Burro Wins TechCrunch Pitch Off in Austin

Burro, a startup that connects truck owners to people or stores that need goods moved, won the TechCrunch Pitch Off event in Austin on Tuesday night.

A packed house of people showed up at the Palm Door on Sixth to listen to ten startups give one-minute pitches to a panel of judges. The judges then asked them questions. The local judges included Josh Baer, founder of Capital Factory, Whitney Wolfe, founder and CEO of Bumble, an Austin-based dating app and Todd Hansen, head of content for SXSW Interactive. Jordan R. Crook, a senior writer with TechCrunch, served as the emcee for the event.

Style Sage, a research and data service for the fashion industry, took second place and ReQwip, a platform that lets athletes sell used gear, won the audience favorite award.

Seventeen-year-old Ethan Hurtado, a junior in high school, pitched Burro with his dad and co-founder Jason Ervin. The company, with the tagline “your personal pack mule” won two tickets to attend TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco in September.

Burro, which launched last October, is part of the shareable economy. Its app connects people with trucks to people who need stuff moved. They are the “uber” of the moving business. They also face competition in Austin from Buddytruk, which rolled out its service in Austin last April.

A spokeswoman for TechCrunch said more than 1,000 people RSVPed for the event and more than 100 startups applied to pitch at it. It’s the fourth time TechCrunch has held a pitch event in Austin.