The common wisdom we’re taught when starting up a business is, “Solve a problem that needs solving.” But the truly exceptional success stories of our time have not followed this advice.

When Coca Cola came along, nobody who was enjoying a long, cool glass of lemonade was clamoring for a sweet, syrupy, brown drink. When Uber came along people weren’t fantasizing about getting into a car with a total stranger. And when Jeff Bezos started selling books online, nobody in their right mind would give their credit card number to a person they didn’t know on the world wide web.

At the end of the day, it wasn’t Bezos’ ability as a salesman that convinced people to trust Amazon, it was the invention of a piece of software called “encryption” that made it safer to give your credit card to Amazon than to a server in a restaurant.

Today there are other online companies poised to capitalize on the next technological change to e-commerce. One of those is a local startup called Cucuron, an online art gallery based in New Orleans, founded by Megan Manning. 

You might ask, “How many people are going to pay $2,000 for a piece of artwork based on a photo on a phone?” Maybe not a whole lot, but… When augmented reality and virtual reality become a part of our device’s operating system – which they definitely will at some point – looking at a piece of art online will be exactly, in every way, like looking at a piece of art on the wall in a gallery.

Whether or not Cucuron becomes the Amazon of art is unknowable. But it’s building the architecture ready for the day when buying art online is as second-nature as buying the shoes, furniture, and mattresses people at one point said they would never buy online.

Over 55% of e-commerce shoppers say the reason they buy online is, “home delivery.” Maybe it’s the legacy of the pandemic, maybe it’s the influence of Gen Z., but more of our lives these days seem to be home-centric.

Very few New Orleanians know more about the many notions of “home” than Kristin Palmer. Kristin was Executive Director of an organization called Rebuilding Together. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Kristin led over 10,000 volunteers who rebuilt hurricane-damaged structures so New Orleanians could come home.

In 2010 Kristin was elected to the New Orleans City Council. She represented District C which includes the French Quarter, the Marigny, Treme, Bywater and Algiers.

In 2014 she founded Bargeboard, a home renovation and restoration company whose goal is to keep Old Algiers affordable and accessible through historic renovation, recycling and reuse. Bargeboard is a culmination of a lifetime of Kristin’s New Orleans-centric personal and professional passions.

In the 1940’s, Abraham Maslow, a psychology professor, came up with a pyramid-shape explanation of human existence which has come to be known as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. On the bottom level of the pyramid are the most basic needs, including shelter – a home. At the top is something Maslow called Self Actualization, which includes creativity, like producing art.

Maslow’s interpretation of human existence has become a foundational teaching in understanding human motivation and behavior. But, if any place on earth was to challenge Maslow’s conventional wisdom, it would be New Orleans. Here, our homes are of course vital, but an equally vital part of our lives - that makes New Orleans New Orleans - is music, beauty, and art.

So, although both Megan's and Kristin's businesses – Bargeboard and Cucuron – theoretically represent the extreme poles of human existence, our lived experience here in New Orleans rates them as equally essential to our everyday lives.

Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.

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