Local entrepreneurs fresh off their earliest rounds of fundraising got the chance recently to eat dinner alongside founders who run publicly traded companies or sold their businesses for more than $100 million.
The Orlando Tech Council on June 2 brought 40 Central Florida founders together at The Monroe in Creative Village to give entrepreneurs at all levels the opportunity to chat and learn from each other. Attendees were given name tags that labeled their companies as early-stage, growth-stage or exited. That allowed them to find more experienced founders, or founders at the same stage as them, and talk through their challenges and successes.
The dinner’s purpose was to forge connections between Central Florida’s successful entrepreneurs and the founders behind emerging and growing companies. That appears to be a recipe for success, as New York-based entrepreneurial nonprofit Endeavor found companies are two and three times as likely to scale if they’re connected to more experienced entrepreneurs.
For Luminar Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: LAZR) co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Jason Eichenholz, the event was a chance to give back to the tech community that Luminar has been a part of for years, he said. “This event was a unique opportunity to give back and help support the next wave of entrepreneurs in this community by sharing lessons learned and words of advice. There is so much potential in Orlando, and I'm looking forward to future events like this to help turn the potential into reality."
The event was organized by Ken Hall, vice president of Orlando-based DeepWork Capital and chair of the Orlando Tech Council Startup Committee, and Startup Committee co-chair Gordon Folkes, co-founder/CEO of Orlando-based Archer First Response Systems. Hall said he recognized the need for such an event after he moved from New York City to Orlando last year and saw the region's entrepreneurs were dispersed in geographic pockets from downtown Orlando to Lake Nona and the Space Coast.
"Without a central area where great entrepreneurs are crossing paths naturally, we need to be intentional with bringing the larger Central Florida community together and are intent on doing this moving forward," Hall said.
Below, other local founders share what they gained from the chance to dine with fellow entrepreneurs at the event, which was sponsored by DeepWork Capital and the Florida High Tech Corridor.
“It is exciting to see the energy of startups in Central Florida. The entrepreneurial community in Orlando continues to evolve and grow, but programs like this accelerate the process. This event was a great opportunity for those who have exited companies to engage with entrepreneurs starting their journey or in the midst of scaling their companies. It’s clear this was just the beginning of many fruitful conversations."
— Shari Dingle Costantini, founder and former CEO, Casselberry-based Avant Healthcare Professionals (Avant has grown to a 1,000-person company with $150 million-plus in revenue)
"It was a great opportunity to interact with a new generation of entrepreneurial founders starting and growing new companies addressing a wide range of needs from connecting youth in need of mentorship, to healing pressure sores, mental health and the challenges of the metaverse.”
— Dan Justin, co-founder and former CEO, Orlando-based Engage Surgical (Engage Surgical was acquired in January for $135 million)
"It was an inspiring show of just how strong the Orlando ecosystem is and how much potential we truly have here locally. Previously I would have thought I needed to reach outside of this ecosystem for the resources to grow my startup, but this event changed my mind. It was honestly the best event I've attended in Orlando."
— Tim Balz, co-founder and CEO, Melbourne-based early-stage company Kalogon
"It was eye-opening how willing the successful entrepreneurs in this community are to share their advice. As a founder, there are people I have looked up to and read about and admired from a distance, and then suddenly I was sitting at the same dinner table as them or talking over a drink and having genuine, helpful conversations. It was a surreal experience."
— Kyle Kirby, founder and CEO, Lake Mary-based early-stage firm Kinnect
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