"The only way to describe it is intense. It's probably the most intense 3 days, 72 hours of your life," says Justin Davis, an web-product designer and developer in Tampa talking about a rather unique road trip experience.
"Not only are you on a bus for three days solid which is obviously intense in general but the added pressure of having to build a company over that time with strangers you've probably never met for an idea you just came up with is really really intense," adds Davis explaining the concept behind Startup Bus.
StartupBus is part road trip, part technology entrepreneur competition that pits people from different cities across the country to create the best product and company.
When the busses get to the destination city, they then get to pitch their ideas to a select panel of judges made up of venture capitalists and technology executives.
The biggest success story from Startup Bus is Instacart, a grocery-delivery company with a valuation over a billion dollars, created by Startup Bus alumni.
This year's competition includes a bus from Florida, as well as cities like New York, San Francisco, and Vancouver, among others, and this year, each bus will have a theme.
"We think we have an opportunity to people on a bus and create technology and create products around the food and beverage industry here in Tampa and in Florida and bring some of that stuff back for the local companies here and local economy here," explains Davis, who says he hopes someone will create a product for the growing craft brewing scene in the Tampa Bay Area.
If you're interested, you can APPLY HERE and just a special entry code: abctampa.
