By Anayansy Hernandez
“We are trying to build an ecosystem that will be here forever and for everyone so that every single Miamian has an opportunity to taste success,” said Miami Mayor Francis Suarez at this year’s Miami Tech Week Kickoff that gathered leaders and hundreds of attendees Monday morning at Miami City Hall.
Delian Asparouhov, partner at Founders Fund [pictured below], shared his story on how a sarcastic tweet about moving Silicon Valley to Miami, led to an initiative to invite others to experience Miami outside of its party stigma. Four years later, this initiative has become what we know today as Miami Tech Week.
Miami Tech leaders reminisced how far Miami’s tech ecosystem has come and shared where they believe Miami is headed.
“Miami is not a city for the passive. We need doers and builders who are going to come here and make the city what they want it to be,” said Maria Derchi, a Florida Founders VP and Refresh Miami’s leader. Derchi highlighted Ja’dan Johnson, co-founder of Miami Hack Week (which also kicked off this week) who united developers and hackers by creating a community and an annual event for them to experience Miami and said individuals with similar visions are what Miami needs to move forward.
Jack Abraham, CEO of Atomic, said he believes Miami will benefit from boom cycles and expects future cycles to bring more growth into the city. The speakers emphasized it’s up to the community to shape the tech ecosystem and said Miami now has the support and capital to make it possible. “The four most innovative venture firms on the planet all have significant partners and offices here,” said Keith Rabois, managing director of Khosla Ventures, mentioning Khosla, Atomic, Founders Fund and Thrive.
The mayor said Venture Miami will facilitate this expansion by continuing to build connections but it doesn’t see itself as the determining factor for how the ecosystem will grow. “There is so much energy in and around Miami so the next step for us is to capture that and structure it,” shared Venture Miami Executive Director Erick Gavin [pictured above]. The team has a focus on creating an infrastructure that is efficient and allows for collaborations between founders as well as other companies to reduce redundancies. Gavin said the goal is for founders to know which organization to seek depending on what stage they are in throughout their journey.
A clear message was that Miami has strong capital, support, and initiatives for companies to grow. Kelly Montoya, head of partnerships at Venture Miami, said inclusivity has been at the forefront of Venture Miami’s mission. The team is thrilled to have cultivated a welcoming atmosphere for anyone to tap into regardless of their technical background. “Creating a space especially for women is one of the most important things we need to continue to do,” she said. Montoya highlighted this effort and openness sets Miami’s tech hub apart from others in the nation.
Find Miami Tech Week events here.
Photos by Anayansy Hernandez
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anayansy@yansymedia.com.