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The StartupBus left Tampa Bay on Sunday, March 3 full of Florida-based buspreneurs (see what they did there? Bus + entrepreneurs = buspreneurs.)
Created by Elias Bizannes, the StartupBus is a community invested in startups. The group is best known for an annual competition that shuttles ambitious hackers (computer coders), hustlers (marketers) and hipsters (designers) to the SxSW technology conference via bus.
This year, buses departed from Chicago, San Francisco, Mexico City and Tampa. Two buses came out of New York, one full of competitors and the other alumni.
The participants work in teams for three days to launch “fully functional, publicly available products” in time for the conference in Austin, according to the website.
There isn't necessarily a prize for the winners; the competition revolves around getting an idea in front of venture capitalists to earn funding.
After three days on the road the buspreneurs will reach San Antonio on Tuesday, March 5. The next day teams will continue working and will interview with the judges for five minutes. Based on that interview semi-finalists are selected. On Thursday, the winner and runner up will be chosen and will appear in the final on Friday, March 8, in Austin. Two teams from the alumni (or Masters) bus will also present on Friday along with two "wild cards" that earn spots from winning online points (from generating an online presence and so on.)
While the StartupBus isn't affiliated with the SxSW conference, once in Austin the buspreneurs will continue to work on getting their products noticed and many will stay through the conference.
Here's the 2012 Florida wrap up where one of the teams out of Tampa actually won second place.
Check out Lindsey Nickel-de la O's blog for the Business Observer about her trip on the StartupBus (she was sponsored by the Economic Development Investment Fund of Sarasota.)
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