At a time of year when winter-weary travelers flock to sun-splashed beaches for spring break, 10 Midwestern startups are embarking on a coastal excursion of their own. But there won’t be much of a break involved in this spring trip.

Think Big Partners, the Kansas City, Mo.-based startup accelerator and business incubator, is chaperoning its Think Big Field Trip today through Friday, taking 10 startups to pitch in front of investors at two different showcases in Silicon Valley.

The 10 startups participating in the Field Trip (with descriptions courtesy of a Think Big Partners press release) are: 

• Audio Anywhere (Bixy): Audio Anywhere aims to increase ad revenues for online media platforms by a factor of 10. Ads are created through Bixy, the company’s self-service ad platform. Bixy is like Google AdWords for personalized interactive ads. Businesses utilize the Bixy toolkit to create their own ads in less than five minutes for as little as $50.
• EyeVerify: Eveverify brings to market a software authentication module that will leverage the onboard cameras on mobile devices to take images of the blood vessels in the whites of the eyes to use as a unique biometric identifier, ultimately answering the question: who is holding the phone?
• Klink Mobile: Klink Mobile enables the transfer of cellular airtime minutes and currency via a proprietary, cloud-based financial transaction platform.
• LockerDome: Backed by Square co-founder, Jim McKelvey, LockerDome is one of the hottest sports startups in the country. LockerDome aims to be a person’s sports identity. The bet we’ve made is that people have three big personas in their life: social, professional, and recreational. Facebook covers social. LinkedIn covers professional. LockerDome wants to cover sports/recreational – an area that we believe people are more passionate about than any of the others and the only one of the three areas that completely transcends international borders.
• LiveOn: LiveOn aims to be the brand that consumers and businesses trust to preserve their digital legacy.
• ABPathfinder: ABPathfinder brings technology to Autism therapy by providing tools for therapists to use in their everyday assessments.
• InvenQuery: InvenQuery is a technology platform with mobile application that seamlessly integrates inventory management and point-of-sale, with the ability to administer and publish an e-commerce website. IQ software is agile, scalable and easy to use while maintaining sophisticated reporting mechanisms managers depend on to measure success.
• RollSale: RollSale has created a technology that will disrupt the traditional ways in which automotive dealers conduct their wholesale trade. RollSale is a communications platform where dealers are able to connect with other dealers in an environment that mimics the function and usability of common social networks.
• SEIN Analytics: SEIN is bringing to market an open cloud application and database for analyzing asset-backed securities (ABS). SEIN is leveraging its proprietary web scraping and data mining technology to rapidly standardize data across all ABS categories. With $2.7 trillion in ABS outstanding, SEIN is directly addressing the pain points of this large market, while taking advantage of new regulatory proposals for increased transparency.
• Kauzu: Kauzu is a company that seeks to innovate and empower the U.S. employment industry by providing a dynamic, online environment with unique tools to create meaningful, timely connections. Kauzu is like eHarmony.com meets eBay for the employment industry, which will make job search and hiring timely, active, and satisfying.
• Gremln: Gremln.com makes it easy for businesses to easily and effectively market themselves and their products on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn. Gremln provides comprehensive messages management, success analytics and social media ROI analysis for businesses of every size. Engage, learn, and monitor return with Gremln.com.

Follow the Field Trip from afar

The Think Big Field Trip begins today with the Silicon Valley Bank Seed Showcase in Menlo Park, Calif., where startups will deliver a seven-minute pitch to a room Silicon Valley investors. Following the Showcase, Field Trip participants will head to the Mozilla Foundation, where they will participate in a briefing on WebFWD and the Mozilla Ignite programs. The first day finishes with the SF New Tech Spring Fling.

On Thursday, Think Big will host the Think Big Showcase at the Quadrus Conference Center in Menlo Park. This event will bring in a handful of different investors and provide Field Trip companies another opportunity to pitch.

Friday is reserved for Field Trip startups to hold follow-up meetings with interested investors.

“The Think Big Field Trip is more than just an opportunity for Midwestern startups to get noticed and get funded,” Think Big Partners co-founder Herb Sih said in a release. “It’s also the chance for Think Big to go out to Silicon Valley and prove that big things are happening in the Midwest.”

To keep tabs on the Think Big Field Trip, follow our Twitter list of startups participating in the event, and follow the hashtag #TBshowcase for tweets about Thursday’s pitch session.