It’s a familiar scene in the startup world — an open floor plan, buzzing with activity, filled with startups cranking away on their next big ideas. But this is a Microsoft building in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood, and every one of these fledgling companies is building its business around the Redmond company’s Kinect motion sensor as it moves beyond the Xbox 360 to Windows PCs.
Welcome to the Kinect Accelerator, a collaboration between Microsoft and the Tech Stars startup incubator, bringing entrepreneurs from around the world to Seattle. For the eleven startups involved in the program, the clock is ticking toward Demo Day, set for June 28, when they’ll demonstrate their projects and pitch their businesses to a roomful of investors and journalists.