It’s not much of a secret that the beverage industry is big business, with Anheuser-Busch (the guys who make 200+ of the best-selling beers in the world, including a few that are almost drinkable) taking a $43 billion slice of the cake last year.
The beer maker also has a venture arm, ZX Ventures, which operates under the slogan “brewing up the future.” I see what they did there. ZXÂ is teaming up with Techstars to throw one hell of a party. Oh, and to run an accelerator, dubbed Techstars Connection.
Based in New York, the focus of Techstars Connection is to help build startups that “help connect people to people, help connect people to product, and help connect people to place,” whether that be in the food and beverage market or beyond.
Anheuser-Busch has a long history of innovating. Even in areas where, honestly, we might possibly be better off with a little bit less innovation. I mean… Bud Light Raz-ber-rita?!
Themes for the accelerator include “enhancing consumption experiences through curation, personalization and localization, connecting people to products with greater speed and efficiency and seamlessly connecting and bringing people together for enhanced social experiences.” So, as far as I can tell, finding ways of automating what a good bartender does all day, every day.
“Beer, the original social network, has been bringing people together for thousands of years,” Anheuser-Busch points out with great glee.
Applications for Techstars Connect opened yesterday, and if you fancy drinking from the deep well of alcohol-fueled wisdom from September or so this year through early 2017, it’s time to sober up enough to type and put together your applications by July 10th.