Inc. Magazine covers Tampa’s startup ecosystem

March 27, 2019

A correspondent with Inc. Magazine recently visited Tampa to dig into the local startup culture. He met with individuals from all sides of the startup world – funders, accelerators, professors and entrepreneurs. What he found was an emerging destination for startups, not just retirees.

The city is attracting capital from individuals like billionaire Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik, who is not only investing big in Tampa’s redevelopment, but in the startup ecosystem, too with the launch of Embarc Collective, an innovation hub to serve startups’ needs.

Florida Funders, a hybrid of venture capital and crowdfunding led by two successful entrepreneurs, Tom Wallace and Marc Blumenthal, are also bringing in capital for tech investments. They recently sourced $4 million for Tampa startup Trash Butler and one of their greatest success stories, Peer Fit, just attracted an $18 million investment from a San Francisco fund.

The writer also met with seasoned tech entrepreneurs who shared their experiences about being able to attract and retain talent to Tampa and one of the biggest advantages of operating in Tampa: here you will have an entire wave of people pushing you to succeed because they know your success is their success.

Read the full story here.