Fireside Chat with Tampa Bay Startup Pioneers by Tampa Bay Wave
by Parker · 64 things on Twos
- Tampa Bay Wave
500 East Kennedy Boulevard
3rd Floor
Tampa, FL 33602
- Hubspot
- Linda Tampa Bay Wave CEO
- Entrepreneurs create economic development
- Got emotional about furthering the economic development for her kids
- Tampa Bay Wave Board Chair Charlotte Baker. Raised $150 million from Accel
- Featured speaker is Charlotte Baker, the CEO of Digital Hands.
- Roads to skip, roads to know
- Roughly right
- Stay flexible
- Find people who can see the forest from the trees
- Surround yourself with people who can help you make decisions quickly
- Ashok Kartham is the former Founder and CEO of Mize, which has since merged with Syncron where he is now the Chief Product Officer.
- Cloud software for manufacturers
- Early investor in Florida Funders
- Founded angel fund Tide
- Concept has traction
- Customer growth
- What does it take to get the next customer
- What is your differentiator to get traction?
- What is your roadmap?
- Match on money, how else they will help you, right size, sector
- You can reject if it is not the right match because you will find the right match
- Think global for the talent
- You are only worth what the next person is willing to pay for you
- Ben Goldman is the former Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer of 180byTwo, which has since been acquired by MeritB2B where he is now the SVP of Digital Revenue and Partnerships.
- Target marketing in B2B space
- Acquired Nov 2020
- Bootstrap as long as possible so you'll be in the driver's seat
- PE has money, they are looking for a reason to give it to you
- Have a product that works and customers want
- If you don't have a clear path of how to make money with their money you have a problem
- Being a part of an accelerator says you are willing to be coachable and are taking this seriously
- PE companies follow a certain industry or look for their companies
- Handshake in Tampa
- Outsource product as a startup
- Serbia for mobile design
- Do some research on where to find the best talent
- You need a project manager to manage the external team
- Started and stopped their raises multiple times. Would change their mind to focus back on their product
- Mergers between startups, traction and platform
- Look for channels that lead to thousands of partners
- Aaron White is the former Co-Founder and CEO of Script, which has since been acquired by LINQ.
- Digital solution for education
- Capital loves clarity
- Team > timing > capital
- Looking for a job. Education connects
- Get involved in the community, conferences, talks
- Miraj Patel is the Founder and CEO of Harness.
- Drive more money spend on Visa and Mastercard with giveaways
- Tactics
- Every first meeting was a conversation. They will tell you what a healthy company looks like for your business
- Listening tour. How does your fund operate? What do you look for?
- If we do this in the next 6 months, would you write a check for that?
- You can't be asking for money. Business is well
- You have to have the passion. You need people shooting with you in the gym
- Bring on people who are going to be as passionate as you
- Be there next to me, when the time comes
- 1 + 1 = 3
- Whiteboard how can you help them, how can they help you, how can you make them money, traction
- Seeded $100 million last year
- Tampa Ventures
- Seed Funders
- The accelerators are women, fintech