Launch Tennessee and Jumpstart Foundry have joined forces to sponsor the first StartupBus from Tennessee. Joining the StartupBus North America competition, 20 Tennessee entrepreneurs, coders and designers will travel by bus to San Antonio, where they will compete with entrepreneurs from eight other buses.
During the three-day ride to San Antonio, the “buspreneurs” will form four to five teams to create a startup that they will present in competition at Rackspace headquarters. Competing buses will come from San Francisco, Seattle, New York, Florida, Kansas, Toronto, Guadalajara and Mexico City.
“We are thrilled to add a Tennessee bus this year,” said Steve Repetti, co-founder and chief technology officer of CrunchFire Ventures and “conductor” of the Tennessee StartupBus. “Some great startup ideas – including AirPair, Instacart, and Branch – have been formed on a StartupBus. We are excited to see what Tennessee’s emerging entrepreneurial scene adds to the competition.”
Tennessee’s bus will leave from Nashville on Sunday. The bus will stop in Chattanooga, at the CO.LAB (55 E. Main Street) at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, then to Birmingham, Memphis, Jackson, Baton Rouge, and Houston on the way to San Antonio.
“StartupBus is a great opportunity for Tennessee’s software developers and entrepreneurs to compete against leading startup markets like San Francisco and New York,” said Launch Tennessee CEO Charlie Brock. “This will be a valuable experience for the ‘buspreneurs’, and we are happy to help make it happen in Tennessee.”