Tuesday we posted the twelve finalists of the HatchPitch competition who will be pitching at SXSWi this year. Last year’s contest saw some great startups. One of those was GoingMyWay which has now changed their name to RideScout.

There’s an abundance of great transportation app startups out there. There are services like Uber and Hailo which allow you to use your phone to hail a ride via sedan or taxi. There are ride share apps out there like SideCar and there are apps out there like RideScout. RideScout aggregates ground transportation ride options which allows users to compare and then book transportation or link to it in real time.

“Our goal is to provide ground transportation information and connectivity so intuitively and efficiently that consumers experience the same on-demand flexibility and reliability that they do driving their own car.” RideScout CEO and Co-Founder Joseph Kosper said on the hatchpitch blog.

RideScout came in second place in last years HatchPitch contest. This year rather than spend time talking about how great RideScout is Kosper posted this piece, to help give some best practices to startups braving SXSW.

Through my radio career and then as a tech journalist I’ve had the privilege of attending a dozen or so SXSW events. If this is your first, or even second time attending it can be an overwhelming experience. Tuesday we posted these tips, most of which came from SXSW seasoned veteran Robert Scoble.

Kosper gives his best practice which really amounts to learning from anyone you can. See I’m not going to sugar coat it for you, SXSWi is a cess pool of ego maniac hipster founders. Everyone has the best everything out there period. In that piece on Tuesday we talked about the big reality that come next year at SXSW 14 not even a quarter of the startups we see this year will be around.

Swallow your pride and gel off everyone you can. You’ll undoubtedly have people that can learn from you, and in turn you will be able to learn from other people. If you knew everything you wouldn’t need to go to SXSW, right?

“Your startup isn’t going to “accidentally” succeed. RideScout and my other endeavors get better each day because I’ve spent time learning from those around me. Most of that learning has been experiential and in the shadow of others, so it is only natural that I try to pass it along. People will be what they can see– and I have been fortunate to learn from a lot of different people in the start-up ecosystem.” Kosper said in his piece on hatchpitch.

Get more wise words from a SXSW alum who’s a) startup is still up and running b) who finished second in last years Hatch competition, here.

SXSW is part of our Sneaker strapped nationwide startup road trip part DEUX, help us out if you can.