Last year, the South Beach Wine & Food Festival team was drowning in typeforms.
Hundreds of creators were filling out manual applications for event access. The social team was sorting through submissions one by one, cross-checking profiles, tracking posts, and making sure everyone who promised content actually delivered. Multiply that by 35-plus events over four days, and the chaos compounds quickly.
This year, they decided they were done with that.
“We worked with the festival last year on more of a pilot basis,” Olivia Ormos, founder of influencer management platform mavn, told Refresh Miami. “They got to really experience the mavn platform and see how it would support events like their festival events.”
Six events were tested during the pilot. It worked. So when planning kicked off again, the decision was clear.
“They said, you know, the last thing we wanna be doing is manually worrying about this process anymore,” Ormos said. Instead of juggling spreadsheets and screenshots, the annual festival, which this year runs Feb. 19-22, moved its entire accreditation system onto mavn.
Instead of filling out a standalone form, creators now download mavn, apply for approval, and – if they meet the platform’s criteria – gain access to the festival’s event listings. From there, they can request specific events. The SOBEWFF team opens a dashboard and selects who they want. “It was that easy,” Ormos said.
Behind the scenes, mavn pulls in required content automatically. If a creator is asked to post two stories before an event and more content during it, the platform tracks it in real time. No more manual compliance checks. No more chasing tags.
“All of that content is pulling automatically into the dashboard,” Ormos said. “So they don’t have to double check if somebody posted and maybe we missed it.”
Events have become one of mavn’s strongest categories. While the platform works across brand campaigns, Ormos has seen event teams benefit most. Many are operators juggling venues, sponsors, talent, and logistics. Adding influencer coordination to that list is painful.
Since launching in 2023, mavn has received more than 10,000 organic influencer applications without spending on user acquisition. Of those, just 1,647 have been approved.
On the revenue side, the numbers are moving fast. “We have already 3x’d the revenue from last year. Just being in Q1,” she said.
Part of that acceleration came from rethinking pricing. Rather than locking brands into annual contracts, mavn operates on a credit system. Clients can start small, test, and expand.
“They want to crawl, they want to walk, then they want to run,” Ormos said. The flexibility lowered the barrier and opened the door to longer-term relationships.
Now, mavn is raising a $1.5 million seed round after bootstrapping from day one. Ormos said the round is expected to close shortly, with plans to double the team by year’s end. Right now, the product is powered by a single developer.
“When people see the product, they’re like, ‘you only have one developer?’ What are you doing?” she said.
As the influencer economy shifts, mavn is also navigating the AI conversation. Ormos sees the tension clearly.
“There’s a lot of chatter with AI influencers,” she said. “But most people are not excited to work with the AI influencers. They’re more excited to keep an authentic balance with real people that have real voices.”
Still, she expects a split market. Some brands will chase cost savings while others will double down on authenticity. She’s even watching new models emerge where creators license their likeness for AI use – getting paid without stepping onto a set.
Through it all, Miami remains central to mavn’s story. Ormos is a local, born and raised. She believes the city’s openness and event culture create an edge for founders.
“Everyone is so excited to meet people,” she said. “I don’t think there’s a better city to build in.”
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I am a writer and editor with extensive media experience and a passion for journalism and serving the community. Most of my career has been spent with the Miami Herald in business news, and my expertise is writing about tech and entrepreneurs. I love hosting this blog for Refresh Miami and we aim to be the go-to site for South Florida startup and tech news, features and views. Have news? Contact me at [email protected]. Thanks for reading! Latest posts by Nancy Dahlberg (see all)