4.0 Schools Awards MakerState $20K, Both Hope for Panel Spot at SXSW

4.0 schools4.0 Schools hosted their Summer Pitch Night in New York City last Thursday (August 22) to show off the entrepreneurs who have been hacking together nascent business models to deliver innovative education solutions. Six companies were all hoping to win the $20,000 grand prize.

MakerState, a maker meetup program for kids designed to teach them applicable skills they won’t learn in school, took home the $20,000 from the event.

In addition to MakerState, NomadSchools, Ed Modified, True School Studio, Culture Connect and Classroom Media Workshop were the other early stage companies sharing their visions and pitching for cash.

Attendee Leslie Leggett tweeted that she loved the 4.0 solutions pitched at the event. “Educators make great social entrepreneurs,” she continued.

MakerStateIn other news, South by Southwest (SXSW) is using The PanelPicker, a two-step online process, to allow the SXSW community to play a significant role in programming. Votes have been cast SXSWedu, SXSW Interactive, SXSW Film, SXSW Music and SXSW Eco conference activities.

4.0 is hoping to present 4.0 Schools Launch: The Future of Learning as part of the Future15 category of SXSWedu. The session will highlight the experiences of 4.0 Launch entrepreneurs (participants in the 4.0 Launch Program) including: Matt Candler, 4pt0 Schools; Samantha Diamond Monika Smyczek, Culture Connect; Cameron Middleton, Nomad Schools; and Stephen Gilman, Maker State.

Candler commented on the vote: “4.0’s got 23 startups under our belt now and we are completely fired up to introduce you to some of the most interesting new ventures that came out of Summer Launch 2013. But I’m way more excited to introduce you to these amazing people. Passionate, people-who-ship-it, and a just crazy enough to try something really new in edu…”