Starting Up Florida: Recent Episodes
Starting Up Florida
Tech reporter Marco Santana gives listeners a glimpse into the state of Florida’s growing startup scene, starting in Orlando but extending to all corners of the Sunshine State.
Jacques Fu has been one of the more active people in Orlando's tech community. Not only was he cofounder of one of the city's most successful startups-turned-big businesses in recent memory at Fattmerchant/Stax Payments. But he has also been instrumental in making sure the ODevs meetup group continues to grow and thrive. Now, Jacques has turned his attention to a new startup, one he hopes to build into another Orlando success. Hear more about Senseily in this podcast, while also listening for stories about what it was like to build a successful startup.
Talon Simulations CEO Brandon Naids leveraged his resources to get a foothold into the highly mature amusement park industry as a young startup. That included crucial wins in entrepreneurial competitions, networking and other strategies.
The stories about how startups get their business ideas can vary widely. In this short episode, Keeper's Felix Banuchi talks about how he got his idea for a platform that helps simplify record-keeping for veterinarians.
Felix Banuchi of Keeper, a startup that helps veterinarians, has gone through the startup grind before. He once had to make a decision to shut down a startup but said it's imperative that you learn lessons from failure. Now, he's hoping to take that experience and build a new platform from Central Florida.
Kunal Patel of Indienomicon and Orlando Game Space talks about the adverse effects of brain drain, especially in an education-heavy community like Orlando.
Kunal Patel of Indienomicon and several other game-related efforts talks to reporter Marco Santana about the challenges of juggling multiple companies while working a full-time gig with a tech company. Then, in the debut of news briefs, we report on a new fund in Orlando that will provide funding to several tech-based groups and a lawsuit filed in California that targets the Fort Lauderdale startup JetStarter, which has landed promotional social media posts from Kim Kardashian.
Brandon Naids of Talon Simulation was just starting a school project at UCF. He ended up with a VR startup.
Mike Taramykin, formerly of Electronic Arts, Zynga and Fanduel, has started a new company in Orlando called HypSports.
Angela Alban of Simetri in Winter Park has navigated the high-stakes world of defense contracts.
Rudy Ellis of Switchboard Live had to choose between taking a pay cut or becoming an entrepreneur. He chose the latter.
Alfred Espidol of Launchable talks about the art of the pivot, why his firm chose augmented reality over virtual reality and how Orlando's tech ecosystem could improve. "Everyone says fail fast. But get up faster."
Tech reporter Marco Santana introduces a new podcast that will highlight the startups that could become the big businesses of the future.