On April 29th, Endeavor Miami and The 305 hosted an intimate fireside chat with Miami Mayor Francis Suarez. The conversation was moderated by Claudia Duran, Endeavor Managing Director, and Zaid Rahman, Founder & CEO of Flexbase and Co-Founder of The 305. Seeking to further unite the local ecosystem with recent newcomers, Endeavor Miami and The 305 partnered together for a night of conversation, networking and entertainment.

The evening brought together an audience of founders and CEOs; investors, VCs and angels; new arrivals to Miami; and individuals that have been building the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Miami for some time now.

Miami-native Mayor Francis Suarez, a leading figure that has played an instrumental role in attracting tech players from other tech hubs such as Silicon Valley and New York to Miami, sat down to speak about his background, his political philosophy, his thoughts on the present influx of entrepreneurs moving to Miami, his vision of the “Capital of capital”, his belief in the importance of supporting female and minority entrepreneurs, and much more.

 

“We’re studying the issue on particular verticals we want to differentiate ourselves with, obviously you guys have seen me go all out on Crypto and Blockchain. I think Biotech is another vertical we can do significantly well and Healthcare because we have a huge healthcare system here. There’s a variety of other verticals we can do very well with. So that’s one part – finding a way to differentiate ourselves. I think we all have to recognize the hyper-competitive and hyper-disruptive world we live in,” said Mayor Suarez referring to how Miami can capitalize from different talent verticals.

“I think any mayor in the world that is not trying to grow their tech ecosystem is doing a disservice to all of its citizens,” added Suarez.

As the MiamiTech ecosystem keeps growing, it’s important to keep the conversation going between newcomers and native Miami companies. By acting as a unified force, we can all contribute to solidifying Miami’s growing position as an emerging tech hub. Be sure to view the full fireside chat on youtube: https://youtu.be/A6U83CHdpos.