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.