The Idea Village

Who We Are

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 by providing direct support to 1,101 local entrepreneurs by engaging 1,746 professionals to allocate over 42,000 consulting hours and $2.7 million in capital. Collectively, this portfolio generates over $82 million in annual revenue and has created nearly 1,006 jobs for our community.

Each day, The Idea Village encourages the New Orleans community to live by the mantra: “Trust Your Crazy Ideas.”

What We Do

Each year, The Idea Village Village fosters an entrepreneurial ecosystem by executing an Entrepreneur Season that supports the startup of new ventures through the IDEAxcelerator™ and IDEAinstitute™. The Season culminates each March with New Orleans Entrepreneur Week (NOEW).

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Media

Bloomberg Businessweek

1/27/2012 - "Building Startup Culture in New Orleans"

Since Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans has reinvented itself as a bit of an entrepreneurial hub, replete with incubators and accelerators and an Entrepreneur Week now in its fourth year that draws visitors from Google, Stanford, and venture capital firms. It has homegrown success stories like the...

WDSU

1/25/2012 - "Organizers Names Winner in Trust Your Crazy Ideas Contest"

The winning T-shirt from the 2nd annual Brees Dream Foundation/Idea Village Trust Your Crazy Ideas Challenge hits store shelves.

Inc.com

1/23/2012 - "New Orleans and Young Entrepreneurs: Nurturing Each Other"

With programs like The Idea Village, Launch Pad, and the New Orleans Startup Fund, New Orleans is building a reputation as an under-the-radar location for young entrepreneurs.