Congratulations to NYU startup, Theatre Galleria for being named the 'Entrepreneurial Eight' for the Student Startup Madness (SSM) student startup tournament at the South by Southwest festival in Austin.

Theatre Galleria, founded by Jackie Kroeger (Stern '17 & Steinhardt '10), Bryna O'Neill (Steinhardt '10), is the first online marketplace for theatres where industry professionals can find all their props, sets, and costumes for a show in a single location.

They were part of the NYU Summer LaunchPad 2016 cohort, an accelerator program that provides early-stage founders with the funding and resources they need to succeed and grow. The team were also finalists in the NYU $300K Entrepreneurs Challenge. While in Austin, they’ll pitch their company to a panel of judges and hear from Jesse Draper, the talk show host, investor and founder of Halogen Ventures.

"Theatre Galleria is so honored to have been named one of the "Entrepreneurial Eight" for Student Startup Madness.  The support and resources given to us by the Entrepreneurial Institute during the Summer Launchpad were an integral par of our application to SSM. We couldn't be more excited to have the opportunity to pitch at SXSW," said Jackie, the co-founder & CEO of Theatre Galleria.

SXSW Interactive hosts the annual Student Startup Madness competition, in which 64 student-founded digital media startups competed to pitch on the SXSW stage for top honors and bragging rights. The first two rounds were selected through an online vote. Two NYU teams, Theatre Galleria and Acculis advanced through the first two rounds which was held through online voting and, the final "Entrepreneurial Eight" were invited to pitch to a panel of judges at SXSW on March 13.

"Opportunities like this allow early stage startups like Theatre Galleria to gain the attention of potential customers, partners and investors that can be so critical to propel their ventures forward," said Frank Rimalovski, executive director of NYU Entrepreneurial Institute.

Here is the list of the 2016-17 SSM Entrepreneurial Eight Finalists (in alphabetical order)

• 101 from Carnegie Mellon University
• Dycap Media Solutions from University of Florida
• Find Your Ditto from University of Michigan
• Omnipointment from Illinois Institute of Technology and University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• Parihug from Case Western Reserve University
• Reflexion Interactive Technologies from Case Western Reserve University, Pennsylvania State University and Cornell University
• Swifte from University of Georgia and University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA)
• Theatre Galleria from New York University

The SSM tournament is promoted by anchor universities in regions across the country and supported by Walmart Technology and The Blackstone Charitable Foundation.