We're all familiar with 24-hour hackathons, but the latest iteration in the District comes with a twist: a 72-hour bus ride that ends in pitching a startup.
StartupBus, which can best be described as a hackathon, bootcamp and road trip hybrid, is kicking off its 10th year with six buses across North America, including one from D.C.
The six buses (from Florida, New York, California, northeast Ohio, D.C. and an “advancing black entrepreneurs” bus departing from Harlem) will drive across the nation and arrive in New Orleans. That’s where entrepreneurs will pitch their startup ideas they spent 72 hours creating with other strangers-turned-teammates on their bus.
The D.C. bus has filled eight spots and is still accepting participants up to its 20-person cap, so click here to apply.
“It puts the entrepreneur in a situation they’re not used to,” said Nick Price, an organizer for StartupBus and former participant. “With Startup Weekend or something along those lines, you’re in a hackathon but you’re in a place where if something is going on with your team and you need to get away from them you have the ability to leave. Versus on the bus you can’t. So it prompts people to find solutions to the problem, whether that’s technical or interpersonal because you have no choice.”
In D.C.'s case, the bus leaves on the morning of July 24 and takes a short detour in the Southeast – including Richmond, Raleigh, Nashville and Memphis before landing in the Big Easy. The StartupBus leaving from New York is also stopping in the District for a pitch event at MakeOffices at noon on Wednesday.
While the winner does not receive anything beyond bragging rights, the ideas will be pitched in front of investors and venture capitalists, which could lead to even more than what a cash prize could offer.
“We do put together a crowd of angel investors, venture capitalists,” Price said. “So the goal is you get on stage, you win the competition — even if you don’t win, there will be people in that state of mind and that’s the goal, to get in front of people.”
Several successful startups have come to fruition after the competition has ended, including Instacart, Major League Hacking and Mark Cuban-backed Node.
“It benefits the entrepreneur out of this competition,” Price said. “You have people just getting into tech and learning to be their own boss, and then they’re tested with a Navy SEAL boot camp. Then they come back to the local community to start a new business, whether it’s related to the bus or not. It shows, to go from zero to something and be impactful in the community.”
Inno writer Lauren Coffey contributed to this story.
