There’s a brief pause when asked if Tampa Bay’s startup scene is at the same level as Miami’s.
“Well, it’s different,” Daniella Levine Cava, Miami-Dade County’s mayor, said with a laugh.
“Different” was also the word Felice Gorordo used to describe the Big Guava before quickly adding that the regions are complementary.
“They have different attributes,” said Gorordo, CEO of Miami-based eMerge Americas. “But I think we’re all very like-minded, and I would say we’ve got a lot to learn from each other.”
Miami-area investors, startup supporters, government officials and founders spoke with Tampa Bay Inno on the state of the Tampa Bay tech scene during the eMerge Americas conference on April 20 and 21, which gathered roughly 20,000 attendees from across the globe.
In both Miami and Tampa Bay, there is an emphasis on working together to boost the state as a whole. Tampa-based Florida Funders, for example, was one of the founding partners when the eMerge conference launched in 2014.
But throughout the conference, locals and visitors pointed out Miami's success in building a tech and startup scene. Enterprise Florida’s Laura DiBella called the city the “benchmark for innovation,” while former Google CEO Eric Schmidt credited Miami Mayor Francis Suarez with ushering in the tech community.
“There is so much talent coming through Miami that’s available to build a world-class knowledge economy, and frankly, I think it’s to your credit,” Schmidt said in a keynote talk with Suarez. “There is no politician in America that knows this [field] like you know this.”
How Miami got to this point goes beyond having good weather and no state income tax; cities across Florida experience those same perks, but Miami has managed to reign supreme in the startup world.
DiBella said Miami got a head start. It began touting itself as the “Wall Street of the South” as early as 2015, eventually garnering industry heavyweights Goldman Sachs, Citadel and Andreessen Horowitz.
“It’s not that they’re doing something better; it’s just that they kind of started it,” DiBella said. “Much of it just has to do with positioning itself as less tourism, more business.”
Others believe the welcoming environment, a product of the region’s diversity, played a significant role in newcomers flocking to town.
“We have the diversity, and I do think people come here because of that,” Miami-Dade’s Cava said, acknowledging she is not intimately familiar with Tampa’s level of diversity. “It’s very dynamic; it’s exciting. And that’s why I’m suggesting to Tampa embrace that.”
Cava believes the Tampa Bay area can further leverage collaboration. She announced earlier this month the Miami-Dade Innovation Authority initiative, a nonprofit that will work with and provide funding for startups in the region. It’s an effort to create the “startup county,” a play on the “startup nation” that Israel is often dubbed.
Tampa has a similar effort. In November 2019, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor launched the “Intersection of Innovation” initiative, working with entrepreneurs to “fast track” innovation and provide opportunities to the local workforce.
But more can be done when telling the local stories and connecting major players — something Miami seems to have mastered.
“There’s an opportunity, from what I’ve heard from Tampa friends, that someone has to step up and take the reins on the programming side to build the hype,” said Jeanine Suah, a venture capital scout at Florida Funders and expert-in-residence at Miami fintech startup Brex.
She acknowledged that Synapse Summit and Gasparilla serve as connectors but stated that more needs to be done throughout the year.
“You essentially build FOMO through the community. There are groups that have done phenomenal, consistent, impactful work at scale, but they weren’t designed to build programming; they weren’t built to throw parties.”
Many believe Tampa — which is arguably building more quietly but just as long-lasting companies — will have just as solid of a tech ecosystem as Miami. While the latter has built much of its tech scene around emerging technology such as cryptocurrency, web3 and blockchain that are now on shaky ground, Tampa Bay has been growing a software and cybersecurity mecca.
“Are we capitalizing on the momentum we have and making strides toward what we want to be? Do we have a clear definition or vision of what we want to be from an ecosystem perspective? I think Tampa could have that,” said Mark Flickinger, general partner and COO at Atlanta-based Panoramic Ventures. The firm compiles an annual “State of the Startup in the Southeast” report.
“You need the infrastructure in place, the accelerators, the incubators. There’s no reason to say that Tampa doesn’t have those ingredients. It’s just a matter of how you put them together, how to make the recipe, so to speak, so that the cake comes out of the oven in the right way.”
