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Baton Rouge Businesses Grow Web Presence

Ken Stewart

You may know about Baton Rouge’s growing tech industry, but you may not be aware one of the pioneers of internet retailing is right here in the capital region. Shopperschoice.com was founded in 1998, growing from a mom-and-pop barbeque equipment store to one of the top 300 online retailers in the U.S.  It’s also one of the 100 fastest-growing companies on and off line, with annual revenues heading for $75-million. CEO Corey Tisdale joins Stephanie Riegel this week.

Back in the early 2000's, when shopperschoice.com was rolling out its first website, Frank Ardoin was a successful guy in the mortgage business who went on what proved to be an inspirational beach vacation. He came home and spent three years thrashing the kinks out of the idea, which turned into Homebuyerdiscounts.com.  It's membership-based, providing exclusive discounts on a variety of home improvement products and services from local merchants. The company is quickly finding its feet in Baton Rouge and Frank is eyeing markets further afield.

Stephanie's Baton Rouge Entrepreneur du jour is Clint Conroy, a recent graduate of LSU.  Clint’s startup, United Aerials, is in the drone business. UA sends unmanned vehicles over construction sites and farms with sophisticated sensing devices to report back and process their found data. 

Editor at Baton Rouge Business Report.