Miami Herald’s 2023 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 finance company 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 these days. 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 in-person 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 top 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 of 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 soon after produce individual profile articles of the top 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 that 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 judging entrepreneurs’ pitches to avoid any potential conflicts reporting on entrepreneurship, venture capital and the general tech sector in South Florida.

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 with over 20 years of experience mentoring companies around the world. Endeavor officials will review the field of candidates, 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 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 once we select them.”

Winning startups in the pitch competition will be fast-tracked into a slot in Endeavor’s E-Lab Accelerator program.

The Miami metropolitan 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 may get some to wonder if this startup competition by a Miami mainstream media company 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 they were 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 started no more than three years ago, ones who often have the hardest times 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.

Here are the rules for the competition in the community track and you can submit an entry here for the community track:

Community Track

▪ Entry deadline: Emailed by 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, March 1, 2023.

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

▪ Entrepreneurs must be founders.

▪ Eligible businesses launched operations no earlier than Jan. 1, 2020.

▪ Startup company annual revenues must be at least $50,000 and no more than $1 million.

▪ All industries are welcome to apply, as long as their products are tech-enabled and not service-based.

▪ Applicants enter either the community track or those affiliated with FIU enter the FIU track.

▪ Finalists will be required to present their pitches to expert judges on March 24. If a finalist is unable to attend the pitchathon, the next highest ranked company will be deemed a finalist and get the opportunity to compete in the pitch competition.

▪ The top winners will be recognized by the Miami Herald live at the awards showcase plus in multimedia coverage of the contest.

This year’s community track judges are:

Jaclyn Baumgarten, founder of Boatsetter

Jorge Ruiz, founder of Fin Conecta

Martin Claure, CEO and founder, Aprende Institute

Here are the rules for the competition in the FIU track and you can submit an entry here for the FIU track:

FIU Track

▪ Entry deadline: Emailed by 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, March 1, 2023.

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

▪ For-profit business ideas only.

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

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

▪ An entry consists of a pitch deck of 10 to 20 slides that explains your product, growth strategy, marketing plan, team members and financials.

▪ The product can be a proposed business or one that is already in development or operation. However, if operating the company must not have started prior to Jan. 1, 2020.

▪ Applicants in this track can’t submit an entry in the community track.

▪ Finalists will be required to present their pitches live to expert judges. If a finalist is unable to attend the pitchathon, the next highest ranked entry will be deemed a finalist and get the opportunity to compete in the pitch competition.

▪ The top winner will be recognized at the awards showcase and featured in Miami Herald multimedia coverage of the contest.

The FIU track judges are:

Ana Barrera, founder and CEO, Succession Marketing

Rafael Soltero, associate teaching professor, department of marketing and logistics, Florida International University School of Business

Seema Pissaris, clinical professor of management, FIU School of Business

Deepak Ohri, chairman, executive in residence, entrepreneurship and innovation, Pino Global Entrepreneurship Center, FIU School of Business

Orlando Espinosa, co-founder, Emineo Media