In the fall of 2019, I began the process of retiring from the Army and moving to Tampa. Being a great fan of innovation, I soon found myself immersed in the Florida startup community through Synapse, the small but mighty nonprofit that brings together innovative and entrepreneurial people across Florida. Synapse hosts great events like Synapse Summit and Synapse Orlando, and helps connect people and organizations across Florida throughout the year. At first, I thought I was connecting with a large company. Who else could generate so much excitement and activity?
The fact that Synapse has only five full time employees isn’t really an indication of its real size, or its impact. There are dozens of board members, scores of supporting and partner organizations, hundreds of volunteers, and thousands of innovators and innovation junkies that make the Florida innovation movement come alive.
And the Florida business opportunities just keep getting bigger and better as more companies were started in Florida in 2021 than ever before, and investment continues to come to the Sunshine State. Venture capital investment for startups topped $4 billion last year in South Florida alone, and Tampa Bay had its best two-quarter funding run in 2021 Q4 and 2022 Q1 raising almost $350 million.
As a leadership coach who started my own business in 2020, I became curious about who, if anyone, is leading this growth. As in many situations, it’s a case of “success has many mothers and fathers.” Synapse has made in impact for sure, helping to make tens of thousands of connections across the entrepreneur ecology. But there are also a multitude of organizations that exist to help innovators and entrepreneurs find their way and bring their ideas to market. These include entrepreneurs, investors, entrepreneurial support organizations, innovation enablers, talent, government, educational institutions, and corporations.
It helps that Florida is an awesome place to live, work, and build businesses. State government has been innovation friendly, making it simpler to bring new ideas to market. Lower taxes attract both companies and talent, and great state schools help supply a trained workforce.
But bringing together the various types of people and organizations necessary to foster a healthy entrepreneur ecology is a huge challenge, and while there are many influencers, there really is no single leader. This is sort of a community garden where everyone is free to plant what they think will grow, and others are free to water whichever vegetation they prefer.
Connecting the various entrepreneur ecology groups to move forward in a coherent manner is akin to coalition warfare. Each entity has their own goals, strategies, motivations, means, and methods to achieve what they think is best. This can cause some dysfunction. Some will act out of self-interest, thinking that other groups or entities are competing for market share. Others might duplicate existing efforts either from ignorance or a sense they can do it better than the status quo.
And this incoherence and redundancy among ecosystem supporters is what a 2016 white paper stated was one of the biggest things holding Tampa back from becoming a leading entrepreneur ecosystem. What is needed is a collaborative rather than competitive approach to helping entrepreneurs thrive.
And this is where there is a need for the kind of leadership that helps bring people together. The kind of leadership that opens doors, sets the tables, and invites stakeholders to be seen and heard. This takes leaders that have no particular agenda other than to see a rising tide lift all boats.
Six years after the 2016 white paper, there is more coherence among the region’s entrepreneur ecology stakeholders. With nearly 70 companies serving on the Synapse Impact Board, diverse ideas have a forum there. And many of those board members are active in multiple organizations across the region, tying together the network and increasing community bonds. Collaboration was on display as myriad groups from across the region came together to celebrate Tampa Bay’s Innovation Week in February, featuring dozens of events across the Bay Area, attended by thousands.
As a leadership coach I get to help good leaders learn to develop into “more awesome” leaders. It’s incredibly rewarding to see my clients thrive. The same thing is happening across the Florida innovation space. It is growing, evolving, improving, spreading, thriving, and becoming more awesome, thanks to the many great leaders in all the entrepreneurial ecosystem organizations that put the movement first.
Bob Dixon is a leadership coach, strategic consultant, trusted advisor, and speaker at Arete Strategic Consulting. He is a combat veteran with over 30 years of military service and a passion for helping people achieve their vision. He is the author of “Leadership Insight: Challenging What We Think We Know”.
