Albert Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Do you dream of building your own business? Are you an inspiring inventor who wants to bring your ideas to market to solve real world problems? Whatever your business goals are, the Albert Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation can help you achieve them and kickstart your career as a leader and innovator.
As part of the Freeman School of Business, we bring together scholars, inventors, investors and students through both campus and community programs to collaborate and push the worlds of business and technology further into the future.
Student Venture Incubator
The Lepage Center Student Venture Incubator provides a space for students interested in entrepreneurship to start their own venture.
Innovators-in-Residence
Mentorship is a key part of entrepreneurship and innovation. That’s why we offer the Innovators-in-Residence program, which brings together students from the School of Business and an accomplished group of executives and investors.
Networking Events
Throughout each year, we hold many student programs and events to connect you with professionals in entrepreneurship and business. From career fairs to internships, you’ll have many chances to explore career paths throughout the worlds of entrepreneurship and innovation.
Entrepreneurship and Innovation Curriculum
As a student in the Freeman School of Business, you’ll benefit from exceptional entrepreneurship education and immersive student programs dedicated to venture development. Students in the School of Business and throughout the university can earn a minor in Entrepreneurial Business, which includes hands-on learning and a focus on real-world applications within entrepreneurship and innovation to prepare you for a rewarding career in business and beyond.
Another one of our signature student programs is the two-semester Student Venture Accelerator course, which lets students take an entrepreneurial idea from inception to launch. With the close guidance of our expert faculty and mentors, you’ll gain first-hand experience in entrepreneurship and innovation by assessing opportunities, developing a business model, planning the venture and implementing go-to-market strategies.
Through our experiential student and community programs, you’ll graduate from the Freeman School of Business with the expertise and confidence to excel in your chosen career.
At the core of our innovation and entrepreneurship student programs are the guiding principles of Albert Lepage — whose generous gift made the Lepage Center possible:
“There is a real need for research in the best practices of entrepreneurship and growing a business. But it is also important to bring that expertise back into the wider community — both the under-served and well-served — to help entrepreneurs and innovators in New Orleans and the Gulf South achieve their goals and thrive.” - Albert Lepage
Extracurricular Activities in the Albert Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
You’ll have plenty of opportunities for practical learning outside your classes in the Freeman School of Business student programs focused on making you an inspiring business leader.
Pitch Friday Series
A major skill that can help you bring your idea to market is the ability to pitch your idea to other professionals. Our Pitch Friday Series lets you gain experience pitching your venture and receiving valuable feedback. Plus, you can earn money for your startup!
Ignite Residential Learning Community
The Freeman School of Business offers the Ignite Residential Learning Community student program for first-year students. You will learn to build an entrepreneurial mindset through hands-on learning and coursework. This student program will give you behind-the-scenes access to community programs within New Orleans’ entrepreneurial and start-up ecosystem.
Tulane Business Model Competition
The Tulane Business Model Competition is one of the premier student venture competitions in the country and offers among the largest cash prizes of $125,000 spread across the top 3 finalist entrepreneurship ventures.
Community Programs Through Entrepreneurship and Innovation
The Freeman School of Business and the Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation extends our entrepreneurial mission into the greater New Orleans regions. Through community programs, we bring together innovators like you with the individuals who can benefit from your ideas.
We maintain expansive networks that let us make connections between local professionals in entrepreneurship and innovation with experienced advisors who can consult on launching, operating and expanding ventures.
The Lepage Center also produces the Greater New Orleans Startup Report — which gives a comprehensive benchmark of the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem. Our community programs support an equitable and thriving entrepreneurship and innovation economy in New Orleans and the surrounding region.
