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                Tech Startups Look to Make a Difference at SXSW

   by Alberto Pimienta

   If tech startups want to make a splash with their creation, they come
   to South by Southwest Interactive. The festival saw the inception of
   tech giants like Twitter and Siri from Apple. Creators are constantly
   running around Austin, Texas, the epicenter of the tech world for nine
   days.

   The stakes are high.

   Tech innovators come here to make a name for themselves, to be the next
   big thing. For more than a week, March 11 to March 20, the music, film
   and interactive portions of the festival take place. The combination of
   these three threads, some say, makes for a perfect recipe.

   "Each of them is almost like a mini conference by itself that attracts
   all the greatest innovators and leaders from that space / You get this
   great serendipity, the interaction and the mixing of all those
   different kinds of creative people and that's really the special sauce
   of South by Southwest," said Joshua Baer, executive director of the
   Capital Factory. Baker describes Capital Factory to VOA as "the center
   of gravity of entrepreneurs in Texas."

   In a swanky building in downtown Austin, Capital Factory has 15,000
   square meters of pure tech incubating, creating and collaborating. The
   building that houses HQ is sort of a dichotomy. The elevators seem like
   you're about to go into a financial investment firm but once the doors
   open you can tell this is the kind of laidback place that serves tacos
   and beers at the end of the workday on Fridays.

   ''

   "I actually think the real value for startups at SXSW is the ability to
   connect with the right people in small, intimate settings. It's not so
   much about putting your name on a billboard or throwing the biggest
   party," said Joshua Baer.

   Companies like Sony or Samsung lease entire buildings near the Austin
   Convention Center, where a lot of the action happens. During SXSW, they
   are branding central for those tech companies that want to have a huge
   presence in the festival. Baer said that for startups, SXSW
   Interactive, at its core, is much more.

   "It's about identifying the key influencers from all over the world
   that are coming to Austin just for this event, find out where they're
   going to be and how you can connect with them," said Baer.

   Thanks, Obama

   If SXSW Interactive wasn't a big deal already, the reputation was
   cemented even more with President Barack Obama being one of the keynote
   speakers and the first sitting U.S. president to speak at SXSW.

   The Obama administration has been pushing for better synergy between
   Silicon Valley and government.

   "I've spent some of my career in the private sector, some in the NGO
   sector and now in government and I think that magic happens at the
   intersection of these sectors. That we each have unique assets we bring
   and we have limitations and it is by working together that we could
   really do more than any of us could do alone," said Ann Mei Chang,
   chief innovation officer at USAID and executive director for their US
   Global Development Lab.

   Watch video report on virtual reality at SXSW:

   ''Changing tech, changing lives

   Innovators do not only want to change technology. Innovators also want
   to use it to change the world around them and help people. SXSW
   Interactive has what they call different "tracks." One of them is
   health and medical technology.

   Some here want to save lives.

   Breath Diagnostics, from Louisville, Kentucky, is one of those
   startups. They created a technology that detects if a person has lung
   cancer by analyzing their breath. The breath test is cheaper than
   biopsies. It is also quicker.

   "Lung cancer is the leading cancer killer in America. And it's the
   leading cancer killer around the world. It kills more people than the
   four next cancers combined. It's not the most common but it is the
   leading killer. The key is to try to catch it early," said Michael
   Bousamra, a thoracic surgeon at the University of Louisville and
   president of Breath Diagnostics.

   ''

   In need for the greens

   Startups are looking for funding. Investors come to Austin to scoop out
   ideas they could possibly back. Creators know that and they are in full
   pitch mode at all times. Creating the next big tech revolution isn't
   cheap. They need some cash.

   Tim Draper was swarmed with people after a presentation in Austin.

   "I can do the pitch in one minute," an entrepreneur said.

   Tim Draper's people told him to send them an email.

   Draper is the founding partner of Draper Associates. Have you used
   Gmail recently? Well, he helped bring that to the world. Through viral
   marketing, Draper made email services profitable. His grandfather was a
   venture capitalist. His dad was, too.

   "South by (as it is also known) allows you to go to a place where all
   those entrepreneurs have consolidated. It's a fun event, it's an
   exciting place to be, lots of new entrepreneurs, lots of new ideas.
   Maybe I'll see something I'll want to fund. Maybe I'll just start to
   see trends," Draper told VOA.

   "We're open, we're kind of looking for the next great entrepreneur to
   make a great transformation," he added.

   Some tech startups pray everyday it would be them. This week they do so
   at SXSW.
     __________________________________________________________________

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References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/tech-startups-look-to-make-a-difference-at-sxsw/3236934.html