By Trisha Ostrowski

South Louisiana

A unique culture, and a culture of support for next-generation industries

 

Why do you stay in Louisiana?” Sevetri Wilson gets that question a lot from friends and clients across the country. She’s the founder of strategic communications firm Solid Ground Innovations (SGI), headquartered in Baton Rouge with a second office in New Orleans.

 

Solid Ground Innovations is the kind of company that would be embraced by any community in the nation if Wilson were to consider relocating (she’s not). A creative services firm that offers clients consulting, traditional and digital marketing, and web development and design, SGI holds innovation and entrepreneurship among its core values.

 

Wilson says she does travel a lot to work with clients, which have included Walmart, Aetna, NBA Cares and the American Red Cross.

 

So why does she stay?

“There’s so much opportunity here in South Louisiana.” Wilson says that those who want to improve their community — and who are willing to put in the work — can make it happen. “In Baton Rouge, you can envision a city, and then you can literally be a part of building the city that you envision.”

 

A supportive environment

Louisiana’s economic development leaders envision communities in South Louisiana and across their state brimming with companies like SGI — a knowledge-based business with an ambitious leader who is constantly looking for ways to better serve her clients.

 

Wilson, who started SGI eight years ago, has created a civic-engagement unit, SGI Cares, that focuses on organizational planning, training and program management. Her most recent endeavor is developing a web-based platform to automate the delivery of compliance services to her clients.

 

“All of our [software] developers are right here in South Louisiana,” Wilson said proudly, noting that Louisiana offers tax incentives that reward businesses for using in-state labor for digital media and technology development.

 

“So we were able to develop and launch the entire product to date with South Louisiana partners and developers,” said Wilson. “People don’t think of Louisiana as a tech place, but again, I think the opportunity [is] still endless no matter what sector you’re in.”

 

Leslie Durham, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards’ designee to the Delta Regional Authority, says that South Louisiana is the perfect environment for people or companies with new ideas and the desire to turn those ideas into marketable products.

 

“South Louisiana has a great sense of community and unique culture, which lends to a welcoming environment,” says Durham. “You have universities that are home to small business and technology centers. The cultural and educational aspects definitely create a stimulating and supportive environment for small business, along with a community that shares distinct characteristics of supporting family, friends and strangers.”

 

From valves to video games

“Louisiana is well beyond the days when its economic fortunes were dependent on a few legacy industries,” said Gary Perilloux, communications director for Louisiana Economic Development.

 

The state is rapidly boosting its presence in next-generation industries through investments and partnerships with universities and the private sector. Louisiana has also amassed an impressive network of incubators and other assets that nurture innovation and entrepreneurship. Such efforts provide “a pipeline of talent in the telecommunications technology, software development and engineering, and digital media IT sectors,” said Perilloux. They also ensure that Louisiana will have the infrastructure and knowledge base to grow and attract the high-tech, creative businesses that will continue to fuel economic growth in the coming decades.

 

One example Perilloux cites is Louisiana’s partnership with IBM and Louisiana State University to create the IBM Client Innovation Center in downtown Baton Rouge. The center, which provides software development and maintenance services to clients across the United States, is not only creating 800 jobs, it is also expanding LSU’s computer science program, thus providing a huge boost to the state’s technology workforce. The state is providing $14 million in funding over 10 years.

 

LSU also hosts the Louisiana Digital Media Center. The Delta Louisiana’s DRA Designee Leslie Durham says the state invested in the center “to expand its supercomputing capacity, grow a multidisciplinary digital media curriculum called AVATAR, and house a North American Test Center for [Electronic Art’s] video games.” Durham said that “these efforts are creating more than 5,000 new digital technology, software and IT jobs in the state.”

 

The Delta Regional Authority (DRA) works to improve economic opportunity in the eight-state Delta region. One of the many ways DRA does that is by investing in business incubators and other support mechanisms for entrepreneurs in a variety of fields.

 

The Level Up Lab at the Louisiana Technology Park in Baton Rouge is one such investment. Durham says the lab supports the launch of digital media companies by helping developers turn their ideas into viable commercial products.

 

“Basically, it is a video game incubator, and it has all the tools and technology, from a green screen [to a] sound recording room, where someone can take their idea and turn it into reality and place it on the market,” said Durham.

 

DRA has also provided support for the Protostripes Center at LSU’s Louisiana Business and Technology Center. The Protostripes Center is a fabrication, prototyping, programming and learning center, with a 3-D printer that allows inventors to create a physical prototype of their concept. Prototypes created at the center have included car parts, valves and LED bulbs.

 

Kyle Zeringue, senior vice president of business development for the Baton Rouge Area Chamber, cites the recent development of NexusLA as “exciting news. . .in terms of business assistance and entrepreneurial synergy.”

 

NexusLA serves as a kind of clearinghouse of business resources in the region, simplifying the way innovators and high-tech companies find support to grow their businesses. NexusLA encompasses several entities, including Louisiana Technology Park and Innovation Catalyst, which provides seed capital to early stage companies in the state.

 

Cultivating small business success

Gary Perilloux says Louisiana Economic Development is highly attuned to the importance of supporting small businesses in the state. “Our goal here is to get even more small businesses involved in the success of our economy.”

 

Wilson of Solid Ground Innovations credits LED’s comprehensive support for small businesses for helping get her company off the ground. She remembers attending a workshop at which LED’s director of small business services, John Matthews, was speaking. “There had to be 200 or 300 people in the room, and he said, ‘You know, I’m going to give all this advice [about launching a business] and maybe two people will come see me,’ ” Wilson recalls. “I was one of those two people!

 

“I reached out to him to set up meetings, to set up freelance consulting, to actually grow into expanding my company,” Wilson said, noting that Matthews has been a mentor to her as her business has developed.

 

One of the resources Wilson used was LED’s Economic Gardening Initiative. The program matches participants with a team of consultants who provide support tailored to the specific needs of the participant’s company, from reviewing business strategies and market opportunities to developing sales leads and using technology to better connect with customers.

 

Wilson also speaks highly of LED’s CEO Roundtables program, which brings together small groups of Louisiana-based small business owners and decision makers 10 times over the course of a year. “[We all sit] around this table. . .talking about the day-in, day-out challenges of small businesses, and successes [as well],” Wilson said. “You might have an IT company or a communications company like mine, or a construction company or a glass company. It’s very diverse.”

 

Endless opportunity

Wilson has built a thriving business thanks in part to the resources available to her in South Louisiana, and she doesn’t see herself slowing down any time soon.

 

“I’ve always considered myself an entrepreneur,” she said. Aside from the launch of her compliance software startup, Wilson continued, “We have a very aggressive growth strategy to expand more heavily in the public space, primarily the federal government.” She is making plans for a third office in Washington, D.C., and she emphasizes, “I would love to bring the jobs back to Louisiana.”