News from the Startup world

By Catherine Lyons

It was a week of exciting news for many local New Orleans entrepreneurs. Here is a roundup of the week’s events:

1) New Orleans-based Drop the Chalk CEO Jennifer Schidman Medbery was featured in Inc. Magazine as a top entrepreneur under 30 years old. The story explored the businesses of 30 highly successful business men and women under 30 all across the country. The feature included video clips of each entrepreneur explaining the passion behind his or her startup. Read (and watch!) more about Medbery and Drop the Chalk here.

2) Governor Bobby Jindal showed his commitment to making New Orleans and Louisiana more tech friendly on Wednesday at the Governor’s Technology Awards. Dozens of companies, including many New Orleans-based ventures like Fetch Puppy and Geocent, were in the running. Here is the list of winners and their categories:

Rising Star – Twin Engine Labs/ Ken & Keith Hanson

Twin Engine Labs is a software engineering firm that specializes in turning “blue sky” entrepreneurial ideas into profitable products.

Innovator of the Year (2 Winners) -Neel Sus & Jameson Quave/ Touch Studios

Touch Studios features mobile products, such as App Maker that allows non-technical users to create and update their own mobile applications without the time and cost it would take to pay a firm for custom development.

Innovator of the Year (2 Winners) – Patrick Thompson/ Amedisys, Inc.

MercuryDoc, developed by Amedisys, is a web based physician portal that allows physicians to electronically process their home health orders, have electronic access to current patient data, and track certifications, recertifications and Care Plan Oversight billing time, at any time.

Technology Leader of the Year – Bondilyn Jolly-eMerge

Under Jolly, a new level of online communication was developed to represent Louisiana based organizations such as the St. Tammany Parish Government, Watch Systems, LLC (helping develop Louisiana’s law enforcement and the nation’s leading sex offender management solution called, OffenderWatch).

University Technology Leader of the Year – Kenneth J. Eilertsen, Ph. D., Pennington Biomedical Research

Technology Company of the Year – AXI Education Solutions – Terri & Dale Viola

Specializes in fully integrated education technology solutions for K-12 and Higher Education classrooms.