March 17, 2011, Austin, TX ― POPVOX, Inc., a Silicon Valley and Washington, DC-based startup providing a neutral, nonpartisan, public platform for advocacy and legislative information, was named the winner in the Social Media category at the Microsoft BizSpark Accelerator at South by Southwest (SxSW) Interactive 2011.
Of more than 400 applicants, 32 semi-finalists in four categories were invited to Austin for a chance to demo their product in the two-day competition. The Accelerator culminated in a final round of 5-minute pitches, in which 12 early stage companies showcased their companies in front of influential industry judges and a live audience. Judges for the final round were Alfred Lin, Sequoia Capital; Paul Buchheit, YCombinator; and Mark Hinsbo, Vice President of Microsoft.
The SxSW stage is renown as the launching pad for revolutionary companies like Twitter and FourSquare. We were overjoyed just to be invited to present alongside the innovative companies and accomplished entrepreneurs in this year s finals, said Marci Harris, POPVOX CEO. The judges recognition of POPVOX sends a message that the startup world is ready for first-time, nontraditional founding teams with deep understanding of real-world problems. That s good news for thousands of new entrepreneurs across the country trying to break though.
Harris, a former Congressional staffer, joined former lobbyist Rachna Choudhry and Josh Tauberer, creator of the award-winning GovTrack.us to build a free, nonpartisan platform for communication with Congress, channeling public input to pending bills. Users take action to support or oppose specific bills, send a personal message to Congress, and share their comment with others via social networks or email. Messages are delivered electronically to Capitol Hill and remain public on POPVOX in Bill Reports, with charts and maps assessing support as well as organization position statements, all sortable by state or Congressional district.
POPVOX just launched this week a campaign to crowdfund the development of an iPad app dashboard for Congress and government affairs professionals through appbackr.com’s social publishing platform. http://www.appbacker.com/apps/POPVOX/popvox-for-mobile.
About POPVOX
POPVOX is a disruptive advocacy platform that meshes legislative data with individuals personal stories and sentiment. POPVOX delivers public input to Congress in a format tailored to actionable policy decisions and empowers users to leverage their expertise and numbers. POPVOX provides a legislative dashboard for Congress and government affairs professionals with bill status information, customized tracking, bill-specific advocacy information, and real-time constituent sentiment and comments. For more information, visit: popvox.com
About the SXSW Interactive Festival
The 18th annual SXSW Interactive festival will take place March 11-15, 2011 in Austin, Texas. An incubator of cutting-edge technologies, the event features five days of compelling presentations from the brightest minds in emerging technology, scores of exciting networking events hosted by industry leaders and an unbeatable line up of special programs showcasing the best new websites, video games and startup ideas the community has to offer. From hands-on training to big-picture analysis of the future, SXSW Interactive has become the place to experience a preview of what is unfolding in the world of technology. Join us March 2011 for the panels, the parties, the 14th Annual Interactive Awards, ScreenBurn at SXSW, the SXSW Expo, Accelerator at SXSW and, of course, the inspirational experience that only SXSW can deliver. SXSW Interactive 2011 is sponsored by Miller Lite, Chevrolet, AOL, IFC, Pepsi, PepsiMax, Freecreditscore.com, Monster Energy, Microsoft, Samsung, AT&T and The Austin Chronicle. For more information, visit http://www.sxsw.com.
