Music entrepreneur Ted Lucas and Hilmon Sorey have launched a major startup competition for Southern and Caribbean tech founders.
SPARC (Startup Pitch Accelerator Regional Competition) South Florida is offering $1 million in equity-free capital in addition to mentorship and access to top media, tech, and entertainment networks to the winner, Afrotech reported.
Finalists who don’t win will still get access to a business incubator, marketing support, and partnerships with creators and investors, the platform added.
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Sorey, co-founder of Florida’s only Black tech hub The Source, which is organizing the regional competition, said, “The goal this year is to see how best we could get this entire South Florida ecosystem pulling together, working together. Our motivation is for startup founders to be able to raise their platform, to elevate their visibility to both the community as well as to other founders, investors and accelerators.”
Some of those who competed last year — the inaugural year — went on to participate in accelerators and/or received venture funding, according to Refresh Miami.
Lucas, co-creator of The Source and the founder of independent label Slip-N-Slide Records, has worked with artists such as Rick Ross, Trick Daddy, and Trina. He believes that it is time to create millionaires outside of music and he is ready to help.
“I’ve been blessed and fortunate enough to help some people be stars in the music business. Now is my time to help some people with their dreams of their business and what they wanna do and help the company grow and get to the next level,” Lucas told Afrotech.
Applications close on July 1. Refresh Miami writes that after the deadline passes, 50 startup semifinalists will be chosen. Sparc South Florida will then “provide a week advice and guidance on their pitch deck and presentation – which will be available virtually and in Source’s downtown Miami office, and the top 50 will take part in a Demo Day, where judges and the public can cast their votes on who should move on.”
The top 10 will subsequently pitch on stage to the judges and one will be made the South Florida winner and go to San Francisco, all expenses paid, the outlet added.
Last year’s South Florida winner was Raquel de Antonio Crespo, co-founder of Sargassum Eco Lumber, a Miami startup addressing the growing influx of Sargassum, which harms coastal communities, ecosystems, and public health, and the global plastic waste crisis.
