Stunning Business - Out to Lunch - It's Baton Rouge

We know south Louisiana has a healthy number of budding
entrepreneurs. We ve met many of them on this show over the past
year. But one thing we hear over and over again is that south
Louisiana doesn t have a very well developed entrepreneurial
ecosystem. It s starting to change, but is it happening fast enough
Arthur Cooper is on the frontlines of building that entrepreneurial
ecosystem. He is the president and CEO of the LSU Research and
Technology Foundation. The Foundation serves a vital purpose in the
world of technology transfer by helping researchers at all the LSU
campuses bring their inventions and discoveries to market more
quickly by taking care of a lot of the paperwork and back office
functions that are necessary when you file a patent and have a
licensing agreement. It s the kind of stuff researchers aren t
necessarily good at, but Arthur is. Chris Zavala is an example of a
local entrepreneur who has successfully navigated the waters of
bringing a great idea to market and now has a patent on his
product, YellowJacket. YellowJacket is cell phone case that is also
an 8million volt stun gun. It s a sensational idea and ther world
beyond Baton Rouge agrees. It s just hit the market, is already for
sale on WalMart.com, and is poised to be a Christmas stocking
stuffer. As we learn on this show, people may not naturally think
of Baton Rouge when looking for new tech, but that s about to
change. Photos at Mansurs on the Boulevard by Ken Stewart.

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