Get Your Wacky On: AutoMobility LA's Ten Best Automotive Startups Competition Begins
The Los Angeles Auto Show is once again hosting the Top Ten Automotive Startups competition and has opened the door for entrants. If you’ve ever wanted to troll a major automotive trade show with your worst ideas or promote your extremely flimsy business model, this is your opportunity.
Of course, the application process also works if you have a legitimate business you’re looking to showcase. Thanks to the LA Auto Show’s decision to rebrand itself as “AutoMobility LA,” the bar for entry is fairly low. Your automotive startup could involve a drone that finds your keys or a mobile app where people rank the visual appeal of various tire tread patterns. It really only needs to be vaguely auto related. Think we’re kidding? Previously selected winners include Elio Motors, Urb-e scooters, and HopSkipDrive — a ride hailing application aimed specifically at children.
Submissions are open now through July 15th, so if you’ve got a backseat baby monitoring device or digital cup holder, check out the website. The ten best applicants will be featured at the LAAS AutoMobility pavilion, receiving a booth just outside the LA Convention Center.
In addition to whoever wanders by the booth, winners receive additional networking opportunities with industry executives and LAAS board members via networking events. After the trade show, the selected startups are furnished with a contact sheet of industry mentors willing to help them get the ball rolling on projects. Three of the ten finalists will also have the benefit of additional media exposure and will will have a live onstage powwow with venture capitalist Bill Tai, Norman Firchau of Porsche Consulting North America, and Microsoft’s Jeff Henshaw.
The top ten winners and three finalists will be announced prior to the 2017 AutoMobility LA show, taking place at the Los Angeles Convention Center November 27-30.
[Image: Automobility LA]
A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.
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