FIREBAUGH, Calif.--For two days, 150 entrepreneurs will be heading toward Austin, Texas, and the South By Southwest Interactive festival (SXSWi) aboard one of six Startup Buses. Over 48 hours, each "buspreneur" will become part of a team, and each team will vie to create the best start-up idea.
On Tuesday morning, the buses left their origins--two from San Francisco, and one each from Chicago, Cleveland, Miami, and New York. CNET reporter Daniel Terdiman is aboard one of the San Francisco buses.
The first order of business (after introductions) was pitches. For about 45 minutes, the bus-bound entrepreneurs stood at the front of the coach and tried to sell their new friends on their ideas. Then it was time to break into teams and actually choose which ideas to pursue.
Here, Jason Katzer, one of the people aboard the San Francisco bus I'm on, uses a marker to write down some of the planning for his team's project. Known as Bouncr, it's "bit.ly for e-mail."