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PAVE program helps Louisiana veterans start their own businesses
NEW ORLEANS — On this Veterans Day, we certainly salute our military men and women. Many of them are returning from military service and starting new businesses in Louisiana.
Aaron Dirks is a West Point graduate and former cavalry officer. He now runs a wide portfolio of New Orleans businesses involving renewable energy, hospitality and logistics.
Lessons From New Orleans: Creating A Sustainable Business Culture
Over the recent years, New Orleans has been lauded for its growing entrepreneurial “ecosystem.” Several national articles, mine included, praised the city’s unique culture and success, even before local media caught on. The city was glorified as “America’s coolest startup city” and “the best city for young entrepreneurs.
As local health care workers run out of medical supplies, local businesses shift production to help.
The coronavirus outbreak has depleted the supply of personal protective equipment for health care workers now treating very sick patients. Some New Orleans area businesses are now meeting the challenge to gear up “wartime” like production to help hospitals and families fill the COVID-19 void.
Who’s that riding in the back of that limo?
Rolling around New Orleans in a limousine for Limousine Livery. The business has been around for nearly three decades. That’s until the pandemic put the brakes on the fleet of fancy cars and furloughed more than 100 workers. WGNO’s Bill Wood wonders. With no movie stars, music legends or business big wigs ready to ride during the coronavirus, there’s a new question.
New Orleans taxi and limo companies launch their own pickup apps
Local entrepreneur Aaron Dirks, whose wife bought Limousine Livery in 2006, recently launched Livery Car, open to all licensed limo drivers in New Orleans. Dirks said he has invested "hundreds of thousands of dollars" in cash and hours over the last two years developing the technology, which he plans to expand to other cities.
Take a virtual tour of New Orleans
NEW ORLEANS(WGNO) -- Behold! The future of New Orleans tourism: Joieful, an app for your PC/ smartphone that acts as your personal concierge.
"What Joieful does is it goes out and finds the best of experiences available in a destination, through a lot of different mechanisms rating systems, reviews, interviews, personal testimony," remarked app founder, Aaron Dirks.
The app also helps people curate their unique experiences. Like other apps that allow you to read reviews, Joieful goes above and beyond and books the tickets and makes the reservation. Also, someone is always available to answer your questions. "This is a Yelp on steroids," said Dirks.
Renewable energy doesn’t have to be a luxury purchase. Here’s how one company makes it a cost-saver for the working class.
Take PosiGen, a 4-year-old company based in New Orleans that pairs energy-efficiency upgrades with solar-panel leases—all for no money down and monthly payments of $50 or $60. PosiGen doesn’t target yuppies in Boulder, Colorado. A survey covering one-third of its 6,000-odd customers found that “our average customer is a 56-65-year-old African-American female, who spends at least four hours a week at church,” said Aaron Dirks, the intense 40-year-old West Point grad who founded the company. Three-quarters of its installations have been in census tracts where the area median income is below 120 percent of the national median. Call it blue-collar green.
New Orleans solar company attracts $40 million in financing, plans national expansion
NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
Five years ago, entrepreneur Aaron Dirks was looking into installing solar panels on a Lower Garden District home he and his wife were renovating. He encountered a process that was both costly and complex.
Dirks, a self-described "tree-hugging Republican," had the time, money and interest to jump through the hoops. But he quickly realized many of the people who could benefit most from energy savings did not.
"The people and families that need it the most don't have time to fill out paperwork," Dirks said.