StartupBus
Year Date Destination Description Buses
StartupBus February 1 , 2010 SXSW Conference , Austin , Texas The first ever StartupBus . 25 strangers met on the way to Austin for the SXSW Conference . 6 startups were conceived from the time on the bus 1 Bus : San Francisco
StartupBus 2011 March 1 to March 4 , 2011 Austin , Texas The first official StartupBus competition was held with 160 people on-board six buses which traveled across the United States and eventually converging at its final destination in Austin . The 3 day bus ride , conceived a total of 38 startups in the span of time , of which seven of the startup caught the eye of the judges 5 Buses : Chicago , Cleveland , Miami , New York City and Silicon Valley
StartupBus Americas 2012 March 1 to March 4 , 2012 Austin , Texas This year , StartupBus departed from 11 regions with 12 buses before converging at its final destination in Austin . After 4 days , eight teams advanced to the finals , namely Bumper Crop , Curious City , Adventeur , Gourmair , Happstr , Scoringo , Spott and Cerealize 10 Buses : San Francisco , Boston , Cincinnati , Las Vegas , Los Angeles , Louisiana , Mexico , New York City , Stanford University and Washington , D.C
StartupBus Americas 2013 March 1 to March 4 , 2013 SXSW Conference , Austin , Texas StartupBus Americas 2013 once again headed to Austin , Texas for the SXSW Conference . There was also an addition of an alumni bus , inclusive of the 6 buses , which will compete against the winners . The alumni bus was the subject of a reality show web series published by Relativity Media for their Coin channel on YouTube 6 Buses : New York City , Mexico , Chicago , Tampa , San Francisco and the alumni bus
StartupBus North America 2014 March 2 to March 5 , 2014 Rackspace Castle , San Antonio , Texas There were 3 judging rounds this year , where the original 30 startups are narrowed down to 16 semi-finalists selected in Rackspace 's headquarters in Rackspace Castle before heading for the SXSW Conference 7 Buses : Mexico City , Kansas City , Tampa Bay , Nashville , New York City , Seattle and San Francisco
StartupBus North America 2015 June 4 to 8 , 2015 36/86 Conference , Nashville , Tennessee The founding team and directors of StartupBus decided that it was time to move the competition away from Austin , due to timing and value concerns , to Nashville , as the city had welcomed StartupBus with open arms 5 Buses : Florida , Mexico , Midwest , New York City , and San Francisco
StartupBus North America 2016 May 15 to 19 , 2016 Boulder Startup Week , Boulder , Colorado The North American competition of 2016 changed destination again . This time the buses rode to Boulder Startup Week . Each bus came with a theme , such as Food & Beverage , Emerging Markets , and IoT 7 Buses : Cleveland , Mexico City , New York City , San Francisco , St. Louis , Tampa , and Vancouver
StartupBus North America 2017 July 31 to August 4 , 2017 New Orleans , Louisiana The Akron bus was the MakerBus , where teams were required to build physical prototypes of their products on the road . Due to long distances , the San Francisco bus is flown to Cleveland to merge with the Akron bus , and is lovingly nicknamed the Saffron bus . The New York City bus was the subject of the StartupBus mini-series created by Eric Mennel , as part of the StartUp podcast produced by Gimlet Media 7 Buses : New York City , San Francisco , St. Louis , Mexico City , Tampa FL , New Orleans and Akron , Ohio
StartupBus North America 2018 April 27 to May 1 , 2018 New Orleans , Louisiana The buses headed to New Orleans in Spring , coinciding with New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festivals as well as Collision Conference . This year introduced the first buses from Detroit and Texas , as well as the diversity-focused Women+ TGNC in Blockchain bus . A new Diversity Fellowship Program was introduced to encourage applicants from under-represented demographics to become entrepreneurs 9 Buses : New York , Florida , Ohio , Detroit , St. Louis , Texas , Mexico , Silicon Valley , and Women+TGNC in Blockchain
StartupBus North America 2019 July 24-29 , 2019 New Orleans , Louisiana For the 10th annual competition in North America , the buses will head to New Orleans again in 2019 . A new Advancing Black Entrepreneurs bus was presented by JPMorgan Chase Advancing Black Pathways and Chase for Business , was designed for self-identifying Black tech talents with a custom route to travel to historically Black cities 8 Buses : New York , Florida , Ohio , Toronto , Mexico , Silicon Valley , Washington D.C. , and Advancing Black Entrepreneurs
Bus Routes -- North America
Eight StartupBus North America competitions had been held in North America annually since its debut in 2010 .
StartupBus is an annual technological startup competition and entrepreneurship boot camp, described as a Hackathon, created by Elias Bizannes in February 2010. The competition is held across a 3-day bus ride where contestants or buspreneurs compete to conceive the best technology startup. The competition seeks to attract young top talents to compete, to search for the most innovative startup conceived by the groups, where the winners are determined by a panel of judges. Starting from February 2011, it has gone through many iterations in various continents from 2011 to the present day, with the first in Austin, Texas and subsequently in North America, Europe and Africa. StartupBus receives an extensive online media coverage through platforms such as BBC News, CNN and technology blogs and news sites such as The Next Web, VentureBeat, WIRED and TechCrunch. Live coverage of the competition was also broadcast through StartupBus.TV via Livestream. StartupBus held its 9th annual North American competition in New Orleans, Louisiana on April 27, 2018.