Startup Row PyCon US 2020 Applications are Open!

Another year, another PyCon US, another opportunity for early-stage startups to show off how they use Python on Startup Row. Every PyCon since 2011, the Python Software Foundation has given qualifying early-stage startups complimentary access to the best of what PyCon has to offer.

If you’re one of those “apply first and read things later” sorts of folks, first create an account and then click here to get started! It should only take a few minutes to register and confirm your user account, and then to fill out the form. Applications are due by January 17, 2020!

Startup Row at PyCon US is the PSF’s way of giving back to the startup ecosystem, and your opportunity to connect with the thousands of developers, data scientists, researchers, students, and enthusiasts who come to PyCon US each year.

Does your startup qualify? Here are the criteria:

• You use Python somewhere in your tech or business stack (open source, proprietary, data science, machine learning, orchestration, marketing automation… it all counts)
• Your startup is 2.5 years old, or less, at time of applying (if you had a major pivot or delayed product launch, measure from there)
• You have 15 or fewer full-time employees, including founders, at the time of applying
• You or your company will fund travel and accommodation to PyCon US in Pittsburgh, PA 
• You have not previously presented on Startup Row at PyCon (if you applied before but didn’t make it, you’re encouraged to apply again!)

What’s in it for you and your startup?

• Two conference passes (you’re welcome to stay for the post-conference sprints too)
• Booth space on Startup Row in the Expo Hall for April 17-18, 2020
• Access to the PyCon Jobs Fair on April 19, 2020
• A group breakfast
• Eternal glory

Regarding that last bit about “eternal glory,” your company would join a great group of alumni companies. In recent years, companies like SRE platform Blameless (SR’18), self-guided online data science academy Dataquest (SR’18), open source licence management tool FOSSA (SR’17), chart search engine Grafiti (SR’19), and dynamic Python web application platform Anvil (SR’17) presented on Startup Row, where they met some of their first customers, recruited key engineering talent, and received invaluable feedback from the Python community members most likely to use what their companies are building.

Other Startup Row alumni companies include Textio (SR’16), X.ai (SR’15), Nylas (SR’14), Plotly (SR’13), Pandas developer Lambda Foundry (SR’12), and DotCloud (SR’11) which later pivoted to become Docker.

PyCon Startup Row companies have collectively raised nearly $1 billion in venture capital funding and have been acquired by the likes of Amazon, Splunk, Rackspace, and Baidu, among others.

It’s a competitive process. We review all applications that come in, and organizers are happy to answer any questions you might have about the PyCon experience or your application.

Apply by January 17, 2020! Remember that you need to create an account on the PyCon US website first, before applying.

                                                                                                                     
Blog written by Jason D. Rowley, Chair, Startup Row Committee

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