Global Shapers Managua Hub organized the first Shark Tank competition in Nicaragua, with its initial edition held in 2017, in the context of the Nica Tech Summit, an event in which public and private institutions, universities and corporations joined forces to promote and highlight technology’s role in entrepreneurship. One major component of the Nica Tech Summit was the first edition of Shark Tank Nicaragua for startups with a tech component. The following year, in 2018, the 2nd edition of Shark Tank Nicaragua was planned within a similar event, Innovate, which unfortunately due to socio-political turmoil, had to be canceled. In 2020, Managua is hoping to run the 3rd edition of the competition as a stand-alone initiative.

Shark Tank Nicaragua consists of a pitching competition between entrepreneurs. After passing through a strict selection process organized by the Managua Hub, the finalists (3 in 2017 and 4 in 2018) go through an intensive pitch training of several weeks, consisting in

1) methodology workshops,

2) several practice and feedback sessions, and

3) 1:1 mentoring.

On pitching day, all finalists pitch during 3 minutes, and then answer questions from the judging panel as well as from the event’s audience. The winner is selected based on criteria of innovation, financial sustainability and scaling potential. Partnerships were developed to provide the winner (and the other finalists in a lesser way) with gifts and benefits to keep developing and growing the company, such as hours of pro-bono consulting, office space, etc… ) and potentially some capital depending on the sponsors. In 2017, the winner was ClickEat (now knowns as Jumpers), a food delivery start-up represented by Rommel Tefel. They received U$ 10,000 of in-kind business-support services. In 2018, Shark Tank Nicaragua was to be held during Innovate, but unfortunately the conference also organized by the Managua Hub had to be canceled at the last minute due to socio-political turmoil. In 2020, the Managua Hub hopes to organize the 3rd edition of Shark Tank Nicaragua.