Gallery: Meet the 'Buspreneurs' Behind StartupBus' Other Killer Concepts
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*__Fear and Coding on the StartupBus:__ Wired.com reporter Keith Axline was [embedded on a StartupBus](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/underwire/2011/03/startup-bus-sxsw/) bound for the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas. It was one of six such buses filled with coders competing to turn bright ideas into startup prototypes during the 48-hour road trip. The buses have arrived at SXSW, but the journey continues.* [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/underwire/sxsw-2011)AUSTIN, Texas — Though the StartupBus finalists for Monday’s judges' panel have already been decided, many of the companies that didn’t make the cut churned out interesting products. Four teams from the Silicon Valley bus carrying "buspreneurs" from San Francisco made it to the semifinals at the South by Southwest Interactive conference, more than any other StartupBus. Our high-speed business incubator had its fair share of technical problems, which brought us all closer together as a community. "Essential Wi-Fi only — if you're watching YouTube videos I'll shoot you in the face," said SpeakerMeter team member Pamela Fox wryly at a particularly spotty leg of the trip. Oddly, it's moments like these that make the whirlwind coding marathon memorable. The teams that appear in the photo gallery above no longer have a chance to win the 2011 StartupBus competition. (My team, WalkIN, will be representing our bus at the finals.) But in many cases, this year's crop of buspreneurs created functioning products that don't need the judges' anointment to be viable. They're free to pursue investment on their own with the not-insignificant credibility of having survived the StartupBus. Which teams would get your vote? Meet the rest of the Silicon Valley StartupBus' occupants and decide for yourself. __Above:__ Push Baby Push -------------- This service aggregates information about pregnancy, from conception to birth, and sends users timely text-message updates about what they should be doing and planning for at each stage. "It's texting from the womb," says the service's slogan. The open source information is vetted by a small team of doctors. Push Baby Push also has an OB/GYN and pediatrician lined up as advisers. Just text your due date to the service's number and begin receiving tips. __Team members (left to right):__ __•__ Joseph Skerbec, system analyst at American Medical Systems __•__ Dave Cascino, software developer at Knewton.com in New York City __•__ Mat Wiemann, entrepreneur from Germany __On the web:__ [Push Baby Push](http://pushbabypush.com/) website, [Tumblr blog](http://pushbabypush.tumblr.com/) and Twitter: @pbabyp
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SpeakerMeter ------------ SpeakerMeter gives public speakers accurate and useful feedback from the audience by aggregating tweets sent during the talk and tracking in-app reactions submitted by the audience. The app then spits out a timeline graph that show speakers exactly how they were coming across during their presentation, much like the voter-approval graphs used in some televised political debates. "When I'm looking out on the faces of my audience and spilling my technical guts out, I want to know moment-to-moment what they are thinking," writes SpeakerMeter team member Pamela Fox in the company’s blog. Fox estimates she has given 100 talks over the last four years and says she is rarely satisfied with the quality of feedback. __Team members (left to right):__ __•__ Ricky Wong, a painter, photographer and former Google engineer __•__ Pamela Fox, a web developer former Google Developer Advocate for Maps and Wave APIs __•__ Jon Rohan, a SimpleGeo frontend engineer __•__ Julian Phalip, an interaction designer from France and founding Director of the Interaction Consortium __On the web:__ [Speaker Meter](http://speakermeter.com) website, [blog](http://blog.speakermeter.com/) and Twitter: @speakermeter
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FlyByMiles ---------- FlyByMiles lets you browse which flights are available to you, based on how many miles you have with a certain airline. The team believes that miles are like a gift, so instead of pragmatically putting them toward flights you know you have to take, you should be able to window-shop the fun places they could take you. You browsing using a sliding bar for the amount of miles and a world map that shows you all the flights available to you. Below the map is a list where you can purchase your flight. FlyByMiles had a unique strategy during their rushed development: In order to change the music in the hotel room, you had to cross out a task on your list. "If you want to change the music, just work harder," says team member Greg Imreh, who traveled from France to the United States for the first time just for the StartupBus competition. __Team members (left to right):__ __•__ Alison Ettel, business developer and UX designer __•__ Drew Baumann, Python and Ruby on Rails developer __•__ Greg Imreh, physicist and data collector from Hungary and Taiwan __•__ Amir Pak, front-end designer __•__ Josh Schwartzman, front-end developer __•__ Andrew Skotzko, front-end developer __•__ Fei Xiao, UX designer. __•__ Rex Chung, Ruby on Rails developer __On the web:__ [FlyByMiles](http://flybymiles.com/) website and Twitter: @flybymiles
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Friendstream.tv --------------- Ever get tired of keeping track of the video links your friends send you? Friendstream.tv scrapes your social network feeds for videos and pulls them into a channel you can watch on your internet-enabled TV, phone or laptop. Users can then interact with the clips as they watch them, either by commenting on or sharing them. Additional hardware can bring Friendstream.tv to non-internet-enabled televisions a la Roku or Apple TV. "We don't go and find things to learn, to read anymore, but they find us," says founder Gercek Karakus. "We shouldn't have to go find things to watch." __Team member:__ __•__ Gercek Karakus, UX engineer at RedBeacon __On the web:__ [Friendstream.tv](http://friendstream.tv) website, [blog](friendstreamtv.tumblr.com) and Twitter: @friendstreamtv
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Answer in 30 ------------ Claiming to be the Quora of video, this company is setting out to provide answers to questions on the internet with 30-second video clips. In their words, Answer in 30 solves the problem of "lost in textlation," where a short video can be a more efficient answer to a question than large blocks of text. "People have been saying we are the next Twitter," says snarky founder Margaux Avedisian, "but we're not getting ahead of ourselves." __Team members (left to right):__ __•__ Fred Leitz, self-taught engineer living in Vancouver who's worked on large-scale banking and inventory-management software __•__ Margaux Avedisian, project manager and freelance QA for Google __On the web:__ [Answer in 30](”http://answerin30.com/”) website, [blog](”http://blog.answerin30.com”) and Twitter: @answerin30
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Battlefield Hunger ------------------ Battlefield Hunger is geared toward people with a thirst for violence and a soft spot for good causes. It's a Facebook tower-defense game where, instead of being attacked by aliens or some other classic enemy, players shoot humanitarian problems like malaria, cancer and poverty. In the game, players can buy better weapons with real-world money; portions of those purchases go to charities that benefit that player's most-killed enemy. Want to stop world hunger? Shoot it into remission with Battlefield Hunger. "StartupBus has been awesome," says co-founder Will Tran. "At first, I was not happy to not use my idea, but eventually the game flowed into an actual profitable idea and we are doing good for society at the same time." __Team members (left to right):__ __•__ Charles Van Norman, 3-D Unity developer __•__ Will Tran, developer who has worked at Ikea, Twilio and RootMusic __On the web:__ [Battlefield Hunger](http://battlefieldhunger.com/) website, [blog](http://battlefieldhunger.posterous.com) and Twitter: @bfhunger
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Profile.io ---------- For geeks who don't want to dumb down their credentials for peers and potential employers, Profile.io offers invite-only profile pages that list the technologies a user knows and the tools he uses. The service lets you link to your GitHub, HackerNews and Twitter accounts, as well as promote any iOS or Android apps you've worked on. "I don't know what day it is or when I last showered," says co-founder Brian Klug about the rigors of the StartupBus, "but the Python code keeps flying from my fingers so I take that as a good sign." __Team members (left to right):__ __•__ Danny Roa, programmer and entrepreneur __•__ Brian Klug, programmer and founder of Hacker Dojo in Mountain View, California __On the web:__ [Profile.io](http://profile.io) website, [blog](http://blog.profile.io/) and Twitter: @profileio
