The crowd at Miami Dade College’s Wolfson Campus for Refresh Miami’s ‘demo day’. Photo by Carolina Wilson. More than 400 people gathered at Miami Dade College’s Wolfson Campus last week as 10 local startups competed for prizes in a pitch-style competition hosted by Refresh Miami.

Knight Foundation supports Refresh Miami to help grow South Florida’s entrepreneurial and technology community.

Glip, a business messaging and productivity platform, took first place in the Thursday night event. It allows users to plan, share and organize their work in an easy-to-use mobile platform or Web browser. CEO and founder Peter Pezaris said Glip, which he started in 2012, already serves thousands of companies.

“We built Glip because we know that 36 percent of the average information worker’s time is wasted every day,” Pezaris said, citing a study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that shows that 50 percent of the difference between low-performing and high-performing teams is the quality of communication.

Glip integrates communication and management tools into one service on one screen, including shared calendars, instant messaging, task and project management, file sharing and video conferencing.

Taking second place was Waleteros, which enables consumers without a bank account to cash checks, pay bills and send money internationally.

“It’s more convenient than a [check-cashing] store because with your phone you can take a picture of your check and in a few minutes you have the money in your Waleteros account,” co-founder Etienne Gillard said. “It’s safer because it works with a prepaid card, so you don’t have to carry cash anymore. It’s cheaper because our fees are lower than a [check-cashing] store.”

Fish Indie—a company that manages online marketing for Etsy shop owners—took third place. Co-founder Hugo Seijas, said that in the past year, Etsy did over a billion dollars worth in sales. To be successful and compete with other Etsy sellers, Seijas said shop owners have to do online marketing outside of Etsy.

“It can be incredibly confusing for a small-business owner who doesn’t necessarily have a lot of resources or a lot of time,” Seijas said. “[With Fish Indie] in just one-click, your banner is generated and displayed in a network of relevant and popular blogs.”

The three winners shared a prize pool that included $1,200 cash from ticket sales and donations,  $5,000 in legal services by Gunster, $100 cash from Lean Startup Machine, three months of co-working space by Gos24.com, $3,500 in social media consulting from Socially Buzz and one year of Server Pronto’scloud server. All participants received $500 in credits for Zeel, Massage on Demand.

Other startups that participated in demo day included FiNe, which allows users to receive discounts at stores where they shop frequently; Accredify, which verifies online investors; Marquee, which creates an easy platform and tools for online content publishing; Wave Interactions, a feature that expands the number of players who can join the same mobile game; Hello Show, a scheduling and messaging tool for real estate agents and clients; CanUStart, a system which pre-qualifies job applicants for faster and more reliable hiring; and Kloset Karma, a mobile app which allows fashonistas to exchange clothes they no longer want for points to purchase new outfits within the platform.

Carolina Wilson is a freelance writer. Winners of Refresh Miami’s “demo night” competition pose with their unique Refresh Miami trophies. Pictured are Glip’s Peter Pezaris, Waleteros’ Etienne Gillard and Fish Indie’s Hugo Seijas. Photo by Carolina Wilson.