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OutServe Co-Founder Will Join StartupBus to South By SouthWest
For immediate release:
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Contact: Zeke Stokes at
202-621-5406 or zeke@outserve-sldn.org
OutServe Co-Founder Will Join StartupBus to South By Southwest
Seefried set to depart Saturday on week-long innovation trip to Austin
(New York City) Next week, OutServe Co-Founder and OutServe-SLDN Board Co-Chair Josh Seefried will join thirty other innovators on the StartupBus, an invitation-only trip that will include hackers (coders), hustlers (marketeers) and hipsters (designers) passionate about startups. Over the course of the multi-day trip, the group will conceptualize, build and sell a product, all while traveling sixty miles per hour from New York City to the South By Southwest (SXSW) technology conference, held annually in Austin, TX.
“Some may question why I would choose to jump on such an adventure. I don’t necessarily fit into any of those categories,” said Seefried. “But it's simple. This is the future of activism.”
“A little over two years ago, a friend and I came up with this idea to push for repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" (DADT), the law that prohibited gay and lesbian service members from serving openly in the U.S. military. We wanted to connect these service members serving in silence under the policy using hidden social media. Many people told us that they didn't see the point – that there were already notable LGBT organizations working on the issue and that creating a new organization would simply crowd the field. We had no money, but we believed in our idea,” said Seefried.
Seefried co-founded OutServe in 2010 alongside Ty Walrod, a startup entrepreneur based in northern California. The two quickly led the organization to national prominence in the fight to repeal the discriminatory DADT law, growing to more than 6000 members and 55 chapters around the world by the time OutServe combined with Servicemembers Legal Defense Network in 2012 to become OutServe-SLDN.
“This is a great opportunity for Josh to showcase his work at OutServe-SLDN and build upon our successes with other innovators and change agents from across the country who know what it means to create something from whole cloth,” said OutServe-SLDN Executive Director Allyson Robinson.
Follow Seefried’s trip at
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/seefriedj
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/joshseefried
- YouTube: www.youtube.com/kingbigbird09
ABOUT STARTUP BUS: StartupBus began life as a joke: a road trip starting in San Francisco with friends, but with the twist of launching a startup on arrival in Austin in time for the SxSW technology conference. Somehow though, people thought Elias Bizannes (our founder and fearless leader) was actually serious. A few unexpected blog articles and many emails later, he was stuck with having to now make good on his pub night promise.A month before departure in March 2010, Elias hustled to find a bus with wifi, sponsors to cover the costs, and he also selected the original “buspreneurs.” Those 25 people without realising it set the tone, culture, and rituals that hundreds of other people have now experienced.
The 2010 “buspreneurs” hacked an engaging website with live bus tracking and even a game, designed the logo and even some merchandise. And so began the experiment: traveling at 60 miles an hour for three days on the road between San Francisco and Austin. The question was what could people produce under unique (and some would say extreme) time and resource constraints? Six functional prototype web services were built and they were presented to a panel of high profile Austin investors. The inaugural event received a lot of exposure, the winning team was offered funding to turn their prototype into an actual business and a community of entrepreneurs who still work together was created. And over the next year, that experience proved to be life changing for many: moving countries, changing jobs and going in new directions in life all because of this experience. In March 2011, that community expanded this experiment into a competition and grew six-fold with buses departing from San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Chicago, Cleveland, New York, and Miami. Participating were 156 new "buspreneurs" who produced 38 different products. In December 2011, we launched in Europe with 20 "buspreneurs" building five products and a whole new community base in another continent.
StartupBus has evolved from an experiment to a competition and an international community of unique people. As we grow the annual competition across two continents which serves as an initiation into the real asset we are building -- our community -- we look to grow into a unique type of institution that leaves a lasting legacy on the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
For more information, visit www.startupbus.com
ABOUT OUTSERVE-SLDN: OutServe-SLDN is the association of actively serving LGBT military personnel with more than fifty chapters and 6000 members around the world It works to support a professional network of LGBT military personnel and create an environment of respect in the military with regard to sexual orientation and gender identity. It is a non-partisan, non-profit, legal services and policy organization dedicated to bringing about full LGBT equality to America's military and ending all forms of discrimination and harassment of military personnel on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. OS-SLDN provides free and direct legal assistance to service members and veterans affected by the repealed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law and the prior regulatory ban on open service, as well as those currently serving who may experience harassment or discrimination. For more information, visit www.outserve-sldn.org.
