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Ask HN: Is Miami a legit tech/startup city or was that just a meme?

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21–30 of 36 posts

Re: Ask HN: Is Miami a legit tech/startup city or was that just a meme?

#21
Grew up in Miami and spent a few years moving around before settling here for a while with a remote job after the pandemic, personally I love this city but not because of it's tech scene or it's business culture.

I would say the Miami tech scene post-2020 was a meme brought about by crypto hype and our politicians trying to court them. The scene here became a cryptobro scene sometime in 2021 which made me drop out of going to meetups or hackathons because everything was some blockchain, NFT ponzi scheme. I had someone try to sell me on developing what amounted to a timeshare-apartments-on-the-blockchain startup, that was the last straw for me lol.

Outside of the illusion created during COVID, the tech scene here is somewhat limited. That's both in it's size and also the domains you can work in. There's a strong bias towards fintech so if you're not interested in something in that realm you're going to have a harder time. Generally though I found that salaries also tended to be below average for comparable metros. My first job out of college locally started me at $45,000 and two years later I was able to go up to ~$70,000 but that was basically the ceiling at that job unless I moved into management. After that I moved into working fully remote because it was more difficult to find jobs that paid well enough locally. Generally Ft. Lauderdale a bit north gives a lot better opportunity both in salary and domains, so maybe look into those.

Salary issues with the local scene aside, S. Florida also has an extremely cut throat business culture. I've never experienced more wage theft and outright fraud in the workplace, so something to consider if you're trying to start a business down here.

I'm happy to give input if needed, or you could email me.

Re: Ask HN: Is Miami a legit tech/startup city or was that just a meme?

#22
I think Miami has a lot of foundational issues that will prevent it from ever becoming a serious tech city:

- the Spanish language is more prevalent than English and there might be even some prejudice against people who don't speak Spanish; - it's primarily a vacation and retirement place where people go to have fun, drink, and engage in shady business (florida man) - it doesn't have good universities - the primary other industry is real estate only

Re: Ask HN: Is Miami a legit tech/startup city or was that just a meme?

#23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I apologize and didn't mean to come off as snarky. And yes, anytime I'm in NYC I'm prepared for the bumps in my cab rides. I thought you were honestly using it as either humor or an experiment and such but I didn't mean to come off like I did. Totally my bad and I edited my comment to remove the items that came across as snarky.

They surely aren't praising Miami's public transportation.

NYC has irreversibly put me off public transportation.

Re: Ask HN: Is Miami a legit tech/startup city or was that just a meme?

#24

No. There isn’t any large, well established old money universities that push tech innovation. There isn’t any large, well established new money funds that give away money to spur new innovation. There isn’t a large cohort of super nerdy, super risky people in Miami. Miami is super sensitive to the elements, and very prone to natural disasters. Without all cool the tech equipment in the area, the nerds aren’t going to…

billy corben mentioned "the Miami of today is the America of tomorrow". Every scam that crashes the economy originates or aggravates in Florida.

Re: Ask HN: Is Miami a legit tech/startup city or was that just a meme?

#25

No. There isn’t any large, well established old money universities that push tech innovation. There isn’t any large, well established new money funds that give away money to spur new innovation. There isn’t a large cohort of super nerdy, super risky people in Miami. Miami is super sensitive to the elements, and very prone to natural disasters. Without all cool the tech equipment in the area, the nerds aren’t going to…

There are many large funds with offices in Miami, including Millennium, Och-Ziff, BridgeWater, Citadel, Balyasny, Point72, Two Sigma, Maverick Capital, GLG and Starwood. Citadel and Starwood moved their headquarters to Miami. Crain says Guggenheim is moving to Miami.

Re: Ask HN: Is Miami a legit tech/startup city or was that just a meme?

#26
I think if interest rates had stayed low and we hadn't had the AI boom centered in San Francisco, then it would've been.

But with the interest rate increases and the follow on impact on lower startup funding and layoffs, plus the AI boom in SF, I think it didn't become reality.

Re: Ask HN: Is Miami a legit tech/startup city or was that just a meme?

#27

No. There isn’t any large, well established old money universities that push tech innovation. There isn’t any large, well established new money funds that give away money to spur new innovation. There isn’t a large cohort of super nerdy, super risky people in Miami. Miami is super sensitive to the elements, and very prone to natural disasters. Without all cool the tech equipment in the area, the nerds aren’t going to…

There are many large funds with offices in Miami, including Millennium, Och-Ziff, BridgeWater, Citadel, Balyasny, Point72, Two Sigma, Maverick Capital, GLG and Starwood. Citadel and Starwood moved their headquarters to Miami. Crain says Guggenheim is moving to Miami.

Miami is definitely a hub for traditional private equity, but partially that is owners wanting lower tax and who were already splitting time between the NY area and FL. In many cases the main bulk of operations stay in the NY area, with a smallish 'HQ' in FL.

Not sure this will translate into tech oriented funds.

Re: Ask HN: Is Miami a legit tech/startup city or was that just a meme?

#28

No. There isn’t any large, well established old money universities that push tech innovation. There isn’t any large, well established new money funds that give away money to spur new innovation. There isn’t a large cohort of super nerdy, super risky people in Miami. Miami is super sensitive to the elements, and very prone to natural disasters. Without all cool the tech equipment in the area, the nerds aren’t going to…

There are many large funds with offices in Miami, including Millennium, Och-Ziff, BridgeWater, Citadel, Balyasny, Point72, Two Sigma, Maverick Capital, GLG and Starwood. Citadel and Starwood moved their headquarters to Miami. Crain says Guggenheim is moving to Miami.

I don’t know about these specific finance firms but in Texas companies move corporate headquarters for tax benefits but don’t move the workers.

Space X and Tesla made a big deal about moving to Texas but it was recently announced they are closing the small engineering teams and moving the ‘engineer headquarters’ back to Silicon Valley.

Re: Ask HN: Is Miami a legit tech/startup city or was that just a meme?

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you been to NYC? The roads here are pretty tattered. Re: coastal access, I was providing my overall view of the city, which was pretty obvious.

I apologize and didn't mean to come off as snarky. And yes, anytime I'm in NYC I'm prepared for the bumps in my cab rides. I thought you were honestly using it as either humor or an experiment and such but I didn't mean to come off like I did. Totally my bad and I edited my comment to remove the items that came across as snarky.

No worries – appreciate the insights you provided.

Re: Ask HN: Is Miami a legit tech/startup city or was that just a meme?

#30
post #6

I'd like to hear some perspectives on this too. Just recently came back from yet another trip to Miami and in my opinion it puts most other US metropolitan cities to shame. Miami's sprawling development, balance of urban density and natural open spaces, network of enclaves / hubs of activity, relative cleanliness, paved roads, coastal access, and obviously weather, have all made me seriously consider it for my next m…

Building, and the will to build is so key to a city's vitality. Hearing Miami is this way very much makes me want to visit and see it with my own eyes. Do you know of any other American cities that are like this right now?

Austin is like that, the crane is our unofficial mascot.

But meta, google, bytedance, intel, ibm, indeed and others have said they are canceling leases on these big beautiful downtown office towers and have been laying off mass amounts of local people.

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