startup

The Department of Energy is hoping that "America's Next Top Energy Innovator" will be a model of success.

The program, which kicks off May 2, will offer start-ups the opportunity to license patents from among the 15,000 owned by the government's 17 national laboratories for a mere $1,000. The government also plans to reduce paperwork.

"America's entrepreneurs and innovators are the best in the world," U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu said today in a statement. "Today, we're challenging them to create new businesses based on discoveries … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--After three days jammed into buses headed here from cities across the country and four days perfecting their pitches, the winners of the second-annual Startup Bus competition claimed victory tonight.

If you haven't been following the happenings of the Startup Bus, 38 teams of so-called "buspreneurs" departed on six buses from San Francisco, Chicago, Cleveland, Miami, and New York last Tuesday, headed for the South by Southwest conference (SXSW) here. Each team, formed mainly from strangers aboard their bus, faced this challenge: conceive of an idea, and take the time from departure to arrival in Austin … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--When I wrote a story a couple days ago about trying to game the virtual Startup Bus stock market game, I didn't realize that I was playing in the minor leagues.

The major leagues, it turns out, was an organized hack that illegitimately benefited three of the teams that were leading the stock competition among each of the several dozen teams of "buspreneurs" aboard the six coaches that made their way from cities around the U.S. to Austin for the South by Southwest conference.

As part of the Startup Bus project, each of the teams … Read more

After three days on the road to get here from San Francisco, the coach full of "buspreneurs" I've been traveling with since early Tuesday morning has arrived for the South by Southwest Interactive Festival--historically abbreviated as SXSWi--and the chance to vie for the title of best startup created on the fly on the highways of America.

Counting those aboard sister buses from Chicago, New York, Miami, and Cleveland--as well as on a second bus from San Francisco--about 160 entrepreneurs have crisscrossed the country building all kinds … Read more

TUSCON, Ariz.--I'm not a stock market whiz, but I'm trying to play one on a bus.

For the last 35 hours, I've been riding on the Startup Bus, chronicling the entrepreneurial exploits of a couple dozen techies trying to build new companies from scratch in just three days. We're all on our way to the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas.

And while that has been an illuminating experience, another element of the project has got me captivated as well: trying to win the Startup Bus stock market game.

This virtual exercise is … Read more

PALM SPRINGS, Calif.--If I've learned one thing during my first, long, day on the Startup Bus yesterday, it's that in a rapid prototyping environment, it's all about "MVP."

For those who think that's a sports term, it isn't. At least not in this context. Here, riding through dry California lowlands at 60 miles per hour on a bus packed with a couple dozen hard-core tech entrepreneurs, it means just one thing: minimum viable product.

I'm on one of two Startup Bus coaches that left San Francisco early yesterday bound for the … Read more

FIREBAUGH, Calif.--It's standing room only, 25 or so entrepreneurs jammed into the aisles brainstorming ideas, and maybe, just maybe, building the next multimillion dollar business.

This is the San Francisco Startup Bus, one of six coaches ferrying "buspreneurs" to Austin, Texas, for the South by Southwest interactive (SXSWi) festival. Across the country, 150 people from all over the world have packed up their laptops and iPhones and agreed to spend two days aboard a bus with (near) total strangers. The mission? Build the best business you can before Austin city limits.

My job here is to … Read more

It sounds like the beginning of a joke: a couple dozen coders and geek entrepreneurs step off a shiny, high-tech bus at a barbecue joint in Texas.

But a joke it's not. It's a scenario that will likely play out this week on the Startup Bus, which is, yes, a group of a couple dozen coders and geek entrepreneurs riding a shiny, high-tech bus through the Lone Star State from their hometowns to the South by Southwest Interactive conference (SXSW Interactive) in Austin, Texas, part of the broader SXSW music and film festival.

This is no ordinary bus … Read more

In a dinner meeting last night, the president and 12 of the country's leading technology executives discussed such hot-button issues as jobs, education, and how to get the U.S. economy back on track.

Joining the meeting with Obama were CEOs including notably Apple's Steve Jobs, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Oracle's Larry Ellison, Google' Eric Schmidt, Yahoo's Carol Bartz, Cisco Systems' John Chambers, Twitter's Dick Costolo, and NetFlix's Reed Hastings.

Other participants were well-known venture capitalist John Doerr, Stanford University president John Hennessy, former Genentech CEO Art Levinson, and Steve Westly, founder of the … Read more