The Starting Gate

Entrepreneurship datebook: A sampling of events going on this week

Lots going on this week. Here are just a couple of highlights from the tech side.

•  South Florida Technology Summit: Workshops, tutorials, keynotes and exhibits by top tech companies, 1 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 22, Miami Airport Convention Center, presented by TigerDirect.com, Refresh Miami (see Demo Night below) and The LAB Miami. The summit is free but you must register:  sfltechsummit.eventbrite.com

•  Refresh Miami Demo Night: Eight local tech startups pitch their companies at the free monthly event of South Florida’s largest tech organization, 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 22, Miami Airport Convention Center. Register at  refreshmiami.com     

•  Social entrepreneurship: Ashoka and Pipeline Brickell present Miami’s first look at Puddle, a new social banking platform. The event at Pipeline Brickell at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, May 23, includes a panel discussion on social entrepreneurship that includes the founder of Puddle. RSVP:  puddlemiami.eventbrite.com

•  Social tech: The South Florida Technology Alliance features a panel discussion titled, “Social Technology: How the Convergence of Marketing and Technology Blazes Pathways to Business Growth,” with David Carr, InformationWeek editor, and representatives from IBM, SapientNitro, Razorfish and SocialExtract, 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, May 23, The Lab Miami, in Wynwood. Entrance fees apply.  https://www.southfloridatech.org/upcoming-events/may-23-2013/

Find more events (and a smart summary of the week's news) on Andrej Kostresevic's weekly Startup Digest here: http://adk.tumblr.com/. Other good sources for tech event information whenever you need it include refreshmiami.com/events/ and miamitech.org

Also, beyond tech, the Women's Success Summit returns Tuesday and Wednesday, May 21 and 22. This time the theme of the popular conference is "Shameless Self Promotion" and it will be held at The Light Box in Wynwood. 500+ women are expected and ticket packages are still for sale. Read more here on an earlier post in Starting Gate.

Looking ahead: Starting Gate also has the lowdown on two hackathons happening June 1: Hack for Change Miami: Where art and tech meet big government data  at The LAB Miami in Wynwood and HackaNUI -- Hacking the Natural User Interface at Caffeine Spaces in Boca.

 

 

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/05/19/3405286/entrepreneurship-datebook.html#storylink=cpy

Healthbox partners with Florida Blue on regional accelerator in Jacksonville

 Healthbox,  a business accelerator that fosters early-stage healthcare companies, and their anchor partner Florida Blue, is taking  applications through June 2 for a new 16-week accelerator program in Jacksonville.

Adding to the success of their 2012 accelerator programs located in Boston, Chicago and London, Healthbox is expanding to Florida to support entrepreneurs throughout the state, expose the local healthcare community to new and innovative solutions and help the two segments work together. “Our goal at Healthbox is to establish regional hubs of healthcare entrepreneurship throughout the country and across the globe to help build sustainable companies and ultimately improve healthcare outcomes,” says Healthbox Founder and CEO Nina Nashif.

Healthbox encourages entrepreneurs with early-stage healthcare startups aiming to deliver solutions to healthcare’s largest challenges, to apply. The selected companies will receive $50,000 in seed capital and participate in an intensive 16-week program. Receiving strategic guidance from leading industry experts during the program, these startups will learn how to grow their companies within the complex healthcare industry. Towards the end of the four months, the companies will also participate in a large-scale Innovation Day, bringing together hundreds of investors, healthcare leaders and entrepreneurs to hear the pitches of Healthbox companies in the context of their industry needs.

Applications are currently being accepted on the Healthbox website at http://healthbox.com/acceleratorprogram/#apply.

 

ProjectLift announces first accelerator class

ProjectLift MIAMI 2013, South Florida’s first seed accelerator focused exclusively on the intersection of healthcare and technology, has announced its inaugural class of businesses to be funded and supported in the Miami Innovation Center at the University of Miami Life Science & Technology Park (UMLSTP). Five business startups, from as far away as Spain, have been selected for their innovative focus in the healthcare and technology spaces, said the accelerator co-founders David McDonald and Robert Chavez. The ProjectLift MIAMI 2013 class is:

iXploreMyHealth.com -- ixploremyhealth is a spinoff of Sciencetools.net, an established and well respected company in Spain providing continuing medical education for physicians and nurses, seeking to expand its global reach into the United States and Latin America. iXplore delivers quality educational content to physician and consumer audiences. All content is prepared by healthcare professionals and presented through video and 3D animations.

WeRx.org -- WeRx was founded in North Carolina by a team of physician brothers who helplessly lost a patient due to his perceived inability to afford medication which could have saved his life. The result is a web & mobile app that compares local pharmacy prices, provides instant savings making medications affordable.

Alert.MD -- Founded in Palm Beach County, Alert.MD is a patient identifying platform designed to securely access health records from a patient’s locked mobile device in an emergency.

HubSpring.com -- HubSpring.com was born out of necessity by a team of resident physicians at the University of Miami needing fast access to lifesaving information. The resulting tool provides a novel way to manage, distribute, and provide access to important content and information in myriad healthcare settings.

SpeechMed.com -- SpeechMed is a device manufacturer and content delivery platform designed to facilitate better healthcare outcomes. The Miami company features a tablet device to facilitate delivery of patient facing information through a wireless network — delivering health care information in a seamless platform linking patients, doctors, hospitals, and care facilities.

 The 2013 class, which will begin in Mid-May, will cover a 12-week program where each business will be provided strategic guidance, mentoring and warm introductions to the healthcare space.

A Swarm of activity at Venture Hive, other news of note

Alejandro Muther, left, Fiorella Niro, second from left, both of Argentina and with the company Kimetric, Francisco Quintero, right, and Juan Bermudez, with the Miami-based company NightPro, at the Venture Hive. Pictured below, Alejandro Muther presents at The Swarm.

Juan Bermudez passionately presented  NightPro to investors, telling them about a whirlwind of recent accomplishments for the young Miami company that offers a cloud-based event and management platform for the nightlife industry. NightPro has been working with two of the region’s largest promoters — MMG and The Opium Group — that between the two of them represent a who’s who of nightclubs in South Florida.

Bermudez and his co-founder Francisco Quintero are part of the first accelerator class at the new  Venture Hive, and capped off an intense three months last week with The Swarm, the accelerator’s demo day-style event. NightPro was just one of the 14 startups — including six international companies — that presented on Friday afternoon to more than 100 investors and others.

During the past three months, NightPro (Nightpro.co) rebuilt its iPhone and iPad apps from scratch — that will be launching in the next few weeks — and developed a premium version of NightPro that can be customized. It also integrated online ticketing into its platform.      

With the help of his mentor, serial entrepreneur Jesus Rodriguez (pictured here), the NightPro team came away with a better approach for sales and beginning this week will now be going full-throttle on pushing its solution well beyond the local market, said Bermudez. “We have been working with larger companies that want to expand with us in the U.S. and beyond,” including Canada and Europe. In his pitch to investors, he said he needs $400,000 in seed funding to help make it all happen.

Other Venture Hive startups also made their presentations, and then met with investors and showed off their products in private offices set up for them at the Hive. Hair Construction and international companies Tabber and Kimetric all presented global expansion plans. Some announced news:  Do You Remember?, a nostalgia company, will be launching its site this week, said founder Michael Gitter.

Startups in the spotlight

This is a busy week ahead for other South Florida startups:

• Jared Kleinert, a 17-year-old entrepreneur from Boca Raton, is doing something this week he says has never been done before: Launching a company on its own crowd-funding site. Kleinert, a junior at Spanish River High School, will be launching Synergist (www.synergi.st) on Saturday with a social media splash — and hoping to raise $25,000 to fund his company. Synergist is a platform where social entrepreneurs can find other like-minded people, collaborate on projects together and crowdfund their projects. Kleinert plans to use the money to revamp the website and potentially bring on a new team member, Kleinert said. Learn more here:  http://synergist.eventbrite.com/

• Guide is a Miami-based startup led by Freddie Laker and Leslie Bradshaw with technology that will turn your online news into video newscasts, complete with an anchor of your choice. It is one of 16 chosen from around the world to present in the Startup Rally at The Next Web Conference Europe Thursday and Friday in Amsterdam.  Guide was one of only two startups chosen from the United States; the other one hails from San Francisco and the others are from Europe and Israel.

Coming up this week

Refresh Miami, the largest networking group in South Florida, keeps outgrowing its venues. This Thursday its monthly event — the topic is “Lean Startup” — will be held in two large rooms at the Miami Science Museum, with an expected attendance of up to 500. Refresh Miami has organized more than 76 events and has about 5,000 members.

The Startup Bus, which made its debut run at last month’s Refresh event and then followed with a Miami-to-Delray Beach run for a Startup Delray event, will be back to shuttle members from Palm Beach and Broward counties. More information on Refresh Miami’s event is here:  http://refreshmiami.com/event/refreshmiami-lean-startup/

Keep up with the news on The Starting Gate on MiamiHerald.com/business and follow me on Twitter @ndahlberg

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/04/21/v-fullstory/3357126/a-swarm-of-activity-at-venture.html#storylink=cpy

itMD selected for 3-year entrepreneurship program

Miami-based itMD was selected to join the inaugural class of a three-year Entrepreneurship Program designed to accelerate the growth of consumer health companies. The program is a partnership of GE’s healthymagination fund  and health-tech startup incubator StartUp Health.

More than 400 companies from 22 countries applied in January. The 13 companies selected this week represent a broad spectrum of health innovation from the United States, Ireland and Israel focusing on aging, health sensors, patient engagement, mobile health, care coordination, big data, analytics and diagnostics and other areas of innovation. GE said in its press release.

itMD, founded by a group of physicians, is a cloud-based medical image sharing company that enables the on-demand exchange of medical imaging information from anywhere to anyone. Users on the itMD Network can easily send, share and access medical imaging information online with just a web-browser or mobile device. The itMD team recently presented presented at the Florida Venture Forum’s annual conference and was a winner at FIU’s AVCC in December.

The Entrepreneurship Program, launched this week at StartUp Health’s Healthcare Transformer Summit, will offer exposure to VCs and will partner the startups up with GE executives who will help them access the GE network, according to a TechCrunch report. GE and the StartUp Health Innovation Fund will take a 2-10 percent equity stake in the selected companies.

A second Florida company, Sarasota-based IntelligentM with a solution for clinical hand hygiene monitoring in healthcare settings, was also selected. Read about all 13 companies here.

 

Passion for clean technology fuels local launch of Cleantech Open

South Florida is not exactly synonymous with clean-technology innovation, and the sector has been out of favor in the venture capital community.

So I was curious to find out why the Cleantech Open Southeast Region had chosen Miami as one of its hub cities to launch its 2013 U.S. business accelerator and competition at its event Thursday night at the UM Life Science & Technology Park. The launch marks the second year for the program in the region, but this year it is expanding beyond the Washington, DC-Baltimore area with launches in Atlanta, North Carolina’s Research Triangle and Miami. I met a number of passionate local entrepreneurs, consultants and nonprofits with interesting projects in the space among the 100 or so people attending the launch event.

Joshua Greene,  co-founder and regional director of Cleantech Open Southeast region (pictured here), said Miami’s connections with  the Caribbean and Latin America make it a natural regional hub city and added that Miami is growing an exciting ecosystem “we would like to be a part of.” And because clean-tech does come with its own set of challenges around development and  funding, Cleantech Open’s global network becomes all the more valuable, he said, citing the program’s access to more than 1,500 mentors, investors, corporate and government leaders and subject matter experts in all 50 states and 26 countries. More than 700 clean-tech companies have rasied $800 million through its programs since 2006. Its model, he said, is to work with local economic development partners so that job growth and investment stay in the region.

Sean O’Hanlon, metro director of Cleantech Open Southeast and CEO of the American Biofuels Council, said clean-tech is a mechanism for economic development and his goal is “to put Miami on the map as a clean-tech hub.” That would be welcomed by some of the entrepreneurs at the event, who said the community here so far is indeed quite small and much of their business and networking is focused elsewhere.

Sonia Succar Ferré, principle of Sustain Ventures who is helping to organize the effort locally, said she saw first-hand the value of participating in the competition. She and a team made it to the semifinal stage when she was in Boston, and she immediately benefited from the connections and mentorship, she said. She also said the time is right for clean-tech entrepreneurs and potential mentors to get involved. “There is a network here but it just needs to tighten up a little bit. It's up to us as a founding group to get that together. Miami already has a strong incubator base, the opportunities are all here."

The accelerator, competition and national program are focused on eight innovation and technology categories: Energy Generation, Energy Distribution & Storage, Energy Efficiency, Chemicals & Advanced Materials, Information & Communication Technology, Green Building, Transportation and Agriculture-Water-Waste. Entrepreneurs will apply to the accelerator across these categories (fees apply), and be evaluated and selected to participate in the program that spans from spring -- and includes bootcamps and a regional competition -- through the late fall, culminating with a Global Investment Forum and national competition in Silicon Valley in November with $200,000 in prizes.

The application deadline is May 1. There is an April 10 “early bird” deadline to save some money on the application fee. To learn more about the Cleantech Open Southeast or apply, visit www.cleantechopen-southeast.org

Technology Business Incubator in Boca completes latest expansion

Ten months ago, the Research Park at Florida Atlantic University and Enterprise Development Corporation of South Florida expanded the Technology Business Incubator (TBI) by 5,000 sq. ft. in response to a growing demand.  A second expansion (previously reported on Starting Gate) will be complete this month, adding an additional 10,000 sq. ft. to accommodate a  need for additional space for its current client companies and to house new companies that have been on a waiting list.

The TBI, a location and knowledge resource center for entrepreneurs emerging from Florida Atlantic University – students, recent graduates and faculty – as well as regional entrepreneurs is currently home to 23 early stage high-tech companies as well as the New World Angels and the Institute for Commercialization of Public Research. The most recent expansion brings the TBI to a total of 25,000 sq. ft. and will accommodate an additional 15 companies, with individual offices ranging from 120 to 1,000 sq. ft., said Andrew Duffell, president and CEO of The Research Park at Florida Atlantic University.

The expansion features a 4,000 sq. ft. co-working center operated by Caffeine Spaces. The new and larger space also features a Student Innovation and Invention Lab designed for use by FAU student-based teams working on industry projects. Also included is a dedicated office for the annual FAU Business Plan Competition winner and a kitchen and lounge area. For the emerging company requiring advanced broadband capabilities, the space is wired with Gigabit Ethernet cabling and optic fiber, and includes a server room with back-up battery power and a generator available to host resident company servers.

TBI space is rented on a first-come, first-served basis after a thorough review of the TBI online application. For more information, please contact Christine Burres,ccannon@edc-tech.org.

 

Good Reads: South Florida startup scene in the national, global media

As winter turns to spring, South Florida’s startup scene has seemed to capture the attention of the national and international media more than usual. Here are a few of the recent stories.

Rokk3r Labs celebrated its first anniversary last week, and it also was the subject of a splash in Entrepreneur, which called it a hybrid investor-accelerator.  In just a year, the article said the Miami Beach-based Rokk3r Labs has $1.5 million in sales, a Colombian subsidiary, a $20 million investment portfolio, 25 employees and expansion plans for Brazil, Africa and Europe. Read the Entrepreneur story here.  

Kimetric, an Argentine company that recently relocated to South Florida and is part of the Launch Pad Tech accelerator at Venture Hive, was featured in a Wall Street Journal story. Kimetric, which also recently presented at SuperConf, helps retailers increase their sales by tracking and analyzing in-store customer behavior with an innovative application of Microsoft Kinect technology.    Read
the WSJ story here.

The LAB Miami  was featured in a Forbes blog post titled The LAB Miami: Turning South Florida into the Next Startup Hub, which describes the 10,000 square foot Wynwood space as both a co-working  space and a community for connecting and learning with classes, workshops and on-site mentors and investors.

Miami was listed as one of six cities that would be great places to launch a business on The Street,   which interviews The Knight Foundation’s Matt Haggman about the area’s recent momentum.  Read
it here.  South Florida and The LAB Miami also shined brightly in the Atlantic’s earlier coverage  when it presented Start-up City: Miami last month and its post-event video here.

This list is far from comprehensive and I’m sure I missed some. TechCrunch and The Next Web have also featured a number of Miami startups recently, and Andrej Kostresevic’s Startup Digest this morning reminded me of the recent  video interviews of Juan Diego Calle of .CO and Freddie Laker of Gui.de for Tech Cocktail’s SXSW video series.  But the point is the national media spotlight is providing more opportunities for outsiders looking in to read about and learn about the tech community.

How to find the best work environment for your team

By Susan Amat

Knowing what you need, when you need it is both a skill and an art. As an entrepreneur, that holds true when trying to decide where you will conduct the master planning, strategy, ditch digging, sleeplessness, power naps, wiping of tears, and jumping for joy during your journey. While terms like “accelerators’ and “incubators” are used interchangeably by many, each has very clear missions in the classic sense. Throwing co-working into the mix offers a good overview of places to set up shop with special perks for entrepreneurs.

Accelerators: An accelerator is typically a 12-week program that supports rapid growth for startups, usually in the tech space. Most accelerators either have no specialization, meaning they accept tech ideas from all industries, or they have a singular focus, such as cloud computing or healthcare. The program we are running at Venture Hive called Launch Pad Tech is an economic development-based accelerator focusing on leveraging the existing strengths of Miami: healthcare, travel/hospitality and creatives. Most accelerators have one or two programs a year. Entrepreneurs typically do not pay to be part of these programs. Usually an accelerator is able to sustain itself by taking equity in the companies or having a fund attached. The support we received from the Downtown Development Authority and Miami-Dade Mayor Gimenez allows us to give no-equity grants to the companies. If you are considering applying to an accelerator, narrow your search to those that have a track record of success in developing companies that still love them after the program is over and have investment rounds and growth after leaving. If you can find one that is focused just on your industry, that is even better. Most accelerators make their acceptance decisions not just on the idea but the team itself, so having a strong technical co-founder is usually a necessity.

Incubators: Whereas an accelerator is an equity-based model, an incubator is sustained by charging the entrepreneurs rent or fees for services. And as accelerators cap their programs at 12-weeks where everyone is in a cohort together, companies at incubators may start and end at different times since there isn’t a set lockstep curriculum. Most use language around a company graduating from the incubator when certain milestones are met, which usually must happen within a two- or three-year period. If you are considering an incubator, spend time with the entrepreneurs as well as the sales team from the incubator and make sure your company will fit, considering the pace and intensity of the other firms, the culture of the space, and the personality of the program managers. Ask resident startups for examples of how the program has supported them. Since the only one I can reference are my friends at the EDC incubator at FAU in Boca Raton, we are launching the Venture Hive Incubator in May. Applications are now open at www.venturehive.co

Co-working spaces: Co-working spaces rent private offices, devoted desks (yours that no one else can use), or access to shared workspace. You will find a combination of freelance professionals and startups working and rental income is the key to maintaining the business. Services and activities offered vary greatly; some charge for classes open to both members and non-members, others have free events as a benefit of membership. When choosing a co-working space, you can be very selective since there are many options locally. Work out of each space for a few days. Do you like the people and the overall vibe? Are the owners nickel and diming you for every cent? Your ideal schedule may also come into play — if you work nights and weekends, check the event schedules if you want to concentrate on your business instead of being distracted by a class being conducted. Can you conduct meetings with clients in a private conference room? What is the parking and public transportation situation? Is the neighborhood representative of your brand? Pick where you think you will be the happiest and your business will thrive from being around such inspiring people!

Working from home: While you may have free parking, 24/7 access and a stocked fridge, getting out of your normal environment to join others who may provide inspiration and support is invaluable to most entrepreneurs. Starting a business is incredibly lonely, but every entrepreneur needs a network to make contacts, offer feedback, and be there for the ups and downs.

Running your startup from your day job office: Don’t do it! You will get caught and then there will be questions about using company resources to support your business and who owns what.

Knowing the options and nuances of offerings will ensure your experience lives up to your expectations for the health of your business and your physical and emotional well-being.

Susan Amat is founder of Launch Pad Tech and Venture Hive. Follow her on Twitter @susanamat. She writes this monthly column for The Miami Herald's Business Monday section.

Cleantech Open plans launch in South Florida

Talented entrepreneurs with big ideas for solving the world’s most pressing environmental challenges abound, but for these innovators who receive little support from the government or traditional funding sources, their challenge is not only raising the necessary capital to take their ideas to market, but also how best to get there. The Cleantech Open has helped startups raise $800 million for over 700 alumni since its inception in 2006.   

Together with Cleantech Open business development co-chairs, Marianne Canero and Sonia Succar Ferré, Sean O’Hanlon, Cleantech Open Area Director for Florida, the Caribbean and Latin America, is launching Cleantech Open in South Florida to attract the best and brightest cleantech entrepreneurs, technologists and researchers from all over Florida, the Caribbean, and Latin America. 

The launch event will be held on March 28 starting at 6pm and will be hosted in partnership with Wexford Science & Technology at the state-of-the-art University of Miami Life Science & Technology Park, located at the intersection of NW 7^th Avenue and NW 20^th Street. 

The launch event will be the start of an eight-month business accelerator program in which clean and green entrepreneurs from around Florida, the Caribbean, and Latin America are invited to submit their business concept to receive training and mentoring from business leaders that cultivate into funding for their business. The accelerator program will culminate in November when finalists go on to compete at the national level competition. Learn more at www.cleantechopen.org.