The platform builds upon the Council\u2019s early success of the Gold Coast Tech Accelerator<\/a>. That program launched in 2025 and is in partnership with eMerge Americas and Related Ross and was seeded with $10 million from Related CEO Stephen Ross and Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, integrates fintech and dual-use defense startups into Florida\u2019s enterprise ecosystem. West Palm Beach offered the fintech track, while Miami\u2019s track focused on defense tech. <\/p>\n Gold Coast Tech showed what\u2019s possible when you connect founders directly into Florida\u2019s economy, said Mike Simas, president and CEO of The Florida Council of 100. Now, he said, \u201cthe bigger story is that Florida is entering a new phase.\u201d<\/p>\n For years, the state has been successful at attracting people and investment, lured by quality of life and business-friendly tax policies, Simas continued, in an interview with Refresh Miami. \u201cThe next step is turning that growth into lasting economic strength. That means aligning regional strengths with the full power of Florida\u2019s statewide business leadership, talent, capital, and innovation network so companies don\u2019t just move here. They build here, stay here, and scale here. Florida is in a position to compete for the next generation of American innovation.\u201d <\/p>\n The expansion of Ambition Acceleration \u201creflects the kind of coordinated effort that is positioning Florida as a place where companies can build and scale,\u201d added eMerge Americas CEO Melissa Medina, a Florida Council of 100 member.<\/p>\n Scaling success statewide<\/p>\n Starting this fall, two new specialized tracks will launch.<\/p>\n Ambition Accelerated: Tampa Bay, will be anchored and run by Embarc Collective<\/a>. This track will focus on healthcare delivery, medical devices, diagnostics, and digital health.<\/p>\n \u201cMembers of each startup cohort will be provided access to Embarc Collective\u2019s globally recognized startup platform, including curated programming and a growing repository of startup resources and frameworks, on-demand coaching\u00a0and mentoring, and connectivity to the customers, talent, and capital that they need to scale,\u201d said Tim Holcomb, CEO of Embarc Collective.<\/p>\n \u201cTampa Bay was a clear choice because the region has a deep healthcare base, strong talent, and major institutions that can help health-focused companies build and test real solutions,\u201d said Simas, in an interview with Refresh Miami.\u00a0\u201cBut the goal is not for companies\u00a0to scale in Tampa alone. The accelerator is anchored in Tampa Bay, while bringing together corporate leaders, healthcare systems, investors, and partners from across Florida. That is the power of Ambition Accelerated. We are locating these tracks in regions with real sector strength, but aggregating the full statewide market at the C-suite level so companies can scale in Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n Ambition Accelerated: Southwest Florida will be based at \u00a0Babcock\u00a0Ranch<\/a>, a huge master-planned community with future-proof infrastructure to eliminate climate risk. This track will focus on infrastructure resilience, water systems, energy, and climate adaptation.<\/p>\n \u201cBabcock Ranch is one of the most advanced, award-winning resilient communities in the country, and one of the best real-world testbeds globally for resilience, infrastructure, and energy innovation,\u201d Simas said, and climate resiliency is a statewide issue. \u201cThe goal is to anchor the work at Babcock Ranch while bringing together corporate leaders, investors, and partners from across Florida so companies can deploy, test, and scale solutions statewide.\u201d<\/p>\n All four tracks, including the existing fintech and defense programs held in South Florida, will run concurrently this fall, representing a massive, coordinated push to scale the model across the state.<\/p>\n What sets Ambition Accelerated apart is its direct connection to Florida\u2019s top employers. The Council represents more than 200 companies employing over 1.3 million Floridians. This provides startup founders with a direct line to the customers and capital they need to scale.<\/p>\n What\u2019s next?<\/p>\n Expect more to come from Ambition Accelerated. Orlando? Jacksonville? Space Coast? \u201cOver time, we\u2019ll continue expanding into regions where Florida already has an advantage and connect those strengths into a broader statewide market,\u201d said Simas.<\/p>\n In a main stage conversation at eMerge Americas<\/a> on Friday with Medina and Ross, Simas further elaborated on the Florida-wide strategy, without revealing today\u2019s expansion news: \u201cWe\u2019re going to be intentional about building an economy that works for Florida, that embraces our strengths and adds technology and innovation on top of it, so we can scale and bring Floridians along with this growth.\u201d Ross added: \u201cPeople go to places where they can attract talent, and what people haven\u2019t realized is how much talent is in the state of Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n A global call for applications is expected this summer for the fall accelerated programs; founders and operators can find more information at AmbitionAccelerated.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n READ MORE IN REFRESH MIAMI:<\/p>\n ![\"Nancy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/60b7851ea3a84-bpfull.jpg\")
<\/a> I am a writer and editor with extensive media experience and a passion for journalism and serving the community. Most of my career has been spent with the Miami Herald in business news, and my expertise is writing about tech and entrepreneurs. I love hosting this blog for Refresh Miami and we aim to be the go-to site for South Florida startup and tech news, features and views. Have news? Contact me at [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>. Thanks for reading! <\/a>Latest posts by Nancy Dahlberg (see all<\/a>) \t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida is no longer waiting for the next economic boom to arrive. Today, The Florida Council of 100,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":["post-248236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248236","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=248236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}