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You must not be moving to Southeast Florida. SFL has been described as a lot of things, cheap is not a word I've ever heard. Most angel investors live here Jan

by cd34 15y ago

You must not be moving to Southeast Florida. SFL has been described as a lot of things, cheap is not a word I've ever heard. Most angel investors live here Jan-Apr/May and go back to NY or the Med for the summer. Otherwise, if you have a list of angel investors, there is a startup community in SFL that would be extremely eager to talk with them. Most of the startups down here struggle for funding, or go to NY/SF to get funding. Even angel.co lists a handful of investors in Florida, and most are in other areas watching Florida. As for #2, I would like to congratulate the webmaster that wrote that. Clear demographics? what does that mean for a business? Are you using racial profiling to pick your customer base? Delineated geographic areas? We have county and city boundaries, but I don't believe that is unique to Florida. State-wide suburbia? I can drive five minutes to the west and it is swamp for roughly two hours until I reach the other side of the state. While Florida is a large state, the population has decided that living in swamps/marshes isn't nearly as nice as living on the edges of the state near the ocean. Once you get to Central Florida you're in a different environment, but, it might as well be a different country. SFL is certainly a unique ecosystem. incubatemiami.com is a local equivalent to YC, but, while they have the mentor track figured out, once you get out of mentorship, it is a struggle to find funding. SFL doesn't even have any positions dedicated to helping startups. UM Launchpad in Miami is a good start and there are some other college affiliated programs, but, for a startup community, SFL is quite difficult. If you're moving and didn't have something lined up, and you're looking for startup activity, I don't really think SFL would be my choice. But, once you get here, take a look at some of those URLs and get involved. There are a lot of smart people in SFL that are anxious to talk with other people - your connections with Angel funding will make you very popular.

true_religion 15y ago
Oh, you're right---we're moving into Northeast, Florida. But compared to DC/NYC/Silicon Valley, Florida is cheaper no matter where you live. Thanks for the succint description of Florida. It's given me a lot to think about. I only have to point out now that Incubate Miami is definitively not the local equivalent of YC if you struggle to find funding after you leave it. I know that my team doesn't have a dearth of experience in running a business, so the only use of a traditional incubator/accelerator is the connections it leads you to. I'd consider something like Start-up Chile to be a good incubator: it's government backed, and its stamp of approval may open doors in the government sector. YC is also good because its a proven money maker, and the press is only too happy to cover the companies that it graduates.

by cd34 15y ago

true_religion 15y ago

Oh, you're right---we're moving into Northeast, Florida. But compared to DC/NYC/Silicon Valley, Florida is cheaper no matter where you live. Thanks for the succint description of Florida. It's given me a lot to think about. I only have to point out now that Incubate Miami is definitively not the local equivalent of YC if you struggle to find funding after you leave it. I know that my team doesn't have a dearth of experience in running a business, so the only use of a traditional incubator/accelerator is the connections it leads you to. I'd consider something like Start-up Chile to be a good incubator: it's government backed, and its stamp of approval may open doors in the government sector. YC is also good because its a proven money maker, and the press is only too happy to cover the companies that it graduates.