CityBusiness Coverage of Launch Pad Expansion to Lafayette

We were very excited to be featured in City Business regarding our expansion to Lafayette. Check out the article here.

Launch Pad eyes Lafayette for new office

POSTED: 08:36 AM Friday, April 23, 2010
BY: Jennifer Larino, Staff Writer
TAGS: Chris Schultz, FiberFete, Intellectual Property building, Lafayette Economic Development Authority, Launch Pad

New Orleans-based collaborative workspace group Launch Pad said it plans to open a new office in Lafayette within the next few months.

The announcement, made Thursday at the FiberFete conference in Lafayette, comes at a time when grass-roots technology communities in the two cities are attempting to bridge a gap across the Interstate 10 corridor, said Chris Schultz, founder of Launch Pad.

“We want people from Lafayette to come work in New Orleans and the other way around,” Schultz said.

Launch Pad has not signed a lease for a particular location but has viewed commercial spaces in the city.

Schultz said he approached the Lafayette Economic Development Authority about a Lafayette Launch Pad two months ago following a Twitter message about the possibility that generated immediate positive response from both the New Orleans and Lafayette technology communities.

“It’s reflective of all of these things kind of clicking for digital media. Things are happening,” Schultz said.

Launch Pad is interested in leveraging the speed and economy of the Lafayette fiber-to-home network expected to be up and running by the end of summer, Schultz said.

Launch Pad New Orleans pays just under $1,000 a month for Internet service; the much faster fiber service in Lafayette will cost $29 a month.

“It’s one of the only networks in the country like that,” he said. “I really think it’s a wonderful thing and will attract our type of technical, creative people to Lafayette.”

As Launch Pad approaches its one-year anniversary it will also be adding another floor to its office in the Intellectual Property Building as well as testing the waters for a Baton Rouge opening.•