eMerge Americas 2025 - Val Kamenski

eMerge Day 1:

The expo floor was buzzing with passionate founders and business folks, and AI startups seemed to be everywhere. Over 300 exhibitors and 240 speakers from 60 countries gathered at the Miami Beach Convention Center today.

The day began with welcome remarks from notable figures including Diane Vidoni, Melissa Medina, Mariana Atencio, Manny Medina, and Daniella Levine Cava, followed by the startup competition kickoff, with over 100 startups from various sectors including FinTech, HealthTech, and Enterprise Solutions.

The atmosphere was electric - founders practicing their pitches in every corner, teams huddled around laptops making last-minute slide tweaks, and mentors offering guidance and encouragement. You could feel the nervous energy and excitement in the air as everyone prepared for their big moment.

Throughout the day, I had several mentoring sessions helping startups make final adjustments to their presentations and talked to dozens of founders in Startup Alley.

I'm exhausted but excited for tomorrow - it's the final day of the startup competition, and I'll be joining the judging team.

eMerge Day 2:

It was an awesome experience and a true honor to be selected as a judge for the final day of the eMerge Startup Competition.

Congratulations to Smart Aerosol Technologies for 🏆 winning the Pitch Competition! A special shoutout goes to Shruti Choudhary, who demonstrated exceptional resilience, confidence, and charisma throughout two intense days of pitching to multiple groups of judges.

Also, kudos to MRGN (Yonatan Rubin) and Arovia (Alexander Wesley) for their outstanding presentations and visionary products.

Excited to see these startups grow!

Takeaways from my conversations with founders:

You've got to make sure you're solving a real problem that actually has enough potential customers. I often see founders getting caught up in creating perfect solution without truly understanding who they're building it for and how big this market is.
Customer research can be tough, especially for small, scrappy startup teams, but it's super important. You need to dig deep and genuinely understand your customers' pain points and the market structure. The better you understand this, the easier it'll be to pitch and sell your product later. If you don't, you're gonna have a really hard time growing your revenue.
And speaking of revenue, you'll need significant growth if you're thinking about raising VC money. Most investors will expect you to double and even triple your revenue especially during first years, so make sure you're prepared for that kind of commitment.
As a software developer in the past, I totally get the excitement of diving into coding right away. But remember, always keep your customers at the center of everything and constantly learn from them.
If you're working on a startup with a significant tech component, make sure you have a co-founder who really understands software development.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, eMerge Americas 2025 was an incredible experience that showcased Miami's growing tech ecosystem. The AI surge was evident everywhere, and I believe this will push companies to discover new areas and methods for its application, leading to significant growth in robotics and IoT in the coming years.

The quality of startups and founders I met was impressive, and it's clear that Miami is attracting top talent from all over the world.

Looking forward to eMerge Americas 2026!