+ AUBREY ALLISON

Communications Manager
The Idea Village

Aubrey is a Communications professional specializing in copywriting, social media strategy and execution, and website development.

+ FELIPE MASSA

Associate Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship
Loyola University

Felipe Massa joined the Loyola College of Business in 2012 after having received his Master’s Degree and Ph.D. in Organization Studies from Boston College and garnering several years of experience in the banking, software and translation industries. He teaches entrepreneurship, organizational behavior, strategy, and consulting to undergraduate and graduate students.

+ JANE COOPER

Founder and Owner
Grande Krewe Fine Wine

Jane has founded and led 4 healthcare companies over the last 30 years, the most recent being a national healthcare advocacy and transparency company, which she started in 2001 and sold in 2017. In 2015 she joined 3 partners to open a local wine and spirits retail and event space in the Faubourg Marigny. She is an adjunct professor with AB Freeman at Tulane University and also lead a national healthcare consulting business.

Areas of Expertise
Business Development & Sales, Business Modeling, Fundraising & Investor Relations, General Business Strategy, Management/Human Resources, Marketing & Branding, Market Research, Project Management

+ JON ATKINSON

CEO
The Idea Village

Jon is an expert in startups, customer development methodologies, and entrepreneurial finance. His past experience combines a diverse knowledge as a professional investor and ‘recovering’ banker with skills gained as a professor, CEO, CFO, business advisor, board member, and strategic consultant to deliver unique business insights in guiding and financing unique business insights in guiding and financing growth oriented companies. Jon was previously the founding director for the Loyola University Center for Entrepreneurship and Community Development and a Visiting Assistant Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship at Loyola University New Orleans. He is also a co-founder and the Fund Administrator for Lagniappe Angels, LLC. Jon also holds his MBA in Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship from Tulane University.

+ HARRY FOX

Co-founder
Bloks

Harry is a recovering financier, returned Peace Corps volunteer, 3x startup Founder, ski aficionado, & computer nerd with an MBA & MS Data Science.

+ DAVID GUILFORD

Financial Advisor
*NYLIFE Securities

David is a financial Services professional, lean startup mentor, and serial entrepreneur.

+ LYDIA WINKLER

Co-founder and COO
RentCheck

Lydia is the founder of REEP Now (Relief Effort for Earning Parole) a nonprofit that provides parole advocacy and support to people in Louisiana. Prior to law school she lived in San Francisco where she worked for the Golden State Warriors and then for tech startup, Whistle (acquired by Mars). RentCheck is Lydia's third tech startup she's been a part of. Lydia holds a Juris Doctor and Masters in Business Administration from Tulane University.

+ LEONARD NELSON

Title
Company

Leonard founded three technology firms focused on solving meaningful problems in the physical world with digtial tools.

+ REED STEPHENS

Co-founder & CEO
Bloks

Reed is a curious tech guy and Louisiana native. He's passionate about startups, and happy to help with business, AI, development, or other tech needs.

BS Engineering at LSU, MBA at Tulane, MS CS at Georgia Tech, Snowball Specialist

+ STEPHANIE DORSEY

Co-Founder, Managing Partner
E²JDJ

Stephanie is the co-founder of E²JDJ and oversees deal sourcing, structure and investment execution as well as heads up strategy, retailer partnerships, investor relations and general management of the Fund. Prior to founding the firm, Stephanie was an associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell where she advised financial institutions. Stephanie holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and B.A. from Dickinson College. During Harvard Law, Stephanie worked at the Community Enterprise Project where she advised start-ups, including companies in the food and beverage space.

+ CHARLES COX

Director
LongueVue Capital

As the Director of Investments at LongVue Capital, Charles leads their business development activities, including the sourcing, evaluation, and execution of new platform investments and add-on opportunities for existing portfolio companies. An active member of the private equity industry, Charles serves on the Board of Directors of the Southeastern SBIA and Louisiana ACG organizations.

+ DYLAN DIBONA

Partner
Monday and Partners

Dylan DiBona has over 20 years of experience working with new and established brands to help them express their reasons for existing in ways that are clear, authentic, and defensible. With practical experience that crosses all media Dylan brings a no-nonsense, practical approach to the work he does. Throughout his career his work has won awards but, more importantly, has consistently grown clients' businesses.

Areas of Expertise
Design, Digital Marketing/SEO/Social Media, Marketing & Branding, Website Development

+ JOHN CLARKE

Associate Dean, Professor of Entrepreneurship
A. B. Freeman School of Business

John is an active advisor in several early-stage startups. John has advised several companies that have gone on to secure angel and subsequent rounds of funding. He teaches new venture planning and has run workshops and short courses for startups.

Areas of Expertise
Business Development & Sales, Business Modeling, Design, Fundraising & Investor Relations, General Business Strategy, Project Management, Other

+ JOSH WEINER

Founder and CEO
*Oh Shoot!

Joshua Weiner is an entrepreneur from Chicago, IL. He began his career as a web and graphic designer. He founded, "Oh Shoot!", a student-services marketplace (Idea Village Cohort - 2020). As a product-focused CEO, he developed the system workflow, and multi-device, user-experiences for the Oh Shoot! platform.

Through his consulting practice at Switch Studio, he helps clients build and develop- robust, useful, and beautiful systems. He resides in Redmond, WA, and is furthering his career in systems architecture and design.

+ KWAMENA AIDOO

Founder
projectXLIV

Chief Financial Officer
Square Button Consulting, LLC

Kwamena spent his entire entire 16 year career in the finance industry. He has 6.5 years of private equity investment and operations experience. Additionally, he has over 4 years of CFO experience within investment portfolio companies.

+ MARCO NELSON

Co-founder and CEO
RentCheck

Marco is a graduate of the Naval Academy, where he went on to serve 7 ½ years as a Naval Officer. He holds his Masters in Information Technology Management and iOS Development. Marco is well versed in the Lean Methodology as well as startup pitching and fundraising.

+ KEVIN EDWARDS

Partner in the Customer Development Practice
The Partnering Group

Kevin is a former VP at Procter & Gamble of 22 years, where he also served in a GBLC capacity. He led businesses in most of the Americas, Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Western Europe and Asia. He was a Senior Vice President at Novartis and later led two entrepreneurial start-ups in the healthcare and food service space. Kevin’s expertise lies in go-to market strategy, innovation, customer and portfolio development, pricing and promotion and organization capability.

Areas of Expertise
Business Development & Sales, Business Modeling, Data Analytics, Design, Financial Modeling, General Business Strategy, Management/Human Resources, Marketing & Branding, Market Research, Project Management

+ LEIGH D'ANGELO

Co-Founder & CEO
Dig and Tabby

Leigh is the co-Founder & CEO of Dig and Tabby, a SR Communications Analyst for NASA & NASA TV Anchor, and a media relations consultant.

+ TJ NEAL

Corporate Controller

EOI Service Company

TJ has 12-years of experience leading and serving as an advisor to small businesses and non-profit organizations. His passion is focusing on operations, finance, technology, and strategic planning to build empowered teams and organizations.

Areas of Expertise
Financial Services, Healthcare, Retail, Education

+ SCOTT WOLFE

CEO
Levelset

Scott is the founder & CEO of Levelset, a SaaS company founded and headquartered in New Orleans with over 160 employees. Its software is used by thousands of contractors across the United States to get paid faster and easier. The company is venture-backed, having raised $47M from national investors like S3 Ventures, Altos Ventures, and Brick & Mortar Ventures.

Areas of Expertise

Digital Marketing/SEO/Social Media, Fundraising & Investor Relations, General Business Strategy, Marketing & Branding

+ COREY JONES

Founding Partner
E²JDJ

Originally from New Orleans, Corey went to The George Washington University for college and Harvard for law school. He worked in President Obama's White House for a year, Morgan Stanley as an investment banker for three years, and most recently at Providence Equity before launching my fund, E²JDJ which focuses on Food and Beverage companies

+ EDDIE CLIFF

Senior Director, Product Management
Salesforce

Eddie currently leads a team of product managers focused on building best in class products for small to medium size businesses. Prior to leading a team, he owned the Chat and Social channels for Service Cloud. He's have worked for Salesforce in a number of other roles(Sales, Solution Engineering, & Customer Success) around the world (New York, Singapore, Sydney, & San Francisco).

+ JOE BRINZ

CEO
Engineering & Inspection Services, LLC

Joe Brinz is a company visionary who has spent the past 19 years serving Engineering & Inspection Services, LLC as both Chief Operating Officer and Chief Executive Officer. Joe is responsible for the development and execution of strategic company goals, and he helps foster a culture that is conducive to collaborative, creative thinking at all levels of the organization.

+ JOHN MARSHALL

Founder
Series Next Solutions

John's most recent position before founding Series Next Solutions was a COO role at a growing startup, so he has seen the process first-hand of going from having the model in place, to building the infrastructure to scale, to surviving a due diligence process by a buyer. John's deepest background and skills are in business intelligence, digital transformation (using cloud software to build a scalable organization), and financial planning and analysis.

+ LESLIE CAMPISI | EIR

Consultant
Fractional CMO

Leslie has 20+ years working in the global tech ecosystem, in-house at startups, in tech PR, and in VC. She is a marketer with deep experience in brand, corporate communications, and editorial strategy. She is also an entrepreneur & operator who has launched and run agencies. She is based in NYC with deep networks in London and SF and in the fintech sector. She is a tech generalist having worked across B2B, B2C, B2B2C, and nearly every vertical. She is enthusiastic about working with female and BIPOC founders, as well as companies building new business models. This includes those truly re-engineering the way a process or system works vs. just improving UX. She is also excited about working with businesses with B2B and B2C ambitions, mission-driven founders and companies and first-time entrepreneurs.

+ THOMAS TRAHAN

Lead Investment Capitalist
Acadian Capital Research

Thomas is an experienced Angel Investment/Venture Capital analyst who eats, sleeps, and breathes startups and investing. Possessor of a deep-generalist skill set - combining grit gained as a startup founder, and first-hand experience gained via operating an alternative asset research firm.

+ RUPA MOHAN

Founder and Chief Product Office
The Sweat Social LLC

Rupa has a background in corporate finance and spent 10-years on Wall Street before she left to pursue her passion for health and wellness. She started The Sweat Social almost 6 years ago and since then has scaled her business to a corporate audience and expanded to a global client base. The Sweat Social is in the health and wellness industry, but she also has a background in Corporate Finance, working in the Pharmaceutical industry as well as the Financial Services industry.

+ TOMMY CAMPBELL

Principal Owner
Campbell Investment and Consulting

Tommy is an expert in developing and sustaining high-performance organizations by building team culture and guiding continuous improvement. His business acumen and diligence have lead domestic and international organizations to higher levels of success. Tommy worked at Iron Mountain, a Data and Records Management firm, for almost 18 years, serving in management roles as well as multiple SVP roles both national and internationally. Tommy also helped Co-Found the Lagniappe Angels, a capital angel investment group based in New Orleans, where he currently serves as the Executive Committee Chair. Tommy’s skill set includes Executive Leadership, Change Management, Performance Improvement/KPI’s, International Operations, M&As, Technology Integration, Budgeting / Forecasting, Multi-Departmental Collaboration, Cost Control / ROI, Business Solutions, Quality Relationships, Sales Team Development, Restructures / Consolidations.