One of the first rules in business is to come up with something that solves a problem your target market didn’t know it had. It sounds so simple, right? But how do you know what those problems are? And, where do those ideas come from in the first place?.

Well, in Baton Rouge, one place to look is LSU’s Innovation Park and a company called Iventherm. Inventherm’s latest innovation is a new startup company called Cremmjoy.

Jason Hugenroth, having conquered space exploration he’s moving on to revolutionizing soft serve ice cream

Jason Hugenroth is President of Inventherm and Cremmjoy. You may recall Jason’s earlier appearance on Out to Lunch when Jason told us about products Inventherm had made for space exploration. Products that found their way into NASA’s equipment. At that time Inventherm was the owner of 50 patents. Now they have 60. And their new business, Cremmjoy, is a million miles way from their previous aerospace, automotive and medical devices.

Cremmjoy revolutionizes soft serve ice cream and frozen drinks like daiquiris. The revolution is in the technology that drives the way products are made and dispensed. It basically eliminates the time-consuming and expensive process of disassembling, cleaning, and sanitizing the equipment.

Jason has been designing things for decades. He is an engineer, with a PhD in the field and a very cool lab at LSU’s Innovation Park.

Claire Aillet is revolutionizing online shopping, local retail and fast delivery with her app Shop The Area

You may not have known soft serve ice cream needed revolutionizing. And you may think the same about retail shopping. Claire Aillet has other ideas. Claire is the creator of Shop The Area, an app that allows customers to shop at local boutiques and retail shops and get same-day delivery within 10 miles of their location.

The app brings together the convenience of online shopping while at the same time supporting local shop and boutique owners, who have been hammered by  competition from online retailers.

Claire is a hair stylist by day, who began working on the app in 2018 and launched it in early 2020. Since then it’s started to take off in Baton Rouge with a bunch of local retailers jumping on board and users beginning to discover the combined hybrid power of local retail, online shopping, and speedy delivery.

Stephanie Riegel, Out to Lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard

Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. Photos by Erik Otts.