Miami Herald’s Startup Pitch Competition starts with community and FIU tracks

Dear #MiamiTech community: Have you struggled to get your startup noticed? Did you work at a large corporation where you identified business opportunities, but they never came to fruition? Or were you unable to land your dream technology- or financecompany position so you started your own enterprise?

Take things into your own hands and enter the 24th annual Miami Herald Startup Pitch Competition, the region’s oldest entrepreneurship challenge. This year’s contest is now open to applicants.

Miami’s tech scene is booming: Homegrown startups are maturing, and many investors and founders have moved here in the past three years.

The competition features one community track for general entries from South Florida’s young companies and a separate category for students, faculty and alumni from Florida International University, the Herald’s longtime partner in the contest.

The deadline to submit entries for either track is 11:59 p.m. March 1.

This year the competition is returning to an inperson format with finalists presenting their pitches to judges in a live pitchathon March 24 followed that day by an awards ceremony. Expert judging panels for each track will select a winner and two runners-up for their respective tracks.

Compared to last year’s virtual contest done via Zoom, “This time the energy is going to be different,” said Anna Pietraszek, faculty fellow in entrepreneurship and innovation at the Pino Global Entrepreneurship Center at Florida International University. “It’ll be really fun.”

Finalists in both categories will get detailed feedback from the judges on “what really works and what doesn’t,” she said. And so, “even if they don’t win, this is a great start” for participants.

The Herald will have multimedia coverage of the live event in March and produce individual profile articles of the winners of the community and FIU tracks.

“The Herald is excited for our 2023 competition in order to showcase the innovation and creativity of startup companies in South Florida and the diverse entrepreneurs who lead them,” Business Editor

Paul Bomberger said.

“We look forward to receiving many applicants, representing a wide range of industries,” he said. “We hope the possibility of being selected a finalist, with the chance to compete in our live pitchathon and winners’ showcase in

March will encourage as many entrepreneurs as possible to enter the contest.”

Herald staff will not be involved in the judging.

Last year, Boxie, a Miami startup that helps restaurants manage online orders, won the FIU track.

Storybook, a Palm Beach County startup that created a digital storybook app for parents to help relax their children before bedtime, was the winner of last year’s community track.

For the second year, the community track will be managed by the Miami office of Endeavor, the startup support and networking group that mentors companies around the world. Endeavor officials will select finalists to go before a panel of judges in the live pitchathon and help prepare the finalists for their presentations.

“We will look at their pitches and give them advice on how to improve them so that the day of the competition they do their best,” said Claudia Duran, Endeavor Miami’s managing director. “We will take them by the hand in that process.”

Winning startups will be fast-tracked into Endeavor’s E-Lab Accelerator.

The Miami area brought in over $5 billion in venture capital last year, a record and the second straight annual increase.

All the early-stage business activity might make some wonder if this startup competition is still needed.

To that, Endeavor’s Duran said yes.

“There is a thriving community for entrepreneurs,” she said. Yet, “it’s also a very key moment in time when entrepreneurs need support due to all the economic challenges that a lot of them are facing.”

Investing and obtaining financing are harder than in each of the past two years, she said. And so, entrepreneurs need visibility for their companies, she said, “and the pitch competition gives that visibility.”

Moreover, the competition targets early-stage entrepreneurs running firms that started no more than three years ago. Those entrepreneurs often have the hardest time getting their companies growing or obtaining financing.

“It’s very important, especially for entrepreneurs at that stage, to be part of these pitch competitions,” Duran said.

COMMUNITY TRACK

Here are some the rules and you can submit an entry at https://forms.gle /Q7sdivCBDTWaZM5f8

Founders must be

South Florida residents living in Miami-Dade, Monroe, Broward or Palm Beach counties.

Launched operations no earlier than Jan. 1, 2020.

FIU TRACK

Here are some of the rules and you can submit an entry at https:// business.fiu.edu/centers/ pino/business-plancompetition.cfm?utm_ source=businessdotfiu doteduslashstartup pitch&utm_medium= redirect&utm_campaign =miami-herald-competition

The track is open to all FIU students, alumni and faculty.

If competing as a team, at least one member must be a current FIU student, alum or faculty member.