By Krysten Brenlla
#WAGMI, or We’re All Gonna Make It, is really the driving factor behind the #MiamiTech movement – from startups landing seed-level funding, to international companies making their way to the 305, to minority businesses gaining access – #WAGMI is going viral. And Miami is here to make it a reality.
When Mayor Francis Suarez’s vision to make #MiamiTech a movement, not a moment, came into fruition, key players like Gloria Fonts Suarez knew that a call-to-action for women entrepreneurs and techies was needed.
That’s why, when Venture Miami was established, alongside it came #MiamiForHer, a campaign in its infant-stages spearheaded by City of Miami’s First Lady. “When I met with the FIU-Venture Miami Opportunity Program cohort, I saw a lot of myself in them. to rise up, have a seat at the table and make a difference for yourself and your companies using the resources and programs available to you,” said Gloria Fonts Suarez [pictured below].
With the help of key Miami players like JPMorgan Chase, the City of Miami’s Venture Miami team, Saif Ishoof, founder of Lab22c and former Vice President of FIU’s Office of Engagement, and Caryn Lavernia, Assistant Vice President of FIU’s Office of Engagement, the FIU-Venture Miami Opportunity Program was born.
Structured as a cohort model and housed in FIU’s Office of Engagement, the FIU-Venture Miami Opportunity Program aims to tackle inequity in tech and entrepreneurship by providing access and resources alongside training and leadership management to 10 female founders of color looking to scale their ventures in the #MiamiTech movement.
Run by FIU-Venture Miami Opportunity Program Director and founder of the Black Professionals Network Kenasha Paul, in collaboration with the City of Miami’s Venture Miami team, the first half of the program ended with the cohort pitching their ventures to a room full of angel investors and venture capitalists at Demo Day.
The result? New meetings, contacts, and angel investors ready to learn more and potentially make an investment.
“It has been such an honor to witness the growth of all of the women founders in the FIU-Venture Miami Opportunity Program,” said Paul. “Raising venture funding doesn’t come easy, but these women believed in the process, and now, they’re able to confidently raise millions for their ventures while nurturing significant relationships that can help scale their ventures forward.”
MEET THE STARTUPS
Hosted in the Heart of Miami at Ampersand Studios, eight female founders of color took the stage and poured their heart out in just three minutes with the hopes of landing investors or opportunities to help them grow.
Who said we shouldn’t be eating with our eyes, anyway?
The first #bosslady to kick-off Demo Day was FIU alumna and Jamaican entrepreneur Sophronia McKenzie, founder of visueats.
Opening with “I love my belly – that’s Jamaican for, ‘I love food,’” McKenzie questioned why restaurants continue to use traditional, paper menus for hungry customers. Citing environmental issues and buyer’s remorse, McKenzie presented an innovative solution to help customers envision their meals, ultimately resulting in more dollars for restaurants – visueats, a restaurant-mobile and web app that provides photos, videos, and digital menus for customers, ultimately creating an interactive and personalized dining experience. The restaurants can simply upload the menu content via the visueats admin panel, design their digital menus, and visueats will automate a QR code. After the restaurant prints the QR code, all that’s left is to scan, order, and eat!
Since their launch, visueats has had 600 downloads and has been active in two restaurants. Their business model benefits both the restaurant and the app itself, setting up sponsorship opportunities and revenue gains for the restaurant and app per sponsor. By summer 2023, visueats’ goal is to onboard 450 full-service Miami restaurants onto the digital app.
The ‘Holy Grail’ Solution for Realtors, Sellers, and Buyers
“Have you ever felt the need to be in two places at once?” Uh, yes.
Nadia Davis, daughter of a real estate broker, captivated her audience with an innovative solution for a realtor’s crazy schedule – Show Agents. “According to the National Association of Realtors, half of the 3 million U.S. realtors are working up to 80 hours a week, with a quarter of that time being used to show properties,” said Davis.
Her solution? Show Agents, an app-based staffing solution for realtors that connects them to local, licensed showing assistants that can show properties on their behalf. Through real-time appointment notifications and three-way communication between the buyer, realtor, and showing assistant, the realtor can stay informed, the buyer can view potential properties at their leisure, and the showing agent, usually a retired or part-time realtor, can do what they love. It’s a triple-win solution.
With 100,000 realtors in the tri-county South Florida area, Davis emphasized the potential – $30 million in revenue. With a goal to reach 10,000 appointments by 2023, Davis is seeking $1.2M to develop their team and marketing initiatives.
Working in the metaverse
Spacial VR, a metaverse-style workplace founded by Sunceray Patterson, is changing the way we live, work, and play. A revolutionary tool to help companies and employees enjoy a work-life balance, Spacial VR’s workspaces are equipped with collaborative and productivity tools, allowing companies to maximize productivity, reduce turnover, embrace remote work, and create engaging work environments.
Spacial VR assists users in onboarding, training, and navigating the platform with an artificial intelligence tool designed to monitor employee productivity and engagement. Their goal is to raise $3M to build a team, develop a product and scale the market.
Among the inaugural cohort of founders pitching were also Clorens Andre, founder of AWARE, a pet-bulletin board to help families reunite with lost pets; Samella Watson, founder of BRAM (formerly known as Sebiya), an all-in-one guest experience system designed to provide vacation rental companies with the technology needed to provide their guests with full-service travel experiences digitally; Jazmina Monteiro, founder of DonQui Jobs, an online marketplace for freelancers to connect and find their next gigs; Mitali Saxena, founder of Fashom, an online, personalized styling service curated by real stylists to fit each unique body type, and XFashom, the first platform to combine IRL and digital assets; and Vishaja Boedjawan, founder of SOURCD Global, a procurement management business that specializes in strategic, solution-based sourcing.
WHY INVEST IN FEMALE FOUNDERS OF COLOR?
Among the audience members were investors and venture capitalists, such as Dr. Bita Sarah Haynes, Founder of CEO CoachEra Technologies and key player in the launch of the tweet-turned-billboard in San Francisco, and Monique Idlett-Mosley, founder of REIGN Ventures, all ready to make an investment or coach the founders to the next level in their businesses.
“Coming from a tech-hub like San Francisco, it was extremely important to make it known to Mayor Francis Suarez that Miami has an opportunity for equity in tech – something that San Francisco is lacking,” said Haynes. “This program with FIU and the City of Miami is a perfect example of what underrepresented communities can do in #MiamiTech with access to education, opportunities, and institutional support.”
“Right now, we’re only at 3.2% of venture capitalist funding going to women and people of color,” said Idlett-Mosley. “So, when you see Mayor Francis Suarez, Mrs. Suarez, FIU, and Venture Miami all coming together to create opportunities for women of color to present, fundraise, and pitch – that’s why I love Miami.”
Applications for the FIU-Venture Miami Opportunity Program’s second cohort are currently open. All female founders with tech-enabled ventures are encouraged to apply. Find eligibility requirements and program details here.
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