₿it¢oin Grove 리트윗함
It's funny seeing the triggering and knee jerk reactions on both sides to this post. As one of the very few founders in Miami of a meaningfully sized company, that is actually a Miami native, it's pretty much on the mark.
Given how bad the governance is in SF and NYC, I think Miami continues to have the opportunity to be a true alternative for both tech and finance. But other places sucking more isn't good enough. It has its own real problems to solve.
Fraud and sleazy atmosphere: I see people mention this one a lot, and there's a big grain of truth there. There's a huge hustle culture and a ton of poseurs. But you know what? SF has that too in droves. I'd go as far to say the ratio of people working on real things vs BS is not actually that far off, in SF the BS is just more *plausible* sounding and people get away with fraud for a lot longer. See Delve. In Miami it's just obvious, and therefore more annoying. It makes events annoying for actual builders, and is something that can only be solved with curation imo.
Too much fun: This is the dumbest one I just want to dispel. There's so much to do in Miami, that it makes it impossible for a serious work culture to develop to get people to grind long hours. My wife would like to have a word. In reality, there's *way* more to do in NYC than Miami, and that's not a problem there. It's not a problem here either, unless you're the wrong person and you need perfect conditions to be successful i.e. you are not going to be successful.
Engineering talent is lacking: Very very true, it's lagging behind VC growth substantially, but that's changing. Miami today is not anything like it was pre-covid. It's a different planet really, and the talent is gradually growing and stacking. It's also pretty easy to recruit folks early in their career here. There also should be a lot more investment in investing in the local population from the local universities IMO. We need a real local pipeline that does not yet exist.
Affordability: It's so much better than NYC and SF. The quality of life is pretty superb. Yeah, the 3 months of hardcore summer is pretty brutal, but so is being locked inside in the dark freezing cold in NYC winters. Personally I prefer the one that doesn't give me seasonal depression. All that being said, Miami has its own growing affordability problem. We are building way more than I think almost any metro in America, but it's not enough. Insurance is also out of control and needs State level interventions. That's compounded by under-invested infrastructure for flooding, sewer systems, etc. Solar for residential needs to be aggressively promoted and incentivized to lower electricity bills and increase grid resilience. All of this is very doable but requires a level of political will and organization and I haven't ever seen demonstrated here.
Overall, I'm bullish, and looking forward to giving back more and trying to help going forward.
dax@thdxr
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