🇺🇸 Miami Herald Startup Pitch Competition – Applications open until 1st March 2022

The six-week challenge accepts entries in two tracks:

Community: Open to all the community, focused on key industries vital to South Florida’s economy.

FIU: dedicated to students, faculty and alumni of Florida International University.

Startup Pitch Competition finalists will receive a private pitch coaching session before the final round of judging. Panels of expert judges will name a winner in each track based on the quality of the idea, the submitted pitch deck and — for those who move forward to the final round of the competition — a live judging pitch presentation.

The winner will be profiled in the Miami Herald’s Business section this spring and have the opportunity to participate in a Miami Herald virtual or in-person event highlighting the winners and the competition.

Visit miamiherald.com/challenge for more information.

PLEASE NOTE: Applicants cannot enter Community track and the FIU track with the same idea. For the FIU track, the applicant must be a Student, Alumnus or Faculty of FIU to enter. If a team is entering, at least one member of the team must be an FIU student or alumnus.

MIAMI HERALD PITCH STARTUPS COMPETITION DATES:

January 30: Applications open.
March 1: Entries due at 11:59pm ET.
March – April: Private pitch coaching session for the finalists.
April 1: Judging completed – winners notified.
May 4: Winners published online and in Biz Sunday.

SELECTION CRITERIA:

– The Founder(s) must be South Florida resident(s) living in Miami-Dade, Broward, Monroe or Palm Beach counties.
– The product can be a proposed business or one that is already in development or operation. However, if your business launched operations prior to January 1, 2019, it is not eligible.
– The company must have already generated at least $50K in revenues at the time of submission.

PLEASE NOTE: Finalists will be required to present their pitch to the judges. Judges will consider the pitch in their final ranking. If a finalist is unable to attend the judging session, the next highest-ranked plan will be deemed a finalist and be awarded the opportunity to compete in the pitch competition.

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DEADLINE TO APPLY: TUESDAY, MARCH 1 AT 11:59PM ET.

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