LACHINOUS

I like to make lists, here is my Startup Bus 2012 list:

1. We spent over 72 hours on a bus… most of them with no power or WiFi, so yes: hackers actually coded on paper.
2. We slept on every acceptably flat surface we could find, such as, but not limited to: bus seats and companions, gym floors, classroom floors, cafeteria floors, tables, chairs…
3. We made it to SXSW (we had a border in between 39 Mexicans and an Aussie, and made it through like champs).
4. We took lots of pictures, but not nearly enough to capture all the great moments.
5. We spent at least a whole day without showering, so we had to make do with a bathroom sink… We got creative.
6. We spent days without changing clothes, so at one point we couldn’t really tell who stunk (more).
7. We ate pizza.
8. We got smashed, both by work and by truck loads of alcohol.
9. We made McDonald’s look like an actual hacker space and produced a power out. Twice.
10. 4 women worked, ate, and slept with 35 men for over week.
11. We built amazing products, and I say we, because even though we were competing against each other; we were always there to help out, cheer on, give feedback or pat in the back.
12. We ate more pizza.
13. We exceeded any and all expectations, including our own.
14. We got injured: one nose, a bunch of scratches, bruises and many mild flues later, we survived.
15. We pitched our products, our food and our mothers. For real.
16. We worked in lumber mills, former malls, classrooms, hotels, houses, restaurants, streets, cafés and schools.
17. We danced on bars.
18. We were inspired.
19. We roared with laughter.
20. We tried every energy drink out there.
21. We fought the odds, the weather and each other.
22. One of our teams made it to the finals and the rest of us got kicked out from the venue where they were held, so we had to go watch the streaming at a bar… which we got kicked out of as well.
23. We woke up at 5 am
24. We went to sleep at 5 am
25. We slept during the day and worked through the nights.
26. We came up with some pretty inventive inside  jokes, nicknames and pitches.
27. We were constantly challenged and amazed by each other.
28. We were cold, hot, tired or sick for most of the ride.
29. We had a strict no shitting in the bus policy.
30. We had the shittiest bus.
31. We had the coolest bus drivers.
32. We attempted to hijack one of the cool US buses; we were too hung over to go through with it.
33. We worked like slaves.
34. We partied like rock stars.
35. We screamed both with excitement and frustration.
36. We met celebrities.
37. We were met like celebrities in every Mexican city we stopped at.
38. We walked into it a bunch of strangers and walked out a big, loud, cheerful family.
39. We ate even more pizza.

…. In a heartbeat, we would do it all over again.

Photo courtesy of @szwerink

Tags: StartupBus, StartupBusMx, SXSW

Last night was, without exaggeration, hands down one of the best nights fo my life; so even though I’m aware that I owe a lot of stories about what went down on the Startup Bus, I’m telling this one first.

I woke up at 7am, only to find an email from Eoin saying that the meeting with Paul Singh had been pushed to the afternoon. I sweared a little and went back to bed. When we finally managed to wake up (after days of not sleeping), we only had a couple of hours to make the meeting, we got ready and ran to the hotel. We walked in and realized we were clearly underdressed (I was wearing a red summer dress with combat boots). We made our way to the a room by the side of the  bar and found a very pissed off Eoin going on and on about how there was no way in hell we were going back home that afternoon (emails had been popping back and forth with the possibility). Apparently we would miss out on some major networking opportunities if we did.

It was 3:30pm when Paul finally walked in, a small group of Mexicans had assembled, so we decided to move our show to the bar, it was packed, but we managed to get a table. We thought we’d be lucky if we got to talk to him for thirty minutes… we sat there for over two hours. Apparently he runs his life with the same motto as his investments: unlimited budget for stuff that works. He gave us advice, joked with us, gave feedback on our pitches and took care of the tab.

By the time we were done it was well past five, and all I had to eat was a glass of water and a little toothpaste. I was cranky as hell;  we made our way to the bar in front of the hotel, but one of our friends was kicked out by one asshole of a bouncer. We all walked out (still with no food in our stomachs, and after paying for cokes we didn’t even drink) and ended up going to the bar across the street, it was happy hour, so all our food and drinks came way cheaper. Best burgers ever and great service from a cute blonde girl that smiled –very unlike the bouncer.

We hung out for the rest of the afternoon, by night I was beginning to get anxious because I knew that night was my last shot to make it to a Quiet Company show. I had RSVPed and gotten an invite, but my friends hadn’t. I really didn’t want to go without them… It turned out that one of them knew someone at Tastemakers, the guys throwing the party, so by 9:30pm we were all inside. By that time, I figured I was screwed, since it had started at 8:30 and these guys were headliners, so we walked straight to the top floor (some other band was playing downstairs).

This moment was something: I looked across the room and saw the Quiet Company guys setting up. I got a whiskey at the bar and stood three steps away from them, enjoying every single song, singing along and dancing. At the end I ran into the manager, we figured we had been tweeting at each other (he runs their account), he gave me his card and I bought some beautifully made CDs from him. I talked to the band for a little while and thanked them for their music, by that point my friends were jumping up and down with excitement… Because they’re that good, I remember telling one of them “Remember this moment well, because next time you see them it’ll be at a stadium full of people, these guys will make it big”.

In the bathroom I ran into the woman who runs Flickr’s merchandising, I also ran into Say media’s CEO, who gave me some cool pins and got Tastemaker freebies (mixed CDs), when the promoter realized we had come all the way from Mexico. We decided to stay upstairs and saw Bear in Heaven, who are much different from Quiet Company, but still amazing musicians. The minute they were done we ran downstairs, where Cults had just started. Again we ended up just a few steps from the stage singing and dancing to every song.

Finally, at two, the event was over; we got even more freebies (posters and stickers) and walked out, we stood on the street looking at an amazing guitar player doing his thing at the bar next door. When we finally decided to keep walking I saw Paul walk by and high-fived him. He asked if we wanted to join him and Jonathon Perrelli and go get some drinks, they didn’t have to ask twice. We ended up doing tequila shots at the same bar we had been kicked out of earlier (the face of the asshole bouncer was priceless when he recognized my friend and realized we were already inside). We ended the night eating some Teriyaki gourmet bread with chicken and hunting cabs down.

We got home at 4, crashed for an hour and started the journey home, knowing that for that one night we had been exactly where we needed to be.

Tags: StartupBus, StartupBusMx, SXSW

Second day on the bus, and I honestly feel like a week has gone by. Our day started at 4:50am today, Fery (my number one sidekick) and I got hooked up with an awesome hotel room last night (Thank you to her step dad for that!), so we had the best four hours of sleep anyone could get, after grabbing some beers with a couple of the other buspreneurs yesterday. Nonetheless, our hotel was quite far from campus, so making our way to Tec in the morning was an ordeal in itself.

By 6:30 am we were fire pitching ideas, more than half the bus had something they wanted to put forward, so that took a while in a fidgety bus riding through the desert; then we had a push-shove-and scream session, where we drilled each other for details. In the end 7 teams were formed tackling everything, from education, to product sales, to travel. I’m working on Bunch of Locals, a platform to buy and create travel guides. I’m proud to say I love the project, but most of all, I love the team: sheer rock stars. Amazing business hustlers, an incredibly talented designer that also hacks, a film-maker and a seasoned hacker. Work has not been tedious, nor heavy for anyone, so I’m confident we’ll blow it out of the water.

The bus has been a pain in the ass, we have no power in it (another one of Eoin’s surprises) and the internet is linked to Telcel’s network so if there is no cellphone signal, there is no wi-fi. Therefore, we’ve been trying to get as much sleep in when we’re on the move, to try to hit the ground running every time we stop. Our pit stops have conformed a  very nice “Tec-tour”, since we’ve been hacking and working in campus classrooms and gyms (right now we’re in an art room, surrounded by paintings, facing the pool) we’ve been received like celebrities in every single campus, with teachers, parents and alumni cheering us on and press taking our pictures, quotes and names. It’s funny how I’ve never attended Tec, yet I’m as thankful to them as I am to my alma mater, since I was 15 they’ve been directly involved with pretty much all of the extra curricular activities that have shaped my character and career as much, if not more, than formal education.

Every team will attempt an MVP by tomorrow morning, so chances are, we’re not sleeping. We’re tired, underslept, overfed (we’ve been greeted with banquets everywhere, and stopped for even more food throughout the day) and losing glamour by the minute; but hyped, excited and wanting to push every single project forward. So this is only the first of a series of amazing work nights

Tags: StartupBus, StartupBusMx, SXSW