Metro Orlando's technology talent pool is growing, local companies are landing more venture capital than ever and West Coast startups like Red 6 Inc. want to open offices here.
Still, Orlando is behind other cities, across the nation and in the Sunshine State, in the bid to lure high-tech companies bent on leaving the Northeast and West Coast.
In fact, an August report by Forbes listed Tampa and Miami as the respective No. 1 and No. 2 emerging tech cities in the nation — but Orlando missed the list.
The growth of high-tech industries in Orlando is important because they often create higher wages.
Currently, Orlando's hospitality-focused economy shows weakness in recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic. Research by The Business Journals shows Orlando is not among the 30 U.S. metros where the job market is bouncing back the fastest — even though surrounding markets like Lakeland, Melbourne and Daytona Beach are all in the top 30.
However, entrepreneurs, investors, startup advisers and other leaders in Central Florida's innovation economy believe the region can do better. Eight participants on Sept. 20 joined Orlando Inno's Innovation Ecosystem Roundtable to discuss how.
Here's what a few of the participants shared as keys to unlocking Central Florida's potential as an innovation hub:
Swing for the fences
I would love to see the region begin to think bigger, swing the bat a little bit harder. We can do that in a couple of different areas. One, we need to do a much better job of telling our story because we have a lot of excellence here, but we're not doing it. We need to think big in terms of planting the seeds that are going to be the regional drivers in 20 to 30 years. It's always hard to do that versus the now, which means it needs to be an "and" strategy. We need to plant the seeds for the future, and we need to harvest these companies that already have planted seeds, whether it's the Red 6's that are moving here, whether it's Care.ai that I think could be Orlando's next unicorn, whether it's a company like Red Meters that I think will be another great company. Those types of companies, we need to figure out a way to really help them while building the next generation.
— Jason Eichenholz, co-founder and chief technology officer, Luminar Technologies Inc.
Build it and they will come
I would love to see a tech hub in Orlando, and I'm talking about a physical one. One where we can have tech conferences, and I'll tell you that not everybody wants to do the Orange County Convention Center. When we talk about tech, I just don't think that's the place that is the go-to. We have Synapse, and we've had a couple of other [tech conferences]. It would be great for Orlando to be one of those places that tech conferences are coming to because we have this location. Then a location that also serves to have representatives from all of these different organizations there and working together.
— Rose LeJiste, executive director, Black Orlando Tech
Let's get in tune
We don't have that unifying message that we could have in this in this area. There's a lot of nascent entrepreneurs who don't know what resources are available. When you look at successful communities like Austin and people have mentioned Tampa and Miami, there is a unifying message. The Orlando Economic Partnership, which sent delegations to Pittsburgh recently, the one comment that came back was everybody in Pittsburgh is singing on the same page, the entire business community. We don't have that here.
— Dennis Pape, co-founder and CEO, SeedFundersOrlando
Reach the individual
I think it's all about individuals, and I think we can and should have groups that work on targeting these individuals. Again, the groups and companies and startups and everything are just philosophical collectives of individuals. In this entrepreneurial market, which is very individualistic, the key thing is, how do you get to these people? How do you educate them? How do you help them understand the opportunities here, whether they're on the startup side or on the funding side? Also, we have to be less disaggregated as a state, not just as a region. The fact that there are some mega angel investors in Miami is is not a competitive threat to us. It's an advantage.
— Jonathan Taylor, mentor capitalist, Entrenext Ventures
Show what we can do
Whenever you're selling anything, you're just trying to take away that fear from someone who's either looking to move here or start a business here. To show them that there's a pathway to get it done, whether they're moving a company here and trying to be successful, whether they're starting up a company, we've got great examples in our community. The more we can amplify that message and show the pathway, the better off we'll be as far as diversifying our economy.
— Eric Ushkowitz, economic development administrator, Orange County
Stay tuned for more coverage of the Innovation Ecosystem Roundtable on Orlando Inno's website.
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