The dust has settled on Tampa Bay’s first national conference of 2022, with more than 80 startups and investor groups alike having experienced the Tampa Bay startup scene — many for the first time.
The national conference, which most recently chose Memphis and Boston as host cities, arrived in Tampa Jan. 25 for three days of pitching, keynotes, connections — and llamas thrown in for good measure.
“We’re sitting in the fastest-growing place in the country; there is no doubt that this is the place to be,” Jeff Vinik, Tampa Bay Lightning owner and backer of startup hub Embarc Collective, said during his conference session. “That was my pitch to Lakshmi [Shenoy, CEO at Embarc Collective] then, and that’s what it is now.”
The pinnacle of the event was the annual pitch competition, which whittled roughly 80 startups to the top 15. Several Tampa Bay companies made the cut, including Tampa-based Cope Notes, Tampa-based MARVL, St. Petersburg-based Shamrck and St. Pete-based Spontivly.
For the final five, however, the lone Florida startup was Orlando-based Home Lending Pal, which offers a digital mortgage advising platform. It was joined by Texas-based Heroshe, Virginia-based Scout, Connecticut-based Target Arm and Maryland-based Relavo. Scout, which gives space crafts the ability to view and avoid threats, took home the main prize. Tampa-based CopeNotes won the People’s Choice Award.
Beyond bragging rights, the conference could have longer-lasting effects, namely in outside investments for local institutions or relocations.
“It’s hard to measure, but the idea really is it’s almost like startup tourism — you’re bringing people to an environment, and you have a great experience,” Frank Gruber, co-CEO at Startup of the Year, said in a previous interview. “It may be eye-opening when they may not have thought of Tampa before.”
