Storify story is at storify.com/azat_co/startupbus-and-sxsw.
When my co-worker heard about StartupBus for the first time he thought that it was a joke. How crazy is to put yourself on a bus with strangers and try to hack together functional prototype without reliable Internet, time, outside help. But StartupBus is not a joke! Although it might have started as one in 2010. The main reason is to present something good and valuable to other people at SxSW in Ausitn, TX. You would be surprised how much can be accomplished in a close quarters riding a bus at 60mph. Here are the finalists
Last year I was offered to join the New Orleans Startupbus team, but I decided not to go because Gizmo was about to finish 500 Startup accelerator program and it required my presence in Mountain View, CA. This year I’m going with a West Coast team and we’re departing tomorrow morning, March 3rd, from Fillmore in San Francisco, CA. There are three other buses going from NYC, NY, Mexico City, Mexico, Chicago, IL and Tampa, FL. We’ll have only 72 hours to form teams, take our idea to prototypes, test them on real customers and market the product. We got supplies from sponsors (24eat, Kind, VitaminWater, etc.) and media coverage from Venturebeat — Epic hack trip: Be one of 50 to join me on the Startup Bus.
Cerealize startup whose team was on SF bus won last year’s competition. So pressure is on our West Coast bus to defend the title. :-) The other 2012 finalists and StartupBus TV.
Here is our very intense schedule:
- Sunday, 3/3: SF -> San Diego
We will be leaving SF on Sunday 3/3, stay in San Diego for the night. - Monday, 3/4: San Diego -> New Mexico
On Monday 3/4 we will drive through Arizona to New Mexico where we will spend the night. - Tuesday, 3/5: New Mexico -> San Antonio
On Tuesday 3/5 we will end up in San Antonio for the night. - Wednesday, 3/6: San Antonio Semifinals
Semifinals will be Wed 3/6 in San Antonio where we will spend the night. - Thursday, 3/7: San Antonio -> Austin
On Thursday, 3/7 everyone will be shuttled to Austin where semi-finalists will have time to prepare for Grand Finals. - Friday, 3/8: Austin Grand Finals
Grand Finals will be in Austin on Friday 3/8.
I’ll try to blog once a day about major events, help team with technical implementation and engineering. For live coverage, I also created Storify story — storify.com/azat_co/startupbus-and-sxsw, and will be adding the most interesting tweets, Instagram photos and vine videos.
