When Jim Thomas talked to friends living in Silicon Valley in 2020, they asked him "what the hell" he was doing living in Orlando.
Thomas, a partner at Orlando-based private equity firm Kirenaga Partners and a former California resident, said his friends asked a different question in 2021. “A year later, they're like, ‘What the hell am I doing in Silicon Valley?’”
Thomas shared that anecdote as he and three other key players in Central Florida’s startup and entrepreneurship ecosystem spoke at Orlando Inno’s 2022 Startup Outlook panel on Jan. 20.
Indeed, Central Florida in the past two years has been one of the top destinations for people leaving the U.S. tech mecca of California. Meanwhile, metro Orlando companies last year raised more than $300 million in venture capital for the second year in a row.
Despite these successes, Orlando is rarely in the conversation of emerging U.S. tech hubs. Meanwhile, the tech profiles of regional metros like Atlanta, Miami and Tampa were on the rise last year.
Here’s what the panelists shared as the biggest Central Florida successes of 2021 and where the local startup ecosystem needs to improve in 2022:
Kimberly Rosier Jean-Louis
CEO and owner, 3D Strategic Management
Biggest success: “Most small businesses, their biggest pain point is access to capital, access to contracts and then forming the foundation of their companies. Because of the pandemic, we've been able to see more grants and loans and our local government pouring money into startups.”
Biggest challenge ahead: “It has been a very hard challenge here in Central Florida, because one, access to capital, and two, because our companies are just not ready. We have this thing in procurement, when you look at supplier diversity it’s ready, willing and able. That's the measurement. We have a lot that are willing. They think they're ready, but they're not able to perform and show an investor that this is a solid investment.”
Charlie Lewis
CEO and founder, BlueWave Resource Partners; chair, Orlando Tech Council; founder, Project Orlando
Biggest success: “There is a lot of money moving around. When money moves around, there is a lot more opportunity and a lot more startups and innovation. The biggest success was the awareness of who we are in Orlando, even though now we're trying to create our narrative a little bit better.”
Biggest challenge ahead: “We need to ensure that we also can attract folks who aren't just wanting to have theme parks, aren't just wanting to have a family. We can show the lidar companies, and SpaceX and what they're doing in our backyard. Disney is probably one of the most evolved technology/innovative companies. We always are working on a top-secret project with them. There's so much happening here. We just need to tell it, and I think we need to tell it a little bit cooler.”
Jim Thomas
Partner, Kirenaga Partners
Biggest success: “When we kicked our fund off, people said, ‘If you're going to raise this money, we don't think you're going to find companies here that are investable. You might find one or two or three, but you're not going to find enough for a fund.’ And I'm proud to say that in 2021 we invested in nine companies, and eight of them are in Central Florida.”
Biggest challenge ahead: “I think it's twofold. It's capital. We've been trying to raise specifically from the Florida community, but when traditional wealth in Florida is from real estate and agriculture and cattle and all these other places, when you're trying to go to those pools of money, it's tough. They've never been in venture capital before… The other piece I think that we've suffered, because we've had such a drought of capital in the state, we build up this idea about bootstrapping and how honorable it is to bootstrap. If you don't hit the market at the right time with the right team and the right funding, you're not going to be a business, and somebody else with that similar idea will hit it at the right time.”
Michael Weiss
Associate director of research programs and services, University of Central Florida Business Incubation Program
Biggest success: “Synapse Orlando was an amazing event we had last year. It is great to see so much innovation and so much enthusiasm and passion for what this community is doing.”
Biggest challenge ahead: “I work with a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of early-stage technology startups. What I've seen as a challenge is a well-rounded team. They either have a very talented technologist who is afraid of sales, or they have a business development person who can't develop their product. It is a real struggle. They turn to investors, but it's too early for them to invest. So it's a real chicken-and-egg scenario.”
Sign up here for The Beat, Orlando Inno’s free newsletter. And be sure to follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
