30 Under 30 Local 2023: Miami
From breaking NBA records to building North America’s next bitcoin mining giant, here are the young vanguards shaping the entrepreneurial landscape in Miami.
By Zoya Hasan & Meena Thiruvengadam; Illustration by Jordan Carter
Miami is a city that knows hustle and bustle. Besides busy boardwalks and an undeniable taste for nightlife, this megalopolis boasts a thriving startup ecosystem. The young talents in Miami are seizing opportunities in cutting-edge industries like AI, cryptocurrency and virtual reality. Like many places, Miami leans male-dominant in its startup scene: Reports show that in 2022, less than 1% of all-women teams in South Florida received venture capital funding. Still, the women on our first-ever 30 Under 30 Local Miami list have persevered. The entrepreneurs on our list are collectively projected to generate nearly $300 million in revenue by the end of this year. Meet the 2023 class of the 30 Under 30 Local Miami List.
Bam Adebayo
26 | Athlete, Miami Heat
Edrice Femi “Bam” Adebayo is a 26-year-old professional basketball player who helped take the Miami Heat to the 2020 NBA Finals. He is a two-time NBA All-Star and an Olympic gold medalist who played on the U.S. Olympic basketball team in 2020. A Flintstones fan as a child, he got the nickname Bam after mimicking Bamm-Bamm Rubble by flipping over a coffee table while watching the cartoon. Adebayo attended the University of Kentucky before being drafted into the NBA in 2017. He is among three Miami Heat players to record at least 20 playoff double-doubles—the other two are Dwyane Wade and LeBron James. Adebayo launched the Bam, Books & Brotherhood (BBB) foundation in 2017 with an aim to change the lives of single mothers like his own. The BBB Foundation hosts toy and food drives and youth clinics, and has helped more than 7,500 families to date.
Kingsley Advani
29 | Founder, Allocations
Kingsley Advani is the founder and CEO of Allocations, an AI-powered fund administration platform, which has serviced more than $1 billion in assets across 1,400 private funds. Allocations offers products that assist fund managers in creating special purpose vehicles (SPVs). These enable fund managers to raise capital from multiple investors through a single investment. Advani, who has been investing since he was 19-years-old and has since made more than 200 angel investments, got the idea when he was hitting roadblocks in setting up his own funds. Allocations generated $5.5 million in revenue last year.
Brandon Amoroso
26 | Founder, Electriq
Ecommerce marketing expert Brandon Amoroso founded Electriq, an agency that has helped 55 brands on Shopify to scale, retain customers and maintain performance through lifecycle marketing strategies. The company was acquired in 2022 by alcohol e-commerce company DRINKS.com for seven figures, and Amoroso now serves as its president. He’s currently also working on a second startup, SCALIS, with his brother Parker. SCALIS is leveraging AI to create an integrated job board and applicant tracking system.
Sean August
29 | Founder, August Wealth Management Group
In 2019, Sean August founded the August Wealth Management Group, a fee-only firm providing investment advice and financial planning to high-net-worth individuals, businesses and institutions. He generated more than $15 million in revenue in the 2022 calendar year. The company has also developed initiatives like the Justice-Impacted Individuals (I.J.I.) project, creating investment accounts for incarcerated individuals, and the 1% Private Wealth fintech app, aiming to democratize financial services for the remaining 99% of the population, which will launch at the end of 2023. August pledges 50% of net profits generated from these initiatives to support organizations with similar missions.
Amber Barbach
28 | Founder, The Glioblastoma Research Organization
Since founding The Glioblastoma Research Organization in 2018, Amber Barbach has raised more than $900,000 in donations to promote awareness and research on a cure for glioblastoma, a fast-growing tumor affecting the brain or spine. Barbach lost her father to glioblastoma and launched the nonprofit organization the same year, and has since provided support to doctors and researchers by fully funding six projects and donating $250,000 to date. Barbach is preparing to start an in-house project for a glioblastoma biobank, or a genetic testing data collection program, which will be backed by Duke University later this year.
Natali Barbu & Connor Boyce
27 & 25 | Cofounders, Rella
Natalie Barbu and Connor Boyce are the cofounders of Rella, an app that acts as an assistant to more than 16,000 content creators to date, helping manage their feeds, followers and finances. Barbu, who is a content creator herself, was tired of going from her notes app to a spreadsheet to a cluttered inbox, and decided to create a platform where she could handle all her creator-related business seamlessly. Rella launched in January 2022 with $1.1 million in funding from Charge VC, Hustle Fund and Goodwater Capital, among others, and aims to launch a business-to-business segment in the near future.
Arielle Baril
25 | Founder, Reilli
When Arielle Baril decided to launch her own swimwear brand, Reilli, in 2019, with no outside funding or partners, her grandmother taught her how to sew. Now she’s set to hit her first $100,000 in revenue by the end of the year. Instead of mass producing, Reilli custom sews every suit as orders are placed—more than 4,000 customers across the U.S, South America and Europe (including members of the Kardashian family) have worn her one-of-a-kind swimsuits.
Brian Bristol
26 | Founder, Pigeon
Brian Bristol is the founder and CEO of Pigeon, an app for internal lending within communities of family, friends or colleagues. Pigeon is similar to Venmo, but with slightly different features—the app allows individuals to manage IOUs (documents that acknowledge a debt), set up payment schedules and encourage on-time payment reminders. Pigeon has facilitated the movement of more than $4 million among 22,000 people around the world, and attracted nearly $3 million in venture capital funding, including from Y Combinator.
Thomas Cecil
29 | Founder, Clyde AI
During the pandemic, Thomas Cecil founded Clyde AI, and in 2021 sold it to Array, a fintech company valued at $1.5 billion and backed by VC firms like General Catalyst and Battery Ventures. Clyde AI used algorithms to assess transaction data and find low-risk bank loan customers, collaborating with banks like American Express, Wells Fargo and SoFi. Cecil is now one of the largest shareholders in Array, which creates tools and technologies for understanding and protecting consumer credit information that other financial institutions can embed into their platforms.
Bradley Chubb
27 | Athlete, Miami Dolphins
In 2022, Bradley Chubb was recruited to be the football outside linebacker for the Miami Dolphins from the Denver Broncos. He competed in 16 games last season and 57 games since being drafted for the NFL in 2018. When Chubb isn’t on the field, he’s running the Chubb Foundation with his brother, where he and his team mentor more than 2,500 children through youth football camps and educational programs. Chubb has also invested in 12 startups to date through Captain Partners, an investment company that connects entrepreneurs to athletes, including social gaming platform Artie and athletic apparel company Legends.
Gaston Becherano Cohen
27 | Founder, Smorgasburg Miami
Gaston Becherano Cohen brought the famous Smorgasburg food festival, which originated in Brooklyn, New York, to the buzzy streets of Miami in 2022. It features more than 60 food vendors from Miami and across the U.S, and each weekend brings more than 20,000 people to the market. Total vendor sales at Smorgasburg Miami exceeded $5 million in 2022.
Alix Earle
22 | Creator
In the past year, Alix Earle has become a name inseparable from TikTok. The social media influencer rose to fame organically through videos about her days as a University of Miami student–which were often filled with back-to-back parties, adventures and pure chaos. Her following on TikTok alone has grown by 1,000% over the past six months, and she has more than 7.5 million followers across multiple social media platforms, including 5.6 million on TikTok and 2.9 million on Instagram. She has been tapped for brand deals by Amazon, GrubHub, American Eagle, among others, and even created her own energy drink with Amino Lean.
Olivia Gaudree
27 | Partner, Fuel Venture Capital
Olivia Gaudree is a Florida native with a passion for investing back into her home state. She joined Fuel Venture Capital, a Miami-based firm with more than $550 million assets under management, as an intern in 2018 and has since become a partner and vice president of operations. Gaudree has facilitated the distribution of more than $100 million to South Florida startups, including aerospace and defense company Terran Orbital, which went public with the New York Stock Exchange, and ensures the firm is giving priority to founders of underrepresented groups.
Asher Genoot, 28
28 | Founder, U.S. Bitcoin Corp.
Asher Genoot is the founder of the U.S. Bitcoin Corp., which builds and operates data centers for bitcoin production. Currently valued at $500 million, the company says it takes a comparatively sustainable approach to bitcoin mining, which has proven to be harmful for the environment. Genoot’s data centers in Texas, Nebraska and Niagara Falls are designed to be flexible and can adjust their mining activities based on changes in bitcoin market prices so that mining is only done when necessary. The company is on track to increase revenue from $73 million last year to $127 million by the end of 2024. Earlier this year, Genoot also announced a soon-to-come merger with Nasdaq company Hut 8, one of the largest bitcoin enterprises.
Liam Gerada & Travis Gerada
23 & 20 | Cofounders, Krepling
Liam and Travis Gerada are the dynamic duo of brothers who created Krepling, an innovative platform designed to help e-commerce companies grow their businesses without needing any coding skills. More than 600 merchants use Krepling to easily build both the front-end and back-end of their online stores, and the platform also automates marketing tasks for them to implement. The Geradas have raised $2.5 million since the company’s launch in 2020 and say they will surpass $1 million in revenue this year.
Felix Hartmann
28 | Founder, Hartmann Capital
Felix Hartmann founded crypto fund Hartmann Capital from his bedroom in 2018 with $217,000. Today, the company has raised $25 million in assets under management. The fund was recognized as the No. 1 venture capital firm investing in the metaverse at the 2023 American Metaverse Awards. Hartmann Capital’s investment portfolio includes social music experience platform Redpill VR, neurotechnology company Neurable and AEXLAB (see more below on its founder).
Andrew Hiesinger
21 | Founder, Quant Data
Andrew Hiesinger is the founder and CEO of Quant Data, a fintech platform revolutionizing access to market data for more than 2,000 customers. Quant Data—which has been bootstrapped since its launch in 2020—uses algorithms to process and interpret stock market information in a more comprehensible manner, and aims to reduce the information gap between big investors and individual traders. Quant Data’s primary customers are day traders and options traders who can use this data to make more educated decisions. The company hit $440,000 in revenue last year.
Tiffany K. Guillen
29 | Founder, Creative X Entertainment
Tiffany K. Guillen, who also writes and directs her own films, is the cofounder of Creative X Entertainment (CXE), a marketing agency and full-service production company that has done numerous marketing campaigns for Netflix, a YouTube series for Bumble and an investor day campaign for Petco, among other high-profile projects. A Latina in the media, Gulien’s 2020 short, Welcome Back, was produced in-house at CXE and currently streams on HBOMax. Her company generated more than $1 million in revenue in 2022 and is on track to double by the end of this year.
Frida Leibowitz
27 | Cofounder, Debbie
Growing up in a family where debt was the norm, Frida Leibowitz knows first-hand how much of a role psychological patterns play when you’re strapped. That’s why she and her two cofounders launched Debbie, a behavioral app that rewards individuals for tracking their spending habits and making their payments on time. Debbie is free for all consumers, and its primary revenue sources are the credit unions it partners with to help manage debts. The app officially launched this year with two financial institutions, Michigan State University Credit Union and Lafayette Federal Credit Union, with more to come, and has more than 2,500 debtors using the app. The company has raised $2.3 million in funding from investors including Hustle Fund, Outside VC and Gaingels.
Joey Levy
28 | Cofounder, Betr
In 2022, Joey Levy team up with Jake Paul to cofounded Betr, a sports betting and media company, and launched a micro-betting app for sports fanatics. Rather than bet on the outcome of the whole game, the app allows individuals to make a bet on every single run, pass or touchdown, or even on the players. On the media side of the business, the company has amassed 1.4 million followers, 1.3 billion impressions and 70 million engagements across its social channels since publicly launching in August 2022. Betr most recently raised a $35 million Series A funding round in June at a $300 million valuation. Investors include Anti Fund, FinSight Ventures and Aliya Capital Partners.
Austin Long
26 | Cofounder, Youtooz
Imagine your favorite internet meme character is now a toy that sits in your bedroom. Austin Long made that a reality for his more than 1 million customers. Long is the CEO and cofounder of Youtooz, a toy company that creates collectibles of anime characters, memes, emojis and more. Along with a direct-to-consumer website, Youtooz products are carried in more than 2,000 physical retail stores around the world, including Walmart and GameStop. The company brought in $30 million in revenue last year.
Juan Meisel
28 | Founder, Grip
Juan Meisel is the founder of Grip, a shipping company for direct-to-consumer perishable items. Grip leverages real-time data on network conditions, weather and carrier status so businesses can hold orders, notify customers of delays and find patterns for improvement. The company has processed more than 5 million nationwide shipments through its platform. Meisel first got the idea when he was previously on the founding team at ButcherBox, a meat delivery subscription service, and raised $2 million from Soma Capital and others.
Jared Mintzlaff
28 | Cofounder, Nifty Bridge
Jared Mintzlaff is one of four cofounders of Nifty Bridge, a platform that allows more than 120 Shopify storefronts to sell NFTs directly through their platform. Customers don’t need a web3 wallet, but rather can buy the cryptocurrency with just a credit card. The bootstrapped company was acquired in 2022 by Memberfi Holdings for an undisclosed amount and Mintzlaff now acts as CEO of the merged firm. Nifty Bridge’s revenues surpassed $100,000 last year.
Haley Moss
29 | Attorney and Activist
Haley Moss, an openly autistic lawyer, advocates for people with disabilities as an author, consultant and public speaker. Her most recent books, Great Minds Think Differently: Neurodiversity for Lawyers and Other Professionals and The Young Autistic Adult’s Independence Handbook‘ were published through an LLC she founded under her name. Moss has worked as a consultant and events speaker for organizations including DotDash Meredith, Oracle and Adobe. She also serves on the board of directors of Disability Rights Florida and Florida Lawyers Assistance, and the constituency board for the University of Miami-Nova Southeastern University Center for Autism and Related Disabilities.
Jonathan Ovadia
28 | Founder, AEXLAB
Jonathan Ovadia is the founder of AEXLAB, a virtual reality studio creating technologies for gaming and simulations. Their latest is VAIL VR, a gunplay video game. What started as a passion project for Ovadia and his two cofounders became a full-fledged business when they brought in $2.5 million through a crowdfunding campaign. The company has since raised a total of $19 million, and has also signed a deal with Meta to launch a game on their platform during the 2023 holiday season. Ovadia projects more than $10 million in revenue will be generated from this partnership.
Stefano Selorio
24 | Founder, Carevocacy
Stefano Selorio’s big idea came in 2020 when caring for his grandmother: seniors need tech skills, too. With just $3,000 in pitch competition money, he launched Carevocacy, a platform matching older adults with online tech tutors. He later caught the attention of Humana’s subsidiary Conviva Care Centers and now offers tech education in 19 of their Miami centers. Carevocacy assists up to 500 Medicare Advantage patients monthly, empowering them to get tech-savvy and manage digital health records efficiently.
Jason Shatsky
24 | Founder, TicketRev
Jason Shatsky is the founder and CEO of TicketRev, a platform helping fans find cheaper live event tickets while enabling sellers to liquidate inventory. Buyers submit offers for preferred seating via the mobile app, and sellers can accept suitable offers instantly. TicketRev has saved more than 10,000 users nearly 18% on tickets on average. Shatsky closed a more than $1 million pre-seed round in April from investors including 500 Startups, Soma Capital and Techstars.
Nelly Sudri
27 | Creator & Matchmaker
Nelly Sudri was a corporate sales manager for a Fortune 500 company when she began making dating advice videos on TikTok. She has since made 1,500 TikTok videos and amassed nearly 1 million followers on the platform, and replaced her corporate income with six figures. Sudri has become a sought-after dating coach and elite matchmaker in Miami, now hosting Roku’s Match Me in Miami TV show, which follows her life as the local Cupid. Through the show and social media, her free matchmaking database has grown to 15,000 singles.
Jason Van Esso, Zachary Pichon & Jordan Scheffler
29, 27 & 27 | Cofounders, Crewfare
Jason Van Esso, Zachary Picon and Jordan Scheffler are the brains behind Crewfare, a company allowing better management of group travel to events like musical festivals and beach club parties. Crewfare’s user-friendly platform offers streamlined booking solutions for everything from the event ticket to the hotel room, and even allows groups to split payments. Since its founding in 2021, the company has facilitated travel for more than 200,000 people who’ve attended more than 100 major live events. The cofounders project $15 million in revenue by end of 2023.
Chanelle Van Nguyen
29 | Tennis Player
Chanelle Van Nguyen, a Miami native, is a tennis player who ranked No. 3 in the USA in the singles NCAA division 1 and first place representing team USA at Master’U in France. She was born to immigrant parents and scored a full-ride to the University of California at Los Angeles, where she was hailed as an All-American champion two years in a row. Besides hitting the racket, Nguyen is an ambassador for ACEing Autism, a foundation dedicated to teaching tennis to children with Autism.
JUDGES
Andre Lyon
Producer and Songwriter
Andre Lyon is half of the three-time Grammy Award-winning music production duo Cool & Dre. He has worked with several of music’s biggest artists including Beyoncé, Jay Z, Mary J. Blige, Linkin Park, Queen Latifa, Lil Wayne, Drake, Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion.
Maggie Vo
Managing General Partner, Fuel Venture Capital
Maggie Vo has more than a decade’s experience in the public markets, analyzing and managing investments across a wide spectrum of asset classes. She is the chief investment officer and managing general partner of Fuel Venture Capital, a VC firm with $700 million assets under management. Vo has a portfolio of 33 companies including Terran Orbital, Taxfyl, NovoPayment and Tradeshift and sits on several boards.
UNDER 30 CLASS OF 2023
Ahmed Elsayyad
Cofounder, Ostro
Ahmed Elsayyad is the cofounder and president of Ostro, a venture-backed startup that has raised $50 million to digitize and automate processes for consumer engagement and provider education in healthcare and pharma. The startup connects consumers directly with doctors via customized apps and websites in collaboration with its pharmaceutical company customers. He is an early-stage investor and advisor to several emerging tech companies. He appeared on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Healthcare list in 2023.
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UNDER 30 CLASS OF 2023
Nicolas Norena
Founder, The Succulent Bite
Nicolas Norena is a Miami-based food influencer and entrepreneur with millions of followers across several social platforms. He appears on TV regularly and works with brands including McDonald’s Coca Cola, Pepsi, Tostitos, Snickers, Bud Light, Disney and Chevrolet. He appeared on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Food & Drink list in 2023.
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