StartupBus NYC-> Austin circa 2011 (Photo: Betabeat)

"I would say that it takes a very specific type of person to want to go on a three day bus trip on a cramped, smelly bus to try to launch a startup," Jonathan Gottfried, a developer evangelist from Twilio told Betabeat last week. Mr. Gottfried was talking about the StartupBus, the pipe dream of an idea that started with a bus trip from San Francisco to SXSW in 2010, migrated to the New York City in 2011, and is now in Europe as well.

The bus trips--going to tech conferences like SXSW and now Le Web--consist of a competition where teams are formed, products built, and winners picked, all while hurtling along the highway.

"The goal is to have a prototype product that you can launch at SXSW," Mr. Gottfried explained. And, over the course of the trip, "build a team from nothing and business from nothing," he added, "The logistics of the StartupBus are very ad hoc, which is sort of the charm." Alumni from that rolling boot camp can currently be found at promising, well-funded startups like Branch, Instacart, and Pushd.  HipType, an ebooks analytics company formed on the Silicon Valley bus in 2012, even got backing from Y Combinator.

You can meet some of those community members Saturday, December 15th at the second StartupBus:Accelerate event hosted at the Alley NYC in Midtown. Veteran StartupBus rider Mr. Gottfried, whose company is one of the sponsors, emphasized that the BarCamp-like "unconference" will be organized according to the same ad hoc spirit. Thus rather than quietly listening to panels, designated facilitators help attendees discuss topics they're interested in. At the last event, there were workshops on how hacker culture could be good for business and teaching yourself to code. This year, UX design is also on the agenda.

"We essentially have sort of a brain trust where we discuss strategies we’ve developed over the years," which can be useful to new entrants to the startup scene, said Mr. Gottfried. "They get to sit and have deep off-the-cuff conversations about real problems and solutions that people have encountered."

And although you don't have to have participated in the StartupBus in order to attend, if you want to compete this year, the event is a good primer. "Accelerate is an awareness exercise as much as it is a community mind meld," added Mr. Gotfried.

Like the volunteer-driven StartupBus, Mr. Gottfried is hoping that Accelerate events in New York will be build a template that can be copied in other cities. "We're not necessarily going to fly out and run those," he acknowledged.

Tickets are $50 for general admission, $20 for students, but lucky Betabeat readers can click here for a 20 percent off discount. 

Hackers on the Startup Bus.

Remember the busload of entrepreneurs who hacked together six companies on the way from New York to South By Southwest? The experience was somewhere between summer camp and boot camp, and the participants have kept in touch ever since. (Betabeat received a few tipsy messages one night that revealed the buspreneuers had reunited for drinks and decided to raise $6,000 by the morning in order to stage an impromptu hackathon on a train.) Now the Startup Bus syndicate is planning StartupBus Accelerate, brainchild of Startup Bus hacker Mike Caprio, for this Saturday at New Work City.

"The event structure is in the style of an unconference. Attendees will play a key role in shaping the content. Bus alumni will lead sessions as needed but will serve mainly as facilitators," organizer Brian Fountain explained in an email. "We think this structure will lead to a lean and meaningful experience for attendees and Buspreneurs alike."

Unlike the three-day bus trip or the ill-fated train adventure, Startup Bus Accelerate is not a hackathon or a competition. The website calls it "a rare chance to meet the community behind The StartupBus, to network with other people interested in startups, and to share knowledge, get advice, and learn from the experiences of others." Sessions could include talks on how to craft a pitch, find investors, design your site or app, stay lean or demo. Attendees: if you can, check out a session on marketing. The Startup Bus people are genius at that.

Tickets are still available and the proceeds will go to pay for Startup Bus 2012.