You don’t have to be the host of a business show to hear good ideas for making money. I bet you’ve heard a few. Maybe you’ve even had a few.

Getting your business idea to actually happen though, well, that’s not always so easy. Sometimes it’s a matter of having enough cash to kick off with. And somebody who knows something about business to help.

That’s where New Orleans micro-loan business accelerator, Fund 17 comes in.

Haley Burns, the founder of Fund 17, joins Peter Ricchiuti for lunch. And briings along  a couple of folks with her: Khulu Kevin Buckner and Journey Allen.

Khulu Kevin Buckner started a business called Sangoma House. Sangoma House is a healing clinic and lifestyle consultancy based on Kevin’s study of herbs and healing in New York, and working with tribes in Zimbabwe.  

Journey Allen is an artist, and the owner of the Journey Allen Gallery Studio on Broad Street. The gallery is more than just bare walls to hang paintings on, Journey runs it as a creative community center and has plans for expansion as a venue for poetry, jazz, gospel, and more.

Kevin’s and Journey’s businesses have both been funded in part by Fund 17.

This is a great story about the Nobel prize winning concept of micro-loans, pioneered in Bangladesh, at work here in New Orleans.

Photos over lunch in the wine room at Commander’s Palace by Alison Moon.