LA New Product Development Team Recognized as a Finalist for the 2020 Louisiana Growth Leader Award

Shreveport, LA, September 17, 2020 – Today, LA New Product Development Team (LA NPDT) was announced and recognized by Louisiana Economic Development Growth Network (LGN) as a Finalist of the inaugural Louisiana Growth Leaders Class of 2020. The product development company was chosen from 58 growth businesses from all across Louisiana. This year, due to the coronavirus situation, the Spotlight Louisiana award event was held online.

LED Growth Network launched in 2017 assists in accelerating the growth of Louisiana second-stage companies. These are the growing companies that have already gone beyond startup and early stages of business.

“Small businesses are the backbone of Louisiana’s economy, and my administration has worked hard to increase support for small businesses, to help them grow and thrive,” says the Governor John Bel Edwards, “Since 2016, we have enhanced, established and relaunched several important programs to benefit our small business community.

The LED Growth Network seeks to nurture local Louisiana companies by continuing to provide resources needed to accelerate growth, import new wealth into our state, and ultimately add new jobs.”

The Growth Leader award signifies that the recognized company and its leaders have made and keep making outstanding and important contributions that positively impact both their local community and the state of Louisiana.

The panel of economic development experts that consists of 17 members evaluates applicant companies on the Growth, Strategy, Innovation, Leadership/Culture, Intangibles and Philanthropy categories.

As a product development company, LA NPDT provides a la cart and end-to-end product development services. By assisting individual inventors and entrepreneurs to develop their products and bring them to market, the team helps to facilitate growth in the small business sector of the local community and the Louisiana state as a whole.

The team also invents and develops its own services and products that are aimed at solving a variety of consumers’ problems and needs in different industries, including healthcare.

For instance, the company developed and donated face shield masks to the health care facilities and first responders in Shreveport, Louisiana in their effort to contribute to the community in the fight with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Moreover, LA NPDT used that crisis time to develop Realizr, a free online business management platform that allows companies to manage their business effectively from one place. The platform cuts down expenses that businesses face when using many different fee-based software services. By developing this tool, LA NPDT not only gave hand to businesses in need, but kept their staff employed as well.

One of the many other ways of contributing to the development and growth of the Louisiana entrepreneurial community is LA NPDT’s Tech to Market event that the team hosts annually.

“Tech to Market is designed to help those who choose to contribute to the movement and further expedite the growth of local startup ecosystems,” explains Onega Ulanova, a co-founder of LA NPDT, “A business event like this provides an opportunity for local breakthrough ideas to be seen and brought to the global markets.

The event combines the best of an educational conference, a business trade show, and a networking event to offer startups access to resources essential for success.”