Tampa Bay entrepreneurs, student founders and a panel with some of the most successful players in the edtech sector all came together in one sold out room for last night's State of Innovation event, Tampa Bay Inno's first meetup.
Samyr Qureshi from Knack, Saravana Pat Bhava from PikMyKid and Aaron White from Script kicked off the event speaking on their rise in the edtech sector, as well as the entrepreneurial scene in the Bay area.
All three spoke on the lengths the ecosystem in the Tampa area has come even in the last few years, but all had a different wish list item for what they wanted back in the day.
For White, he said his struggle was "finding quality people to work with.” Qureshi wished more funding was readily available and Bhava agreed, adding with funding comes the opportunity to create more unicorns, or companies valued at $1 billion.
“Hit that critical mass and become a unicorn," Bhava said. "We need that one, two or three breakout successes.”
Like most entrepreneurs, the panelists did not necessarily pick edtech, but instead sought out to fix problems, which they all found within the sector. For Bhana, the idea came to him when a teacher accidentally put the wrong child in his car during an after-school pickup. He added when it comes to the specific K-12 space, it is important to keep the children as the first and foremost priority.
“When we talk school safety, the conversation gets hijacked by the doomsday situation," he said. "What we want to do is really engage and empower the community to protect kids at a cost effective manner.”
Qureshi added educators and potential clients should also focus on the audience — in his case, college-aged students.
“This is something our students are finding value and if it’s working for them, maybe we should be looking closer at this product,” he said.
For the newer entrepreneurs, like University of South Florida and University of Tampa startups Stuby, TableDot, Education Rebound and SEED Classroom, who all pitched their companies to the crowd following the panel, the panelists' advice was simple: now that the resources in the area are growing, use them to its fullest.
“It’s really cool to see what’s happening in Tampa where people are really helping each other along," White said. "Getting really plugged into the community — it was mentorship and getting plugged in — that really helped us.”
"All you have to do is ask," Bhana said.
