Orlando businessman
Joshua Sutton launches Tech and Beers program to help business startup succeed where others have failed.
Growing up in Orlando, businessman Joshua Sutton kept his eye on the region’s startup community. As he built his own tech company, he noticed new services launching to help entrepreneurs — such as incubators, accelerators and mentoring programs.
But Sutton hasn’t seen a big increase in the number of startups succeeding here. So the 36-year-old entrepreneur, who wrestled at Edgewater High School, has started his own program, called Tech and Beers, to help businesses succeed in his hometown. It’s the newest effort in Orlando’s growing number of options for startups that seek training and support.
Sutton’s 6-year-old company Pandera Systems employs 175 people, including around 60 in Orlando. He is highly critical of the startup support programs in Orlando, saying they employ an assembly line-like approach to entrepreneurs in an effort to churn out as many as they can.
Leaders in the local startup community disputed some of his criticisms, but they said he is welcome to contribute to its growth.
“Our community is vibrant. We are filled with entrepreneurs who are leading,” said Donna Mackenzie, who is part of the leadership teams of co-working space Canvs, the accelerator program Starter Studio and the new venture capital FireSpring Fund.
As Sutton has observed, Orlando hasn’t made great strides in the number of successful startups, and still ranks poorly on the Kauffman Foundation’s indexes of startup activity and entrepreneurship, despite some recent improvement. Out of 40 large cities in 2016, Kauffman ranked Orlando No. 21 for startup activity, No. 34 for fast-growth startups, and No. 37 for main street entrepreneurs.
The National Venture Capital Association has also shown lackluster numbers for investment in Orlando startups over the past year. In 2016, there were 26 venture capital deals done in the Orlando area, the fewest since 2012, when there were 19.
Sutton hopes his Tech and Beers fund will grow each quarter; he will start it with an initial $1 million contribution then add 1.5 percent of Pandera’s quarterly profits.
The fund will be used for several purposes, including small investments into startups that catch his eye or money to help fund local meetups or trips for entrepreneurs to potentially lucrative conferences.
He says roughly one-third of Pandera’s 15,000-square-foot office, 225 E. Robinson St., in downtown Orlando will convert into a
space entrepreneurs whom he approves can use, free of charge. If Sutton likes the startup and its idea, it will also get free advice. He said he won’t require a share of the company in exchange for space and mentoring.
He also said he would look at putting money into startups that use the space if it were in Pandera’s industry of business analytics technology.
Coworking spaces like Canvs or Catalyst have housed entrepreneurs for the last two years, offering training, workshops and connections for selected startups.
VentureScaleUp, which runs out of Catalyst, recently selected its fourth class of startups in 20 months. Canvs’ Starter Studio, meanwhile, is on its seventh class since it debuted in 2014.
The Orlando Tech Association’s 2014 debut came amidst a belief that the city’s tech sector was growing.
Some Kauffman data supports that: the region’s ranking of 21st in startup activity was up from 33 the year before. But that still ranks in the bottom half of the biggest 40 cities.
Others in the startup community, such as Dennis Pape, who runs Catalyst, say the region is too focused on job creation and economic development metrics.
He welcomes criticism and more locals like Sutton who want to get involved.
“That’s what is exciting here is that you have private enterprise founders that want to support the community. In general, we haven’t had that here,” Pape said of Sutton.
Entrepreneur Gregg Pollack said a recent increase in collaboration with the University of Central Florida has helped.
SavvySuit, a data science and legal technology startup, began at Starter Studio and is now in UCF’s program. Any growth of accelerators in Orlando is a good sign, Pollack said, because it helps the region get closer to becoming a sustainable tech community.
“I’m happy to learn there are more people creating accelerators,” he said. “The more, the better. I’ll do anything I can to help.”
Sutton says the company has started to relocate some of Pandera’s employees to Orlando so they can help in the new coworking space. He says existing programs in Orlando apply the same curriculum to all types of businesses, which can hurt some companies that may need specific training in certain areas.
“I’m on an airplane every day talking about business development, talking about our vibrant tech community then looking here and seeing a lack of success coming out of the incubators,” he said.
“I have had every business-related issue known to man,” Sutton said. “They are not getting that level of support they need. It’s hype-based here and they are (messing) with people’s dreams.”