Nearly 50 new business start-ups and concepts from the Baton Rouge area took advantage of the networking opportunities provided during the opening night of the Baton Rouge Entrepreneurship Week, or BREW, at the Louisiana Emerging Technology Center on Monday.
LSU Office of Innovation & Technology Commercialization, Louisiana Innovation Park, Nexus LA and the Louisiana Technology Park hosted the event. It was also produced in partnership with The University Financing Foundation, or TUFF, and Sandbox communities.
Andrew Maas, the Director of the LSU Office of Innovation & Technology Commercialization, said he was responsible for spinning out companies around technology or licensing them to larger companies.
“This event was something that we envisioned a couple years ago as being just a networking event for early-stage companies, early start-ups, faculty that might have a technology idea that they want to float to see if it has legs to get some traction to build a company around,” Maas said.
BREW organizers maintained the bottom floor near the entrance and they sought notify attendants of their upcoming events. Capital providers attended in search of companies to invest money in. Service providers, such as design, marketing and social media companies, were there to make connections with other start-ups so they could service them. But entrepreneurs comprised the majority of those in attendance.
Maas said the event is free for exhibitors and attendants because new businesses and companies are unable to shell out great amounts of money. Therefore, the event is supported by sponsors and co-hosts.
Some of the businesses there included Waitr, Pixel Dash Studios, General Informatics, the LSU AgCenter Food Incubator, The Cajun Spoon, Next Level Solutions, The Offshore Exchange and MasteryPrep.
Live music from Ship of Fools entertained attendees, while Walk-Ons Bistreaux & Bar provided food for everyone in attendance.
Local breweries such as Noble Wave Brewpub, Tin Roof, La Chein and Southern Craft offered free samples throughout the night.
Additionally, opening night featured a chance to fly micro drones, be inspired offered the TEDxLSU lounge and the opportunity to play in the Louisiana video game arcade, featuring EA Sports.
“I’m just really excited to make this an annual event, make this sort of the anchor event for kicking off BREW,” Maas said. “Make it to where people think ‘We need to be at that event because that’s going to give us our legs to get our company up off the ground.’”