Most years, South by Southwest is an opportunity to meet strangers, wander through crowds – and for startups, it s a chance to network and make the connections that could get your company off the ground.
This year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the conference will be a one-week, all-virtual event. That means it simply won t be the same experience for startups looking to get their names and products in front of potential customers and investors.
In some ways, last year s cancelation of SXSW – the first time that s happened in the event s history – was a foreshadowing of the year ahead, as every industry has had to pivot to adjust to the new normal created by the pandemic.
In 2020, x.ai recorded 182.4% year-over-year growth in the number of meetings scheduled
Newton (previously CloudMagic) was acquired by customers and fans Maitrik Kataria, of
Simform and Justin Mitchel of
SoFriendly.com, in 2020 after its parent company went bankrupt. Originally one of the first email apps to offer snoozed emails and app integrations they ve since added new features, fixed long overdue bugs and positioned the once legacy email client as a real contender in the space. It was a surreal moment to go from superuser to owner of my favorite email client. The new normal of work from home has propelled Newton further and faster than I could have hoped and has offered everyone the opportunity to become proficient schedulers. We love creating new features that help people get time back and x.ai gave us a great opportunity to do more, said Maitrik Kataria, co-founder, Newton.