- Arielle Stevenson
- Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn with the Florida StartupBus crew before their departure Tuesday.
A motley crew of 20 hackers, hustlers and hipsters boarded a bus this morning from Tampa, headed for SXSW Interactive in Austin, Texas, where they'll have 72 hours to think up, plan out and launch a business startup. It's all part of StartupBus, an international initiative launched in 2010 by Australian Elias Bizannes that brings together great minds from design, business and technology to create one irresistible pitch.
In Austin, the Tampa "buspreneurs" will pitch their idea against other nine StartupBus projects from the U.S. and Mexico in a quest for startup money.
"Simply put, it's an entrepreneurial competition," designer Ben Child said.
This article appears in Mar 1-7, 2012.