More than 9 in 10 respondents plan to remain in Louisiana, while two-thirds expect to grow their workforce, as LA.IO and Tulane establish a new statewide benchmark for startup growth
BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana Innovation (LA.IO), a division of Louisiana Economic Development (LED), and the Albert Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Tulane University's A. B. Freeman School of Business today launched the 2026 Louisiana Startup Report, the first statewide assessment of Louisiana's startup and early-stage business ecosystem.
The report builds on seven years of research by the Lepage Center, which launched the study in 2019 to measure early-stage business activity in Greater New Orleans. Through a new collaboration with LA.IO, the initiative has expanded statewide to provide entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers and economic development leaders with a more complete picture of startup activity, capital access, workforce trends and emerging technology adoption across Louisiana.
"Louisiana's entrepreneurs and innovators are creating jobs, bringing new ideas to market and strengthening communities across our state. To support their success, we need a clear understanding of where our startup ecosystem stands today and where greater opportunity remains. This first statewide Louisiana Startup Report gives us that foundation and a consistent baseline to measure our progress and focus resources where they can make the greatest difference."
Susan B. Bourgeois, LED Secretary
LA.IO and the Lepage Center worked with a network of 60 community partners across Louisiana to expand the report's reach. The 2026 survey received 161 responses, with 143 validated responses representing businesses across 27 parishes. The inaugural statewide edition establishes a "Year Zero" baseline that future reports can use to track changes in company growth, capital access, employment, technology adoption and other indicators over time.
"For years, Louisiana has had strong startup communities doing important work in different parts of the state, but we haven't had a single source of data that allows us to see the full picture. Taking this report statewide gives us a common baseline to understand what's working, where the gaps are and how we can make smarter decisions about where to invest."
Josh Fleig, LED Chief Innovation Officer
The report points to optimism among Louisiana entrepreneurs, with 92% of respondents saying they would probably or definitely remain in Louisiana and 66.4% expecting to increase their headcount over the next 12 months. It also identifies challenges to growth, with access to capital emerging as the most frequently cited barrier, alongside workforce challenges and the need for stronger ecosystem support and strategic partnerships.
Technology is another major theme of the report. Nearly two-thirds of respondents identified intelligent and machine-learning technologies as those they expect to have the greatest long-term impact on their industry, while 75.9% reported that super intelligence is already having a favorable impact on productivity.
“The Lepage Center and our regional partners have measured early-stage business activity in Greater New Orleans every year since 2019. We have learned so much, especially from the impacts of COVID, Hurricane Ida, and increasingly powerful technologies. But one of the most important lessons is actually very simple: you can't improve what you didn't count. I am grateful for our new partners at LA.IO who share the vision of a better future, where every Louisiana entrepreneur gets counted, and then every Louisiana entrepreneur gets the support they need. We are seven years into this project, but we’re truly just getting started. We invite entrepreneur support organizations from all 64 parishes to join us, so that founders, investors, and policymakers across our state will have the information they need to make the smartest possible decisions.”
Rob Lalka, Albert Lepage Center Professor of Practice and Executive Director
The report also introduces an interactive digital platform that allows users to query the survey data using super intelligence, explore findings by region or industry, generate downloadable charts and access anonymized underlying data.
While this year's respondents represent 27 parishes, LA.IO and the Lepage Center will continue working with partners across Louisiana to broaden participation in future editions and strengthen the report as a statewide source of market intelligence for entrepreneurs, investors and policymakers.
The 2026 Louisiana Startup Report and interactive data platform are available at louisianastartup.report.