You may remember Start-Up City: Miami last February – the daylong event of speakers, panels and networking at the New World Center on Miami Beach that featured Tony Hsieh of Zappos and many others. Start-Up City: Miami is returning in February, and building on the success of the inaugural program, The Atlantic, in partnership with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, will host a special “pop-up pitch session” on Dec. 9 in Miami.
The event will feature up to a half-dozen South Florida-based entrepreneurs pre-selected by The Atlantic and the Knight Foundation, who will pitch their startups to a panel of judges. Each participant will get up to four minutes to give their presentation and three minutes to field questions from the judges. Urban affairs expert and Atlantic Cities senior editor Richard Florida, Andres Moreno, founder and CEO of Open English, and Miami technologist and investor Steve Repetti are confirmed as judges, and more judges will be announced. A networking reception will follow the pitch session.
The winner of the pop-up pitch session will be invited to appear on stage for an interview at Atlantic’s marque Start-Up City: Miami event, to be held Feb. 6, 2014 at the New WorldCenter. Last year’s event drew more than 1,000 people, and it was livestreamed, too.
Want to be considered for the Pop-Up Pitch? Email startupcity@theatlantic.com by Nov. 27.
“This is our second year of Start-Up City, and we want to build on its success … We want to provide more opportunities for entrepreneurs to present their ideas, receive valuable feedback and connect with people who could potentially be funders,” said Matt Haggman, Miami program director of the Knight Foundation.
Haggman said the pop-up pitch session fits in perfectly with the foundation’s strategy of providing and supporting events throughout the year for entrepreneurs, particularly ones populated around the three marquee events – SIME MIA Dec. 3-4, Start-Up City: Miami on Feb. 6 and eMerge Americas May 2-6.
Here are the details of The Atlantic's pop-up pitch session:
Where: The Light Box, 404 NW 26th Street (Wynwood Arts District), Miami, 33127
When: Monday, Dec. 9, 2013, 4:30-6:45 pm
More information on event to apply to pitch: Email startupcity@theatlantic.com.