sxsw stickybits venmo razoo conference donations

The Most Exciting Things We Saw at SxSW

Our time at South by Southwest may be over, but the Social Impact team is still sorting through all of the incredible innovations that we saw in Austin. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be working to develop some of the ideas we came across into new strategies that can help our clients. Until then, here are some of the more exciting new things that we encountered in Texas:

Stickybits – This iPhone and Android based app lets you scan any barcode and attach photos, video, comments, or hyperlinks.

Barcodes for your favorite products are standard: the code on every box of Wheaties is the same. So if you attach something to one box of Wheaties, you attach it to all of them. And there’s a lot of potential for creative marketing in that technology. PS - scan the barcode in this post.

Venmo – It’s your best friend’s birthday, and you’ve got twelve people who want to split dinner onto twelve credit cards. The waiter gives you the look of death; he’s not going to split the check twelve ways.  This is where Venmo comes in. You put the dinner on your card, and each friend uses Venmo to send you their share via text message. It’s charged to their card, and when you get home, you deposit it into your bank account. I can’t wait till all my friends use this.

Razoo – This has got me really excited for our nonprofit partners. Network for Good is a trusted way to process donations, but they take a small transaction fee – and no matter what online payment system you use, there’s some fee involved. If you give through Razoo, Network for Good still charges their fee. But Razoo issues an equal grant, replacing the transaction fee and allowing the nonprofit to receive the full amount of your gift.

With all the talent and brainpower at SxSW, there are scores of great ideas out there that we haven’t touched on – which were your favorites?