Just about everyone knows New Orleans. The challenge is shaping what people know about the place.
Two decades post-Katrina, policymakers and local leaders marked this year with signals of rebound. National media coverage has been near constant. It mostly tells a story of resilience, but acknowledges ongoing difficulties: declining population, underinvested infrastructure, high levels of poverty.
Known as a venture capital desert that rarely breaks the top 100 regions for number or size of VC investments, New Orleans was a surprise high-performer.
This fall, the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center published “Advancing Regional Innovation Ecosystems” (ARIE), backed by rigorous quantitative analysis led by the think tank Heartland Forward. That report, to which Technical.ly got advanced access, analyzed regions by their share of high-earning, venture-backable entrepreneurs.
Known as a venture capital desert that rarely breaks the top 100 regions for number or size of VC investments, New Orleans was a surprise high-performer. Ranked No. 14 in the report’s analysis, it sits next to big players like San Francisco, Austin and Seattle, along with other mid-sized ecosystems like Atlanta, Charlotte and Pittsburgh.
The report’s message was clear: New Orleans entrepreneurs are especially capital efficient, and leaders have developed an effective ecosystem strategy that mixes Tulane University output with a budding network of entrepreneur support organizations, including those tied to traditional financing strategies. The NOLA region has one of the highest densities of life science workers in the country, per the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, and a nascent community of tech and founders.
But the report adds that to compete nationally despite economic headwinds, New Orleans needs a statewide coalition of startup boosters and science and technology organizers.
That’s work worth doing, and the ARIE report details actions to take.
I already had personal experience with Louisiana’s innovation economy via family, including an especially prideful New Orleans-resident cousin. A few years back, I met New Orleans-based Corridor Ventures investor Kwamena Aidoo at a conference in Alabama. He introduced me to Baton Rouge-based Tony Zanders, a startup founder who this year took over statewide advocacy and organizer group Nexus Louisiana.
Alongside the National Science Foundation-funded FUEL coalition on energy innovation, we at Technical.ly became convinced Louisiana was serious about remaking its economic mix — enough that we announced this week that this state will be Technically’s first expansion to the South in 2026.
It’s no coincidence: Louisiana has strengths, and a need to reimagine its economic future.
Strengths and challenges detailed in the ARIE report
- Education density with an elite research spine. The New Orleans metro hosts ~20 higher-ed institutions, led by elite research university Tulane and University of New Orleans. This amounts to enough graduate and research output to power a stronger STEM economy than is there now.
- Tight (but real) early-stage capital. Among the top 20 regions analyzed, New Orleans ranked 19th by recent VC totals (less than $400 million) from fewer than 60 tracked startups. That’s evidence of a working pipeline but also a ceiling that local actors are intent on breaking.
- Policy and finance headwinds. Louisiana runs a lean safety net (federal minimum wage baseline; limited cash supports) and a lower-activity entrepreneurship policy posture. These conditions raise the bar for local navigators and blended finance strategies, and research shows this is a barrier to people leaving jobs to start companies.
Next moves the city can control
New Orleans entrepreneurs and organizers should cheer more statewide coordination, the report advised, to strengthen their heft in the state capital and in lobbying for national attention. As one of the country’s best known and most loved cities, it’s a powerful front door, but it needs the rest of Louisiana to fill out the house.
The report is worth downloading. Technical.ly will be part of the effort to enact its recommendations.
