This Agency's Origin Story Starts With a Long Bus Ride to South by Southwest

Swarm founders focus on mobile engagement

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Few agencies (if any) can say they started with a road trip. For Swarm, it all began in 2013 when several busloads of entrepreneurs and developers drove from locations around the U.S. to Austin, Texas, for SXSW, competing to build a product to pitch to investors by the time they arrived.

A traveler (partner Valerie Lisyansky) on one of those buses ended up winning the competition with an app, and soon after, she and two others teamed up to launch Swarm.

While

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This story first appeared in the May 22, 2017, issue of Adweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.