Some 70 entrepreneurs and dozens of investors are in Shreveport's Red River District this weekend for the first qualifying round of the Louisiana Startup Prize.  

On the line is more than $50,000 in cash and startup assistance.  But Executive Director Gregory Kallenberg tells KEEL News there could be even more on the line than that because one or more of the entrepreneurs just might get hooked up with an investor willing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on that entrepreneur's startup business.

Kallenberg says his expectations for this first qualifying round have been blown completely out of the water. Entrepreneurs have come from throughout the Shreveport/Bossier area and from as far away as Ruston, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Dallas, and Houston.  And Kallenberg says the second qualifying round, July 18-20, is attracting entrepreneurs from as far away as Idaho, Tempe, AZ, and Toronto, Canada.

In the photo, entrepreneurs and investors mingle over breakfast in the old MacArthur's Chop Shop location in the Red River District.

For more information about the Louisiana Startup Prize, visit the website.

 

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