Generally, the word entrepreneur doesn’t conjure up the image of buses, road trips and concerts. But Startupbus may cause you to rethink.
Startupbus is a grassroots project that began in San Francisco in 2010 and has grown tremendously in the past few years, according to their website. The project’s aim is to encourage and inspire entrepreneurial ideas, develop new technological models and have fun.
Each year since, buses from around the country have packed up and headed to Austin, Texas to present their budding ideas to a panel at South by Southwest’s technology conference.
Baton Rouge has joined the fun. The Louisiana bus, conducted by LSU alumnus Terry Jones, toured around the state for two days before departing from Baton Rouge with 5 other buses. The 6 buses headed to Austin and each team pitched their ideas.
According to Jones, 60 teams competed, and were whittled down to 8 finalist teams.
The Louisiana bus advanced to the finals with their project Scoringo. Team leader Stuart Adams described the idea as a live sports gaming platform that would allow fans to interact with the game while they watch it. It’s essentially an interactive board game that allows users to compete against the game and against friends, Adams said.
Scoringo would be available for all sports and potentially all media. While Scoringo was not the overall victor, the project is moving forward. Adams said ESPN has shown interest, and they are scheduled to meet later this week.
Taylor Schoen, Reveille Radio News