Sarasota Florida – Paradise or the new technology hotspot?

Last night I was honored to be one of the 300+ guests for the inaugural Sarasota Tech Summit.

As the owner of a startup fintech company in Sarasota, I was highly intrigued. 

Sarasota is on the “suncoast” of western Florida.  We are an hour south of Tampa and have some of the most beautiful beaches with white powdery sand that does not get hot! 

Siesta Key beach is constantly on Top 10 lists of the country’s greatest beaches. 

However, most of us “locals” don’t hang out at Siesta Key as it is very touristy. 

I put “local” in quotes as almost everyone I have met here (in the past eleven years) is from somewhere else. 

I am from Chicago.  I have met many people from Chicago and the Midwest.  Many of my friends are from Ohio (and extremely annoying about THE Ohio State Buckeyes).  I have met many from Boston and New York and all over the world. 

The one thing we have in common, we all moved to Sarasota to live and work from paradise.

And the fact that there are not many “locals” here was one of the themes from last night.

Since we live and work in paradise, many people are continuously drawn to our town.  In fact, Covid was really good for Sarasota (and most of Florida) as working remote became en vogue. 

Sarasota was able to attract many highly skilled tech workers who could (literally) Zoom themselves into work everyday.  And, Sarasota has been a retirement destination for many who exit companies and want to live a laid-back Florida lifestyle.

So, imagine my surprise when one of the themes last night was making Sarasota a “tech hub” on the Suncoast. 

St Pete and Tampa are an hour north and Miami is three hours south. 

They are already tech hubs. 

Sarasota is known for vacations and retirement.  For arts and excellent sea food.

But last night the starting pistol went off.

Sarasota had a group of 300+ individuals that want to see it become the next big thing in tech destinations!

The numbers are actually much larger than that, but only 300 people were allowed to get tickets to the event.

Assuming there will be another event next year, I predict it will be twice the size.

I predict that there are many wanting Sarasota to become a “tech” town as discussed last night.

And I am one of those people. 

I am proud to be part of the inaugural Sarasota Tech Summit.

I am proud to be part of a growing community of tech individuals who get the privilege of working in paradise.

And I am proud of @Raymmar Tirado, @Toli Marchuk, @Pete Peterson (all of whom I knew when we all had offices at the Hub which was one of the coolest co-working spaces ever known) and @Vladimir Ljesevic who I just recently met last month.

You four will be credited for organizing a movement here in paradise!

You four will be credited with firing the “starting pistol” on putting Sarasota on the map for all of us who make a living in the technology industry!

I left the event proud to be a small part of this growing community in Sarasota.

I will do my best to help put Sarasota on the map as the next tech hub in Florida as I build and scale my fintech and (hopefully) have such a large exit that everyone in fintech will know where Sarasota is!