On Natural Assets & Unfair Advantages

Two years ago at Launch Fest, Scott Case challenged New Orleans to figure out how to leverage our natural resources to build our startup ecosystem.

What companies make sense for New Orleans? Where do you have competitive advantages?

For that last several years, I’ve been describing the NOLA ecosystem as “emerging” while we’ve waiting to see what sectors take root. We’re starting to see that happening now. It was through the lens of what companies have an unfair advantage being in New Orleans that we selected the companies for the 2013 Launch Pad class.

Companies you won’t see in our class

The latest consumer facing social media app because it has no unfair advantage and isn’t leveraging any natural assets.

Companies you will see in our class

Companies like Sidework, a restaurant employee training platform because it has the unfair advantage of the New Orleans world-class service industry mindset as well as the natural assets of the New Orleans restaurant industry.

I’m seeing the sectors for New Orleans coming into focus quickly, witness Jim Coulter’s battle cry for the Ed Tech sector in New Orleans last week during NOEW.

While they are still coming into focus, here are the sectors I’m excited about in New Orleans right now:

• Education Tech

• Food Tech

• Energy Tech

• HealthCare Tech

• Disruptive Transactional Marketplaces

• Creative Media Platforms & Products

• Talent Recruitment, Management & Retention technologies

To understand what’s taking place, I think its helpful to consider the shifting phases of technology revolution. Read Chris Dixon’s post about moving from the computing installation phase to the deployment phase along with Mark Andreesen’s post about how software is eating the world.

What we’re seeing is a new technology layer being applied across industries where we have traditional strengths in our region. Because of our industry expertise and natural assets, we have an unfair advantage in these industries as the are eaten by software. This will be industry disruption we can win. Let’s go get ‘em.