As south Florida's tech boom continues, some startups are still facing barriers to funding.

We look at the latest resources for entrepreneurs, and ways to help level the playing field.

That and more, stay with us as we dive into Your South Florida.

Hi, I'm Ashley Portero, senior reporter at the South Florida Business Journal, filling in for Pam Giganti.

Welcome to Your South Florida.

Our region's tech community continues to grow at a rapid pace, aided in part by the recent influx of tech startups and venture capitalists to the sunshine state.

City of Miami mayor Francis Suarez has been leading the charge to entice companies to relocate, determined to make Miami the capitol of capital.

Last year alone, Miami startups raised 4.6 billion in funding.

But a recent study by the nonprofit Air Ventures shows that not everyone is getting a piece of the pie, with black and women-led startups giving the South Florida tech ecosystem low marks when it comes to equitable access to capital and diversity.

Earlier, I spoke with Air Ventures president, Leigh-Ann Buchanan.

to learn more about their findings and ways entrepreneurs can break through these barriers.

Hey Leigh-Ann, it's good to connect with you again.

So late last year, your nonprofit Air Ventures released the results of its REDI scorecard on diversity in South Florida's tech community.

What was the goal of the scorecard, and what were your main findings?

Ashley, thanks so much.

It's great to be with you again as well.

And I think that's a good place to start in terms of the REDI scorecard.

And I wanna make sure that I make clear that the REDI scorecard is really just a tool.

Yes, Air Ventures led the charge in kind of doing a lot of the legwork, but really this will was a collaborative effort among well over 80 local partner organizations that range from accelerators, incubators, investors, local government, all organizations that make up the tech and innovation ecosystem in South Florida.

But ultimately, what we wanted to discover was where could we have a clear strategy for more of a REDI, so racially, equitable, diverse and inclusive growth of our ecosystem.

I mean, everybody knows in the last 18 months or so, South Florida in particular, Miami specifically has seen a huge influx of newcomers into the MiamiTech ecosystem.

A group of us, you know, about a year ago, put together the MiamiTech Manifesto.

But when an ecosystem like South Florida is in such a growth stage, it was really important to understand how we can be strategic to leverage the opportunity so that people weren't left behind.

But what was missing is we didn't have data.

We really didn't have a comprehensive assessment that allowed us to understand what were the gaps, where were their opportunities, what was the sentiment analysis around whether or not the resources that existed in our community were actually gonna trickle down to folks that needed them the most?

Where were we on talent?

How did tech founders and other ecosystem stakeholders feel about the level of support local government was providing?

So there was a whole host of questions that we needed to answer that we didn't see data on.

So, we created the REDI scorecard as a framework.

What is the data telling you about South Florida at this point?

I think for us, they substantiate did a lot of what we knew anecdotally.

So in talking to founders and and hearing from people, as you recall, Ashley, our organization used to run the Venture Cafe.

So over a five-year period, we served over 50,000 innovators.

So it's not like we didn't have our ear to the ground.

But a couple findings that stand out to me in particular was that women entrepreneurs and black ecosystem leaders lacked effective support specifically in the ecosystem.

So that means, yes, we have a lot of opportunities.

There's a lot of resources, but they were not necessarily trickling down to everybody that needed them.

In nearly all categories and subcategories, women entrepreneurs rated the ecosystem lower than their male counterparts.

I think it was upwards of over 20% lower.

And then black ecosystem leaders and black business support leaders rated the ecosystem over 40% lower than their white and Hispanic peers.

So that was a huge kind of disparity that was instructive of how we can build going forward.

Another initial finding was that South Florida networks by and large lack diversity, and sometimes are difficult to access without the right connections.

But that means is we can then invest more in more effective ways to distribute social capital and connections because the reality is we have always been a who you know kind of culture in a city, but that means if we're not expanding and diversifying who we know, certain people get locked out of opportunities.

On the positive side, what I thought was really fascinating is that there was a lot of data that identified that South Florida wants to have a clear identity of where we sit in in the world as an ecosystem.

And one clear point was like we're not Silicon Valley 2.0, we have a unique value proposition which we often point to that calls for us to create a cohesive identity around branding, marketing, and attracting newcomers to our ecosystem.

And then finally, one that was really helpful was that there are a lot of low cost programs that are available to entrepreneurs and founders that are looking to grow and scale their businesses.

We have a dearth, now where the opportunity exists is to make sure that those pathways are more structured and bespoke.

And so that if you are a founder at an early stage, you can easily access early stage specific resources, or if you're at a growth stage, it's much easier to access growth stage specific resources.

And finally, the question that's always on everybody's mind, I know City of Miami mayor France Suarez is always promoted and hyped up for making Miami the capitol of capital.

Well, one of the findings of the scorecard is we need to make the capital that's here more accessible to underrepresented groups and underrepresented founders.

And so, we saw that there was record growth in the amount of venture capital deployed over the last year and a half, 18 months.

And you've been tracking it with your reporting at the South Florida Business Journal, as well as in our newsletter, but we are not tracking quite well who that capital is go going to, and whether or not it's going to the groups that are traditionally underrepresented, like women and like people of color, in particular black entrepreneurs which represent a racial and ethnic minority in our majority-minority demographic landscape.

And you mentioned that one of the responses that you had from black and women founders was they didn't feel quite as you know, supported right now in South Florida's tech ecosystem.

What can be done to make those founders feel more supported?

So that's a great question.

I think phase one of the REDI scorecard has been let's show the data.

Let's identify some of the gaps, understand where our challenges are.

And I think phase two which is more of a community effort as well is to really identify those types of solutions that are solving for these gaps in a way that is authentic and has efficacy.

And so, yes, we need more funding.

We need more checks to go to those that are not represented that are not getting checks, but I also think one of the biggest challenges is finding where the other barriers might exist.

And I see that in the results of the scorecard and some of the data, we're able to see where some of the barriers also exist.

So one of the challenges that I just mentioned was the dense networks.

How you get to a venture capital deal is often the result of who you know.

So one of the ways that we can we can remove some of these barriers to access to capital would be in creating more high value networks for the groups that are traditionally underrepresented.

Another opportunity that we have here in particular is to look at what types of supports are missing.

And so, in the REDI scorecard data, we break down different types of supports beyond just, oh, you need supports.

We break it down in terms of talent pipeline and mentorship, champions and ecosystem builders, policy supports, specifically those on ramps and pathways, intersections, conversations, metrics and learning and identity and storytelling.

So those, at least those basic categories are a couple of ways that we could focus on more specific strategies to remove barriers.

One might be policy supports.

In other ecosystems, emerging markets, local government is getting really creative about ways that they can leverage some public dollars to make capital more accessible, in grant funding, or in match funding, or in answering opportunities for entrepreneurs to get more access to mentorship and supports.

Another area where we saw some distinctions between women and men and people of color across disaggregated racial groups was on talent pipeline and mentorship.

And so we did see some talent placement gaps where diverse talent was having trouble connecting to worthwhile companies but also in terms of mentorship.

And so mentorship around scaling up is an area where we can invest more of our resources and our energy and our efforts to help these folks that are unfortunately being left behind.

What has the response been from local government since the REDI scorecard was released?

The response has been relatively positive for those representatives of local government that we've had an opportunity to personally interact with.

I know most of the major municipalities, at least in Miami-Dade County have sent representatives to our initial open walkthroughs that we have held in December.

And so we are actually gonna be doing more efforts to engage with local government so that they're aware of the scorecard, because the timing of when it was released is pre-bosal, right before the Christmas and winter holiday season.

And so I think people kind of slow down towards the end of the year, but as we pick up the year, I do anticipate we'll see more opportunities to partner, more opportunities to walkthroughs individually with local government.

Many mayors have individually said I wanna do a walkthrough with my team, to truly dig into the data and understand how this can inform our strategy, from Francis Suarez specifically as well as Daniella Levine Cava at the county.

And so that's because at the end of the day, the scorecard is just a tool that ideally can be leveraged by local government in their efforts to play a role in building an inclusive ecosystem, and also in how they attract talent, companies and newcomers to our ecosystem.

So it's designed to be a tool that they can leverage.

What advice would you offer women founders or black founders who are trying to raise funding and build here in South Florida, especially if they haven't necessarily had success with traditional fundraising, what other avenues are there?

So, I think sometimes, founders get so focused on giving away their equity for an investment, but there are traditional ways of bringing on capital that they may just overlook because it's not as sexy, it's not as cool as saying I got an investor and gave away my equity.

I mean, the SBA has really interesting programs and really great programs that are available to any entrepreneur or any business.

And by and large kind of startup founders are really good at developing clear business plans.

And so you could take on debt.

There are also grant programs available.

So sometimes it's just as much as doing research.

If your project is social impact oriented, you can get philanthropic funding.

And then most importantly, I would say don't forget about revenue.

You can, depending on the nature of your product or service look at ways to generate revenue so that you are not just bootstrapping but you're funding your business.

Be clear about what you want funded, and be clear about what you're going to do with the money.

I often find in talking to founders who have not been successful at getting funding, is they haven't really got clarity on how they're gonna use the money and what they want to fund.

And so having good relationships with investors and mentors and having people take a look at your deck, or take a look at your pitch and giving you feedback will really help to refine the process.

Now armed with findings from the REDI scorecard, how will local governments use this data to ensure a more sustainable and equitable tech ecosystem?

Earlier I spoke with Miami-Dade County's new tech and innovation advisor, Francesca de Quesada Covey to learn more.

Hi, Francesca, thanks for joining me today.

Let's get right into your role as Miami Dade County's technology and innovation advisor.

Tell me about the position and what drew you to this.

Thanks, Ashley.

It's great to be here.

So I, as Miami-Dade County's first tech and innovation advisor to mayor Levine Cava.

I'm honored by this opportunity because of the mayor's focus on engagement, equity, economy and the environment.

And also because mayor Levine Cava is the first female mayor of Miami-Dade County.

My role is to serve as a liaison with a tech community that keeps growing year over year, to understand their needs, understand the opportunity, understand the challenges and ensure that I'm bringing that information back into county government so that we can build the best policies in order to support that ecosystem.

Long term, what we're looking for is to create great local job creation.

And that's something that I'm personally really excited about because I wanna make sure that my two girls, when they grow up, they have great opportunities to stay here in Miami-Dade County.

What kind of resources and programs are currently available from the county to support up and coming tech entrepreneurs?

That's a great question.

So we start thinking about it not just to support local tech entrepreneurs, but also to support everyone, right?

I mean, local entrepreneurs need to have users.

And so we wanna make sure that everyone has access to digital literacy and connectivity.

And a big priority for the county and for the mayor is to make sure that everyone has awareness about Miami Connected, which is a program that offers broadband and free connectivity to households to make sure that they have access to it.

We are currently working on updating incentives that the county offers for high growth startup to compliment the incentives that are already exist through the Beacon Council and through the county government for companies that are already scaled and that are growing here or that are moving here.

So we have those county incentives too.

And then we work with academic universities to ensure that we have really really strong talent pipeline programs to ensure that once companies are hiring here, that they're hiring the best talent that really fits the needs of what they're looking for.

Earlier in the program, I spoke with Leigh-Ann Buchanan from Air Ventures about their new REDI scorecard.

And I know this is something mayor Levine Cava has been a proponent of and has tweeted about.

How is the county planning on using this data to address any inequities in tech and the need for senior level talent that we have in Miami-Dade County?

It's such a good question.

Leigh-Ann's work is incredible.

Leigh-Ann is a powerhouse.

And we are really really excited to make sure that she has sort the support from the county, so we're working really closely with her.

And also to ensure that we're listening to what she's finding, because the REDI scorecard had information that we needed to make sure that we were looking at in order to make the best policies.

So one, the mayor has personally looked at all of the information and spent the time understanding it.

She's asked me and her senior director for performance and innovation to ensure that we're bringing in those metrics to the policy that's being written into the county, so that we're proactively looking at it.

And then in all the conversations that the mayor is having both with academic institutions and with founders, in addition to funders, because this is really issue, right?

It's that there is inequity in the hiring.

And also that we're seeing that black and brown founders aren't being funded.

And so that at the academic level, we're thinking through the programs that need to be created or that need to be supported in order to have more people go into the pipeline and get those jobs.

One of the things that she did last year was to have a 5 million grant to Miami-Dade College focused on technology.

That was complimented by Knight Foundation and the City of Miami for a total of 12 million.

The mayor put in five, Knight foundation put in five, the City of Miami put in two, and is one example of the ways that we're working with academic institutions.

And then on the funding side, and when the mayor's having conversations with any of the VCs that have moved here, any of the large impact funds, we're always talking about how they can be helping to ensure that diversity and inclusion are part of the conversation when they're funding companies, but also as their companies are growing.

And speaking of that, you're also a partner at The Venture City where you invest in early stage companies.

What do you look for at a startup?

And do you have any tips for entrepreneurs who might be looking for funding?

Yeah, so at The Venture City, I'm a partner on precedency deals.

So we invest 150 to 500,000 in early stage companies that are coming from emerging tech hubs, which is really cool because we're not investing in companies that are necessarily coming from San Francisco.

But we're really thinking about this idea that talent is everywhere and opportunity is not.

So how do we look at untraditional places?

And the advice that I would give folks is be clear on why you're building, why it's your passion, why you are uniquely positioned to solve this problem, the problem that you're solving, and how you're gonna get there.

That's more than anything what VCs are looking for is that clarity of purpose, that clarity of mission, and a clear understanding of your roadmap.

Accept feedback, that's always super important.

So be willing to listen to the advice that you're getting, but at the same time, you are the entrepreneur.

So really listen to your gut because you're gonna get so much feedback, but it's really important for you to listen to your gut and make sure that you are distilling that noise from signal in order to drive your company to success.

What would you say are the strengths of South Florida's tech ecosystem?

Our diversity, our hunger, we are built hustlers.

We are built to make sure that we are thinking outside of the box.

We are thinking innovatively.

We are thinking about how we can solve problems.

And that is incredibly unique, and we are open and we are very, very warm.

You know, I've lived in the valley.

I came back home.

I've lived in New York.

I came back home.

And the thing that draws me to Miami is the people.

We are so, so lucky for the people, and for the great ideas that we have that we build here, that we foster here in the community that supports them.

Fantastic.

Well, thank you so much for joining me, Francesca.

I really appreciate.

It's always great to have a chance to connect.

Ashley, it's awesome.

Thank you so much for having me.

While Miami is being touted as the epicenter of South Florida's tech boom, in Palm Beach County, FAU's Tech Runway is helping cultivate the area's diverse tech community through mentorship programs and financial support for early stage startups.

Here's Tech Runway's Jessica Beaver to tell us more.

FAU Tech Runway is an early stage incubator, servicing the Southeast region.

We invite entrepreneurs and early stage startups into our program, that align with the core mission and value set forth by FAU strategic plan.

In order to get into FAU Tech Runway, applicants must participate in something called the Launch Competition.

This bi-annual competition is essentially our application cycle.

Interested entrepreneurs and startups from around the region will apply.

They'll be scored on the backend platform, and then be invited in to do a live pitch if they make it as a finalist.

Winners of the launch competition are then invited into our year long venture program where they receive mentoring, entrepreneurial education, access to resources, and support internal and external from the university.

FAU Tech Runway is also home to the first university based angel group called the Tech Runway Investor Network.

This group invests in early stage startups which is fantastic in this ecosystem in South Florida.

In addition, the FAU Tech Runway program implements pitch scrubs.

So any participant in our program, as well as some from the community and the university are able to come in and their pitch so that they are always ready in the case they get an opportunity to go in front of an investor, a customer, or anyone else that might help scale their business.

We also collaborate with numerous community partners, such as the SBDC at FAU, which provides additional resources and support outside of what our program offers.

A great example of the support that FAU provides through innovation and business development is the story of one of our entrepreneurs, Paris Prince who created the company called SPods.

This is an 18 year old college student who had an idea, and through the pipeline that FAU provided, was able to receive funding early on to develop and explore this idea, was then invited into our program, and has been working with our mentors, has won multiple competitions and is now actively pursuing investors at this age of 19.

And this is due to the pipeline support and resources provided not only through FAU Tech Runway, but as a university as a whole.

And once you're in the FAU family, you're always there.

So, it's not graduating and we forget about you.

We're always there to support and provide any resources and guidance that we can, 'cause your success is truly our success.

FAU, as the most diverse public university in the state of Florida recognizes and acknowledges this wonderful community and the diverse nature of businesses and individuals who live here.

And we are thrilled to be able to bring our services to this community, to help support our local economy, create jobs, bring businesses, bring revenue in, and raise capital.

This is a great place to build a business, and we're really proud to be a part of it.

For more on FAU's Tech Runway and other resources discussed on today's show, follow us on Facebook or Twitter at YourSouthFL.

I'm Ashley Portero.

Thanks for watching.