It’s New Orleans: Out to Lunch

Hosted ByPeter Ricchiuti

Tulane University A.B. Freeman School of Business finance professor Peter Ricchiuti holds court over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. Peter's lunch guests are New Orleans business people, from startups to CEO's, from artists to tech entrepreneurs, musicians to movers-and-shakers. New Orleans is on everybody's list as a great place to party but it's also on many lists of the best place to start a business. Peter's deeply knowledgable and equally levity-laden approach to business conversation neatly makese sense of the Crescent City's contradictions.

inNOvations – Out to Lunch – It’s New Orleans

As you know, statistics can be twisted to mean anything we want. How about this computation? If every one of the 9 million tourists who visit New Orleans was to visit one of the 400,000 locals, you’d only have 23 visitors a year. You’ve probably had more folks than that over to watch a Saints game, right?

So. How would you like to entertain tourists – and get paid for it? That’s the principle behind Patricia Maher’s new business – an app called Fuhwe.

patricia maher

Patricia explains to Peter what the name of the app means and what it all means for locals and “explorers” as Fuhwe-ans are called, on this edition of Out to Lunch.

lowry curley

Dr. Lowry Curley has a revolutionary idea too – though Peter can’t explain the math on this one. Lowry’s company, Axo Sim, is creating human life. On a silicon chip. Yes, you read that correctly. The company’s slogan is “Nerve on a chip” and it’s not just a crazy idea – they are actually doing it.

peter ricchiuti, lowry curley, patricia maher

Two New Orleans revolutionaries, Patricia Maher and Lowry Curley, join Peter Ricchiuti for a fascinating look at a New Orleans that seems to be changing faster and more radically than ever.

Photos at Commander’s Palace by Alison Moon.

Realtor Tracey Moore