When Steve Case’s “Rise of the Rest” tour came to Tampa Bay in 2019 to highlight emerging startup hubs beyond Silicon Valley and Boston, the region was truly on the precipice of rising.
Innovation hub Embarc Collective required hard hats to walk through; Sparkman Wharf was months away from reality, and the entirety of Water Street was years away from full completion.
Case, who is perhaps best known as the co-founder of AOL, returned to the region on Tuesday for Synapse Summit, just over four years after his initial visit.
“It seems like Tampa is a city on the rise, literally, in terms of new buildings, people moving here and investors paying more attention here,” he said in an exclusive interview with Tampa Bay Inno. “The momentum is there, the interest is there, the structure like Embarc is there, the companies that have been launched are there. Now, it’s time to rally around the ones that have the greatest potential and can be big successes that both surprise people in Tampa/St. Petersburg but also opens eyes for people around the country.”
Tampa Bay Inno sat down with Steve Case to unpack the growth Tampa Bay has had since Case’s visit four years ago — and what still needs to be done.
A recent PitchBook report shows top growth in the nation was in Florida, North Carolina and Texas. Did that solidify what you’ve been doing all these years?
Oh, no question. When we first started nine or 10 years ago, the idea of startups in [cities like] Tampa ... people were like, ‘What?’ And now they realize some really interesting companies are starting and scaling in these rising cities. The pandemic has been an accelerant, with people who decided to move to other places starting to invest in other places. We feel good about the progress and do recognize Florida has been a particular beneficiary of that.
I’ve often heard that Tampa Bay is the next Austin, Texas — just five to 10 years behind — and comparisons are also made to Atlanta. Do you see a similarity between Tampa and another city?
They’re all a little different; we’ve visited 50 cities and invested in 100, so it’s fairly broad. I would say one of the opportunities is Tampa and St. Pete are kind of the same city. Leveraging that broader regional cluster is important in avoiding the Tampa versus St. Pete mentality; it’s more of a Tampa and St. Pete dynamic. I think that’s what’s probably most unique about it; it’s so close, and both cities are doing things in largely complementary ways. Hopefully, investors and entrepreneurs will recognize it’s better to think of it as a broader collective.
You mentioned Austin: We went to San Antonio, and 40 years ago San Antonio was the major city. Austin was not taken very seriously until it really doubled down on entrepreneurship, startups, technology. It’s not just luring big companies but launching new companies, similar to what the focus seems to be here.
It sounds like Tampa Bay has all the right pieces. Is it now just a matter of timing?
It’s looking at how to maximize company success to create a concept of tentpole companies — that’s Dell in Austin, Microsoft in Seattle, AOL in Northern Virginia — making sure some of these companies scale and have access to capital as they continue to scale, as opposed to selling to some larger company. But all the ingredients are clearly there to get Tampa Bay to rise. Getting more people in the area to pay attention and do what they can to be supportive is the next step.
From an outsider’s perspective, what is the perception of Tampa Bay?
I think most people around the country — and this is true of most of the cities across the country — don’t have any idea of what’s happening in Tampa and St. Pete.
People will think about startups in Florida, and they will likely think of Miami and not necessarily about Tampa/St. Pete, Orlando, Jacksonville or the Space Coast. There is a more diversified startup world within Florida, and obviously Tampa/St. Pete is on the rise, but do most people in Des Moines know what’s happening in Tampa? No. You can tell because during the pandemic, when people moved, what we kept hearing once they were there was they saw a more vibrant community than they expected. This is part of why I wrote the book, to tell of these places where most people have no clue of what’s going on.
What cities are on your radar that you’re really watching?
Most of them — and Tampa/St. Pete is one of them — where most people are unaware of what’s happening, but if they visited, they would be really surprised by what’s happening. But that’s true of most cities. There are a lot of cities on the rise, and I think the broader phenomenon over the next 10 years, 20 years is it’s going to be a much more inclusive innovation economy, where it’s not just a few places like Silicon Valley and New York City; it’s a few dozen places that show real momentum.
