If you live in Lafayette, or you spend any time in Lafayette, you’ve almost certainly been to the Saturday morning Farmer’s Market. There are a few staples there – people and products you know are going to be there every week. Among them is Abby Perkins. I can almost guarantee you’re thinking, “Abby Perkins…. No, don’t know who that is.” Well, how about if I said, “The Popcorn Girl.”

The Popcorn Girl at the Lafayette Farmer’s Market is the owner of Cajun Cane Kettle Corn, Abby Perkins. Abby sells 50 pounds of popcorn every week. Along with it, she goes through 50 pounds of lemons, making fresh squeezed lemonade.

Because this is Acadiana, nobody is surprised to find out people have another string to their bow. When she’s not the Popcorn Girl, Abby is an integral part of the team that’s building Waitr.

Waitr is currently the most visible success story in Acadiana technology. But there are a number of other companies that form the backbone of the robust tech world that Waitr has grown out of. One of those companies is Accolades IT.

If you have a business today, even if you’re not in e-commerce directly, your online presence is more than just window dressing. It’s the way almost every person who is in any way connected to your business interacts with you. It’s widely reported that well over 80% of real-world business interactions begin with a web search. And the number is probably higher than that.

The way customers, or potential customers, interact with you on their phone and tablet demands a radically different approach to your web presence than it did, even in 2007 when Accolades IT was launched.

The self-described Head Honcho over at Accolades IT is Scott Huber.

Back in the old days, when sitting in front of a screen meant going to the movies, one of the comforting real-world connections that we held onto while our minds were led into a scary or wondrous world beyond, was popcorn. Today, Abby’s popcorn is a different kind of comfort food, and Scott’s adventures into the screen beyond our real world are scarier and more wondrous than any movie could have imagined.

Photos over lunch at Cafe Vermilionville by Lucius Fontenot.