I can answer any questions anyone has about this: we've done a lot of work this year to make pycon even more attractive to startups, sponsors and entrepreneurs, and this is one big piece.
I am the founder of a purely Python based startup. We will be attending Pycon and most likely Startup Riot as well. Is there a way for us to apply to be part of Startup Row?
A couple notes. First, this is seed stage only. We are looking for Python-hacking founders generally.
Second, we are limited on space - 16 total slots right now. Seven are filled, and 4-5 will be filled based upon people's performance at Startup Riot. (See @startupriot's latest tweet).
Our purpose in holding Startup Row is to give these startups some attention and publicity, without overloading their time. Accordingly, our current plan is to have 8 small booths on Startup Row in the Expo Hall. There will be 2*X startups, so each will be there during Expo Hall hours (about 10-4) for one day only.
During the time on Startup Row, startups will be able to buy, sell, hire, demo, network, or whatever they would like in your booth.
We will be evaluating any other startups that come to our attention and awarding the last few spots from there.
Thank you, we have only raised funding from Georgia Tech's incubator so we are seed stage.
I am a python hacker and since our part time marketing guy just left I have the temporary privilege of claiming that every person at RideCell is a python hacker.
We are applying python to a fairly non-traditional domain of automating transportation. We use Django and, amongst other things, a highly customized version, of munkres[http://pypi.python.org/pypi/munkres/1.0.5.2] to find the best vehicle to service a request based on the location of the vehicle and the requester. We have a handful of customers but they include U.C. Berkeley, University of Alabama, Duke and Georgia Tech.
Sorry - I should have kept track of this discussion. For Startup Riot if you are presenting, the top Python based startups will be chosen based on audience voting. So if you have are presenting and want a slot, just keep doing what you were planning on doing and make a good show at the event. Winners will be announced at the end of the day.