Plans for Start-Up City: Miami expand with pop-up pitch event

Building on the success of the inaugural Start-Up City: Miami 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 who will present their start-up companies to a panel of judges, including urban affairs expert and  Atlantic Cities senior editor Richard Florida,  Andres Moreno, founder and CEO of Open English and others. The winner of the pop-up pitch session will be invited to appear on stage at Start-Up City: Miami –  the daylong event of speakers, panels and networking that last year featured Tony Hsieh of Zappos and drew more than 1,000 people. The next Start-Up City will be Feb. 6 at Miami Beach’s New World Center.

“This is our second year of Startup 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, Startup City: Miami on Feb. 6 and eMerge Americas May 2-6.

The pop-up pitch session will be 4:30-6:45 p.m. Dec. 9 at The Light Box, 404 NW 26th St. in Wynwood. To apply to pitch or for more information on the event, email  startupcity@theatlantic.com.

Nancy Dahlberg