Rural Founders Are Building What’s Next. SXSW Pitch Should See It.
Rural founders are building ambitious companies in the industries shaping what’s next. As CORI joins the 2027 SXSW Pitch Advisory Board, we’re helping bring more rural innovation to one of the startup world’s most recognized stages.
The next company poised to reshape an industry could also be building in Waterville, Maine, Great Bend, Kansas, or any number of rural communities far from the country’s traditional startup hubs.
Across rural America, founders are developing ambitious technologies, solving complex problems, and building companies that can reach markets far beyond the places they call home. More and more, the opportunity is to make sure those founders are visible in the spaces where promising companies are discovered, connected, and propelled forward.
That is why we’re excited to share that the Center on Rural Innovation has been invited to serve on the Advisory Board for the 2027 SXSW Pitch Competition.
SXSW Pitch is one of the startup world’s best-known stages, bringing emerging companies in front of investors, industry leaders, media, and others who can help promising ideas grow. CORI’s role on the Advisory Board gives us an opportunity to help more rural founders see themselves in that room — and to help ensure that the search for the country’s most promising startups includes the innovation happening across rural America.
Because rural entrepreneurship is gaining momentum. Founders are building ambitious companies in software, healthcare, space tech, advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence, climate technology, agriculture, and other industries shaping the future, without leaving the community they love. They are drawing on deep industry expertise, close connections to customers, and the distinct advantages of the rural towns.
What they need isn’t a separate stage. They need greater access to the stages where capital, connections, partnerships, and visibility come together. That’s what makes opportunities like SXSW Pitch important and why rural representation within it matters.
As a member of the 2027 Pitch Advisory Board, CORI will work to identify and encourage strong founders from rural communities to apply, helping bring more of the innovation we see every day into a global startup conversation.
Rural founders: This is your invitation to apply.
The 2027 SXSW Pitch Competition will take place March 16–17 in Austin, Texas. Finalists will have the opportunity to present their companies to investors and industry experts through a three-minute pitch followed by six minutes of Q&A.
Eligible companies must have a product or service conceived on or after January 1, 2024, have raised no more than $10 million, have founders who retain some ownership, and fit within one of the competition’s eight categories.
Applications close November 13, 2026.
If you’re building an ambitious company from rural America, we want the people looking for what’s next to know about it.
Rural innovation isn’t a side story in the future of entrepreneurship. It is part of that future. And we’re excited to help bring more of it to Austin.