As someone who dove head first into the Tampa Bay startup market, I’ve been fascinated by the inherent strengths of the founders in the region and am learning about how we can continue to develop our companies and community to be known as a great place to build a startup.
Here are five observations from my first year of being a part of the Tampa Bay startup community:
The startup count is small (but growing): This is a community in the middle of a growth spurt. While there are just over 300 startups in the Tampa Bay region, each day we are meeting new companies looking to move down because of the lifestyle or the relative ease and cost of doing business here. This influx is coupled with the academic institutions, incubators, and accelerators that are critical to building a strong pipeline of new companies such as Verapy, from the University of Tampa, who is a finalist at the 2019 SXSW Pitch.
Blockchain is booming here: One of the most surprising realizations was that Tampa Bay has a growing and thriving blockchain community. Spearheaded by blockchain collaborative, BlockSpaces, novices and experts alike can come together to learn and build new projects. What’s emerged are fast-growing companies like Pocket, which provides infrastructure for developers and decentralized applications on different blockchains.
People love this place: And how could they not? It’s hard to find faults when surrounded by sun, a healthy balance of urban life with nature and a winning hockey team. Plus, the distinctness of St. Pete and Tampa mean that there is something for everyone. Try not getting Tampa-St. Pete fever after a conversation with Brian Kornfeld of Synapse (a Tampa ambassador) or Reuben Pressman of Presence (a St. Pete ambassador).
But we need to be better storytellers: We need to amplify the profile of our startup companies and Tampa Bay at large. Outside of this region, entrepreneurs don’t know that this is a great place to build a company. We are making progress: Marxent Labs presented on the mainstage with the Chairman and CEO of Macy’s, Jeff Gennette, at the NRF Conference in New York City just last week. And it’s hard to keep up with the Peerfit team, serving as de facto Tampa Bay ambassadors all across the country, as they quickly scale their business nationally (full discloser: the Embarc Collective has drunk the #redefinewellness kool-aid and is a Peerfit customer).
Each founder wants to be Tampa Bay success story(ies): I’ve been so impressed by the drive and focus of the founders here. They hustle around the region and jump on planes daily as they pitch to prospective customers and meet investors (thank goodness, TPA is the best airport, IMO). These ambitious companies want to be one of the success stories that define the Tampa Bay startup landscape. Some of the companies I’m keeping an eye on are Intrinio, Kidio/PikMyKid, Soma Global, Marxent, Preferhired, International Screening Solutions and Immertec – all of these companies will be presenting at the Florida Venture Capital Conference later this month.
About the author: Lakshmi Shenoy is a recent transplant to the Tampa Bay region and is the CEO of Embarc Collective, which will launch in spring 2019. Before moving to Tampa Bay, Lakshmi was the Vice President of Strategy & Business Development at 1871 in Chicago. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from the University of Chicago and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. @lshenoy
