{"id":245681,"date":"2026-04-25T03:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T03:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/245681\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T03:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T03:00:09","slug":"emerge-day-2-cut-through-the-noise-on-ai-startups-and-what-it-really-takes-to-scale-in-south-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/245681\/","title":{"rendered":"eMerge day 2 cut through the noise on AI, startups, and what it really takes to scale in South Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

From AI investing to defense tech and city infrastructure, the focus was on turning momentum into results<\/p>\n

\u201cOur moment is here and now. We are open for business in Miami Beach.\u201d<\/p>\n

These words from Miami Beach mayor Steven Meiner kicked of the second main conference day of eMerge, the annual conference aiming to showcase everything #MiamiTech to the rest of the world.<\/p>\n

Local developer Stephen Ross<\/a> may be one of the people in South Florida taking most advantage of this exact moment. \u201cThere\u2019s so much change happening right now, and this is the moment when growth is going to take off here, especially across South Florida,\u201d he told attendees from the main stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cFlorida is probably the best business state in the country,\u201d Ross added. \u201cPeople just don\u2019t recognize it yet because there hasn\u2019t been as much business activity here historically. Our job is to get the message out and bring people here to South Florida, because the benefits are already here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tim Tebow on mindset, purpose, and building for more than yourself<\/p>\n

Tim Tebow\u2019s conversation with Melissa Medina drew parallels between professional sports and building, leading, and living with purpose.<\/p>\n

The former Heisman Trophy winner, ESPN analyst, and founder of the Tim Tebow Foundation framed impact as a choice. \u201cYou have to stand for something to have impact,\u201d Tebow said, arguing that respect lasts longer than being liked.<\/p>\n

For entrepreneurs, his strongest point was about where drive gets aimed. Competitiveness is useful, he suggested, but only if it serves something bigger than personal success.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want to live a meaningful and purposeful life? Make it about everybody else,\u201d Tebow said.<\/p>\n

He also connected that mindset to technology, especially AI, calling it \u201cone of the most vital pieces\u201d in fighting child exploitation and trafficking. For a room full of founders and technologists, it was a reminder that the tools being built can help solve problems that are urgent, human, and very real.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Investing through disruption, with one foot on the gas and the other on the brake<\/p>\n

Top South Florida investors were in agreement that AI is creating real opportunity, but also real uncertainty.<\/p>\n

Ed Sim, founder of Boldstart Ventures<\/a>, a $1.1 billion early-stage firm focused on enterprise, cybersecurity, AI infrastructure, and developer tools, said the market is moving faster than anything he has seen in 30 years. But his focus remains simple: people.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to assume there are 20 or 30 competitors,\u201d Sim said, arguing that the best founders will be the ones who can hire great talent and adapt quickly.<\/p>\n

He also pushed back on AI hype, especially in cybersecurity. AI can find vulnerabilities at scale, he noted, but fixing them inside large companies is a very different problem. \u201cThe problem is not finding them. It\u2019s fixing them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Don Peebles, chairman and CEO of the Miami Beach-based Peebles Corporation, one of the country\u2019s largest privately held real estate development firms, brought the conversation back to brick-and-mortar business. Real estate, he said, is still \u201cin the dark ages\u201d when it comes to tech. But that creates room for AI to make a major impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat used to take a team of analysts can now be done in about an hour,\u201d Peebles asserted, pointing to faster underwriting and decision-making. His bigger point was that AI could lower barriers for entrepreneurs and open the door to more innovation in old-line industries.<\/p>\n

Hillary Matchett, chief investment officer and general partner at Quantum Coast Capital<\/a>, a Palm Beach firm investing in quantum technologies that support the future of AI infrastructure, argued that AI\u2019s next phase depends on what happens underneath it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea of putting AI with quantum is where the secret sauce will be,\u201d she said. For Matchett, the issue is readiness. Florida, she said, is moving in the right direction on quantum, but the workforce needs to catch up fast, from early education to advanced research.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Defense tech\u2019s front door is opening wider<\/p>\n

For startups, the defense world can still feel hard to access. Emil Michael, from the Office of the Under Secretary of War for Research & Engineering, put it bluntly. \u201cWorking with the Department of Defense can feel like walking into the DMV without speaking the language and asking for a license.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Michael and DARPA Director Stephen Winchell made the case that this is changing.<\/p>\n

Winchell said DARPA has built DARPAConnect to help small businesses get into its ecosystem faster, with more flexible ways to get on contract. Michael added that several funding programs, from small business funds to the Office of Strategic Capital, are now being organized under one group so companies can be met at the right stage of their lifecycle.<\/p>\n

The goal, Michael asserted, is \u201cfast yes\u201d or \u201cfast no.\u201d The U.S. government is looking for startup-level speed in areas like AI, cyber, quantum, photonics, chips, and defense infrastructure. Winchell noted that DARPA started investing heavily in AI back in 2018, committing $2 billion across 130 programs.<\/p>\n

For founders, the bottom line is that the government still has its own rules and friction, but the door is more open than it used to be. And as Michael noted, there is far more capital, talent, and defense tech momentum in places like South Florida than there was a decade ago.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Digital cities get practical<\/p>\n

Better permits, faster answers, safer systems, smoother travel. That\u2019s the promise of smart cities. At eMerge, government experts talked about making this dream a reality.<\/p>\n

Ana Chammas, who leads R&D for Miami-Dade County, said the shift has been dramatic. What started as connected systems has turned into something more actionable. Cities today are sitting on \u201ca very data rich environment where we can leverage data to use new technologies to make meaningful change in government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doral Mayor Christi Fraga framed it even more simply. A digital city is one where it\u2019s \u201ceasier to work with government, easier to get things done,\u201d whether that\u2019s opening a business, getting a permit, or just getting a straight answer faster.<\/p>\n

For Rolando Aedo of the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau, the focus is on experience. \u201cFrom a tourism perspective, the phrase that we use is \u2018removing friction,\u2019\u201d he asserted. The goal is a smoother journey from the moment someone lands in Miami to the moment they leave. Aedo described a near future where your trip is fully anticipated, from airport pickup to hotel check-in, powered by data and AI.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And the Startup Showcase Grand Prize winner is \u2026<\/p>\n

Continuing an annual tradition at eMerge, 0ne-hundred startups from around the world qualified for the Startup Showcase and over the course of the conference, judges narrowed the field to five finalists for the grand finale of the pitch competition. Like other years, the contest was an appropriate closing celebration to eMerge Americas because, as Melissa Medina often says, startups are the heart and soul of their mission.<\/p>\n

The finalists pitched on the main stage in front of a hundreds in the audience, and of course eMerge\u2019s three judges this year: Marcus Lemonis, the host of The Fixer on FOX, Marcus Bodet of B.I.G Capital, and Andinrew Lane of J.P. Morgan. The grand prize was a $125K investment from eMerge Americas and B.I.G. Capital, plus $80K of pro bono legal services from Holland & Knight. The startups that placed second (Grid) and third (Miami-based Remedian<\/a>) received $60K and $40K of legal services, respectively. <\/p>\n

And the grand prize winner was \u2026 drumroll please \u2026. Nigerian startup Toluwai, which offers real-time production intelligence for the energy sector. \u201cWe help operators to produce better, faster and smarter,\u201d pitched co-founder Tosin Joel, whose team has 60 years of energy operations experience.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Mark your calendars: eMerge Americas is coming back March 2-4, 2027. <\/p>\n

Nancy Dahlberg contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

READ MORE IN REFRESH MIAMI:<\/p>\n

\"Riley<\/a> <\/p>\n

I am a Miami-based technology researcher and writer with a passion for sharing stories about the South Florida tech ecosystem. I particularly enjoy learning about GovTech startups, cutting-edge applications of artificial intelligence, and innovators that leverage technology to transform society for the better. Always open for pitches via Twitter @rileywk or www.RileyKaminer.com.<\/p>\n

\"Riley<\/a>Latest posts by Riley Kaminer (see all<\/a>) \t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From AI investing to defense tech and city infrastructure, the focus was on turning momentum into results \u201cOur…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-245681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}