Don t let anyone tell you south Louisiana s only about food and football. Startups in bio tech, high tech, and industry abound between Baton Rouge, New Orleans and the North Shore. And they re focused on some really cutting edge things. Will they succeed What are the hurdles they re encountering as they try to launch John Dowdle has answers. John is the coowner and founder, with his wife, Annette, of Insight GX. It s a start up that is planning to do genetic testing for large companies in order to help those organizations and their employees become healthier and more aware of their genetic makeup. The idea is to sell the service to employers, instead of providers, and help them find out things like what sorts of medicines their employees shouldn t take, and whether they re genetically predisposed to certain diseases. John has spent the past 25 years in the medical biotech industry. Annette was in employee benefits. Recently, they went out on their own. Rex Industrial is a Baton Rouge start up company that has developed a software system which dramatically reduces the price and lead time of the everyday structures required by companies. The software enables clients to customize the structure they need a platform to reach a pipeline, for instance and then a finished, engineered structure is delivered to them. Allan Martin is the founder of Rex Industrial. Both Rex Industrial and Insight GX are gettting ready to launch. When you hear what s at stake, you ll be surprised how stress free these guys sound. Photos at Mansurs on the Boulevard by Ken Stewart.

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