It is extremely exciting and perhaps unsuspecting that Tampa has been ranked as one of the top cities for startups to plant roots. The Tampa metro area is ranked in the top 10 for both venture capital investments and dollar volume. Over 150 people move to the Tampa Bay region every day! During the Elevate Inc. Advisory Board meeting held on December 3rd, attendees were given a chance to hear Co-founder and President of Synapse Brian Kornfeld passionately speak about the startup ecosystem in Tampa Bay.
Kornfeld spoke about some of the exciting additions being added to the two- day Synapse summit as well as some of the challenges startups may face in Tampa. He expressed his vision of Tampa Bay becoming the epicenter for successful startups. During his talk he expressed how the industry has changed over the past two years, and how the room for new companies are starting to fill in the spaces created for them in anticipation for the ecosystem to expand.
“In 2016 when the University of Tampa released their first State of the Ecosystem report, Tampa bay had 64 accelerators and about 300 start-ups which was a 5 to 1 ratio, showing there is much room for improvement and healthy competition” said Kornfeld.
During the talk, Brian did touch on some of the obvious, that Tampa is a bit spread out and this can often times become a challenge or small setback for any business in the area. It is important that startups are centrally located to one another to provide support and opportunities to collaborate with one another. “We want to take the luck factor out and make it intentional” said Kornfeld. “We can do this by becoming one community and getting everybody under one roof for a great event, such as the Synapse Summit.”
The second annual Synapse summit has already doubled in participants since last year. This year an exciting new addition to the summit will be a lounge set up specifically for investors to meet with entrepreneurs. Synapse wants everyone to know that one day is finally here, innovation lives right here in Tampa Bay and they want to be your personal guide to innovation in the community.
Synapse, the nonprofit organization spearheading the Summit, believes that making connections is the key to successful innovation communities throughout Florida—bringing people together regionally, nationally and internationally across a broad spectrum of industries and technologies.
For more information about the 2019 Synapse Summit: Innovation Lives Here, visit:synapsesummit.com
About the Synapse Summit
The two-day Synapse Summit, January 23 and 24, the anchor event of Florida’s Synapse Innovation Week, January 21-25, in Tampa, anticipates more than 5,000 people, 300 exhibitors, and 250 speakers. Participants include members of the innovation communities throughout Florida, including entrepreneurs, inventors, investors, corporations, educational institutions, students, entrepreneur support organizations, innovation enablers, and government.
Synapse Florida, the nonprofit organization leading the Summit, believes that making connections is the key to thriving innovation communities throughout Florida—bringing people together regionally, nationally and internationally across a broad spectrum of industries and technologies.
