Prensa. voanews.com
Each year, aspiring tech entrepreneurs from all over the world head to
the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference in Austin, Texas, to prove their
worth. But what does it take to stand apart from the competition? Anna Skaya,
chief executive and co-founder of Basepaws, a DNA home test kit for cats,
secured some seed funding at the conference. Seed funding is a form of
securities offering in which an investor invests capital in exchange for an
equity stake in the company.
"People are really excited about this idea of pet genetics. It
hasn't really been done before, we're one of the first companies to do
it," said Skaya, who is originally from Russia. International perspectives can lead to
breakthrough products such as the biodegradable eco-bags from Indonesian
startup, Avani.
Kevin Kumala is an avid surfer who studied biochemistry in the United
States before returning to Indonesia. "When I came back to Bali, no longer
I was surfing in waves, I was literally surfing in a wave of plastic, and it's
really disgusting," he said. Kumala's bio-based bag is made with cassava
root that dissolves in water and can even serve as food for marine life.
Representatives from Chinese startup Philm were demonstrating their
mobile picture and video filters app. Co-founder Yin Zhang discussed the
challenges of running a startup in China. "If you are a small startup in the U.S., if you do one thing well,
you can live very well," he said. "But in China, there's a lot more
competition, so every idea you work on, there may be 10 other startups working
on similar things."
His key for keeping ahead of the pack? Staying on top of technologies
like machine learning, which powers the Philm app. No matter where they come
from, at South by Southwest (SXSW), the passion for technology and innovation
is a global cause.