods in the South and Southwest regions.
* Alternative Housing Support Corporation (AHSC) - Creates, promotes and supports alternative housing models as a way to repair urban neighborhoods.
* Sustainable Environmental Enterprises (SEE) - Provides affordable renewable energy to New Orleans residents.
* InSite(s)-A housing market analysis firm which will develop a unique demand-side methodology to estimate and characterize demand for housing.

Kyle Berner, Creator and CEO of Feelgoodz remarks, “I have worked with The Idea Village team since Feelgoodz was just a crazy flip-flop idea nearly one year ago. The business strategy, network, and moral support the staff provided helped me take my budding venture to the next level. This intensive IDEAcorps experience could not come at a more opportune time as I embark on my next phase of growth with a Whole Foods distribution deal. “

The Idea Village seeks to forge a bond between the city and the IDEAcorps Challenge participants by exposing the group to the rich culture and quality of life in New Orleans, including a crawfish boil, jazz brunch, iron chef cook-off, live music with Irvin Mayfield, a night with the New Orleans Hornets and tours of the city. The IDEAcorps teams will hear from key business and political leaders on the unique opportunities available in New Orleans. Speakers include Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu; Managing Director of the New Orleans Business Council, Bob Brown; Editor-in-Chief of Entrepreneur Magazine, Amy Cosper; President of Tulane University, Scott Cowen; Chancellor of University of New Orleans, Tim Ryan and CEO of Greater New Orleans, Inc., Michael Hecht, among others. In addition, several local business leaders will open their homes for dinner with the students.

IDEAcorps Challenge ’09 sponsors include: Greater New Orleans, Inc., Harrah’s, Jones Walker, Hornbeck Offshore, New Orleans Hornets and Tulane Freeman School of Business. The work of The Idea Village would not be possible without the generous support of Blue Moon Fund, Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation and Tulane University.

ABOUT THE IDEA VILLAGE
In 2000, The Idea Village was formed by a group of New Orleans citizens who returned home energized by experiences in thriving communities across the United States. The founders determined that the key to creating positive economic and social change in New Orleans was to create a vibrant entrepreneurial community. The Idea Village formalized in 2002 as an independent 501(c) (3) non-profit organization with a mission to identify, support and retain entrepreneurial talent in New Orleans by providing business resources to high-impact ventures.

To date, The Idea Village has provided direct service to over 245 entrepreneurial ventures representing 935 jobs and over $67 million in revenue. With support from more than 300 students, professionals and partners, The Idea Village has provided over 28,000 hours of business consulting and allocated over $1.5 million in grants to local businesses.

ABOUT THE IDEA VILLAGE’S IDEAcorps PROGRAM
In July 2006, The Idea Village partnered with Tulane University to form the IDEAcorps, an experiential learning program that connects MBA students and professionals to business challenges facing high-impact entrepreneurs in New Orleans. To date, 280 students from 8 universities worldwide have provided direct resource to the New Orleans entrepreneurial community.

Chicago Booth - Lessons from New Orleans

2009-03-18T15:42:00.000-05:00

A city of contrasts - Sunday 3/22/09

We’ve gotten a taste of the two sides of New Orleans. High and low. Joy and despair.

We took part in the prerequisite eating, drinking, and tourist activities. In 24 hours, we consumed a crawfish boil, jambalaya, gumbo, hurricanes, muffaletas, po’ boys, king cake, and grits. I knew it would be good eats, but I didn’t expect it would come all at once. If we accomplish nothing else this week, we’ve eaten 80 pounds of crawfish.

The highlight of our trip so far was doing a Katrina bus tour. I was really interested in seeing the lower Ninth Ward, the area that John Edwards started his failed presidential bid and poverty tour. But the flooding really affected everyone and not just those in St. Bernard parish and the lower Ninth Ward.

In preparation for the trip we watched Spike Lee’s four hour documentary, “When the Levees Broke.” I was expecting the same level of destruction as in the movie, which came out a year after the hurricane. Some businesses have come back to the area, especially outposts of Southern-based companies Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and Winn Dixie. But many strip malls remain empty and downright depressing. The deserted Six Flags feels spooky to me having grown up right next to the one in LA.

And while Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Project and Wynton Marsalis’s Musician’s Village are beautiful, gallant efforts in the Ninth Ward, they are surrounded by destroyed and decayed houses. They seemed to both be pretty small-scale projects – a few streets only. The task to rebuild housing here is daunting. I can’t change the world in this short week but I can help one small step at a time.

On the complete other side of the socioeconomic scale, we meet Doug and Denise, a well-to-do couple at a dinner in an upper-class home in New Orleans. Doug was busy after the hurricane leading the rebuilding effort of the Superdome. Despite being well-to-do, they stayed in the Superdome for five days during and after Katrina. She vowed if she survived those five days surrounded by squalor and death, she would change her life around and started a non-profit providing critical service in the months after the storm for her neighborhood to rebuild.

It was one of many moments throughout the week that I simultaneously felt sorrow and optimism. I felt like crying as I felt empathy for the misery they had experienced, but at the same time uplifted by the amazing capabilities of the human spirit. I could no longer just look at her as a privileged woman, but someone who had used her means to help others. This trip is changing my perceptions of race and class.

Alphabet City - Tuesday 3/24/09

If there were ever a complicated subject, I think it would be affordable housing. After two days of reading through requirements to qualify for various governmental programs, my head starts swimming. AMI, LRA, LHFA, CDBG – all of these abbreviations meant nothing to me a few days ago. Now I feel I know just enough to be dangerous. Kind of like the rest of my professional career.

From doing all this research I realize, these entrepreneurs, Ian, Sarah, and Tessa, must have big hearts. On some level, they care so much about this community that they are willing to navigate through the bureaucratic mess to obtain grants and subsidies, figure out a way to get financing through this credit crisis, and start a non-profit while working full-time jobs. I respect the spirit I see in most entrepreneurs, but to do what they are doing with almost insurmountable barriers and not be driven by the profit motive is even more impressive.

It also reminds me of my own dream to become an entrepreneur someday. I really enjoyed having my own financial planning practice prior to business school and the rewarding experiences of helping my clients accomplish their goals. The successes helped me get through all of the hassles of endless paperwork, rejection, and prospecting for clients. Perhaps their own vision is what drives them forward despite all the challenges.

Cancer survivor - Friday 3/27/09

There’s an incredible spirit in this city. Like it had contracted cancer, faced death, and decided not to take for granted what had happened. I was reminded of my former client, Tom, who had contracted cancer and told me he was happier for it because it helped him appreciate what he had.

New Orleans is the only place in the country that can lay claim to its own food, music, and culture. All that in a town with a population of only 300,000. It’s always had the most spirit per capita and Hurricane Katrina hasn’t killed it. Now New Orleans is redirecting that spirit to rebuilding the city better than it was before the hurricane.

Before Katrina, our mentor Keith Crawford tells me, you had no business knowing even where the Lower 9^th Ward and Saint Bernard’s Parish were. Now you had to know. He told me that civic engagement has pervaded the city. In addition to the great work he's doing with Idea Village, he's also signed his name to an agreement with a local charter school to be personally responsible for the education of the kids going there. Everyone's doing their own part.

I had to think of my own experience in San Francisco. Because of volunteer work I had done, I had spent time in the impoverished Bayview and the Tenderloin districts. How many San Franciscans had not known or cared about these areas? But more importantly, what cancer would San Francisco need to experience to force people to care about these areas? I decided on this trip that wherever I may end up, putting roots down in a community will always be important to me. I have been given so many gifts – life in the amazing cities of Chicago and San Francisco, a world-class education, and incredibly supportive friends and family. How can I not use my gifts to help those who are in need? I don’t need to wait for the cancer to spread.

Celeste K. Liou

Chicago Booth

MBA Candidate, Class of 2010

DePaul Gets Naked

2009-03-18T12:55:00.000-05:00

Shortly after arriving in NOLA to perfect weather, the Idea Village hosted all of the teams at their office for a Louisiana-style crawfish boil. This introduced us to both the people that we would be working with through the week, as well as to the concept behind the event. We learned that this program was much more than a competition. The business community of New Orleans sees rebuilding as a unique opportunity, and they consider their city to be an innovation and entrepreneurship “laboratory” – a place where new ideas can be developed, which can serve as models for solving many of the systemic industry issues our nation currently faces. The organizers and supporters of IDEAcorps also saw this as a recruiting trip, and told us directly that they want all of us (and our friends) to move to New Orleans and help realize their vision for the city. This set the tone for the rest of the week’s events. As the sun set, we all left the Idea Village and headed to Bourbon Street, where we joined in with a traditional “second line”. Following this procession, students split up and took in a bit of the New Orleans nightlife. The DePaul team headed to Frenchmen Street along with a few students from other schools, and got a taste of the locals’ music scene.

The next morning we slept in a bit, then took a bus to the home of a serial restaurant entrepreneur and current Dean of a culinary academy. He hosted us for a late morning brunch, complete with live jazz band in his yard. The sky was clear and the sun was warm – something the Chicago teams truly appreciated. Numerous local business and community leaders joined us to talk up their town and the opportunities that exist, and express their support for us over the coming week. After brunch we all took a bus tour of New Orleans. The driver provided an impressively knowledgeable and charismatic narrative, pointing out the city’s significant historical role in American commerce, numerous cultural facts, and the ubiquitous flood damage and rebuilding efforts. I believe that all of us were moved by the mix of factual accounts and personal impact he described, and this broadened our perspective on important past and current issues. The teams took a break in the afternoon to catch their breath (and in some cases prepare for the next day’s client meetings). In the evening we visited Jax brewery for some team-building exercises and friendly competition between schools, in a “cooking Olympics” A local news station covered the event, and a very successful New Orleans entrepreneur spoke to us about the importance of teamwork, integrity, and taking chances – and gave us suggestions about the role might play in best serving our entrepreneur clients.

Early Monday morning we all headed to Tulane University, which would serve as our worksite over the coming week. Throughout the day, a series of people spoke to us about entrepreneurship in New Orleans. The entrepreneurship program director, the leader of the local business community, a local entrepreneur, a university chancellor, and Louisiana’s Lt. Governor all offered their diverse but unified perspectives on the opportunities, support, and need that exists for driven and innovative people to help rebuild New Orleans better than it was before. They laid out general and specific opportunities they saw across the entire spectrum of the economy, including food, energy, education, technology, healthcare and biotech, and arts and culture.

That afternoon, the DePaul team had our first working meeting with our clients, founders of Naked Pizza. The delirious passion these people expressed was impressive. Just as the Idea Village saw this program as more than a competition, these entrepreneurs saw their business as much more than food. They viewed their healthy and tasty pizza as a way of starting a conversation, educating consumers, and creating a revolution that would ultimately change our nation’s relationship with food. They fed us a flood of information about their mission, explosive growth plans, potential high profile partnerships – all starting with an anthropological analysis of how Americans have come to eat such an unhealthy and unnatural diet. Our team had set a goal of delineating the scope and deliverables for this engagement during this session, which we accomplished in cooperation with these very dynamic individuals just before the workday closed.

Monday night, six local leaders each welcomed a team to their homes for dinner – a very personal and authentic gesture which I believe all of us greatly appreciated. DePaul visited with the Idea Village board chairman, who also invited a spectrum of other business leaders and entrepreneurship supporters to join us. The red beans and rice and roasted chicken dinner, followed by decadent homemade cupcakes, was delicious, and the famous southern hospitality was evident in all of our conversations. The night ended with a raffle that gave one DePaul student two tickets to next year’s Sugar Bowl, followed by cigars and some creative work discussions on the patio.

A long and intense day of work began at Tulane Tuesday morning. For DePaul this was broken up by a visit to the Naked Pizza, where we made some pies and participated in a story by USA Today reporters. The pizza was delicious, and we brought some back for each of the other teams to enjoy. While we made some progress with our project, the day ended with perhaps more questions than answers. Jeff gave us another extensive rundown of his vision, with much more detail even than on the previous day. With the last twenty minutes before the buses arrived, we quickly recapped and identified our focus for the remaining workdays.

Evening brought us to an upscale hotel bar for cocktails, followed by a very social dinner of tapas in the adjoining restaurant. The editor of Entrepreneur Magazine toasted us, and the students, entrepreneurs, and program organizers all exchanged ideas throughout the night. Back at our hotel, the DePaul team squeezed in a last round of work before heading to our rooms for some needed sleep. We all knew that the next two days would be a full pace stretch run, leading to our final presentations on Friday.

Wednesday morning we got straight to work in our “war room”. Together we laid out a comprehensive plan for our project, and split into teams to work on respective components. This included seeking advertising opportunities for Naked Pizza, developing a financial analysis model, and conducting market research. Six 4x8 whiteboards were soon covered in diagrams, lists, and action plans, as the sub-teams illustrated their ideas for each other. After eight hours of focused efforts, we recapped our progress that day as one team, then headed over to Naked Pizza to visit with the founders. In thirty furious minutes, we helped shoot a commercial, spoke with a consultant, and ran some final ideas by the founders. By this point, our team started coming together well, and developed a very positive collective attitude. We universally enjoyed spending time working with our entrepreneur clients, and felt lucky to have received this assignment.

The IDEAcorps spent the evening at a Hornets NBA game, where the team leaders and entrepreneurs were greeted at center court. DePaul received some highly anticipated data around halftime, and retired back to the hotel. Some members had one last meeting, where they planned a schedule for our last full day of work. Then sleep.

Justin Henderson
DePaul University

The Naked War Room

2009-03-18T10:29:00.000-05:00

Greetings from the IDEAcorps Challenge 2009. Like all of our friends from University of Chicago, Northwestern University, Stanford University, University of California-Berkeley, Yale University, Google, and Salesforce.com, the Kellstadt GSB / DePaul U. MBA team is incurring fantastic experiences this week in New Orleans as its members work with New Orleans entrepreneurial ventures. Our team is very enthused and fortunate to be consulting to Jeff Leach, Randy Crochet, and their entrepreneurial venture: Naked Pizza.

Naked Pizza is going to create an upheaval in the pizza and wellness industry sectors. Whereas the pizza industry is big and moving but not growing much, the wellness industry is growing fast over short and long stretches of time. By integrating the best from both spaces (pizza & prebiotics) in a delicious twist to an offering that many people already love, our client's venture promises to introduce a novel wellness delivery system, from plow to plate, that will generate loads of social value (in the form of healthy eating and awareness) for the people of New Orleans and beyond.

Behind the scenes, the DePaul U. team has turned a Tulane U. classroom into a Naked War Room. The white boards are covered in multi-colored scribbling. Spaghetti platters of cords are snaking along the floor and tables. There are more computers than people, and all of those machines are being used to develop creative graphics content or generate results based on data. Team members are running about the room, clustering in corners, shouting loudly, interrupting one another, making telephone calls, and eating. The large trash can keeps overfilling. Sometimes people are digging in the trash to find something that has regained its value. I have seen lots of teams and supervised many outreach consulting projects. But none of them have been this intense.

As faculty advisor, my job is to observe and coach the team as necessary regarding what is "known" about entrepreneurial action and how they can use that knowledge to guide their work. They ask me questions about linkages between venture strategy and structure, the environment and a venture's culture, or how management decisions can be formulated in order to drive the growth of a venture in a particular scenario. These kinds of questions are not just about specific concepts, but have a lot to do with the integration of concepts. As such, declarative knowledge is rarely enough to answer them. Only a procedural knowledge of how concepts change in the presence of other concepts allows a team to resolve them. Thus, working with the Naked Pizza venture is forcing the team members not to think about entrepreneurship concepts in an absolute sense, as they are commonly grasped in lectures and case studies, but in the real-world sense of how those concepts rebound and move against one another as the environment shifts. The members need each other, and sometimes they need me, to apply those concepts to the challenging project at hand.

It's an exceedingly unique and valuable position for a faculty member to occupy. I am watching what happens when MBA education meets the imposing rigor of the myriad challenges facing a promising new business venture. The results are instructive, to be sure, but they are also surprising.

Why are the results surprising? Because the MBA degree has received a raw deal in the court of public opinion over the past several years (witness the reader comments on today's USA Today article about the IDEAcorps Challenge). For researchers, the content of an MBA is all too easy to examine in a way that allows one to level criticisms. It has been done in large-scale research that identifies managerial performance dimensions, then identifies the dimensions of MBA student academic performance, and just correlates them (cross-sectionally or longitudinally). It makes a great story. The findings of some of these studies have made the pages of the Wall Street Journal because they are so shocking. Indeed, they show a disconnect between what students are taught and what businesses need in their managers. The events in New Orleans this week are showing more about what is wrong with studies of the MBA than what is wrong with the MBA itself.

The poverty of studies that are highly critical of the MBA is that their method is under-specified and contaminated. They do not capture what I am observing right now in a Tulane U. classroom. There is no question that these students are putting their MBA training to good use in a stunning fashion. And there is no question that they are learning much. The IDEAcorps Challenge may reveal the glimpses of a new paradigm in MBA education.

A static examination of underlying competency dimensions (e.g., creativity, sociability, communication skill, organizational skill) does not capture this dynamic process of how great MBA educations are put to great use. Why? The studies are snapshots. As with new venture team members, no MBA student performs or acts in a vacuum. The diversity in competence required to resolve knotty problems begins to emerge when MBA students interface closely with each other to solve complex problems facing all of them. Just like in a real business venture. One's business competence does not generate rich, broad value until it is integrated with compatible competencies in a team setting. Competencies transcend people in complex performance situations.

For instance, if Lucas lacks information about organizational structure as he thinks about how our client's venture can to be optimally responsive to customers, he calls on Steve, who is a whiz at it. Together they develop something that works. When Justin doesn't consider the financial aspects of marketing activity on the internet, he talks to Poonam, who can calculate net present value on a napkin. If Tina is unclear about which venture form is more amenable to a particular growth strategy in a particular environment, she calls Malado. Together they generate a solution that matches the complexity of the problem facing them. Just as our client's venture is organic (in the metaphorical sense) and holistic, so is an MBA student team. Parsing and analyzing either one, without a sense of the whole, runs the risk of losing sight of what is important because the rich benefits of complementarity are lost. Indeed, teams are the #1 reason why most ventures either win or never finish the race.

All participants in the IDEAcorps 2009 Challenge are going to be changed indelibly by their experiences in New Orleans. Some members of our team have already made decisions in New Orleans that will guide them for the rest of their lives. Some have made new friends. I have a clearer sense of why students and business people must interact.

We all know that the complex challenges, false starts, and dead ends of entrepreneurship are more multidimensional than one person, or one inefficient team, can preempt. Yet, we are learning a bit more, thanks to the Idea Village's IDEAcorps Challenge, about how the competencies required to perform in these wild spaces can be harnessed at the team level to generate value through competence diversity in a venture growth context.

Even though there are lots of competing ideas in our Naked War Room, our team fully agrees that the most important aspect of what the Idea Village has created is New Orleans, where the culture and people are magical.

Stanford is Feelin-goodz

2009-03-18T09:50:00.000-05:00

On Sunday night, after a long day of New Orleans brunch, a bus tour, and an iron-chef challenge, the Stanford team huddled around a coffee table in the Hilton Lobby with our entrepreneur Kyle Berner. At first we contemplated trying to fit all 10 of us standing on top of the coffee table (one of the challenges from earlier that night was fitting the whole team in a very small area, an outline of a martini glass drawn on the ground). But instead we began asking Kyle about his business. Before long we were throwing questions at him from all angles: “What is so special about these flip flops? Why Thailand? What truly motivates you? Where do you see yourself in 10 years?” As the conversation continued, Kyle’s passion began to infect us all. Before long we were all huddling around the table as Kyle sketched his supply chain on a cocktail napkin.

Kyle’s business has interesting challenges, and we are working hard to address them. He has stumbled upon a truly unique product: A flip flop that is incredibly comfortable (and what else truly matters in a flop?) and is also made from natural rubber instead of petroleum-based plastic. But the really exciting thing about his company, Feelgoodz, is not the product, but Kyle himself. Kyle is fully dedicated to the values of social entrepreneurship. He is donating some of his profits to causes in Thailand, and is certified as a “B Corp”, a new definition of socially responsible business. He is being mentored by a director on the Whole Foods board, John Elstrott (also one of our speakers this week), and aspires to fulfill the socially responsible values that Whole Foods has championed. Kyle also wants to be an example for the New Orleans business community through his entrepreneurship AND his social responsibility.

However, Kyle’s ambitious goals cannot be achieved unless he addresses short-term problems. He has secured test orders with 3 regions of Whole Foods, spanning around 80 stores. This is an incredible opportunity! Kyle only found out about the 3rd region yesterday afternoon, and he burst into the Stanford team room looking happy and dazed to share the news with us. But now the real work begins. Kyle, along with his business partner, Joel, his best friend Lee and other collaborators, will tour the country in an RV this summer promoting the product. 4 members of the Stanford team, Charles, Sara, Kevin, and Eugene, are helping him figure out what to do during the tour and in the stores to make the pilot a success.

Kyle also has another problem. He has to scale his number of units from ~500 per month to thousands. Other members of the Stanford team, Ashley, Luke, and Jiang, are working to evaluate different production scenarios and calculate capital needs. And helping Kyle plan his next trip to Thailand!

The atmosphere in the team room is full of energy and excitement. Groups of 2-3 students huddle in corners, while Kyle and Lee take turns with each team. “What if we bring in a giant piece of rubber for people to jump on?!?”, Kyle exclaims!

Still much work to be done in room 2110 of the Tulane business school campus.

Sonia H. Kastner MBA
Class of 2009
Stanford Graduate School of Business

Kellogg + Sound + Sustainability = It IS Easy to Be Green

2009-03-18T09:41:00.000-05:00

We’ve been busy late into the night with market research for our client Project 30-90, checking out Glas Vegas at the House of Blues and Rebirth Brass Band at the Maple Leaf. The music scene in New Orleans is amazing and we’ve loved the opportunity to partner with Project 30-90 to create an entirely green music festival. We’ve been diving in to marketing and promoting the festival, working to create a hub for the green community in New Orleans.

We’ve been so impressed with the hospitality of the Idea Village board members and supporters, especially Elly and Merritt Lane, who hosted our team for dinner on Monday night. We felt so at home with the delicious food and lively conversation that we all just might move to New Orleans…

Sarah Z. Buhayar
MBA Candidate, Class of 2010
Kellogg School of Management

The Kellogg Team at the Project 30-90 festival site.

Diary of a CRM - a Company Responding to a development Mission

2009-03-18T09:26:00.000-05:00

Friday 3/20

Close to midnight, I arrived in NOLA, all set to make a difference in the Big Easy. Everytime I'd told someone I'm volunteering in New Orleans, they assumed I was going to be building houses or something. What a great opportunity through IDEAVillage to contribute my intellectual capital! Four other members of the salesforce.com team arrived with me on the same flight (Nadim Hossain, James Goerke, Joan Lee and Karen Hennessy). Two other members had arrived the day before (Andrew Leigh, Wendy Lee), and three more will get here tomorrow (Kardyhm Kelly, Kingsley Joseph, Pratima Arora). New Orleans get ready for ten salesforce.com professionals to unleash their energy towards helping IDEAVillage revitalize the community!

Saturday 3/21

After a long night's sleep, I was ready to get started! The first event on the agenda was a "Crawfish Broil", Idea Village's way of welcoming all of us to New Orleans. Even though I don't eat seafood, I was pressured into trying crawfish. An Idea Village staff member made sure to show me the expert way of eating crawfish. I must admit, I'm glad I tried it… very juicy and tasty. Along with the crawfish, we were treated to black and raspberry infused vodka and beer from the NOLA brewery (only their second batch!). Although I'm not a beer drinker, I did try it and it was pretty good.

This party also gave us the chance to mingle and meet some members from the other teams that were there from Stanford, Berkeley, Chicago, DePaul, and Kellogg as well as other Idea Village staff and some New Orleans Community leaders. Everyone is starting to get more pumped at what this week would have in store for us.

At night, the salesforce.com group headed to Bourbon Street to check out the highly talented Irvin Mayfield at his new Jazz club. Where else, but New Orleans can you walk to a courtyard of a jass club and listen to a high quality live jazz performance. I kinda like this place. After we had our fill, we walked to Frenchman Street to take in another live performance band in a night club. This town sure does love it's music.

Sunday 3/22

Sunday morning began with a New Orleans Jazz Brunch, hosted by Sally and Alton Doody, friends of Idea Village. Did I mention this was in the Garden District? Needless to say, it was a very nice place with very nice ambiance with more live jazz music. (Starting to get used to this). The brunch was scrumptious and we once again got a chance to mingle amongst the other volunteer students from the MBA programs. I met a student from Stanford (Luke Stewart), who will be working for Cisco, my former employer and where my wife currently works. I'd later find out that Luke's from Baltimore, which is also where my wife's from.

After the brunch, we had a bus tour of New Orleans, including an overview of what happened during Katrina and how it affected the various New Orleans neighborhoods. We learned the importance of the city to our country and why it is so important to help bring New Orleans back and to make sure it's protected from another potential Hurricane like Katrina. This tour helped provide the backdrop and context to the need for help in revitalizing this city.

Later that evening was the Team Building activity at the New Orleans School of Cooking. Each team had to go through challenges, including making our own signature cocktail, making a custom dish, building a tower with straws and marshmallows, as well as pricing, word puzzle, and twister games. It was very fun and entertaining, to say the least. Our team learned that we know diddly squat about prices of New Orleans products, we can fit 10 people in very tight spaces, and we can make a killer meal and cocktail when given the right ingredients. Suffice it to say, the judges didn't agree and we did not win the contest. I vote for a recount!

After the team building, we headed out to Café Du Monde to get some coffee and beignets. Well, for me I had hot chocolate… and three beignets. Very delicious! Now it was time to get ready for the work we came to do. Come tomorrow, we will get to work!

Monday 3/23

After arriving at Tulane, our work site, we started the day off by hearing from some community leaders and knowledge professionals in the real estate housing industry to give context to our project. Having just received our venture's business plan, this was valuable to get more info in trying to understand the environment we were dealing with. Our team got together to compare notes on our initial thoughts regarding our venture's idea, and any questions we had. Then we met with the team to get clarification on our questions and to determine what we'd work on for them.

The day was concluded by a speech from the Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu. It was great to hear him speak of the opportunity for New Orleans to rebound and become the great city it's capable of being, through entrepreneurship. Although he's a politician, you can still tell he sincerely is committed to New Orleans and doing what it takes to help revitalize the city.

For dinner, our team was treated to a private "home" cooked vegetarian meal by Robbie Vitrano, entrepreneur and co-founder of the Idea Village. During the meal we got a chance to discuss the New Orleans scene with him and other influential New Orleans leaders.

Tuesday 3/24

Armed with our agenda from our entrepreneur (InSite(s), is a company focused on developing a unique demand side methodology to estimate and characterize a demand for housing to encourage the development of a vibrant community in New Orleans), we set out to do the research and analysis necessary to make sure they get off on the right foot. The venture we were paired with is focusing on creating market analysis reports for the Affordable Housing Industry that fills the gap of what's not currently there. The hope is to provide more context in order to encourage more informed development in New Orleans.

After a hard day's work, we headed to Happy Hour and Dinner at Rambla's for tapas. The food was good, and so was the Sangria. The salesforce.com team was bonding together and had a great time, along with the rest of the MBA volunteers. A group of us later headed out to another jazz night club to see another incredible live performance. In the club, there was an artist creating a live drawing of the scene with the jazz artists and the crowd. That was something I'd never seen before, and oh so cool.
Wednesday 3/25

Today, we again met with the venture team to discuss some of our findings thus far and got further clarification and direction to go with our findings. The team is great and is very responsive to our questions and feedback. By the end of the day, we're toward the final stretch of what we're going to recommend and present.

After another hard day of work, we were treated to an NBA game! The New Orleans Hornets vs. the Denver Nuggets. We got to watch the game from the top of the arena from the press row. By the way, is it just me or should the Hornets name by scratched and substituted with "Jazz"? Currently, that name is given to the Utah team, but I seriously doubt they have the type of jazz in New Orleans. Perhaps they can switch names. It would only make sense. But I digress… after the game (most folks left at halftime), I headed back to the room to get some much needed rest. Oh, the Hornets lost by the way. Maybe they would've been better if their name was "Jazz".

Stay tuned for further updates.

Terance Barkus
salesforce.com

No Carpenters Here

2009-03-18T09:25:00.000-05:00

Winter quarter finals just finished up for us at the Chicago Booth School of Business, and rather than heading to some tropical locale to escape the never-ending Chicago winter, I’ve just taken off on a week-long alternative spring break trip with 7 fellow classmates to New Orleans.

When people I tell about the trip hear the words, “New Orleans,” most think we are going to build houses for Habitat for Humanity, then smile and nod when I explain our real purpose. While that’s definitely a worthy cause, I’m no carpenter--I’m an MBA. In terms of “practical” skills, I’ve got nothing. The last thing I put together was a dresser from IKEA, and despite its simple Swedish design and clear pictorial directions, it’s a little shaky.

Instead we’ll put our business skills to good use consulting with Tessa, Sarah, and Ian from Affordable Housing Support Corporation. Their organization is looking to rebuild New Orleans by acting as a developer for small multi-family residences that will be rented out as affordable housing units. We’ll be working with them to conduct market research and evaluate their business plan’s financial feasibility. Sounds like we’ve got our work cut out for us over the next week.

In preparation for the trip, several of us watched the 4 hour Spike Lee documentary about Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Heavy. With all of the hurricane’s destruction, many people were displaced from their homes and rebuilding has slowed still further due to the current economic downturn and credit crunch. In the greater New Orleans region, half of the housing stock was damaged or destroyed, so developing new affordable residences is an especially important task.

Everyone’s motivation for taking part in the trip is a little bit different. Some of us have never been to New Orleans and want to do something significant while we’re here. Others grew up Louisiana and want to give back to this special place. After traveling to China and Honduras as a tourist and seeing the heartbreaking poverty there, I felt guilty for doing nothing of social value on those trips save bringing American dollars to their economies. My one week here is but a small deposit in helping out those in need in my own country. In all, we hope our education will serve us well while we’re here.