As many know, SXSW uses a group voting process to help influence what panels are selected for their event. There are four panels that I’m part of for 2015’s event and if you had a moment to click on over and vote for our submissions, it would be great. And also groovy to see everyone in Austin!

1. Building Gender Balanced Startups

Everyone in tech wants more gender balance in the startup ecosystem, but the practical challenges to implementing that goal are complex, and involve many players—from the incubation/hackathon culture, to the VC community, to the startup founders and execs who must hire and manage a (hopefully) gender-balanced team. Join a leading venture capitalist, female tech leader, and reporter as they discuss the problems they’ve encountered—and offer solid advice for building a more inclusive (and therefore successful) startup industry. – See more at: http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/40327#sthash.dktxr411.dpuf

2. How Your Startup Can Win The New VC And M&A Game

The tech startup world has changed dramatically in recent years with the rise of crowdfunding, a changing venture capital industry, and changes in the M&A market. Venture capital has seen the growth of many angels and smaller funds, new corporate venture firms, as well as the concentration of a small number of large funds. We’ll talk about how entrepreneurs can best build their companies, raise funding and prepare (optimize) for a massive exit in this new environment. To build successful companies, entrepreneurs need to think about these larger strategic issues and how they affect each other. We’ll also talk about the mechanics of how to develop relationships with potential acquirers and how to negotiate with acquirers. The panel includes experts in startups, venture capital, corporate development and M&A. They are at the forefront of new ways of investing in startups and conducting M&A transactions. – See more at: http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/40604#sthash.cZ5Egx23.dpuf

3. Product Leads:Dictators, Democracy & the Good King

Who makes the final decision for product? Weak product leaders let consensus rule. There’s a town in Chiapas, Mexico where no law can change without unanimous agreement -anthropologists study it because nothing ever changes. Like the Mahabarata and Plato point out, the best form of government during an intense growth period is under a Good King. This is the only way product can move fast. It requires you to make fast decisions, be inclusive on ideas and brainstorm, but be very decisive to deliver speed of change.

Hear from industry leaders Paul Berry, Hunter Walk, Justin Santamaria & Shiva Rajaraman on what this means for launching and growing a successful product, today.

Amazon pushes new code every 11 seconds. How often do you push live? The speed of change may matter more than anything else. People move from liking to loving products not just because of how the product is right now but because of a because of the belief in where the product is going.

– See more at: http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/41935#sthash.OwlWwKu4.dpuf

4. Unlocking the Promise of Local

For the last decade, local has been considered the next frontier for startups. But for all the promise, the landscape is littered with startups that have tried to crack local and spectacularly failed (Kozmo, Webvan, etc). Hundreds of millions of dollars of venture capital has evaporated in this space.

But finally, after years of struggle, startups across local are starting to get significant traction. And the remarkable success of Uber shows how incredible the opportunity is.

Hear from startups that are breaking out across local: in apartments (CEO, ApartmentList), local services (President, Thumbtack), food (CEO, Sprig), and shipping (Investor, Shyp).

Panelists will discuss:
-Why is local so hard?
-Why are companies starting to break out now?
-What are the keys to unlocking local?
-Will all of local be “Uberized”?
-How are the tech giants — Google, Amazon, eBay, Apple — going to play in local?

– See more at: http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/34835#sthash.ehHBoWdy.dpuf