We made it into finals! It has been an amazing (and simultaneously absurd) journey. Who knew that an idea that we cooked up on a bus and launched in three days, would make it all the way to StartupBus finals at SXSW, even garnering praise from the indefatigably critical and caustic Dave McClure: ”Great pitch: clear, precise target market, monetizable. Best pitch of the day.” w00t! (Thanks, Dave!) Here’s the video: 

What my fellow co-founders and I are most excited about is that we now have a startup with a viable product and lots of potential. We’re going to continue to work on it, tweaking the app to include features like verification that incorporates an invitation-only mechanism, anonymous payment processing, user interface styling and design enhancements, and oodles more content.

We’ve learned tons along the way and are grateful for all the feedback, including generous advice from investors Mellie Price (founder of Source Spring and co-founder of Bedrock) and Jason Cohen (founder of Smart Bear and WPEngine), as well as Justin Isaf‘s incredibly on-target pitch coaching. Thanks also to StartupBus conductor extraordinaire, Derina Man - for her endless energy, plus all our DC bus compadres, Rick Metzger for the logo, René-Marc Simard and Jenn “Plaid” Ramsey for their expertise, Joyce Bettencourt for the late night A/V and all-in support, and many more who’ve shared their thoughts and ideas on this journey!

Here’s our #StartupBus pitch video. We had fun collecting candid responses, especially from an unsuspecting cab driver:

CuriousCity, curated content for the curious & kinky. Co-founded by Josephine Dorado, John Sutton and Louis-Eric Simard, in the StartupBus on the way to SXSW 2012!  http://getcuriouscity.com
This is just the beginning!