Startup accelerator Capital Factory hosted "Move Your Startup to Austin For Free," a business pitch competition, during the 2013 South by Southwest Interactive conference March 8.

Five startups vied for the grand prize, a $35,000 investment from Central Texas Angel Network and several amenities—such as $15,000 for rent from HomeAway and $24,000 of server hosting from Rackspace—that would make it easier to move a business to Austin.

Meritful, a startup from Ann Arbor, Mich., took the prize. The business offers to help companies recruit students through a professional development platform, according to Meritful's website.

In his pitch, Founder Azarias Reda said the company had six customers using its beta program. He compared the cost of employing one paid intern for one summer to the cost of using Meritful's subscription-based services.

The judges were: Brett Hurt of Austin Ventures, Bill Boebel and Jason Cohen of Capital Factory, and Bill Flint and Rick Timmins of Central Texas Angel Network.

The prizes also included six months of co-working at Capital Factory, moving expenses paid by uShip, six months of storage space from Sparefoot and six months' worth of Ramen noodles.

Pictrition, a Dallas-based startup, was the runner-up in the competition. Paceable, Rock Your Paper and Inaika also competed.