Amid talk of racial equity, Miami’s startup community reflects on its future
Miami’s startup scene is at a moment of inflection—and reflection.
The region spent much of the past decade trying to sell itself to the world. Recent events have prompted a new conversation.
Earlier this month, the Knight Foundation convened local startups leaders to discuss the state of Miami’s tech-centered entrepreneurial base. The theme was equity—a response to the nationwide discussion sparked by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
The discussion followed a study by Startup Genome measuring various indicators of Miami as an innovation hub, including metrics on hiring, employee retention, and diversity.
The conclusion: Miami still has far to go when it comes to retaining and diversifying its talent and capital base. Seed rounds remain small,and companies rate poorly when it comes to benefits like stock options.
Most critically: minority-owned firms often feel left out of key opportunities for scaling.
Leigh-Ann Buchanan, founding Executive Director of Venture Café Miami and a participant in the virtual meet-up, said in an email that, “There are real and pronounced systemic inequities in this community that impact our level of exposure, access to high value social networks, sourcing talent and reallocating capital to those who need it the most.”
“One possible solution: an objective, no pretense, roadmap of the people, places and platforms that can unlock opportunities,” she said.
Emceeing the virtual meetup was Will Weinraub, co-founder of LiveNinja and current head of product marketing at Net2Phone, which purchased LiveNinja in 2017.
“It was great to see local leaders come together to discuss meaningful topics and share thoughtful suggestions around ways we can make our community operate more efficiently and more equitably as a whole,” Weinraub said in an email. “I walked away from that call with a feeling of optimism as we are certainly having the right types of conversations. It’s now up to all of us to make sure we follow through on these discussions with prompt and meaningful action.”
Meanwhile, the Knight Foundation is now putting resources toward to bridging local tech’s racial divide. This year, it announced the launch of Craftspeople, a membership organization that brings together entrepreneurs through monthly workshops led by seasoned founders and venture builders; and Black Angels Miami, an angel investment group connecting its members to top-notch startups while also increasing the number of black angel investors.
Knight is also bringing in a chapter of Black Girl Ventures, which aims to increase access to financial and social capital for Black and Brown women entrepreneurs through coaching, crowdfunding and community. It also is supporting Culture Shift Labs promotes greater collaboration among Black and Latino venture capitalists; Labs also will host a Culture Shifting Weekend. Knight is actively encouraging institutional investors and entrepreneurs and subsidizing The Plug, an Atlanta-based group that aims to bring transparency to tech companies’ racial diversity, gender representation and compensation practices through data.
“Each of these organizations has been leading the conversation around the country on how to support a truly inclusive startup and innovation economy,” Raul Moas, Knight’s Miami program director, said in a statement. “We’re delighted that they see Miami as the next frontier in asking sometimes uncomfortable questions about who benefits from opportunity, and who doesn’t.”
In a followup call, Moas said that while there is little Miami can do to impact capital markets, the region can focus on its “soft infrastructure.”
“What can we effectuate directly? Our culture,” he said. “If there’s one thing we can do, it’s welcoming folks in, receiving folks, and giving them on-ramps to participate.”
Elsewhere on the startup scene, some key players from the past few years are moving on. Magic Leap has shed at least a thousand jobs, with many former employees returning from Florida to Silicon Valley. After landing in Miami, SoftBank also announced a staff reduction. Natalia Martinez-Kalinina announced this month she is stepping aside as director of co-working space CIC Miami; she has not yet announced her next move. LAB Miami Ventures sold its events business to a Las Vegas-based firm.
As ever, Miami entrepreneurs find a way.
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This story was originally published June 29, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
