As 2019 comes to a close and we flip the calendar, the Tampa Bay region has a very big year in front of us.
We are coming off of a year of massive success and growth, supplying us with endless success stories that need to be celebrated. Embarc Collective added new resources for founders in every market. Major grants were given to Tampa Bay Wave and the Tampa Bay Innovation Center. We saw ConnectWise sell for over $1 billion dollars, creating 70 new millionaires in the process. KnowBe4 hit unicorn status as a part of a meteoric rise in the cyber security market. Funding for startups was made more accessible than ever by Florida Funders, Seedfunders and more. We gathered for a successful 2019 Synapse summit with over 5500 in attendance. And of course, we welcomed Steve Case and the Rise of the Rest tour.
Steve repeatedly mentioned how we are still in the very early stages as a community and that we are “in the second inning”. It is a line that resonated strongly with me personally, as it means we have a lot of work to do. We absolutely should celebrate the wins, but continue to look to the future at the potential that our region holds.
In 2020 we will see Embarc Collective opening its doors, bringing a true innovation hub to the region. We will see the close of the $6 billion dollar Tech Data exit. We will see the launch of another strong FIBA cohort. We will see Sara Blakely, Jeff Hoffman, and Steve Currall address over 6000 people at the 2020 Synapse Summit. We will see more funding deals close and more graduates from accelerators. This is just a few near term items, early in the first quarter of the year.
What else would I like to see happen in 2020 as we look to the unpredictable?
- 100 talented individuals to move to Tampa Bay from outside the region to fill top notch jobs
- 20 financial raises of $100,000, enabling seed stage companies to overcome earlier risks
- 10 Series A raises of $5M or more, disproving the myth that there is a lack of investment funding here
- Five companies to relocate or build staff in the Tampa Bay region, following the paths of JustProtect or Drift
- Four accelerator cohort completions with a 100% growth success rate
- Three exits of nine figures or more, enabling more financial give-back to the community
- Two more crowning of unicorns, making national news and showing the world innovation lives here
- One tight-knit Tampa Bay community, bringing together people from both sides of the bay to truly understand how the value provided by whole community is greater than the sum of the individual parts
We really are early, but growing rapidly as an innovation community. The future is very strong. As we flip the calendar to 2020, the vision we all have is of a better tomorrow.
While this will undoubtedly be overused very quickly, let me be among the first to go with this cliché: our 2020 vision is very bright. There really is not a more perfect line to talk about ringing in the new year and opportunities for our region. Here is to another year of continued growth and leaving our mark to the rest of the world that innovation truly does live right here in Tampa Bay.
