19 September 2016
Propeller announces the 31 ventures joining the Startup track of its Impact Accelerator, a three-month program supporting early-stage ventures addressing issues in food access, water management, health, and educational equity.
The 31 participants include for-profit, non-profit, and hybrid ventures in various early stages of development, from pre-revenue to initial revenue-generation. Several plan to scale their local solutions to a national level, while others plan to focus on deepening their impact within the Greater New Orleans area.
Over the course of three months, each venture will launch their initial pilots and gain first customers with the support of executive-level mentors. Additional benefits include weekly group curriculum sessions, contracted professional support (including legal, design, accounting, and financial modeling), and free workspace at the Propeller Incubator. The Accelerator culminates in a showcase in December, where ventures will pitch to an audience of investors, funders, and leaders within their industries.
“Our Startup Accelerator is where we see some of the most exciting, meaningful growth among our ventures,” says Propeller Executive Director Andrea Chen. “This year’s class represents some of New Orleans’ most promising emerging ideas in food, water, health, and education, and we are excited to help them turn those ideas into tested, viable solutions.”
Propeller’s 2016-2017 Startup Accelerator Ventures:
Food Access
- Agrowtopia, a student-centric, organic urban farm that provides affordable produce to Gert Town residents, surrounding farm-to-table businesses, and Xavier University.
- Descant Ranch, a carbon-neutral blueberry farm in Washington Parish connecting local farmers with the resources and information to promote long-term financial and agricultural sustainability in the region.
- Garden on Mars, a non-profit urban garden project to increase access to fresh produce and promote financial self-sustainability for residents of Lower 9th Ward by providing them with the tools, resources, and knowledge to grow fresh food and flowers.
- G's Grocery Provisions (GroPro), an online local grocery platform providing on-demand delivery of local grocery retail for individuals with limited or no access to reliable transportation.
- Mothers & Caretakers Mending Family Foundations, a catering business devoted to creating and growing financial and food security safety nets for families fractured by inequality.
- New Orleans Eat Local Challenge, an initiative to increase the awareness of the nutritional, economic, cultural, and environmental benefits of eating locally sourced foods in the Greater New Orleans area.
- Sugar Roots Farm, a non-profit urban farm fostering physical wellness and positive environmental impact in metro New Orleans through farm-to-fork education and sustainable, free-range agricultural methods.
- The University Medical Center Urban Farm Project, an urban farm on the University Medical Center campus in Mid-City focused on redefining food culture in a healthcare setting to reduce the burden of obesity-related chronic diseases.
Health
- Bike Rite, a cycling club that promotes physical activity in underserved communities of New Orleans by introducing and increasing access to cycling.
- The Hite Law Group, a law group bridging the “justice gap” in New Orleans by providing high quality legal counsel at low rates, specializing in serving, protecting, and supporting the health and well-being of the LGBTQ community and survivors of intimate partner violence.
- Lift Louisiana, an advocacy group improving health outcomes for women and children in Louisiana by advocating for all citizens to have the resources, information, rights, and ability to make their own decisions and to access reproductive healthcare.
- Louvis Services, a housing solution serving the New Orleans homeless community by repurposing shipping containers into safe, affordable rental housing units where residents can develop financial sustainability and emotional wellness.
- Pine Biotech, a “software as a service” informatics platform for commercial research scientists and biomedical researchers, enabling discovery of molecules, vaccines, and other cellular pathways.
- PrepBiz, a mobile application focused on using game-based technology to combat disaster trauma in youth.
- Ready Responders, a community paramedicine group improving access and quality to healthcare while reducing response times by integrating part-time Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) into municipal 911 systems (EMS).
- Santosha, A sustainable, self-regulated transitional village of small homes focused on providing affordable housing to the homeless of community of New Orleans to aid in their integration back into society.
- Well Therapeutic Services, a New Orleans-based clinic serving patients from all walks of life by providing preventative healthcare and therapeutic services, including physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, mental health services, adjunctive therapies, and wellness education and classes.
Educational Equity
- College Beyond, a non-profit organization leveraging the power of relationships to guide students through the academic, social, and financial transition from high school success to college persistence.
- Electric Girls, a non-profit organization that develops New Orleans area girls into confident leaders and role models in technology by creating a community where girls can learn science, technology, engineering, and math skills with and from each other.
- IT’S LIT: Words on Ice, a project of the non-profit organization Big Class launching a mobile youth writing center and sno-ball stand to support the voices of young writers and provide summer employment opportunities to New Orleans youth in their own neighborhoods.
- Kids of Excellence Child Development Center, a private, non-profit childcare center providing quality early childhood education and community resources to young children in at-risk communities in New Orleans.
- Overcoming Racism, a non-profit organization providing training and consulting services to help guide schools and teachers through the process of developing anti-racist educators.
- The Southern History Project, a non-profit organization increasing the number of students from the American South who graduate college through the development and implementation of engaging, relevant social studies curricula tailored to southern schools.
- TrainingGrounds, a non-profit providing evidence-informed, on-site programming to parents, caregivers, and early childhood educators serving ages birth to five years in the greater New Orleans area.
- Whole Village Art Therapy, a non-profit organization providing holistic, community-based art therapy programming in the Broadmoor, Hollygrove, and Central City neighborhoods to promote community and improve access to mental health services, regardless of insurance restrictions or financial hardship.
Water Management
- Coastal Communities Consulting (CCC), a non-profit organization providing technical assistance, economic development, social services, and disaster recovery services to rural entrepreneurs and their families.
- The GlassLand Project, an initiative to divert waste glass from landfill to seacoast by educating, adding disposal sites, and custom processing collected glass into graded glass-sand for use by the coastal restoration industry.
- Louisiana Coastal Services, Inc., a multi-disciplined professional service firm assisting clients in the coastal parishes of Louisiana in transactional legal services, land broker services, and grant management while promoting environmentally-friendly usage of Louisiana’s coast.
- Landscape Metrics, a data visualization design studio inspiring public engagement around environmental issues from local water quality to global change by transforming complex datasets into compelling visual narratives.
- Maritant, an innovative sales platform that connects engineers, shipbuilders, and vessel operators with preferred vendor equipment data.
- Triple N Oyster Farm, a Grand Isle-based oyster farm devoted to creating sustainable oyster growing technologies for Louisiana.
Ventures mentioned in this post
Bike Rite
Nicholas Reed
Areas of focus: Health
Coastal Communities Consulting (CCC)
Sandy Nguyen, Cristina Duong & Katrina Williams
Areas of focus: Water
College Beyond
Paris Woods & Sarah Payne
Areas of focus: Education
Descant Ranch
Seth Descant
Areas of focus: Food
Electric Girls
Flor Serna & Maya Ramos
Areas of focus: Education
Garden on Mars
Jeanette Bell
Areas of focus: Food
826 New Orleans
Douglas Keller & Aubrey Edwards
Areas of focus: Education
Maritant
Chris Stuckey
Areas of focus: Water
Louvis Services
Lou Anne White
Areas of focus: Health
Pine Biotech
Elia Brodsky, Jaclyn Williams, Dr. Claudia Copeland, Dr. Amitha Dasari, Dr. Leonid Brodsky
Areas of focus: Health
Ready Responders
Benjamin Swig & Justin Dangel
Areas of focus: Health
Whole Village Art Therapy
Holly Wherry
Areas of focus: Education
Well Therapeutics
Dr. Lori LeDuff & Nicole Goldin
Areas of focus: Health
TrainingGrounds
Christine Neely & Melanie Richardson
Areas of focus: Education
Sugar Roots Farm
Sharessa Garland
Areas of focus: Food
The University Medical Center Urban Farm
Catherine Hudson
Areas of focus: Food
The Southern History Project
Sheila Sundar
Areas of focus: Education
The GlassLand Project
Guy Packard Seaberg, R. Thomas Seaberg, Chris Prasad & Joseph Santiago
Areas of focus: Water
The Hite Law Group
Nicholas Hite
Areas of focus: Health
Kids of Excellence Child Development Center
Kristi Givens & Precious Acker
Areas of focus: Education
Santosha
Haiyan Khan, Vicki Judice, Kimberly Vanwagner & Eva Sohl
Areas of focus: Health
PrepBiz
Kenneth Bibbins
Areas of focus: Health
Mothers & Caretakers Mending Family Foundations
Charmaine Washington, Chanda Washington, and Joan Surgent
Areas of focus: Food
Landscape Metrics
Benjamin Wellington & Matthew Seibert
Areas of focus: Water
Louisiana Coastal Services, Inc.
Erik Mayo
Areas of focus: Water
