Entrepreneur Zack Price is guest blogging his experience on the 2013 StartupBus as it travelled from Chicago to SXSW 2013 in Austin. On StartupBus a team of strangers, traveling at 60mph, had about 72 hours to conceive, build, and launch a startup. You can catch up with Post #1 in this series here, #2 here, #3 here, #4 here, #5 here, and #6 here.
I yet again greatly apologize for my untimely disappearance. The rest of the BPlans blog has completely captivated me with so much knowledge all in one place, with so little time…
Take Tyree Harris’ “Living the Music” post for example. ‘Being in Music Doesn’t Mean You Have to Starve.’ I tell my book authors the exact same thing. Musicians & authors, music & books; they have a lot in common. They are both ‘Artists’ creating ‘Art’. Nowadays, ‘Art’ can mean anything.
Before I jumped on this StartupBus I traded some emails with best-selling author and startup icon Seth Godin. Google the word “Seth” and I bet you he comes up. I can’t quote Seth for his off-the-record advice, but let’s just say I’m now infected with the ideavirus. Let me pull a quote from one of his books:
“Art isn’t only a painting. Art is anything that’s creative, passionate, and personal. Great art resonates with the viewer, not only with the creator”.
I couldn’t agree more. I like to believe ‘Art’ can be a lean app, a clean website… even a tidy wordpress plugin. We all create art in our own unique way. Take this here blog for example…
Let’s get back to the StartupBus semi-finals (sponsored by Rackspace)…
As you know from my last post, Team Mexico brought the energy to the stage and had the crowd & judges LOL’ing up a storm. The room was electric and the only downside to this was that some team had to follow such a performance.
That team came from our very own Midwest Bus, so I had a front row seat to how it all went down.
Rishi Athanikar, Brad Davis, Claire Farrell, and Ryan Gambrill left Illinois on a mission to facilitate healthy, local and portioned meal planning by creating a platform to bring recipes, ingredients and shopping to one place. Exactly the type of service I would use myself.
Portioned was so N’Sync that by the time our chauffeur Doyle rolled us into Emma HQ in Nashville, TN this team out-pitched everyone. A complete game walkoff shutout. Bye, bye, bye.
Emma’s Directory of Technology, Alex Ezell instantly dropped everything to jump on the bus to San Antonio as Portioned’s secret weapon. To read all about how that happened check the ToBeClaire tumblr, it’s a real doozy.
If StartupBus was the NCAA tournament, GetPortioned.com was the #1 seed in the Midwest bracket heading out of Nashville. While the rest of the bus was scramblin’ for par, Portioned was locked, loaded, and ready to make a run at the 2013 StartupBus championship. They too do not know what the winner of this contest actually receives…
If you want to watch me pitch NextChaptr at Emma’s Headquarters on no sleep and wearing MC Hammer pants, go right ahead.
While Brad was migrating databases, Rishi was crushing code (and helping me on some possible book ideas). Claire was perfecting the pitch in real-time with her local lone-star connections, and Ryan even hustled them into the Upstart Business Journal all from our bus.
Alas, they had to jump on stage right after Cloudspotting, the room still rattling from what just occurred.
I sent their pitch-person Claire a last ditch emergency email “wear the nerdy glasses, trust me on this one”. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
She hopped on stage (spectacles and all) and smoothly disarmed the crowd by acknowledging the terrific presentation that preceded Portioned. The nerd glasses worked like a charm. Farrell’s pitching performance was so pure, that I’m completely convinced she’s related to John Farrell. Nobody knows pitching better than that guy. He doesn’t even play baseball anymore and the Red Sox nation just traded for him.
Unfortunately, the judges’ heads were still spinning from the CloudSpotting performance and Portioned did not make the Finals. They did however sign up a grocery store in Austin, TX to start taking local orders using their service. That’s how it all starts. Small is the new big.
Team Portioned is now signed up for the StartupBus Foundry program. Their idea has a lotta promise, and so does this team’s entrepreneurs.
Stay tuned to hear about more great ideas that came from the StartupBus, including a 9 person team from the SanFran bus that Ghosted everyone including Scobleizer himself…
Zack Price (me) is a full blown Startup Nerd, Golf Geek, & Stock Picker. Never had a Job. Never will. Never Serious. Loves Taco Bell. Yes, I know it's not 100% real beef, just worry about yourself, dude. Tweet me @Zackonomics and let's be besties, k?
