WHERE IT ALL BEGAN.

A NAPKIN.

Founding partners Allen Bell, Sally Forman, Sam Giberga, Darin McAuliffe, Michele Reynoir, Tim Williamson and Robbie Vitrano were at the Loa Bar. They were discussing ways to reverse decades of economic and social decline in New Orleans that began with the oil bust in the 1970s, followed by decades of political corruption, poor education, and high crime rates that led to over 40,000 25-35 year olds leaving the state in the 1990s.

These founders looked at these collective challenges and saw entrepreneurship as the agent of change needed to reverse the downward trend. Each of them pitched-in to launch a business plan competition with low expectations of participation. Much to their surprise, hundreds of applications flooded in. The winner of the self-named Loa Group’s business plan competition received a prize package of cash and in-kind services worth over $125,000.

Thus was born a movement that became The Idea Village.