Student Startup Madness Happens Today at SXSW
Student Startup Madness happens today at SXSW. The ‘collegiate digital media startup tournament’ will feature eight entrepreneurial finalist teams across the country. The students will pitch to a team of VCs, CEOs and thought leaders in tech for a chance to receive $5,000 of credits for Google Cloud Platform.
According to Google, Cloud Platform allows “startups to build, deploy and run web applications and mobile app backends in the cloud, without having to worry about infrastructure or scalability.” A partner program of SXSW and showcased in the main venue of SXSW Startup Village, there is also a great deal of visibility and prestige that goes with the winning title.
Meet the 2013-14 SSM Entrepreneurial Eight: (in alphabetical order)
• Carbon Cash from Michigan State University
• DepthChartz.com from University of Memphis
• Find My Song from University of Southern California
• Million Dollar Scholar from Morehouse College
• Notefu.ly from Seton Hall University
• PlatypusTV from Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and Syracuse University
• SemanticMD from Carnegie Mellon University
• StylePuzzle from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The Student Startup Madness concept was developed by Sean Branagan, director of the Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, in conjunction with SXSW. Syracuse University is the organizing institution for this year’s national tournament.
Student Startup Madness debuted in 2012 at SXSW Interactive with a launch event and kick-off pitchfest, where five student startup teams representing eight colleges and universities pitched their ventures and won prizes. In 2013, SSM was selected as a SXSW Partner Program and invited into the main venue of SXSW Startup Village.
For more on Student Startup Madness, visit the website. Also, follow the hashtag #SXmadness.
