The Idea Village presents The Entrepreneur Challenge Class of '10

Bayou Brew: Renee Brown
Bayou Brew Wellness Tea is an innovative new beverage company focused on bringing all natural, unique and delicious blends of Southern-style, ready-to-drink tea to the US market.

Big Easy Blends: Craig Cordes, Sal LaMartina, Antonio LaMartina
Big Easy Blends produces pre-mixed alcoholic beverages packaged in a stand-up flexible pouch that allows the consumer to enjoy frozen cocktails without the hassles of mixing or blending. This unique packaging provides the “go green” solution over the traditional aluminum can or glass bottle that are currently the norm in the alcohol beverage category.

Body Evolution: Tom Fischmann
Body Evolution is a health media company that develops measurable, motivating tools that foster physiological and emotional well being and guide 200+ million Americans through their lifetime Body Image Journey. The group is currently working to develop an innovative, technological way to help improve body image.

Drop the Chalk: Jen Schnidman
Drop the Chalk is developing innovative data tracking and management tools for use in charter schools. As a former teacher and computer scientist, Jen is currently developing customized products for a number of schools in New Orleans.

Music Shed: Chris Bailey
The Music Shed is a music business industry incubator serving musicians, composers, songwriters, producers, music supervisors, and music production companies across the nation. The facility features a highly-trained technical staff, as well as, a recording studio, mixing suite, multi-purpose rooms and practice rooms.

Nica Naturals: Benardette Jno-Finn
Nica Naturals manufactures shea butters, bath salts, soy candles, and other natural products designed to promote a holistic approach to health, beauty, wellness, and restoration. Benardette seeks to create products that enhance beauty, promote wellness and an appreciation of our natural selves which is reflected in the company’s motto Natural. Beautiful. You.

NOLA Couture: Cecile Hardy
NOLA Couture is a New Orleans-based clothing line that is known for its vibrant, unique prints that are inspired by New Orleans and the south. The most successful product to date is their series of men’s ties, gaining popularity across the south and in other national markets as well.

NuMe Health: Dale Pfost and Justin Peno
NuMe Health is a biotechnology company focused on medical foods for the special dietary requirements associated with major chronic diseases including: cancer, obesity and diabetes. The first lead product will address the special nutritional requirements for breast cancer patients, particularly the growing population of breast cancer survivors.

Organic Farms and Local Foods: John Burns, Greg Hymel and Ashley Locklear
Organic Farms is launching the “Makin’ Groceries” project, a “beyond organic” Community Supported Agricultural Market group that specializes in local/seasonal items sourced from a network of Louisiana family farms within a 100 mile radius of New Orleans. They are currently in the process of planning the opening of their flagship store.

Repax: Sammie Bohn, Margaret Moss and Valerie Fischer
Repax designs, manufactures and distributes reusable shopping bags that are fashionable, durable, washable, compact and so easy to use. Their goal is to make joining the ever-growing green movement simple.

REpurposingNOLA Piece by Peace: Traci Claussen
A truly unique piece of New Orleans, REpurposingNOLA utilizes fabrics of the community like PJs burlap coffee sacks, leftover bolts of material from local hotel renovations, salvaged wood from the Green Project, promotional banners from New Orleans' special events, along with ties and belts found at local non-profit shops like the Bridge House in order to create our designer goods. Everytime you purchase the REpurposingNOLA brand, you help local people and the planet.

Schedulist: Chris Laibe
Schedulist is the world’s first workforce scheduling program designed specifically to improve workforce retention. The product is designed to accommodate healthcare facilities and home health providers, but it can be modified to solve the scheduling needs of other industries.

Tutti Dynamics: Darren Hoffman
Tutti Dynamics music software combines digital media technologies with proven teaching methods and renowned New Orleans musicians allowing students to learn musical skill sets and apply them in virtual jam sessions, at a fraction of the cost of traditional music lessons.

Tru Colors: Amy Chenevert
Tru Colors designs and sells a line of game day apparel for the fashion savvy female sports fan. The line offers non logo’d contemporary silhouettes in team color combinations, options that are a step up from traditional game day attire found in most fan shops, yet still affordable.

Alumni from The Idea Village portfolio will also be participating in The Idea Village Entrepreneur Challenge '10, sharing the lessons that they have learned about the start-up phase with their new cohorts:

Don Kelly Productions: Don Kelly
Don Kelly Productions launched in summer 2009 Louisiana’s first ever major music festival with a full eco-friendly mission and purpose. The festival features national performers and stages driven by solar and wind power, the use of renewable energy credits by both producer and attendees, green ticketing, recycling and composting of all waste, offsetting of any carbon footprint and proactive greening efforts to provide long term effects in New Orleans.

Feelgoodz: Kyle Berner
Feelgoodz is a lifestyle brand built upon a unique triple bottom line business model of ‘People, Planet, Phitsanulok.’ Feelgoodz uses sales of eco-friendly products as a pathway to creating positive social change in Thailand and, one day, beyond. The Feelgoodz eco-friendly flip-flop is marketed as the most comfortable rubber flip-flop in the world. Made from all natural latex in Thailand, Feelgoodz uses 70% more rubber than any other brand on the market. In addition to being dyed naturally, the product is recyclable and biodegradable.

Neighborhood Investment Strategies: Ian Riekes Trivers and Sarah Todd Olivier
Neighborhood Investment Strategies creates, promotes and supports alternative housing models as a way to repair urban neighborhoods. Neighborhood Investment Strategies’s focus is on expanding the pool of small, affordable rental properties through a small rental landlord program.

playNOLA: Lavonzell Nicholson
playNOLA provides year-round sports and specialized entertainment opportunities for individuals between the ages of 23-35 in the metro New Orleans area. Through organized team sports in a social atmosphere and focused social outings, playNOLA is becoming the premier gathering for young professionals to meet and compete in New Orleans.

Spark Insite(s): Amber Seely and Jessica Venegas
Spark Insite(s)’s provides a supplement to traditional market studies, informing the site selection, program and design decisions of real estate developers, and provides independent verification of housing demand for banks, lenders and funders being solicited to invest in New Orleans.

Sustainable Environmental Enterprises: Stacey Danner, Lea Keal, David Lessinger and Rosalind Ross
Sustainable Environmental Enterprises will bring renewable energy to the affordable housing industry, providing long-term affordability to low- and moderate-income residents and environmental sustainability to New Orleans communities. SEE sells and install solar energy systems without the large upfront costs by harnessing innovative financing tool and tax incentives. The rare combination of strong incentives for solar energy and intense market demand for affordable and ecologically conscious housing make this moment the perfect opportunity to launch our venture.

The Building Block: Prisca Weems and Forest Bradley Wright
The New Orleans Eco Design, Resource and Industry Park (EcoPark) was conceived in the post-Katrina environment of New Orleans to seize the opportunity in rebuilding to create a new, permanent base of green/sustainable building and renewable energy businesses and resources. EcoPark is developing the Building Block to create a hub of green commerce to serve the Greater New Orleans and Gulf Coast regions. It is a Triple Bottom Line project, with robust financial, social and sustainable business goals. The Building Block will cluster companies working in green building, energy efficiency, and environmentally responsible products and services into an accessible and well-communicated co-location.