Through digital media, events, data and more, American Inno is building the largest network of local innovation, cultivating engaged startup, tech and entrepreneurial communities in 12 (and counting) markets across the country. In a new bi-weekly series, Inno’s writers will collectively select an industry or theme and highlight a local startup operating in the space.
Years ago, South By Southwest was largely known as a music conference where A&R agents would scout up-and-coming bands. Artists including John Mayer, Amy Winehouse and Skrillex all caught major waves after preforming at the week-long festival in Austin, Texas.
But tech has been playing a bigger role at the festival every year. Now, SXSW Interactive is arguably as big of a deal as the music or film portions. Among startups that can trace some of their popularity to SXSW are Twitter, Foursquare, Gowalla and Meerkat. But those only represent a fraction of the startups and larger tech companies that have taken big risks and reaped significant rewards for pitching, networking and hustling at SXSW.
This year's festival, which runs March 8-17, will likely help catapult another batch of fast-moving companies. And we'll be there, too. American Inno National Director of Product and Strategy Will Flanagan and Senior Editor Brent Wistrom will be at SXSW to take a deep dive into how American Inno scaled itself from a single startup news site in Boston to a growing network of 12 cities. We hope to see you there.
Now, let's hear from American Inno writers across those 12 U.S. markets to see what startups and organizations in each metro have in store for SXSW this year.
MADISON // ATLANTA INNO
Representation from the A will be based at The Atlanta House presented by ChooseATL. The Atlanta House will feature a full day of programming to highlight industry leaders across business, digital entertainment, music and film to help ChooseATL showcase the best of the best while telling the region’s story on a global stage.
BRENT // AUSTIN INNO
For Austin, this is a hometown love (and hate) affair. For many, the week-long tech marathon starts with breakfast tacos (perhaps with Austin-based Bumble), a panel session or two (such as the welcome message with Hugh Forrest, the Austin CEO Diaries and the Women in Tech Awards) and the SXSW Startup Crawl. The crawl invites folks to take shuttle busses (or walk or scooter) to a variety of stops at local tech startups, accelerators and big tech company offices. At each stop, you're likely to find drinks, bites, games and music. Although the crowd is filled with Austinites, it is also heavily-attended by folks from out of town who want a glimpse inside Austin's startup scene.
This year's event also brings a variety of new hot spots, including the SXW Defense Innovation Lounge, which gives folks a glimpse at Austin's newly emerging military tech ecosystem, anchored by Army Futures Command, DIU and AFWERX.
And, of course, you'll find dozens of Austin startups represented in official conference panel discussions, at SXSW Pitch and hosting private parties and conducting guerrilla marketing and endless networking throughout the festival. Among the Austin startups pitching this year are: Tankee, LinkVR Robot, Eggschain, Molecula and Osano.
LUCY AND SRI // BOSTINNO
This year, the only Massachusetts student startup that made it to final rounds of Student Startup Madness – the nationwide tournament-style competition for student-led digital media startups, culminating with finals at SXSW– is from Boston-based Tufts University. Its name? Worksense, a messaging monitoring software that helps organizations understand how their employees are feeling at the workplace. With the rest of the “Entrepreneurial Eight,” as the teams that have been chosen for the National Championship finals are called, the Boston startup will pitch to a judging panel on March 11 in the downtown Hilton Austin. If you get to Austin early, check out this panel on “Academia and the Rise of Commercial Robotics” on March 8. Among the speakers, there’s Sam Anthony, CTO and co-founder of Perceptive Automata, a Boston-based startup that is teaching self-driving cars to think like humans.
jim // CHICAGO INNO
Chicago startup Mesh++ is an alternative in the SXSW Pitch competition.The startup develops solar-powered routers that bring Wi-Fi to outdoor areas like parks and music festivals. Its device provides high-speed connectivity without needing any cables or power sources. Founded by University of Illinois grad Danny Gardner, the startup won multiple awards at U of I and participated in the HAX Accelerator, the world's first and largest hardware accelerator in Shenzhen, China.
COURTNEY // CINCY INNO
Putting Women in Their Place, a Cincy-based organization with a national scope (and a 2018 Cincy 50 on Fire award), is barely a year old and has already produced and delivered 75 low-cost videos that look to “right the imbalance of power in government by supporting and promoting women running for office at the state and local level nationwide.” Now, it’s coming to SXSW on the media track for a discussion titled, “Building a Media Network for Progressive Politics.” The talk boasts a live demo of the entity’s work – and an opportunity for attendees to area candidates to make a social media campaign video.
NICK // COLORADO INNO
Colorado will be well represented at SXSW this year, with four startups taking part in the eleventh-annual SXSW Pitch competition. Golden’s Bext360 qualified in SXSW’s blockchain category, Denver’s Geospiza was named a finalist in the enterprise and smart data category, Triad Health AI qualified in health and wearables technology and Uru Sports is an alternate in the sports category. Finalists will pitch to a live audience and a panel of judges across the two days, before a winner is chosen Sunday night.
KIERAN // DC INNO
Local meal marketplace startup TwentyTables was upgraded from an alternate to a finalist for the SXSW pitch competition, landing a spot as one of 50 startups that will take the big stage and pitch in front of the Hyper Connected Communities panel. The company, a recent DC Inno 50 on Fire winner, is the only startup from the D.C. area in this year's competition and the first from the DMV in three years. It’s no stranger to the stage: TwentyTables, whose app makes $6 lunches available throughout the metro area, won the most recent DC Startup Week pitch competition.
MADDY // MINNE INNO
Two Minnesota companies made the cut for this year's Interactive Innovation Awards, a SXSW event recognizing "forward-thinking advancements from the digital space." Minneapolis-based Branch was recognized in the New Economy category and Eden Prairie-based Starkey Hearing Technologies in AI & Machine Learning.
COURTNEY // RHODE ISLAND INNO
An engineer and shipbuilder, Tom Derecktor’s newest work, The Fehn (a 2019 Rhody Inno 50 on Fire award winner), is a unique desk chair that allows users to move and adjust continuously throughout the day. It’s the result of two years of development - and this year, it will be at SXSW’s Trade Show (booth 160). Make sure to swing by and tell the crew that Rhody Inno sent you!
KIERAN // RICHMOND INNO
Richard Wintsch, executive director of incubator and coworking space Startup Virginia, began his U.S. career in private banking for JP Morgan before making his move to Richmond, where he spent 14 years at ChamberRVA. Now, at Startup Virginia, he’s focused on maintaining the nonprofit’s quick growth and advocating for the Richmond entrepreneurial community. At SXSW, Winstch will speak in the session Making an Entrepreneur: The Ecosystem of Innovation about how local communities support creativity and entrepreneurship, and he’ll likely rep Startup VA at Friday’s Startup Crawl and the Inc. Founders House.
LAUREN // TAMPA BAY INNO
The co-founders behind Verapy plan to make the most of their 60 seconds on the famed SXSW pitch stage. The company that makes physical therapy fun through wearable virtual reality technology was chosen as an alternate for the SXSW pitch competition, meaning they get one minute to pitch their company to the thousands of attendees. Co-founders Jonathan Truong and Tad Svendrys said they’ve set up meetings with potential investors and partners before and after the actual pitch.
“That’s the idea, is we’re going to set up meetings and conversations prior,” Svendrys said. “The pitch will be more of a highlight versus the conversation will be more in depth with investors and other companies.”
JIM // WISCONSIN INNO
Milwaukee startup SteamChain is one of 50 finalists in the SXSW Pitch competition. Competing in the blockchain category, the startup offers cloud-based machine data for manufacturing and industrial companies. Using blockchain technology, SteamChain allows manufacturing companies to create smart contracts for things like financial agreements and warranties. Last year it raised $2.7 million in a round of funding from Northwestern Mutual’s Cream City Venture Capital and Capital Midwest Fund. It was also a member of gener8tor’s fall 2017 cohort.
