“These startups are getting the job done and building real companies” – Chris Daniels
Kristen Brenna
The name says it all: Over the past 18 weeks, 300 startups have literally been born here through the City of Miami and Venture Miami’s Built in Miami program. Of those, 100 have gone from idea to product launch, and at Built in Miami’s Demo Day, eight startups were selected by the program’s mentors to pitch their vision in four minutes to a room full of investors, mentors, and the Miami tech community.
Our mission? To empower Miami entrepreneurs and tech professionals with the tools, resources, knowledge and opportunities they need to scale and build their startups through a free 18-week incubator program.
“A few months ago, we made a call and said, ‘Now is the time to build,’ and the best city to build in is Miami,” said Burhan Sebin, Venture Miami’s director of research and program lead for Built in Miami. The Built in Miami program supports entrepreneurs creating local tech companies to spur economic development in our beautiful city, Sebin told the audience gathered at Brickell’s Flamingo Theatre Bar on Tuesday night for Built in Miami’s Demo Day.
“We wanted to do bigger and better things with Built in Miami in 2024,” said Chris Daniels, lead program instructor at Built in Miami and founder of The Shrimp Society. “In the last 18 weeks, we’ve brought together 300 local Miami entrepreneurs and launched 100 startups that are getting the job done and building real companies.”
After an hour of dynamic presentations, the Built in Miami judges met to vote for the best startups, runners-up and winners: Olivia Gaudree of Fuel Capital, Jared Schwitzke of Miami Angels, Aditi Joshi of Google Cloud, Darien K. Smith of DK Smith & Co and Rich Robert of JustWorks.
The winning startup received a trip to New York City sponsored by JustWorks, $5,000 in Google Cloud credits, the first pitch at a Marlins game and $1,000 in Delta Airlines credits. The runner-up won dinner in Miami with top executives and venture capitalists and $2,000 in Google Cloud credits.
And the winner is… (drum roll please)
- Coming in second is Smart Aerosol Technologies, which promotes precision and sustainable agriculture through its smart nano fertilizer technology. Smart Aerosol Technologies was founded by Shruti Choudhury. [pictured below]The four members of the group are University of Miami PhD student Ramesh Railiya, University of Miami graduate scientist Pratim Biswas, and University of Miami School of Engineering Dean Sujit Modi, a PhD student at the University of Washington. They have already established a partnership with the Illinois Agricultural Society.
- Coming in at number one is Investrio, a debt repayment platform that provides tools, guidance, and a community to help young professionals repay their debt. Their personalized approach includes self-service tools, a humanized platform for advice and planning, a support community, and their platform also includes analytics and data. Investrio was founded by Joyce Medeiros. [pictured below]former Goldman Sachs trader, and Laura Muriel Texidor, former program manager at Outlier Ventures. [Stay tuned for more on this startup in Refresh Miami]
“These founders came with ideas and dreams, and now they are leaders, CEOs, visionaries, storytellers and dreamers,” Daniels said. “I’ve been honored to watch them grow into great leaders who will continue to lead the Miami Tech ecosystem for years to come.”
Here’s the rest of the Built in Miami entrepreneurs who presented at Demo Day.
Photo courtesy of Venture Miami
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Kristen Brenla is a media relations specialist at Jackson Health System, managing media relations for the health system’s cardiology, neurosurgery, rehabilitation and Miami Transplant Institute service lines. Prior to her role at Jackson, Kristen worked at Florida International University as an account manager in FIU’s Engagement Office. In 2022, Kristen earned her master’s degree in global strategic communications from FIU.
