Greater New Orleans Startup Report

The 2025 Greater New Orleans Startup Report will be available in fall 2025.

Read the 2024 GNO Startup Report

The Albert Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Tulane University launched the award-winning Greater New Orleans Startup Report to address the need for regional benchmarking for the startup and early-stage economy. When it was launched in 2019, the report provided the first comprehensive overview of the region's entrepreneurial ecosystem. The annual publication facilitates insights on revenue and hiring needs and provides clues to what it will take to help our companies grow. The Lepage Center works with dozens of community organizations to ensure broad representation of startups throughout the region.

GNO Startup Report Goals

  1. Build a diverse coalition of leaders, institutions, firms and advocates who share the vision.
  2. Execute a multi-year initiative to understand and define our region’s unique innovation engine.
  3. Use this research to benchmark against other regions and track progress over time.
  4. Identify opportunities for transformative change and coordinate efforts to pursue them on a regional scale.

Community Partners

The Albert Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Tulane University extends a special thanks to these community partners, without whom the Greater New Orleans Startup Report would not have been a success.

all of the logos for the 2024 GNO Startup Report Community Partner companies.

In 2020, the Freeman School was honored by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) as one of the "Innovations That Inspire," a group of 25 initiatives by business schools worldwide that exemplify forward-looking approaches to education, research, community engagement or outreach, and leadership. With this honor, the AACSB named the Freeman School as a global leader in "both interdisciplinary collaborations and community engagement," and as an innovator in "how business schools are elevating entrepreneurial mindsets and new business creation."

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is the GNO Startup Report?

The GNO Startup Report is a community initiative, led by the Albert Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Tulane University to support the Greater New Orleans region in its planning efforts.

This project is modeled on a similar initiative in Washington, D.C., during which D.C.-area firm Fosterly analyzed more than 32,000 data points to produce a summary report, which it provided free to the community. In addition to consulting with Fosterly, the Lepage Center worked with Tulane faculty and the Tulane Institutional Review Board to develop our survey.

Q: Why should a startup or entrepreneur complete a response?

Each response gets our community one step closer to a comprehensive understanding of what startups and early-stage companies need to be successful. The data serves as a tool to affect policy, apply for grants, implement relevant programs and measure success. All data is anonymized and only reported in aggregate.

Q: What is a GNO Startup Report community partner?

The GNO Startup Report represents a coalition of community partners who help make this research possible by publicizing the survey to their networks. We seek a broad base of community partners to cast the widest net possible.

Q: What do you mean by Greater New Orleans region?

Our geographic region for this report includes the following parishes: Orleans, Jefferson, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. James, St. John the Baptist, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa and Washington.

Q: Who should complete the survey?

We employ the following general guidelines to identify eligible companies:

  • Located in the Greater New Orleans region
  • ARR less than $60,000,000
  • OR less than 5 years old
  • OR self identifies as participating in the Greater New Orleans region’s entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem

Q: How long does it take to complete a response?

The survey is dynamic and can expand or contract based on responses given. Most respondents report spending 20-30 minutes on the survey, so we recommend scheduling a chunk of time to support the Greater New Orleans region.

Q: Can I complete a GNO Startup survey but not answer all of the questions?

Yes. While completion of all questions relevant to your business is tremendously beneficial for the data set and analysis, all questions related to human resources, funding and revenue are optional.

Q: How will the data be used?

The data serves as a tool to affect policy, attract investment, apply for grants, implement programs and measure success.

Q: What platform is used to collect data?

This is a Tulane University research initiative. Tulane uses Qualtrics survey software.

Q: Who has access to the data?

Tulane University acts as steward for this information. Data supplied is kept secure and anonymous and is reported only in aggregate.

Q: When will the report be available?

New GNO Startup Reports are published in the fall of every year. 

Q: Who should I contact with questions about the GNO Startup Report?

Please direct any questions to Manuela Alban with Tulane's Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

Media

For media inquiries, please contact Manuela Alban at Tulane's Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Please use #GNOStartupReport on social media and check out Instagram @lepagecenter.