By Kubs Lalchandani
Lalchandani Simon, a Miami-based technology law firm, teamed up with EveryMundo, an international digital marketing agency, and Florida State Rep. Jose Javier Rodriguez on Wednesday night to celebrate Miami’s technology sector. “Helping to grow the startup community in Miami is the smartest thing in the world,” explained Rep. Rodriguez in his opening words to the audience. “Elected and business leaders need to work together to foster economic growth through the type of innovation on display here tonight,” he later stated.
As part of the event, Lalchandani Simon held a “shark-tank” style pitch contest to celebrate the tech culture in Miami and to highlight Miami’s many promising start-ups. Six teams pitched their companies to a standing-room-only crowd of Miami’s cutting edge business community. The start-up haku, a state-of-the-art platform that facilitates the organization of endurance events, emerged as the victor after attendees voted. The winning company was founded by brothers Carlos and Jose Escobar, pictured here with Rep. Rodriguez when the winners were announced.
“I am so honored to be included in such an impressive and distinguished group of entrepreneurs,” said contest winner Carlos Escobar, CEO of haku. ”Miami is cultivating a rapidly growing tech and startup scene, which is helping to retain local talent and attract foreign investment,” he continued.
Along with haku, five other Miami technology startups participated in the event:
• Urban.us funds and supports startups that are making cities smarter;
• WeRx.org is a prescription drug price comparison site that enables consumers to reduce health care costs;
• WalkMore is data science company that helps banks predict profitability of customers based on algorithms including various health and financial metrics;
• LeanerNation is a cloud based SAAS Adaptive Educational Software servicing 63,827 users across 2,300 organizations in over 58 countries; and
• Posto7 is the best way to share your favorite restaurants, bars and hotels with only your closest friends.
The participants also demonstrated Miami’s burgeoning culture of technology work-places. They hailed from well-known shared-space work places such as the MEC 261, Pipeline Brickell, the LAB Miami, and the University of Miami’s Miami Innovation Center. “It is incredibly exciting to see Miami’s startup scene mature,” said Danny Simon, co-founder and partner at Lalchandani Simon. “Miami is growing the infrastructure to truly be the technology hub of the future.”
By Kubs Lalchandani is co-founder and partner at Lalchandani Simon PL.
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