The Legal Zone (S2:E7): #MiamiTech Through the Business Lens

Transcript

Host: Regina M. Campbell, Esq., The Campbell Law Group (TCLG)

Guest: Joycelyn Brown, managing attorney, IPS Legal Group, P.A.

Guest: Leigh-Ann Buchanan, president, aire ventures

Introduction

Regina Campbell: Hi everyone, welcome back to The Legal Zone. I'm your host, Regina Campbell, and this Legal Zone is brought to you by The Campbell Law Group. By the way, this is season two, episode seven: Miami Tech through the business lens. I just want to take a brief moment to remind everyone who our prior speaker was: Mr. Thomas Galaro, who was able to provide us with some business tips for business owners and how to avoid being sued by plaintiff's firms like Mr. Galaro's. He was very helpful, and he also gave us an understanding of the importance of being responsible and having social responsibility as business owners, and helping the community out through safety measures and treating our employees right. It was very, very informative. So if you missed it, by all means go back and look on our YouTube channel or podcast channel. It's a very good episode.

So today I want to shift topics, and we're going to talk a little bit about Miami Tech and the business lens. I have two great speakers today, so I want to start to introduce them. Ms. Joycelyn Brown is our first speaker. She's the managing attorney at the Miami-based intellectual property law firm called IPS Legal Group, P.A. After receiving her bachelor of science from Texas A&M, Ms. Brown worked as an engineer in the semiconductor industry for several years. She received her law degree from the University of Miami in 2008. Following law school, Ms. Brown worked as an associate at one of Florida's most respected contract disputes firms, where she represented companies in various matters, including intellectual property, contract disputes, complex litigation and employment matters.

Aside from the practice of law, Ms. Brown has served the Miami-Dade community as president of the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. Bar Association and as a member of the Dade County Bar Association. She has also been selected and recognized as one of the Top 40 Under 40 Black Professionals in Miami. Ms. Brown is also an adjunct professor at the University of Miami law school, where she teaches startups and entrepreneurship. Correct?

Joycelyn Brown: That's right.

Regina Campbell: Yes, very nice. I also want to bring in Ms. Leigh-Ann Buchanan. She's our second guest. She's the president of, I hope I'm saying this right, aire ventures.

Leigh-Ann Buchanan: Aire.

Regina Campbell: Okay. A social impact innovator and sought-after strategic advisor, she helps leaders develop REDI strategies that leverage tech innovation and social design to accelerate organizational and community change. She has also developed content and solutions for public and private sector leaders, including Google, Facebook, Delta, P&G Ventures, Airbnb, my goodness, I'm just tongue-twisted today, HSBC and UBS. Ms. Leigh-Ann is the founder of the Nyah Project. Did I say that right?

Leigh-Ann Buchanan: Nyah Project.

Regina Campbell: Nyah Project, okay. As well as aire ventures. She has raised over $4.5 million in equity-free capital to help fund some of these projects and other projects as well. Her insights and contributions have been featured in The New York Times, Inc. Magazine, NPR, Bloomberg, the American Psychological Association, the ABA Law Journal and more.

I want to welcome my two guests, who have amazing backgrounds and bios. I think they're going to be such an added bonus for everyone, to help them understand Miami Tech, which has been in the news quite a bit. Do you guys agree?

Joycelyn Brown: Yes. I think you'd be living under a rock if you hadn't heard the term Miami Tech over the last two years or so.

Regina Campbell: Yes, absolutely. It's just been such an explosion. I'm hearing about it from the housing markets, to employees, to hedge funds coming here, and it's all about supporting the Miami Tech industry and building it here. Someone called it the next Silicon Valley. Well, we'll see.

The secret ingredients of a tech mecca

Regina Campbell: So I want to talk to you guys a little bit about what the secret ingredient is for a city to become a tech mecca.

Joycelyn Brown: Leigh-Ann, do you want to take that first? Leigh-Ann and I have been on panels before discussing this very same topic, and Leigh-Ann has a different insight than I do. So I think, Leigh-Ann, you start, and then I'll piggyback with my take as far as the resources that it takes as well.

Leigh-Ann Buchanan: Awesome. Well, thanks for having me, and of course, it's great to be here with a friend. Joyce and I are school buddies. We've served in the bar association together, so it's always a pleasant surprise.

So what I would say, when we think about what it takes to become a thriving tech ecosystem, is that there are a lot of factors we need to think about. The way I break it down is I like to think about an ecosystem in terms of culture, strategy and assets. When you think about culture, it's things like clear definitions of what our values are. A project that I worked on is the MiamiTech Manifesto, which was a group of leaders who had spent a lot of time building in our ecosystem, coming together to clearly articulate what Miami Tech is about: inclusion, access, equity. Making sure that when we're building a tech ecosystem, we're not displacing people, that we're keeping things like affordability in mind, and that we understand tech is not just this monolith. It can be used as a tool to advance equity in a city, in a community where historically we haven't really elevated issues of equity and inclusion as much as we ought to.

When it comes to strategy, I would say a thriving tech ecosystem needs to be intentional about how it's being built. The example I would point to is a project that I also worked on called the REDI Scorecard, which up until recently, I think, was the largest assessment of a tech ecosystem through the lens of racial equity, diversity and inclusion. This means that we're not just saying that political leaders, or the firms with the largest balance sheets of assets under management, decide the fate of our community. No, we are listening to entrepreneurs at every level: from startups, to small business owners in some of the communities that we overlook, to students who want to break into tech. It's really understanding where the gaps are and where the opportunities are to meaningfully invest financial, social and other forms of capital.

And the last thing I would say is assets. We've got money in Miami. When you look at the trend in the amount of venture capital dollars that have been invested, and you look at how the folks who have been moving to our community are ready to invest and have the pocketbooks to write checks, we need to look at ways to be thoughtful about how we leverage the assets that exist. The project I'd point to, which I'm so excited to talk about a little bit later, is something called Tech Equity Miami, which is a hundred-million-dollar funders consortium that I helped to design. Our goal is to deploy a hundred billion dollars over five years into projects and initiatives that advance equity through tech. These are not founders or startups, but actual nonprofit social impact projects that can help bridge the gap. So culture, strategy and assets, I think, are key drivers of a thriving tech ecosystem.

Regina Campbell: I like it. Absolutely. I'm going to come back to that, because I have some really neat things I want to talk to you about. I think we're in a new environment that allows that conversation about inclusion and planning, because we're starting kind of from the beginning in Miami, so to speak. It's not an established location like New York or other cities that just blew up on their own and were whatever they were at the time. Right now, I think we're still in a position where we can develop it thoughtfully. Inclusion, like you're saying, and affordability is also a huge problem in Miami with this. So we'll come back to that, definitely. I'll let Ms. Brown take a shot also.

Joycelyn Brown: So Leigh-Ann is 100% correct. But I would also add that, when it comes to any startup, but particularly tech startups, a tech startup is designed to do one of three things. It's either going to collaborate within the industry and within the supply chain, it's going to compete, or it's going to disrupt. One of the things that will really allow Miami's tech ecosystem to grow and boom is if we assist with the development of more tech disruptors, right? And what's really great about them is that they're really innovative. We're not just doing the same thing a different way. You're doing a completely new thing, in ways that no one ever even imagined.

So from my perspective, in addition to the funding organizations, as well as the talent that Leigh-Ann was touching on, you need really novel ideas and inventions. You also need to make sure there are different companies at various stages of growth, so that the ecosystem can continue to grow. And we need to make sure that we're attracting the talent, which comes into the affordability of living in Miami, right? We need to be able to attract the necessary talent, so that those entrepreneurs are able to stay and really build a community here, not only with each other from a professional and business standpoint, but also build their personal communities, so that they can stay and show other innovators and other entrepreneurs that not only can you build a business here, but you can stay and continue to give to the environment.

In addition, I think we need mentors. We need more advisors. I think all of those things are really what make a startup ecosystem grow. So to come full circle, we need corporations that support other supporting organizations, funding organizations, research organizations, service providers such as law firms, and other support systems such as universities that have those programs in place to really help startups launch, particularly tech startups. And then also different people from interrelated organizations that can all feed into the ecosystem so that it remains sustainable.

Is Miami already there?

Regina Campbell: Right. You guys bring up amazing points. I don't think I could have picked better speakers, honestly. You really have your finger on understanding not just what a tech mecca can be, or Miami becoming one, but I think you're really incorporating this concept of novelty, of perpetuating entrepreneurship, the disruptor idea. We don't want to just create another Google, per se, right? You want to create things that will either disrupt it or add value somewhere else, whether it's with Google or against it or whatever it might be. You need a new flavor, not just a new generation, but a new backbone to start creating that.

And it seems like Miami is in the perfect spot for that, not only from a cultural point of view and employment, and a new city developing new opportunities. You also have the Latin American entry here, so you can bring in talent from that direction. You have a new ecosystem. I think that was so perfect, Leigh-Ann. Seriously, I love that word. An ecosystem is developing here in Florida.

So the traditional things that are needed for a tech mecca: do you think Miami is getting there? Because I'm listening, and I'm really excited by what you guys are saying, and by the fact that you've gone down to that level of distinction, that we do need to bring in and incorporate different people and different talents, not just in the tech industry, but the supporting staff that might be needed to develop a tech industry. But what does that look like here? We already have political system dynamics and cultural dynamics all going on in Miami. So how does Miami specifically get to what you guys are referring to, like creating that supporting staff? And not just from funding: how do we get alternative funding, or other companies that are willing to invest in diversity, change the model, change the typical structure? Do we have that here?

Joycelyn Brown: I would say that we're already there. As Leigh-Ann mentioned, over the past two years there have been almost all eyes on Miami. There's been tremendous growth within the tech sector. At the University of Miami School of Law there is a startup clinic, and the course that I teach, which is startup law and entrepreneurship, feeds into the startup clinic. The purpose is to prepare new lawyers who are going to be graduating and entering the workforce, to prepare them to support startups and to deal with mergers and acquisitions.

One of the things that a lot of these tech startups want to do is scale. They want to grow, and they want to find an exit strategy. Oftentimes an exit strategy involves a merger or an acquisition. So playing my role in educating this new wave of lawyers entering the market, to help continue to support it, I think is really key. But again, I think that we're already there. I think we're going to continue to grow and continue to expand it. We're going to continue to see the Miami ecosystem, the Miami environment, whether it be the social infrastructure, the political infrastructure, or the building resources and housing infrastructure, continue to grow and expand to fully support the growth that we're seeing within tech.

Capital for whom, and talent at what stage

Regina Campbell: And that brings me to, maybe, Leigh-Ann, and I'm going to give you a chance to answer. As a business lawyer, I see businesses at all different stages: startups, all the way to ones that are slightly growing, getting up that curve, starting to have capital problems. Different things come in: "Should I bring in a partner? How much do I give away? They want to take half my company," all this kind of stuff. So especially when I have a startup come in, I say, "I want you to remember what I say. We're going to start here. But if you reach this growth level, or you're reaching a few roadblocks, or you have to restructure things a certain way, and you're going to learn on a growth curve, I want you to reach out to alternative ways of doing this." It's not just giving half your company away to somebody else who will come in with capital. Look at a vision. Look at where you want to go with it.

Like we were talking about with exit strategies: for some of them it's fuzzy. They're not exactly sure what they want. They don't understand how to create a capital structure that allows flexibility, that allows capital to come in without also letting go, potentially, as they're growing, of the vision that they had. That's always a trick in tech, right? So Leigh-Ann, talk to me. How do you bridge that, basically with capital, and not just the traditional sources like hedge funds? You were talking about building a fund that helps startups have this, but that also allows additional inclusion and diversity to grow here.

Leigh-Ann Buchanan: Yeah, I think that's a good question. And Joyce knows this: I agree with Joyce in part, and maybe I disagree with Joyce in part. What I would say is we're there, but we have room to grow. I completely agree that we've reached a milestone. But I think sometimes, when we look at tech ecosystems, we look at them from the vantage point of a snapshot in time, rather than seeing them as this organic, constantly evolving experience where there are different stages, right?

So when you ask this question, Regina: when I started in the tech ecosystem, seven-plus years ago, we were in a different space. I launched the Venture Café, and the needs were around convening and connecting and really just getting resources out there. Now we are in a space where we've got a critical mass. Joyce is absolutely right: we've got companies, and we need more disruptive companies. You're right, we need more capital. I would say capital for whom and by whom, and that is an important footnote that I want to put in there. But the needs of our ecosystem are a little bit different in this upward trajectory of the maturing stage.

So what we're missing is a little bit more nuanced intervention. Before, we needed broad-strokes convening. We needed clinics, we needed law schools involved, we needed more service professionals, we needed more startups. But now we're beginning to see that we have angel investors and we have funds here, but we need to peel back the layer to see who is getting access to that financial capital. When we look at some of the data from the REDI Scorecard, and a statistically significant part of our community actually responded, we got 1,400 individual data points, 30% said capital and funding was the number one priority. Then compare that to the fact that 41% of Black respondents rated the ecosystem as having a negative impact on their entrepreneurial experience, and over 20% of women said they lacked access to resources. The question then becomes: when we talk about the supports that are needed, they need to be specific to certain groups that are underrepresented when we take a broad-strokes view of our ecosystem.

So to answer the question, I would say a couple of things. One, we need to be nuanced in how we look at matching resources to particular groups. Second, in terms of opportunities for investment, we need to focus on niche areas of talent. We've got a ton of young talent. We've got over 300,000 college students. The FIU School of Computing just received, I think it was a $20 million investment from the Knight Foundation, and they have already begun to increase in size. They're looking to expand four times the number of students they serve. But what we're missing in our ecosystem is senior-level tech talent in data, machine learning, product, growth and software engineering. Those are some of the needs along the full trajectory of our ecosystem that we need to look at.

So instead of saying talent, we've got to say talent at what stage. Instead of capital, we have to say capital at what stage, and for whom. Yes, we have a lot more angel investors, but we're still missing Series B and some of those larger rounds. And when we see some of these outliers, I think MoonPay had over $500 million in a Series A, that is not representative of the experience of all founders. So when we talk about the tech ecosystem, we need to stop talking about it in terms of a monolith and get nuanced and specific, so that we don't lose sight of certain groups that are not getting the same representation and access to resources as other people.

Trust, access and networking beyond your circle

Regina Campbell: So I don't know if it's a question of information, or it's just not actually accessible. Are people not lending them the money, or are people just not seeing them? Are they not hearing about these projects and these other companies? I can see you. I know your looks. You jump in on that one first.

Joycelyn Brown: So this is what I'll say. This issue is not new to Miami. This is something that has gone on for a very long time. It's very easy for someone in a position of power, regardless of what they look like and who they are, to say, "Hey, you know what, I want to elevate someone, but I'm going to elevate someone who looks like me. I'm going to elevate someone who has the same experience as me. I'm going to elevate someone who I see on the golf course on a regular basis." So for the people who have the resources, a lot of it is expanding beyond their known circle and recognizing diversity, equity and inclusion. That's the key, in the inclusion aspect: they need to make an effort to reach out beyond themselves, to network and get involved in areas they normally wouldn't. I would say that's point one.

Point two is, as it relates to those who would be receiving the funds: they're there. They know where the funds are. They're going out and they're seeking the funds. Now, sometimes, and I think Leigh-Ann can expand on this a little bit more in detail, a lot of times you don't know what you don't know. So if you're already starting at a disadvantaged point, from a vantage point where you can see the cliff but you can't see what's on the other side of it, it's difficult to climb, and it's difficult to get there without someone saying, "Oh wait, I see you there. Let me see if I can give you the resources." Some of the organizations that Leigh-Ann mentioned are helping to bridge that gap, but we need more. We need more eyes on the issue, more eyes on the problem, and a wider spread of that knowledge. So I'll pause there, and Leigh-Ann, I'll let you jump in and take that one home.

Leigh-Ann Buchanan: So I definitely amplify everything that Joyce said. In terms of access to financial capital specifically, it's always a function of trust and access. Who do you have breakfast, lunch and dinner with? That is who you do business with. And if you don't have breakfast, lunch and dinner with the people outside your circle, then they're not going to get access to those opportunities for dollars.

The second thing that's really important to underscore is that knowledge does not equal experience, nor does it equal judgment. I think sometimes we unfortunately conflate knowledge and the availability of information with judgment, experience and the ability to strategically leverage that information. So we sometimes have difficulty designing programs to fill the experience and judgment gaps. We just say, "Okay, this is how you raise a round." But no: how do you actually develop the relationships, understand who in your network can review your pitch deck, and figure out strategically how to get access to some of these programs?

I coach kids on how to get into college. Just because you put an application in doesn't mean you're getting into college, and it doesn't mean you're getting scholarships. I think the same thing exists for a lot of the resources that are available to startups and founders. And to Joyce's point, if you've been historically disadvantaged, you're missing out on substantial experience and judgment that just come from being around these spaces, to know how to utilize them.

Joycelyn Brown: Let me piggyback on that really quickly. One of the things that I tell individuals I mentor is, number one, and we've heard this all before, your network is your net worth, right? But a lot of times, when people go into these environments, they don't network, because network is work. They net-socialize. They go into a space and they find people who look like them, people they believe they have some sort of equal footing with, and they strike up those conversations. No, you need to work. Interject yourself into a conversation, meet someone new, invite someone you normally wouldn't invite to lunch or dinner or a cup of coffee, what have you. But to Leigh-Ann's point, a lot of it really is about stepping outside of your comfort zone, on both sides: stepping outside of your comfort zone, gaining the knowledge, and then putting in the work.

Senior talent and knowledge transfer

Regina Campbell: I agree, and that kind of leads us back to what we were talking about a little on the employment side. You do have to step outside your network, because otherwise you're never going to go to another level, or reach other resources or other people. Like you're saying, you won't get to the people who might be able to hear these ideas and do something with them. So it's hard to break in.

But I also think, from what we're talking about, there might be a lack of senior-level knowledge, not just on the investment side, but on the tech side, that helps put these packages together for angel investors, for venture capitalists, for the Miami companies that don't know how to accomplish that. They don't have that experience. They weren't in Silicon Valley, part of a bunch of startups, knowing where they hit a wall on their pitch or what kind of financials investors want to see. Investors want to see compliance. Not only do investors want to see that there's a great idea and vision, but they want to see that you have the package: that you have the corporate structure, the laws, everything together, and that you understand all the moving parts of it, whether you're going to go raise capital or whether you're subject to privacy laws or certain other types of laws. So do you think some of that is still missing here, that guidance, or the senior-level employees who can bring that, not just from an engineering and computer software point of view, but also from an investment point of view? They don't have people who completely speak that language, so they're not talking to them either.

Leigh-Ann Buchanan: I think that's changing. I would say pre-pandemic, yes. Post-pandemic, in terms of the influx of really experienced firms and talent that came from Silicon Valley and New York, I really think that's changing. Before, our biggest challenge was that we hadn't experienced a critical mass of liquidity events that spit out the kind of people who had gone through the scale-up and exit of a company, and that created more millionaires who would be angel investors, taking that knowledge and really investing it back.

Now we're seeing exits. We're seeing some of our local homegrown talent exit or get to that higher level of growth. I think about Andrew Parker at Papa. We recently saw Wyncode exit to BrainStation, or get acquired. We've seen some companies where we've got homegrown talent that can now invest that knowledge back in. The challenge is that these things take time. It's 2022, almost 2023, but it's been not even a full two years since we saw a lot of new talent and experienced advisors entering the market. And remember, they entered the market in the middle of a pandemic, so there wasn't as much networking going on for that knowledge transfer and relationship development to actually take place.

So I think we need to give it a little bit of time. But I also think that, in addition to time, there are curated ways we can access that brain trust. There are groups like Upstream that are starting programs about getting seasoned founders and investors to share their knowledge. We're seeing things like Miami Hack Week, where you have these hack houses with really sophisticated software engineers mentoring and working with teams. I just think we need to give it a little bit of time, and then really double down on some of those programs that are maybe less formal, but really substantive in how they help facilitate knowledge transfer.

How close is Miami?

Regina Campbell: Well, I think that happened even in Silicon Valley and the other tech meccas that developed. It was actually organic: a lot of this just started to develop through informal meetings and meetups and people talking to each other. And I think you're right. I think the end of the pandemic and going back to networking will help more. It's so funny that you said we need to give it more time. It feels like so much time has passed, because so much has changed in Miami in two years, right? It just seems like we hit a button and we were there, you know what I mean? I think we forget it does take time to develop that ecosystem, like you're saying, with the various layers and the complexity that goes along with that. You need governments, you need public agencies and organizations to catch up as well, to support the rest of the ecosystem.

So where do you think we are? I'm going to ask Joycelyn first. Do you think we're 50% of the way there? 60? If we had to give it a percentage.

Joycelyn Brown: From the context of a fully functioning, growing tech mecca, or from the context of the supporting human resources aspect?

Regina Campbell: Full tech mecca.

Joycelyn Brown: So I would say that we're well beyond 50% there. I wouldn't say that we are 100% there, because we're never going to be 100% there. The whole point of having a tech mecca is that there's always something that's going to be growing and evolving. There's always going to be something that's more innovative. There's always going to be a new role or a new support group that's needed in order to foster the growth. So I wouldn't say that we're ever going to be, quote unquote, 100% there. But with what's transpired over the past two years, with the national coverage that Miami has received, with the influx of companies and hedge funds and venture capitalists and these growing startups, I would say that we're really close. I don't want to put a number on it, because again, it's something that's always going to grow.

Regina Campbell: That's why I'm smiling, because I was like, "See, put a number on that," because I know I'm going to get a different answer.

Joycelyn Brown: I'm not going to put a number on it. But I would say that just from my vantage point, based on the work that I do with startups and what I see day in and day out, not necessarily from the funding and support aspect that Leigh-Ann may see, or from the more nuanced conversations and involvement that Leigh-Ann may have on a more holistic, broader scale... I think Leigh-Ann and I would disagree here. I think that we're a lot closer than Leigh-Ann may think, but that's just me.

Defining a tech mecca

Leigh-Ann Buchanan: Contrary to popular belief, here's what I'd say. And this is probably the lawyer in me: how do you define a tech mecca? Because if we are not defining what a tech mecca is, then all of us are going to say yes, 100%. From Joyce's perspective, she's dealing with startups, and when you see that critical mass, you see companies coming in, you see them raising. For her, that might be the indicator that we've arrived. Regina, as a lawyer, you're probably saying, "Okay, I'm getting a ton of clients, they're all tech. This is a tech mecca."

I would say I'm an ecosystem architect, and so I think differently about what the indicators of a tech mecca are. My bias, and I'm always happy to admit this, is REDI: racial equity, diversity and inclusion. So for me, the indicators of a successful tech mecca are biased by my REDI lens. Until I see more equity in some of the key elements of an ecosystem, in terms of talent, venture growth and the way in which capital is deployed, I'd say, yeah, we've got a critical mass, but it doesn't benefit everybody.

But I definitely think that Miami is well positioned by many objective standards: when we look at the number of press mentions, the number of firms moving here, the rate of growth. We've improved in terms of our rate of sustainability of ventures. By many standards, if you look at the Startup Genome report, we are a tech mecca. I agree with you, Joyce. The question is: now that we have a tech mecca, what are we going to do with it?

Regina Campbell: Yeah. I guess the way I kind of see it in my mind, and again, you can see it different ways, from a legal point of view or a social one: I think almost every major city, whether it's a tech mecca or not, has a lot of growth to do in terms of inclusion and diversity. Because ultimately, that's a question of whether you are judged on your talent and ability, so that the color of your skin or who you know doesn't matter anymore. That's a hard thing to get to. Who you know, where you come from: like Joyce was pointing out earlier, sometimes you'd rather invest in someone who looks like you, because you feel more comfortable, or you saw them at the country club.

Some of that's just human nature also. I hate to say this, but sometimes I think, in the back of my head, of that song "High School Never Ends," because sometimes we just stick with what we know, in our little groups. I go to networking events, and I don't come across as shy, but I'm actually very shy. It's actually very hard to break into another conversation when everyone's in their little group and they know each other. You walk in, and sometimes you don't shine that way. People don't get to know you, and they don't understand you. So from an inclusion point of view, there's always that. And I think every country has an issue with that also, including outsiders in the main fabric of society, so to speak.

But a tech mecca, I guess, in my head, is Silicon Valley. When we can say "Miami" and everyone just knows it's the tech mecca, so to speak, to me it arrives on a global level. It's more of a marketing thing in my head, rather than a legal one, because I definitely see such a difference in the employees who are coming, senior level, corporations, everybody coming to support it all in Miami. That's why I was so excited to have this panel. And I think we're more than 50% of the way. There's no question.

It's just interesting. I think we can go very far. And Joyce, I think you're right: at the end of the day, a tech mecca, hopefully we stay that way, because some cities can lose it if they don't have that evolutionary power, that growth, that continuation of learning, keeping it new and fresh. You can reach a maturity level in terms of bringing in capital and employees, having the infrastructure and all this good stuff and the product you create. But if you don't keep it fresh, technology will definitely leave you behind, right? So in my head, why is Silicon Valley on the map? Because it became a tech mecca. It became where you go to create these companies, and a lot of other headquarters followed. But I think Miami also has a real special spice to it, a special feeling to it as well. So I have such hopes that it's going to be something on its own.

Joycelyn Brown: Well, let me just comment really quickly, Regina, to Leigh-Ann's point. I would say, then, Leigh-Ann, you're 100% right. It comes down to how you define a tech mecca. By your definition, Regina, Miami is the tech mecca. But by Leigh-Ann's definition, we definitely are not. If you were to compare Silicon Valley, from where it was, how it grew and even where it is now, it does not have the REDI bias that Leigh-Ann was sharing. So from Leigh-Ann's point of view, even Silicon Valley would not be a true tech mecca. The only reason we view it as such is its longevity, right? It has that history. It's been there from inception. We're talking about the birthplace of wafers and semiconductor manufacturing and computer chips and so forth. But from a human point of view, the way we'd like to see an overall ecosystem that's fair, absolutely not.

Regina Campbell: I'm going to send out a survey on these two questions, and I'll see what people come back with and post the results, because I think it's really interesting. At the end of the day, I think a tech mecca should be when it all comes together: inclusiveness, REDI, everything, capital, genuine ideas, amazing thoughts. I love to see growth. I love to see ideas put into place, and people saying, "Now let's try this," and learning. I love that. You know what I mean? But I think Leigh-Ann is right. Ultimately, that is what a tech mecca should be: when it has everything, all the components together.

Leigh-Ann Buchanan: One thing that I would share, and I definitely invite folks to check out the REDI Scorecard report, is that by and large, even though we have gaps to fill in so many areas, many of the folks involved in the ecosystem indicated that they have confidence in our leaders and our public officials, and that they care about tech. Maybe they need some supports, more public metrics. But by and large, people believe that we're doing our best. So I think it's about zooming out. Yes, we may not be a tech mecca by different standards, but we're in this thing, and we're working toward it.

So I think the key is making sure we communicate the standards by which we're going to hold ourselves accountable and the standards by which we're going to measure growth. Sometimes we like to think about the destination versus the journey and how far we've progressed. And Joyce, we've been at this for a while. You remember the early days of Venture Café, and even before that. We've come a long way. The Knight Foundation has put $50 million into building our ecosystem. I remember when the first co-working space opened up. So beginning to see milestones of progress is, I think, a more realistic and helpful lens for thinking about our community.

Joycelyn Brown: Yeah, I like that. Let me put it in perspective. I became a registered patent attorney in 2010. So in 2010 I took and passed the patent bar. I had a mentor, a non-patent attorney mentor, but at the time there was not a single female registered patent attorney I could connect with. When I was going through the process of studying for the patent bar, I had older males say, "Why would you do that? There's no work for that here." And I dug my heels in. I was like, "No, there are attorneys here. People still need patent attorneys. You can't just go to one of two law firms, right? There's an opportunity for growth." I dug my heels in and I did it, and there was an opportunity.

And when I launched my law firm, I launched it as a remote practice. People thought I was crazy. People looked at me like I had three heads, because we didn't have the ecosystem at the time to support it. So Leigh-Ann, for sure, I have seen the growth: the co-working spaces, the WeWorks, the CICs, just the spaces, everything growing and evolving. It's been amazing.

Leigh-Ann Buchanan: That's also an opportunity to say, "Yeah, I told you so."

Joycelyn Brown: Yeah, exactly.

Regina Campbell: Well, when they say, "You cannot pass," I say, "Watch me. I'll build a road myself." Because if I think I should be able to go there, and I want to go there, who are you to tell me that I can't? I always had that mindset: I'll build a path, same way. Watch me.

Finding your role in the ecosystem

Regina Campbell: So I'm really happy. This has been fantastic, and we've gotten so much information about where some entrepreneurs can go. It gives the community an idea, and I think it lets them feel that happiness too, like, "Yay, we're going, we're doing well." And it gives a lot of resources. People can understand; it's feeling the pulse of what's going on here. We're in the right direction, so keep pushing, don't give up. There is funding out there, and it is coming here. So I definitely want to post some of your foundations, and maybe links to the REDI Scorecard, so people can go through them, and to the different community resources that you mentioned, Leigh-Ann, so they know where to go.

And hopefully, I think I can say this for all three of us, because you seem very friendly and very open to wanting to help people: if anyone ever sees any of the three of us at a social event, please come up to us and say, "I'm just as shy as you. Can you talk to me? Can we plow that new road together?" Because it is hard. So I want to thank you guys for coming on. Do you have any last words for Miami, or any suggestions?

Leigh-Ann Buchanan: I'm feeling a bit nostalgic because of Joyce's story about being a futurist and seeing ahead of the curve. I remember when I left my firm and they were like, "What's an incubator? Why are you going to this tech thing? What are you building?" So I think the last word I have is this: sometimes, as lawyers, we have a singular identity, that our job is only to represent clients and help them advance their business interests. And admittedly, when I moved into tech, I didn't see a place in the tech ecosystem for someone like me. I was a trial lawyer. I thought, "This is not for me." I'll share this link with you.

But because an ecosystem is so amorphous, there are so many different roles for people to play, and you do not need to just be the service provider. There's a role for you if you're a strategy mind like me, and you want to think about the infrastructure of supports and architecture. You can do that. If you're an amazing marketer, I'd say Francis Suarez is our best ambassador; you can be an ambassador for tech. I think about Jared Davis. He's a great lawyer ambassador for the tech ecosystem, who saw this way ahead of everybody. So what I would say is: trial and error. Find where you can fit in most comfortably in the tech space, and understand that there are different roles for people to play, so that you don't feel like tech is over here and I'm over here. The ecosystem will only grow when everybody is invested and truly feels like they are a part of it and that they belong.

Regina Campbell: I agree. And I think that's the thing people miss about tech and entrepreneurship: some of those roles develop over time. You actually create the role, or the need gets created, and you fill it out of your creativity, out of observing these things, the pattern, the market and the ecosystem: "You know what, they don't do this. Someone doesn't have this experience, and I do. I can probably help bridge a gap." You'll be surprised.

Closing

Regina Campbell: So I want to thank you guys. This has been a great panel. So exciting. I'm going to try to see if we can get back together again in about another year, and then we'll see where our metrics are compared to where we were. And we're going to post a survey on two of the questions out there: whether people think Miami is a mecca at this point, and maybe a couple of questions on, I want to think about how to divide it up, how you define a mecca, whether it includes REDI, whether it includes inclusion, and where we think we are here. So it'll be interesting.

Joycelyn Brown: Yes. Well, thank you so much for having us, Regina. It's definitely been a pleasure. Leigh-Ann, as always, it's great to see you.

Leigh-Ann Buchanan: Likewise. Thank you so much. This has been great.

Regina Campbell: Wonderful. I want to thank all our guests, and everyone for tuning in. If you didn't get a chance to see the full podcast, you can see it on YouTube. We will post it on our podcast channels also. We hope everyone enjoyed this show and this episode, and please remember to follow us on social media and become subscribers, so you can see some of our other new podcasts as well. I wish everyone the best, and I hope all the people who are dealing with Hurricane Ian are doing as best as they can. Again, there are lots of resources out there. I hope it doesn't look impossible. Reach out to your bar associations, your local communities, other counties. I hope everyone is as well as can be, and everyone stay safe. Okay. Thank you and take care. Bye.

Joycelyn Brown: Thank you so much.