The Idea Village

At a Glance

Trust Your Crazy Ideas!
Founded in 2000, The Idea Village is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization with a mission to identify, support and retain entrepreneurial talent in New Orleans.  The Idea Village has solidified its position as a leading driver of entrepreneurship. Over the last 12 years, the organization has provided direct support to over 3,000 New Orleans entrepreneurs by engaging over 2,400 professionals to allocate 72,295 consulting hours and $3.45 million in seed capital. Collectively, this portfolio generates over $100 million in annual revenue and has created well over 2,000 jobs for the New Orleans community.

The Idea Village delivers against its mission by building an “entrepreneurial ecosystem” – a complex interrelated system of diverse constituencies required to ensure that entrepreneurs succeed.

The Idea Village grows this ecosystem by executing an annual Entrepreneur Season™ from July-March that engages a collaborative network of partners, including government, universities, corporations, non-profits, and individuals, to identify, support, and retain New Orleans start-up ventures by providing:

Concluding with the annual New Orleans Entrepreneur Week (NOEW), a week-long festival of entrepreneurship hosted in Downtown New Orleans, the Entrepreneur Season engages global leaders such as Walter Isaacson (Steve Jobs’ biographer), Mary Himinkool (Google’s head of global entrepreneurship), and Jim Coulter (TPG Capital founding partner). 

MARK YOUR CALENDAR: the 2014 Entrepreneur Season begins on July 15, 2013!

Partners