Silicon Valley Accelerators in Spotlight

The battle for tech talent is now so hot in Silicon Valley, big companies aren't just buying up small companies, they're buying up companies that are barely getting started.

There used to be several steps between a startup with a good idea and a buyout from a giant tech company. But now, with everything in the tech world sped up, small companies are getting swallowed up faster than ever.

Google, Apple and others are buying tiny startups from one place: It's called an accelerator, where Silicon Valley startups make their pitch.

Accelerators like StartX, a non-profit business incubator associated with Stanford, are in the spotlight these days, thanks to the big companies have been swooping in and buying the startups.

The latest example? Google buying a video search startup called Baarzo straight out of StartX, giving new hope to this year's crop of companies.

"It kind of makes us hope we're gonna be one of those companies,” said Mada Seghete, co-founder of Pawprint Labs. “More than hope, we will be one of those companies."

There are 32 startups in this year's StartX crop, nearly 50 percent more than there were just nine months ago.

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