As the Louisiana Startup Bus makes it way back to Baton Rouge today, the 30 weary entrepreneurs on board don’t have their heads held up high—but they will when they wake up and recover from the grueling week of competition just passed, says team conductor Terry Jones. “Everybody on the bus is just crashed out asleep right now. They’re some worn-out warriors,” Jones said this afternoon, while on the return trip from Austin, Texas, where the Startup Bus finals were held at the South by Southwest festival. Jones says the weeklong event was a huge success for the Louisiana bus. One of its teams—comprised entirely of Baton Rouge entrepreneurs including Stuart Adams, Natalie Noel, Jarvis Brown, Jeff Pellegrin, Andrew Bursavich and Tommy Tally—was one of just eight teams to make the finals from the roughly 60 teams vying for a spot. The team’s startup idea was for a company called Scoringo, which Jones says is a gaming platform allowing users to compete with friends at games that can be customized for any event. Advertising is built into the platform. “They built a basic functioning model in about four days that was playable, and it looked really good,” Jones says. While the idea didn’t take the top prize, Jones says, the Louisiana Startup Bus came away from the weeklong competition with nothing but wins. “It was a tremendous value and opportunity for our entrepreneurs to meet others from around the country and form new relationships. These buspreneurs are now part of a 500-member strong network that reaches across the country,” Jones says. “As importantly, they represented Louisiana extremely well and brought us some national attention. For our first year of being selected to participate, we’re extremely pleased.” —Steve Sanoski
Editor’s note: This story has been changed since its original publication.
