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Mar
27

StartUp Bus, SXSW, and New Beginnings

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by Mitch

 

I don’t even know where to start to explain the latest and greatest in my life… The last weeks has been so full of awesome, unique, and meaningful experiences that I cant possibly express them all here.  So let me just start with the overview and let subsequent posts be formed by some of the deeper lessons learned in the past couple weeks.

The main events we will cover here are StartUp Bus, South-by-Southwest, and other awesomeness.  These seems like and easy order – sum up two cool events and call it a post, right? Yeah, you couldn’t be further from right.  Both of these events were epic in every sense of the word.  That’s not just hyperbole, son. That’s the truth.

For those that don’t know, StartUpBus is a national start-up competition that pits strangers from 6 cities against each other to build viable buisnesses in 72 hours, on a moving bus.  check out the website…

This taught me several things:

  1. There is an awesome startup culture in Tampa and Miami (and Baton Rouge, LA)
  2. People have incredible ideas when they have the right medium to develop and express them
  3. People that want to start businesses also like to have a ton of fun

After spending three days with these guys and several more in the Hilton Hostel holed up with my team, I can say that I have not only found people that I would like to call life-long friends and partners/collaborators, but I have found a renewed sense of what my goals and priorities are.  Yes, the wifi sucked.  Yes, there were all kinds of hijinx and fun on the bus.  But my mind keeps being driven towards something else.  As the next few posts will explain, there have been a series of events in my life that are calling me to something something bigger, something more.  Not that having the entire Baton Rouge Police department chase down the New York City bus wasn’t absolutely awesome (becuase it was).  It is just hard for me to focus my mind on that right now with so many opportunities opening up.

Please go and check out the company we are forming that was hatched on the StartUpBus.  You can see the elevator pitch here.  You will be hearing more about this in the future, promise.

Other than that, get ready for a paradigm shift in the coming months to what you find here…