ORLANDO MIGHT SUPPORT TECH
City Council to consider fund to encourage more startups
Orlando tech startups could have a new way to raise money after today’s city council meeting.
City leaders want to finalize a plan that would create a $150,000 fund to encourage tech entrepreneurs to start companies, with hopes of attracting the attention of private investors.
City officials will talk with tech leaders to decide how they will allocate $115,000 of the fund, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said.
“We have to figure out how to encourage more venture capital to come into our community,” he said, even if it isn’t possible to predict “which startups are going to make it” amid the low rate of success typical for any city’s new businesses.
The other $35,000 would be set aside for four quarterly installment payments to the Orlando Tech Association to cover its operational costs, with the first payment expected Nov. 30.
OTA organizes events for small tech companies in the city to help them grow. The group also has made efforts to connect those companies with larger tech firms.
Early discussions about where the $150,000 would go sparked controversy this summer when some thought it all would be awarded to four tech groups that operate under the same leadership organization.
In an Aug. 31 email obtained by the Orlando Sentinel, Lillian Scott-Payne of the city’s economic development department told Dennis Pape, who runs the Catalyst coworking space downtown, that “staff has been discussing the possibility of a funding agreement that would provide support to Canvs, Starter Studio, FireSpring and OTA.”
Pape appeared before the city council Sept. 25 to object, saying other cities have been successful by supporting several efforts simultaneously.
“There is demonstrated success in that,” he told the Sentinel last week. “Much more so than just funding a few entities, which the original plan was about.”
Pape said he was encouraged by new developments.
Donna Mackenzie, executive director of Firespring Fund, Starter Studio and Canvs, said in September the requests her agencies had made were meant to support education and support programs, not operations. She did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
OTA Executive Director Diane Court said she would not comment until after the meeting.
Dyer said leaders in Orlando, a relative newcomer among tech-startup ranks, have been testing the waters on what could work to support tech here, but growth has not been quick. Most successes in the “incredibly important” sector have been organic rather than because of government efforts, he said.
“We are trying to figure out the best way to support
that,” he said. “I am not a techie, so I don’t necessarily know their needs. [OTA] has been a good convening group that corrals people together. But we haven’t got it all figured out.”
Phil Dumas, who has raised more than $15 million for his Internet of Things startup UniKey Technologies in Orlando the last three years, said money is critical for speeding up success.
“Cash is beyond king as a startup,” he said. “You need money to build things. Sure, you can bootstrap but, generally speaking, money will accelerate things.”
Dumas says he has seen more support programs in place for startups than when he launched in 2010.
“If we were, relatively, a bicycle in 2010, we have got a motorcycle right now,” he said. “Silicon Valley is a SpaceX heavy launch rocket. But we are now, at least, powered vehicles. Before, we were literally pedaling.” msantana@orlandosentinel.com; 407-420-5256; Twitter: @marcosantana