Coming Home — #MiamiTech Here We Come

In August of 2003 I bought a 1 way ticket from MIA to NYC. After almost 20 years, on Monday I’ll be packing the car with my family and moving back to Miami.

Why I’m Bullish on #MiamiTech

My Mom was born in Miami, my Dad arrived in 1961 from Cuba to Miami and me and my 6 siblings were born and raised in Miami. Real Miami, not CSI Miami or Miami Vice Miami. Real Miami, 305 Miami.

Before COVID I visited Miami at least twice a year. And every time I got the same question: “would you ever come back?”. The answer was always easy “No, there is no career for me here”. But now, things have changed.

The work Francis Suarez, Matt Haggman & Saif Ishoof have been doing in Miami for years is starting to pay off and I want to contribute my learnings and experience to help build the next phase of a thriving tech community so kids like me don’t feel like they had to leave.

Experience I’m proud to bring back: Starting 2 companies, 1 failing & the other scaling to 60 people, 10mm revenue and ultimately being WeWork’s first acquisition. Growing a team from 100s to 1000s at blazing speed. Buying and investing in startups.

I want to bring all those learnings back to Miami and help make it the tech and innovation hub I always hoped for. Gone are the days of needing to sacrifice family and connection for your career.

Remote work is here to stay! The best companies in the world will build and foster amazing remote cultures. Kids like me who wanted to stay in Miami, will now be able to.

There are already great incentives for executives and founders to be in Miami. We will work with local leaders to make it equally beneficial for employees, local and remote, to relocate to Miami as well. There is already great talent in Miami and that’s only going to get better.

Teal is committed to helping people navigate what it means to work at tech companies and in particular startups. Whether it’s to keep growing on your career path or making a career pivot, Teal will help. With that, Teal’s next round will be as a Miami HQ’d company.

I’m a big believer that everyone should work at a startup at least once in their career. Not for the equity or upside but for the immense amount of learning and career growth. Mix that with a city that is operating as a startup and the possibilities are endless.

If you want to move to Miami, build a team in Miami or start a tech company in Miami my DMs are open and I’ll even tell you the best place to get Pastelitos, Coladas & Medianoche :) (Actually, it’s Versailles)

Originally published on LinkedIn, January 27, 2021