How Conference Startup Competitions Are Evolving in 2016

The South by Southwest Accelerator Competition, taking place during the annual SXSW Music, Film & Interactive Conference in Austin this week, is a live pitch contest for 48 emerging startup companies in six different categories. Each company representative gives a two-minute presentation talking about their product or service, their go-to market strategy, and how they're generating revenue in their industry vertical. For this year’s contest, 15 of the 48 companies were internationally based. Over the last eight years since the competition launched, 62 percent of the 300-plus participating companies have received funding to the tune of $2.6 billion in total. “Over 13 percent have been acquired by the likes of Google, Amazon and Facebook, so that’s telling us we’re choosing the right companies,” Chris Valentine, producer of the SXSW Accelerator Competition, told Skift. “They’re fundable.” With growing mainst