In the 1800’s Thomas Edison invented, among other things, the light bulb, the record player, and the first motion picture capture device which paved the way for the birth of movies.

Was Thomas Edison a genius? In response to that question Edison said, “Genius is one percent inspiration and 99% perspiration.”

Meaning, you can have a great idea, but you also have to have the tenacity and work ethic to bring it to life.

So, how do you do that?

New Orleans’ two most recently successful companies, Lucid – which sold for over one billion dollars, and Levelset, which sold for 500 million -  were both founded with assistance from business accelerator, The Idea Village.

Today, a lot of entrepreneurs owe their foundational steps, and their growth, to business accelerators and incubators.

Okay, but what if you have a great idea for a business, and you don’t get accepted to a business incubator? Or maybe you live in a place where there is no incubator, accelerator, or even anyone who can give you any business advice at all. Then what do you do? 

Then, you ask Solomon.

Solomon is an AI-powered business accelerator. But the business guidance you’re going to get from it is not generic AI advice pulled off the internet. Solomon’s business advice is drawn from the experience of real humans, who Solomon refers to as “Luminaries.” One of these luminaries is Chris Meaux.

Chris is the grandfather of Louisiana startups, the founder of the revolutionary food delivery app Waitr. At Waitr Chris came up with the technology that took food delivery beyond pizza and Chinese food to all restaurants, and paved the way for a generational change in dining in.

Today, Chris is Co-Founder of a company called QiMana. It’s the company that created Solomon.

Peter's other lunch guest, Chuck Perrett, had an architectural inspiration. Chuck is not an architect. He grew up in a family business that printed architectural blueprints. With the advent of the internet, architects started relying less on printed blueprints and instead started emailing contractors and sub-contractors.

Now, if you’ve ever tried to organize anything more complex than dinner for two by email, you know what a cluster that can turn into. So, imagine how unwieldy an email chain gets when you’re trying to communicate about construction and design issues with contractors and sub-contractors.

That’s why Chuck Perrett was inspired to create Centerline, a cloud-based data management for architects that pulls all of their project-related information out of their inbox and puts it into what’s called a Project Information Model.

Chuck launched Centerline in 2021, began taking clients in 2022, saw 350% growth in 2023, and today the company has architectural firm clients across the country.

There are only so many hours in a day. You can fill them doing any number of things. You can go to work, you can come home and relax, maybe go see a movie, watch TV, write poetry, play sports...  Or you could invent an online business consultancy Or reinvent architectural communication.

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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