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Could your startup use $1M? The Source invites you to compete in Startup World Cup

Nancy Dahlberg
Nancy Dahlberg
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By Nancy Dahlberg

Get your pitch deck ready. The Source, a new hub for founders and investors, is giving one startup founder the opportunity to pitch for a chance to win a $1 million investment prize.

The Startup World Cup is one of the largest startup competitions globally and the Source has partnered with Pegasus Tech Ventures, a Silicon Valley venture firm with $2 billion in assets under management, to bring the competition to South Florida.

Applications are due by July 7 (deadline extended) and that’s when the fun begins. The contest goes pretty fast. Keep up!

The judges will be evaluating the contestants’ applications, which include a pitch deck, and select 60 to pitch in a public Demo Day set for Aug. 24. From there, 10 will be selected to go to the Miami Regional Finals Sept. 14, where one startup will emerge the regional champ, headed to San Francisco in October for the Startup Cup World Finals and a chance to win the $1 million investment from Pegasus.

“That is huge, that’s life changing,” said Hilmon Sorey, a an investor, advisor and multi-time founder who has partnered with Ted Lucas, founder and CEO of Slip-n-Slide Records, a philanthropist and a Miami native, to recently open The Source, which provides resources designed to empower and elevate entrepreneurs and emerging tech professionals with a keen focus on minorities and women in technology. “The Source is all about local. Everything we’re doing is about trying to ensure that locals participate in the tech economy,” said Sorey, who moved to Miami from Silicon Valley in early 2022.

Hilmon Sorey

Miami experiences a plethora of events that attract people from around the world, but Lucas and Sorey wanted to do something that was for locals by locals. The kickoff was announced this week at Tech Tuesdays, their weekly event at Red Rooster.

The competition is open to startups in any stage, Sorey said, in an interview with Refresh Miami. “What we’re looking for are innovative startups that are a little out of the gate, not necessarily in the ideation stage. This is a chance for folks, whether they’re participating in other programs or accelerators here in South Florida or if they have just been wiling away in their apartment or in one of our great co-working spaces, to put their baby out there for the public to see.”

Just have an idea? You are welcome to participate, too. There’s a separate track for idea-stage startups. While these companies likely won’t advance, it’s a chance to workshop or demo your idea and see how it lands with people and perhaps get inspired to continue and meet others in the ecosystem that can help, Sorey said.

After the demo day featuring 60 startups, judges will whittle that down to 10, and the 10 will participate in a coaching week. “We want this pitch competition to be absolute fire so we’re pulling in all our resources from The Source (mentors, coaches, etc). This is going to be a little bit American Idol,” Sorey said.

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The Miami Regional Finale, where one startup will be chosen to advance and is also open to the public, will wrap up the  the summer of the Startup World Cup. That startup will pitch for the cool million on Oct. 2-4, competing with startups from all over the world.

Ted Lucas

“Ted and I are adamant that there is a community and an ecosystem and an environment of people who are of Miami who should be participating and really should have a platform. And so the idea is let’s compete on the biggest stage,” Sorey says. It’s also a lot of fun to root for the home team startup, he adds.  

It’s been just over three months since The Source opened its doors in downtown Miami in February. Since then, The Source has been hosting Tech Tuesdays from 6 pm to 9 pm every week, attracting a mix of entrepreneurs, tech professionals, investors – and the tech curious, Sorey said.

Lucas also started the nonprofit Tech Knowledge last year, and they have an innovation lab on the Florida Memorial University campus. The B2B tech sales program graduated 43 students last year and the program, now backed by JPMorgan Chase, will be starting again in June with a fresh cohort. “We’re looking forward to both students and the community participating in that and helping them to get tech jobs.”

Since the opening Feb. 15, The Source itself has invested in four seed-stage companies, two of them local. Their downtown space has also been used for everything from a blockchain investment seminar to a resume and work readiness program. The Source has also forged strategic partnerships that are revenue based.

“We look for places where Ted and I  have a background, whether it’s an expertise or our network, that can provide velocity for the companies. My background is b2b SaaS, everything from healthtech,  fintech and cleantech to biotech and AI. Ted is one of the best promoters and marketers in the world. He also has made deep inroads into entertainment and sports and media.”

 “I really want folks to understand that the tech curious have a place and that there is a trajectory that you can get on that can happen very quickly, where you can go from thinking you don’t know anything about tech to being immersed in it, whether that’s in a job, whether that’s just using more tech at home, whether that’s ‘I have this idea and I think I can go with it’,” Sorey continued.  “Our job is to ensure that there are ways that we can help folks make those linkages that are important for their growth in economic and social mobility.”

Go here to learn more about the Startup World Cup and register by July 7 (deadline updated).

Photo here and at the top of this post were taken during The Source’s Tech Tuesdays. Photos provided by The Source.


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