Ana Cruz has been instrumental in serving to Tampa develop right into a startup-friendly metropolis.
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For many years now, Silicon Valley has performed host to most of the world’s high working corporations, touted because the “startup hub” for each the U.S. and overseas. Nevertheless, as different cities across the nation construct extra corporations are starting to appreciate that maybe the Valley isn’t the “holy grail” for startup companies it as soon as was.
Lately Tesla CEO Elon Musk introduced that he had sufficient of Silicon Valley and was transferring to Austin, Texas. Musk, who can also be the founder, CEO, and chief designer of SpaceX, is one in all many high-profile tech entrepreneurs leaving the Valley throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
The way forward for the tech startup ecosystem, it appears, is way extra distributed than previously, with many extra cities of various sizes benefitting from the infusion of expertise and financial development that startups deliver.
A kind of cities is Tampa, Florida. Tampa’s considerate development, various neighborhood, and achievement-oriented vibes have already attracted high expertise and main company relocations. I spoke with Tampa’s First Woman, Ana Cruz, lately about how Tampa is turning into a hub for entrepreneurial development and financial vitality.
Shama Hyder: What’s made Tampa well-suited to internet hosting know-how startups?
Ana Cruz: For years—for the reason that 2008 recession hit, and town launched into reinventing itself—we’ve had all of the items essential to develop into a significant know-how hub. We’re a cosmopolitan metropolis influenced by communities world wide. We have now a welcoming enterprise atmosphere that provides those that need to pursue new concepts a possibility to succeed. We’ve additionally bought establishments resembling our world-class hospitals and universities that present the expertise and data entrepreneurs must take their concepts to the following stage.
Our success, and skill to thrive in each good instances and dangerous, are rooted in our metropolis’s variety, our embrace of various cultures and concepts, and our thriving enterprise atmosphere that draws younger professionals to maneuver right here and launch their subsequent enterprise.
Hyder: You’ve been lively in politics from a really younger age. How has that affected the way in which you see your metropolis?
Cruz: I began engaged on campaigns after I was fifteen years outdated and managed my first race in 1998. We gained that race, and I headed to the state capitol to work for the newly elected member as his legislative aide. My time as a legislative aide was extremely insightful, giving me the chance to go on the within of presidency and study concerning the legislative course of and the way state authorities intersects with particular pursuits, whereas serving the residents of their district and the state.
in 2001, I went on to work for U.S. Senator Invoice Nelson. Working within the U.S. Senate was like being known as as much as the large leagues. It was right here that I noticed firsthand the unimaginable energy Congress wields. And now, greater than ever earlier than, we’re witnessing firsthand the profound position and duty that authorities performs in our day by day lives amid this devastating pandemic—when so many small and enormous companies have needed to shut their doorways, whereas others have quickly flourished. Loads extra that have been in a position to profit from federal reduction {dollars} through the Cares Act have simply barely stayed afloat.
That is essentially the most rewarding a part of authorities relations: that you simply get to see the outcomes of your laborious work in actual time. The work we do impacts folks in a really tangible method.
Hyder: What do you assume the long run holds for Tampa’s entrepreneurs?
Cruz: There’s little doubt this pandemic examined our entrepreneurs’ creativity and agility. For instance, small native distilleries rapidly began producing and manufacturing hand sanitizers, whereas others raced to acquire and promote PPP, making tens of millions in an abbreviated time frame.
However for different entrepreneurs who have been maybe on the verge of rising the following nice startup, it meant their VC funding was placed on maintain or pulled all collectively.
Regardless of these challenges, nevertheless, our communities proceed to develop, our metropolis is extra various than ever earlier than, and enterprise leaders are beginning to take pleasure in how far we have now come. I consider that Tampa will come out of this even stronger than it was earlier than.
