A wild experiment in regional collaboration and a platform for the Midwest's innovators and creatives. Coming to SXSW 2022. Powered by
Alright ya’ll! Today is the day!!
Join us, Startup Grind Grand Rapids, Bamboo, & Start Garden in celebrating 🙌
Get going at our “morning-after-Demo-Day” hang with founders and ecosystem partners from all over the region.
📆 Thursday, 9/19
⏰ 10am
📍 Start Garden
Food, drink, & vibes 😎 will be provided!
Let’s share some candid conversations about where we are and where we want to be as a startup community.
🤝
Excited to see you there!
🚨🚨Grand Rapids🚨🚨
📢📢Next Monday 7/29📢📢
🗣️🗣️ 4 - 6pm 🗣️🗣️
📣📣 📣📣
Join us for a very special Fireside Chat 🔥featuring and of out of Detroit,MI.
Nia and Sophia believe that inclusive investing is not just a moral imperative but a smart financial strategy.
Together they make up part of the team at Union Heritage Ventures, Michigan’s first (and only) majority African-American owned and majority women-owned venture capital firm.
It’ll be lively conversation led by our friend that will trace how the two of them went from best friends to co-founders to partners in Nia’s family business to form this transformative new Michigan focused fund.
It will also touch on Union Heritage’s investment strategy and vision for a more equitable and innovative Michigan.
RSVP via our .ee while you can. This one will one will fill up so don’t delay!!!
Just last week, we hosted 9 incredible Midwestern bands on our stage during Midwest House Music. And we couldn’t do it without our amazing music partner, , who helped us find and book these acts. And other sponsors and helped bring them to Austin to perform on our stage.
Friday night featured , , and then . Saturday, we turned it up with , , and . And then to close it all out, we hosted indie bands , , and .
Damn, SXSW 2024! You really showed up for this one! The ninth year of Midwest House was our biggest yet! We had over 8,000 attendees this year, which is DOUBLE our 2023 headcount! It’s hard to believe we started as a backyard party in Austin all those years ago…
This year, we partnered with more than 150 orgs across 12 states and 5 countries. Together with our sponsors, we brought 21 founders to Austin and 11 Midwestern musical acts. We had over 100 speakers grace our stage, with 70% of them being women, nonbinary, and/or people of color… as it should be!
More to come on recapping soon, but we are so proud of what we put together this year! And hope that you are too. Here’s to showing off the very best of the Midwest!
The vibes this weekend were just 🫶
A big thank you to all of our sponsors, partners, team members, attendees, speakers, bands, and everyone that brought Midwest House at 2024 to life. More recap coming soon, but just had to share some of those post-activation good feels.
If there’s one thing we love, it’s a brunch, y’all! 🍳 For our last morning at 2024 during ’ Michigan Day, we hosted the Black and Brown Founders Brunch presented by . was spinning while we enjoyed some delicious soul food from . premiered their “Sure as the Wind” film at the inside bar while and friends chatted about money and access outside.
It might have been International Women’s Day yesterday, but we think it’s always a good time to celebrate fierce female founders. We hosted an amazing group of women for brunch thanks to , , , and . We took in some great panels, including a fireside chat with and , hosted by . And a few of the giirlies even got inked up with tiny tats from . Cheers to ladies doing their thang. We’re so proud to celebrate you!
POV you’re getting ready to welcome thousands of Midwesterners to SXSW the next four days. See ya there? We freakin’ hope so!
"Michigan has always been a place where we make things, and we make things happen. We have shown over and again that we are a resilient and innovative community....If I were a betting woman, I’d say Detroit is going to Detroit again. Detroit and Michigan are not waiting for anyone to save us. There’s an incredibly, diverse, leaderful movement of entrepreneurs here that have self-organized and are helping each other."
They don't need an introduction. But we will, because we're Midwestern like that.
Nia Linder Batts and business partner Sophia Bush (yes, we loved One Tree Hill, too!) are talking about their work in the VC space of the Detroit tech ecosystem that you are not going to want to miss.
Get registered today at MidwestHouse.org for the Female Founders Brunch. See you Saturday morning, fireside 🔥
You can take us out of the Midwest, but you can't take the Midwestern out of us! Who's down for a casual morning on Lady Bird Lake in Austin during SX? They claim to have the best bass fishing around, but *ahem* we'll be the judge of that.
Thank you to and for making this happen! Get registered as space is slim on the fishin boat!
https://captainexperiences.com/texas/austin-fishing-guides/5648/sxsw-bite-sized-bass-fishing
📣 LIVE AND LOUD coming from Half Step starting next Friday! 📣 Our DAILY SCHEDULE featuring panels, speakers, events and music is now LIVE at MidwestHouse.org/schedule - What events are you most stoked on?
🙏🏽 THANK YOU to our partners for making every bit of this possible. We're almost there. We do this work with you, and for you. Thank you! Now let's get you and the Midwest on stage!
Let’s GOOO! 📋ROLL CALL📋 who are we seeing in ONE WEEK in Austin?
Our crew are wheels up (and wheels on the road) in the coming days and cannot wait to see you on our doorstep at our home away from home. Get registered today, and we’ll pull up a chair for ya next week!
Think the Midwest is just “flyover country?” Think again. Midwest House exists to showcase what we see in the Midwest to the rest of the world. Because if you’re missing out on the Midwest, you’re missing out on tens of thousands of ultra-smart entrepreneurs, brilliant startups, big ideas, change-making innovations, and pure and potent creativity.
In a little over ONE WEEK, we're taking on Rainey Street at Half Step Bar to showcase the best of our Midwest tech, startups, creatives and industries that are making the coastal folks think twice about flying over this.
Get registered NOW and join us next week! Registration is open and FREE to join - hit us up at the link in bio and follow through to register.
Midwest House NIGHT 3 LINEUP DROP 👇👇
Oh you thought we were done?! Sunday night shuts down our stage beginning at 7PM with Milwaukee's garage rock DIET LITE, followed by double-headliners with alt rock FRIKO, and closing out at 9P with some Indy shoegaze with WISHY. Are you registered yet? What are you waiting for - it's F-R-E-E! Get your name on the list at the link, now!
Three weeks, y'all! Today we're so excited to share our Saturday night lineup at the Midwest House stage!
Starting every night of the weekend at 7PM, the best in Midwest music is filling the air at Half Step on Rainey! We have HiTech representing Detroit, and Jennifer Hall and Mother Nature coming from Chicago and you are not going to want to miss it.
Registration is LIVE at MidwestHouse.org, so get it done!
Midwest House is thrilled to present our ✨Friday Night✨ music lineup with supporting artists brought to us in partnership with !
From indie pop to hip hop, get registered NOW at the link in our bio and we’ll see you at the gate, March 8! The countdown to is on!
👇👇Who are you most excited to hear representing the Midwest at Half Step?👇👇
This year’s line-up is shaping up to be one of our best yet! Each day will have a spotlight featuring some of the coolest orgs in the Midwest.
Friday, March 8 is Outdoor Day (cuz the Midwest kinda has the market cornered on that fresh air stuff.) This is sponsored by with appearances from THOR, , , and TechNexus.�
Saturday, March 9 is Chicago Day, sponsored by and centered on a Future Food House takeover led by that you don’t want to miss.
Sunday, March 10 is St. Louis Day hosted by , featuring big tech solutions in the AI space that are bringing eyes to the midwest.
And our final day: Michigan Day, sponsored by with partners , long-time collaborator , , and
You’re not gonna wanna miss it! Get registered at MidwestHouse.org today.
SXSW
Wow, you guys really showed up! We had over 200 music applications submitted via our generous sponsor, . It was so hard to choose, but we’re excited to announce the Midwest House Music lineup later this month. Stay tuned! 👀
We wanna give a huge shout out to our longest running sponsorship partner, . We really couldn’t do it without you guys! Thanks for the support.
Come check out what Ann Arbor SPARK is all about on Monday, March 11 at Michigan Day.
🚨VENUE ANNOUNCEMENT🚨 For the third year in a row, we’ll be returning to for ! We love our little home away from home. See y’all on Rainey in LESS THAN A MONTH!
SXSW
Wanna come hang with us in Austin? Or at least rep your brand there? We’re still looking for sponsors to help us host a couple parties, happy hours, and events. If you’re interested, email us at [email protected]
We get this question a lot: what is Midwest House? The definition has changed drastically over the eight years we’ve been doing this. Midwest House is no longer just an activation that happens at . It’s about providing access to a global stage for our community of kick-ass Midwestern innovators and creators. That could be in Austin. Or at a tech conference in Indiana. Or the Auto Show. Or across the world. Anything is possible. Cuz we’re Midwesterners, and we get that ish DONE!
The most important thing is that we’re reppin’ the very best of the Midwest to buck those outdated Rust Belt stereotypes. Watch us go!
Startups, do you want a chance to win $10,000 and funding to go to in Austin, TX? Submissions are now OPEN for the Midwest Madness Pitch Competition!
Led by , together with , Midwest House is bringing some of the freshest startups in the region to SXSW for an early stage pitch competition.
We’ll review 64 pitches, whittle them down to an Elite 8 that we’ll send down to Austin, TX, complete with a travel stipend, to pitch at Midwest House.
Interested? Get your app underway, now! 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼
https://forms.gle/dzEtBZdMv1f6B7PF6
Hey y’all! Midwest House is heading back to Austin, TX for SXSW 2024! Mark your calendars for March 8-11. Keep an eye on our social channels for rolling updates on what and who to expect. We’ll see you there!
Time is running short, y’all!!!!
Get those entries in via by the end of the day Friday!!!
Hit our link in bio to sign up!!!!
***
Want to perform at Midwest House during SXSW 2024?
March 8-10 2024 - Midwest House will be inviting some of the best musical acts in the Midwest to perform on our Rainey Street stage.
Apply by 1/12 via for the paid opportunity to bring the festival all the Midwestern vibes it can handle. Apply at the link in bio!
75 Rainey Street
Austin, TX
78701
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Making Half Step our little home for the past week wouldn't have been possible without our pals FASTSIGNS Grand Rapids! Not only did they take our designs and turn them into real-life works of art, but they did it quickly and are some of the nicest people we've ever met. The road to @sxsw is long and takes a village, but things feel a little easier when you have some incredible team members by your side.
We set up, learned, mingled, and bopped to some incredible music. If you missed Day 1 of Midwest House at SXSW, we've got you covered with this vibey recap 😎 We'll be in town posted up at Half Step Bar through Tuesday the 14th! Say hey, RSVP to our events, and enjoy all the talented folks and exciting innovations the Midwest has to offer.
So, the Summerfest Launch Party was pretty epic. Bringing Midwestern artists to a global stage (thanks, Opnr!) has us beyond stoked— the opportunity for them to show off their talents at SXSW is an opportunity like no other. Missed this one? Don't sweat it. Catch our next music set tomorrow starting at 6pm! #MidwestHouse #SXSW2023 #SummerFest
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Rainey Street
Austin City Limits Music Festival (ACL)
Barton Springs Road
The Austin City Ballet Performing Arts Conser
Anderson Mill Road
