By Peter Yared – Guest Contributor
Peter Yared
There was a moment after the pandemic where some thought that Miami could become a contender for tech dominance against the San Francisco Bay Area. AI has re-established the Bay Area as the epicenter of technology, and dislodging the entire Bay Area as the technology epicenter was always a stretch. Miami should have a different goal in mind: New York City, the world’s second largest technology hub.
Only fifteen years ago, the technology scene in New York was still nascent. During his tenure as mayor, Michael Bloomberg helped drive the technology ecosystem with the help of early players like DoubleClick’s Kevin Ryan and Union Square Venture’s Fred Wilson. Today, New York attracts 14% of venture-backed deals, a solid number 2 beyond the Bay Area’s 25% share.
South Florida has catapulted to a top ten US tech hub and ranks seventh for deal volume and is already a peer with traditional tech hubs like Austin and Seattle. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez working with early players like Terremark’s Manny Medina and new players like Orlando Bravo is very reminiscent of how New York City initiated its tech ecosystem fifteen years ago.
So how can Miami become the No. 2 tech hub?
The key to becoming a large tech hub is to attract a lot of entrepreneurs. Yes, it’s that simple. New York has proved that it’s a fallacy that a top tech school is necessary, since New York City is the world’s second largest tech hub and it doesn’t have any top tech schools. Cornell is the closest and it’s a four to five hour drive from NYC. In addition, AI is making a lot of engineering redundant. What Miami needs is more entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs, and entrepreneurs! Here are the types of entrepreneurs we should target:
European founders
A big segment of New York’s tech scene is European founders looking for a US base of operations in the East Coast timezone. This is how New York attracted companies such as DataDog from France, UiPath from Romania, and Celonis from Germany. Most of these companies came to the US to attract talent, capital, and escape Europe’s stifling regulatory regime. One of the biggest benefits of being in New York is the proximity to large enterprise customers. Many of the financial services firms are moving to Miami, and Miami is also a great location for hospitality, real estate, sports, education, and healthcare startups to meet customers and figure out how to apply AI to these sectors. Miami’s proximity to the mid-Atlantic, Northeast, and Texas make other customer segments a short day trip away.
Policy proposals: Assist with O-1 visas, city outreach to European venture capitalists, office space for qualified companies.
At a Startup Ole event in March in Miami, 90 startup founders from Spain were in the spotlight.
Israeli founders
I am not going to get political, but let’s just simply state that Miami is a more hospitable environment for Israelis than New York City. 97212 Ventures recently published a report this month showing that New York City is home to 560 Israeli-founded companies. Our goal should be to attract every single Israeli tech company to Miami. We have Israeli unicorns such as Momentis Surgical and Flow here in Miami, and a thriving ecosystem where Israelis can feel comfortable and perform, as well as direct flights to Tel Aviv from both Miami and Fort Lauderdale airports. Isreali companies are already choosing Miami. Israel is home to numerous cybersecurity startups, and now Israeli cyber founders like Michael Assraf are starting companies in Miami and even raising local funding. Calcalist, the Israeli events company hosted a great Israeli Tech & Invest event in Miami last year, and Ayal Stern at The LAB Miami has been hosting events for Israeli founders which is a great way to build a thriving network.
Policy proposals: Calcalist as an annual conference jointly with the city or county. Government promotion of Miami-Israel Collective. Add a Miami branch to Florida-Israel Business Collective. Send the new mayor on a trip to Israel with Miami tech executives for visibility.
Latin American founders
Our secret weapon is that Miami is known as the capital of Latin America. Latin America and the Caribbean have a population of 669 million and there are going to be a lot of entrepreneurial geniuses in a population that is 100x the size of South Florida. We need to set up programs to facilitate bringing top Latin American talent to Miami and helping make them successful. We offer cultural compatibility and direct flights back home. The recent pushback against tech immigration is about entry-level H1-B visas that compete with new STEM college grads struggling to get jobs. Entrepreneurs can apply for O-1 visas, run by our very own Marco Rubio. I was in Silicon Valley for 23 years, and what made the place happen is that we attracted a lot of the best talent from China, Russia, and India. Miami now has the same opportunity and we need to be vocal that we want Latin American entrepreneurs here with outreach, visa facilitation, and tech accelerators.
Policy proposals: Assistance with O-1 visas with specific outreach programs for each Latin American country, ideally jointly with each local U.S. embassy. Set up a Latin tech accelerator in Miami similar to Y Combinator that pays for visa fees and brings in local entrepreneurs to help new entrepreneurs.
Chilean founders at a recent eMerge Americas. In October, Mana Tech hosted 30 startups from Chile.
Latin American sales and marketing offices
New York has large offices from Google, Facebook, and new offices from OpenAi and Anthropic. It’s common for employees to eventually leave and start companies. We need to make a concerted effort with tax breaks and whatever else it takes to host the Latin American sales and marketing offices for all major tech companies. Miami is the perfect location with local talent that understands both U.S. and Latin business cultures and direct flights to all Latin American business centers. The offices will attract talent, and which will then further the tech Miami tech ecosystem.
Policy proposals: Work with city, country, and state governments for tax incentives to large technology companies to relocate Latin American sales and marketing to Miami. Designate a part of Miami such as Flagler as a tech center with special lease rates, similar to Dubai’s Internet City.
Miami is a world-class city with a pro-business environment for tech
Miami is already the leading destination for already successful entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos and Orlando Bravo. Ken Griffin has shown that it’s possible to move an entire business to Miami and most importantly attract the younger talent that typically heads to the traditional coastal hubs. Ken has led the way by facilitating schools and housing for younger talent and working with the city to get to the next level, which startups can now draft.
New York City is faltering with regressive policies that are about to get worse, and it presents a huge opportunity for Miami to attract the next generation of great entrepreneurs and turn the fourth coastal city into the number two tech hub.
READ MORE BY PETER YARED: Miami: the Dubai of the Western Hemisphere
Peter Yared is a serial tech entrepreneur who moved to Miami Beach 5 years ago after 23 years in San Francisco. He is the founder and CEO of InCountry, a global data management company.
Refresh Miami welcomes guest posts. Please e-mail your idea for a post to Nancy Dahlberg at [email protected].
