I first came to SXSW as a rock musician on the rise, years ago. I’m back at the festival in Austin this year for my second time, as the founder of music startup Mostrodarte . It’s the platform I would have wanted at the beginning of my music career and one that I think can change the game for my fellow indie artists, who are tired of financial struggle and need more control and transparency on the income their work generates, and who need more opportunities to create outstanding music and entertainment for their fans.

Being here as an indie artist with a tech platform gives me a fun perspective on SXSW. Out of all the tech conferences I’ve attended in Europe and North America, this one is definitely a party. Austin is a fun town any day of the year, and SXSW amplifies the fun ten-fold. There’s no doubt that hangovers are being felt by founders and developers across town the following am, and the loss of an hour of sleep with the time change during SXSW Interactive doesn’t help. I’m used to the rock’n’roll lifestyle from my career in music, but it’s something else to see the tech crowd indulge in the same and get back to the conference grind the morning after. Impressive.

I’m glad to see women in tech, women of all colors solidly represented throughout the conference. There have been open discussions about the meager amount of VC funding that women-led companies have gotten, representing 1.9% of all VC-funding in startups in 2022. Basically, that’s a 98.1% chance of not getting funding. So I’ve come up with a plan to raise funds for Mostrodarte myself, with the upcoming sale of NFTs of Mo, the friendly monster mascot of the platform (Mostrodarte means Art Monster in Italian). Even if half of the NFTs get sold, that’ll be enough to get the beta launched this fall.

Meet Mo, the mascot of Mostrodarte

It’s the fourth day of SXSW Interactive, and I’m off to hear what the smart people gathered here have to say about our world in tech over the next few days. Then the music part of the festival begins, when I’ll find myself in familiar surroundings, with my fellow musicians, underdogs and true believers.