At SXSW, New Mexico brings its innovators into focus

Scott Nowicki, co-founder and chief scientist of the New Mexico startup company Carbon Swarm, pretended over the phone that he was in front of a crowd of investors at Austin’s famous SXSW festival.

“Volcanoes are an ever-present hazard for humanity,” Nowicki said in an attention-grabbing line. “In addition to explosive eruptions and destructive lava flows, volcanoes emit invisible greenhouse gases like CO₂.”

In only a few minutes, Nowicki illustrated how Carbon Swarm’s technology —which studies volcanic eruptions to help predict them — could also track greenhouse gas emissions, enabling the monitoring of fugitive methane from oil and gas wells.

“The innovation here is a collaborative drone swarm capable of measuring these gases and modifying their behavior in order to pinpoint the size and location of a gas plume,” said Nowicki, whose startup has been using its tech in the San Juan Basin over the past year.

The pitch was a practice run for the real deal next week, when Nowicki will present at the SXSW pitch contest that pits entrepreneurs against each other to see who has the most compelling new business idea. The winner gets $5,000 and an audience in front of investors from across the world.

“It’s not a huge financial thing, but it gets you in front of a room full of investors and a … bunch of other entrepreneurs,” Nowicki said. “So it’s really mostly about networking and connecting to potential clients.”

Carbon Swarm, which has received nearly $2 million in state and federal money, joins a broader coalition called the New Mexico House — companies and state departments spanning technology, energy and the arts — that will present the state’s offerings at SXSW on Monday.

Nora Meyers Sackett, director of the Economic Development Department’s Technology and Innovation Office, said the state is “really excited to be able to showcase the strengths New Mexico has in technology and innovation.”

Meyers Sackett will moderate a panel at SXSW with Noel Goddard, CEO of Qunnect, a quantum computing startup supported by state money, and Maggie Newman, the senior manager for community and studio operations at Roadrunner Venture Studios, a deep-tech venture capital studio, which partnered with Qunnect on New Mexico’s first entanglement-based quantum network, located in Albuquerque.

“We’re excited to sort of tell the story of what kind of bets New Mexico is making on deep tech and specifically on quantum,” said Newman.

Other state reps from the New Mexico Film Office and the New Mexico Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources Department also plan on attending. New Mexico House will also showcase the state’s arts and cultural flair with events such as an indigenous fashion show and a musical showcase featuring Taos-raised Americana singer Max Gomze, Dine hip-hop artist Def-i and Camilo Quinones, a Grammy-winning percussionist.

Showcasing the state will allow it to capitalize on “this concentration of innovators and investors and entrepreneurs to show them what New Mexico is building and to show them the opportunity they could be building in New Mexico,” Meyers Sackett said.

Justin Horwath covers tech and energy for the Journal. You can reach him at jhorwath@abqjournal.com.