In the spirit of creating a lively discourse about the South Florida Tech Community, I figure I should revisit where my involvement began. This story begins in 2005.

Prior to the creation of RefreshMiami I had been to maybe a handful of Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce events, in particular the tech committee events, and was completely unaware of any other pre-existing groups. When I created Refresh Miami 4 years ago (registering the domain and setting up the google group yada yada), I was looking to connect with other geeks and web professionals. I wanted to find a group of people to bounce ideas off of and to share tips and techniques with for building things on the web. Along the way I’ve met lots of great people, lots of characters, and been continuously impressed with the caliber of people down here in South Florida. As a native South Floridian, yes there are some of us still left here, I’d set my expectations incredibly low for what to expect from tech in South Florida. Yet despite my initially low expectations, I now believe we have the pieces here to build a vibrant and prosperous technology community in this area.

When Refresh began, I had no expectations for it. I’d have been perfectly content if it hadn’t grown beyond a few dozen people. I didn’t care. I had no financial reason for needing Refresh to be big. It was purely a social outlet for me. Over the years I’ve come to realize there are some major benefits to the Refresh community by having it grow (job opportunities, business partnerships, increased exposure, etc.). So who knows, maybe my naivete in the beginning was detrimental to the growth of Refresh. Maybe had I been more focused on growth and expanding it, it could be 10x bigger than it is now. It is possible, but I think we would have imploded as a community if it had grown too fast. Refresh has a very tight knit community, much more tightly knit than any other group of its size I’ve seen in South Florida that is loosely formed around a professional or educational interest. These bonds are one of the reasons why I love Refresh. The discussions that emerge throughout the community are the other.

Refresh is about communication, ideas, and their free exchange. Refresh is about democratizing the tech discussion. This ethos is why we let anyone with an idea to share present (excluding sales pitches, those are strictly forbidden; if I am going to see a sales pitch, I better be getting tickets to Disney World or something). So Refresh was started to spark the discussion. These discussions have spread and flourished throughout South Florida, many spawning their own social groups.

When I hear complaints/comments about the community having too many meetups and tweetups, I think we as a community have done our jobs well. The fact that there is now enough demand for discussion about Social Media to warrant its own club is fantastic. Same goes for PHP, Ruby, SEO, WordPress, whatever. The more clubs/groups/meetups, the better. That means there are enough people living in our community who are so passionate about technology that they need to find other people to meetup with to bounce their ideas off of, and to share tips and techniques for their particular craft.

I can only hope that these new groups in turn spawn a thousand more groups on every topic from using iPhoto to Photoshop, iMovie to Premiere, iWeb to machine language.

I can only hope the next 4 years are even more exciting. So let’s get out there and spark a discussion. Cheers to you South Florida, for Refreshing this community.

In this seemingly interminable series, which has covered everything, then shifted to the government, then local business, most recently the individuals, and now we’re taking a look at the role of the money men in relation to the future of tech in south florida.

The primary reason I hear from entrepreneurs/startup guys here in South Florida for considering leaving the area is not lack of access to talent, but lack of access to money. Now we all know South Florida has a lot of money flowing through it (despite the city of Miami technically being one of the “poorest” ), though very little of it in the form of venture capital. There are a lot of rich individuals flowing through our neck of the woods as well, as is evident by the bevvy of Bentleys and Ferraris spotted on any day of the week down Brickell Ave or Ocean Drive.

According to crunchbase there are only 8 financial organizations with offices within 200 miles of Miami, FL with 25 investments. Though this really doesn’t account for the 30+ companies throughout South Florida which have taken venture funding from sources all over the country and the world (again according to CB). [Bridget Carey mentioned some larger figures in her Silicon Beach article, I'm not a journalist, so I don't know where to look for those figures, ask her ]

[note: I started writing this months ago, and never got around to finishing it. So excuse the fact that my train of thought sorta splits here]

My theory is that the well heeled investors that typically spend down here in South Florida, spend on Bio-Tech, for one reason: they get it. Bio-tech investing is simple to grasp: fund research or ideas to solve a tangible problem (cancer, drugs, viruses, bacterias, etc.). Software investing is tougher to put a finger on it. Imagine you’re not in the loop so to speak and someone comes up to you and tells you they need a million bucks to create a new elastic computing system that will revolutionize the data transfer systems being used in data centers. WTF does that even mean to someone without a technical background? Nothing. There are no tangible problems or issues that this solves to the non-technically inclined.

So what is it that we need to do in order to attract Investors? Well this ongoing chicken/egg situation isn’t as bad as one would think. Realistically with the affordability of servers and software these days, anyone can build a prototype quickly and easily, and get it to a stage where it becomes an easier sell to investors. But the beauty of being somewhere substantially cheaper than Silicon Valley, New York, London, or Tokyo, we can build out our prototypes quickly and cheaply. You don’t need a million bucks here to get to that series A or even the Angel round. You need creativity and hustle. Miami is a city filled with HUSTLE. People are very hard working here. Every morning from 5am on our highways are packed with people commuting long distances to work long hours in order to make ends meet.

Miami is the american dream realized for much of our population. We have people from all over the world who come here for a second chance. So we can’t sit around waiting for money and opportunity to come to us. We need to pull ourselves up and get to work. If we start building cool, innovative stuff, paired with our South Floridian work ethic, the money will flow. I guarantee it.

A few people have been discussing the idea of turning Coconut Grove, my favorite neighborhood in Miami, into a tech hub. This is actually an interesting idea, as it would favor both techies and the grove in its effort to revitalize itself.  There are two ways this issue can be approached, one is to drive the movement of techies to LIVE in the grove (which I support), the other is to drive the movement of techies to WORK in the grove, which I also support.  Coconut Grove, or “The Grove,” offers a unique mix of characteristics that lend it to being a great tech hub.

I was told once by a friend of mine in california (who I won’t name, as I may have butchered his idea) that the keys to a successful tech community are: 1. access to cheap housing, 2. acceptance of the gay community, 3. access to universities.*  (Turns out this idea came from Richard Florida’s the rise of the creative class, also think about how this reflects on SFBay area)

Now the grove isn’t all cheap, there are some pretty pricey digs around here, and there are some affordable ones as well (west grove being the least expensive, and most mixed area), but by Miami standards, it isn’t super expensive.

The second factor, well I think this is really more about having a community that is open to alternative thinking/ways of life, which regardless of sexual orientation is a critical factor for innovation (if you stifle creativity, or are not open to different ideas, you will stifle innovation). The grove has traditionally been a much more free-spirited neighborhood than the rest of Miami (with the exception of South Beach), which lends it well to fostering creativity in its midst.  For many years the Grove was a hippie enclave, now it might not be as much, but it is an area where the residents still appreciate creativity (e.g. mango strut parade).

The last factor in his criteria, actually applies quite well as the grove is actually much like a feeder area to the University of Miami (compared to Coral Gables, which lacks the other criteria to foster tech).  Within 10 miles of the grove are at least 2, if not 3 universities, 20 miles, and you’ve got another handful of schools in the mix.

So we’ve got for the most part the trifecta we need for fostering tech in the grove, what are we missing? We need to take a two-pronged approach to this, one being to attract techies as our neighbors, the other to attract them as employers.  So we start with giving them somewhere to work.  There is nothing akin to a coworking space in the immediate area (Brikolodge, being Miami’s only coworking space is in midtown), despite having a large number of empty commercial spaces (heck several buildings are COMPLETELY empty). The first thing we need to do is convince the landlords that they are better served offering shorter leases and lower rates to fill up their empty spaces.  I know of several spaces which have been empty for almost a decade(News Cafe on Florida Ave). A DECADE !  Lets open up these spaces, foster small businesses moving into the grove and give them cheaper rents than they can get elsewhere.  Bringing in more small companies that employ largely well educated, well-paid individuals who have no problem spending their disposable income seems like a smart move for all the local businesses.

Secondly to start attracting the local renters and buyers, our local realtors need to go around and facilitate the For Rent and For Sale by Owner folks to post listings for FREE, or we build our own system that lets these homeowners/landlords expose their properties on the web.  Right now there are a thousand listings on craigslist under coconut grove (see for yourself!). Yet I would bet that many aren’t in the grove, or are just trying to use our little neighborhood for self promotion by advertising their proximity to our quaint little village.  Furthermore, lets promote the fact that we are nuts about our pups here in the grove. No other neighborhood has 2 dog parks, and is as dog friendly as we are. The grove charm is something that is being neglected. Where else can you sit out on the bay and eat conch fritters, or go to the farmers market on a saturday, or ride your bike without having to worry about congestion or pollution?

Really these points aren’t even necessarily exclusive to techies or tech companies, but they are great selling points for the area. So lets rally the troops.

So the next few months, or 6 weeks really should be very busy down here in South Florida. There are a number of upcoming events in the area that might be of interest to you all.

First up this week there is a Ruby on Rails meetup monday night at 7PM in the Datran Center in East Kendall.

Then on wednesday the 23rd, NextMiami is returning to Gordon Biersch on Brickell at 7.

Every saturday there is the Miami web development group meetup at 2PM downtown at the data center.

On the 30th I’ll be hosting RefreshMiami’s January meetup at 7:30PM at Books and Books in Coral Gables. Chris Saylor from TodoBebe will be discussing localization of your website/web app.

In February we’re proud to be hosting the 2nd BarcampMiami at the Carnival Center for performing arts in downtown Miami on February 28th. Make sure you RSVP and secure your spot, as the first 100 people will get t-shirts and 50% off admission to Future of Web Apps Miami.

February also marks the first time Future of Web Apps will be hosting their conference and parties here in lovely South Florida. Check out the event page on Facebook if you’re interested in seeing who is going to be there. If you’re interested in finding out about the parties and events, just add your comment below, and I’ll keep you in the loop.

If you have any other events you’d like to let me know about. email me brian[at]webpl.us

One of the things I miss most about college is the incredible sandwich shops that were around the school. I still miss the wild turkey sandwiches at Little John’s Deli, or the fresh french bread sandwiches at Take it away. Nowhere in miami have I found an equally good sandwich shop. I think they just don’t exist.

I long for a sandwich on wheat or pumpernickel with turkey, bacon, meunster cheese, some lettuce, tomato, and the herb mayo they had. If I didn’t think it would taste like death in a styrofoam container, I would be tempted to have one shipped.

Seriously folks, where can one get a quality sandwich around here these days? There are at least some decent burrito places popping up, but yet no sandwich shops.