Hitching a Ride on a StartupBus Bound for SXSW

When I arrive at the StartupBus stop in downtown Nashville this morning, I spot a line of geek-chic engineers filing into three mega-tour buses. Stocked up on capsules of Keurig coffee, freeze-dried fruit, 18 gallons of water, and eight cases of Mercy hangover cure, a caravan of 20- and 30-something techies are ready to depart on a four-day mobile “hackathon” headed for the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Tex.

The three Wi-Fi-fitted buses rolled into town yesterday from New York, Cincinnati, and Washington. There are 11 such vehicles in total, driving from cities around the country, carrying a combined 336 passengers who will try to conceive and launch their own startup businesses along the way. There they’ll join the other “tribes” to compete and present their fledgling companies to investors. Earlier that morning in Nashville, they’ve just had a two-hour “mentoring session” with local entrepreneurs and are now packing up for the next leg down South.