South Florida Tech HubSouth Florida Tech Hub
25
Jan, 2021

By Rebecca Bakels

Building Relationships | South Florida’s Buzzing Startup Scene

Read Time 3 Minutes

Palm Beach Tech’s Startup Founders Peer Group, led by Co-Chairs, Mike Maniscalco, Founder of Better Living Technologies and Gaida Zirkelbach, Founder of SustainaBase, met to discuss South Florida’s booming startup scene. Normally, this would be a members-only event, but with all the recent buzz surrounding local entrepreneurship, the meeting was open to the public for anyone wanting to learn more or get involved.

One of the first questions asked was ‘Where are we all from?’  The chat was flooded with answers from Miami and West Palm Beach to Tampa and even out of state to Texas and New York. “I recently moved to South Florida” was heard repeatedly throughout the evening. There is a clear gravitational pull to opportunities here and the need for community and support. A poll created by the Peer Group shed some light on what kind of support our community is in desperate need of: mentorship (and a little investment capital couldn’t hurt). Out of about 40 participants in the session roughly half had looked to friends and colleagues for resources which pointed out the need for more accessible programs like the 1909 Accelerator and the Florida Atlantic University’s Tech Runway.

Accessibility in itself is a major issue in any field, but entrepreneurship in particular is unequivocally linked with privilege. Imran Siddiqui, Founding Director of the Broward College Entrepreneurship Experience — the college’s business accelerator, also known as BCEx — touched on this and spoke about his effort to transform Broward’s most hard hit neighborhoods by joining forces with Broward UP, the college’s program that targets the six Broward County zip codes with the lowest education attainment and highest unemployment. Imran explained how reaching into these communities and offering workshops on developing an entrepreneurial mindset opened up a conversation with a community not often reached. These opening conversations are where Imran says he gets some of his best accelerator participants, working hard to prove to students and residents that it’s not out of reach. 

Towards the end of the session Monica Rojas, PBT’s Member & Engagement Specialist, encouraged some of the newer faces in the crowd to introduce themselves and their venture and asked them what they most wanted from the community. The need for mentorship was a recurring theme and Jonathan Cox encapsulates this perfectly. A recent entry to the startup scene, Cox is building an app that redefines agriculture and farming on a smaller scale, converting unused lots in urban areas into a source of food and community. With a background in tech and photography he’s in the process of switching gears to focus on his urban farming app (Grow Next Door) and he’s found himself asking a question all too familiar to entrepreneurs: “Who can I trust?” Felecia Hatcher, Co-Founder at Center for Black Innovation, and, once again, FAU’s Tech Runway were immediately recommended.

Throughout the evening, there were many magical moments like this where one participant heard about the needs of another and offered to help make introductions, suggest programs, and stay connected with them after they signed off. This is exactly what our community needs right now, to help those already here and make our newer members feel welcome and encouraged. As South Florida continues to bloom into a hub for start-ups, it’s important for us to share our knowledge and champion our fellow risk-takers. 

To learn more about our Startup Founders Peer Group, email team@palmbeachtech.org

19
Jan, 2021

By Nikki Cabus

Moving Minds | Minnesota to South Florida

Read Time 5 Minutes

Lou Hughes, CEO of Moving Minds, and his wife, Kathryn Hughes had been traveling from Minnesota to South Florida for years on vacation. Moving Minds is an on-demand marketing and technology agency that opened in 2006 and includes Fortune 500 companies and others such Caremark Rx, Fannie Mae, Siemens, Citi, and MasterCard.

In early January 2020, Lou became an individual member with Palm Beach Tech. He soon realized that the region had more to offer than beautiful beaches, great restaurants, and outdoor activities in the sun- although those are wonderful perks!

After introducing Jupiter Medical Center, one of Moving Minds’ clients, to Palm Beach Tech and seeing the thriving business and tech community in the Palm Beaches, Lou was intrigued. With the support from some other wonderful organizations, the agency decided to have Moving Minds join as a corporate member and look into moving his business to the area in order to take advantage of marketing and tech talent in the area.

 

Moving Minds celebrated the relocation of their global headquarters to South Florida in December 2020 with fantastic ribbon-cutting ceremony in downtown West Palm Beach’s Rosemary Square.

They were joined by the City of West Palm Beach’s Mayor Keith James, Kelly Smallridge from the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County, Kelly Fanelli from the Chamber of Commerce of the Palm Beaches, and Nikki Cabus and Joe Russo from Palm Beach Tech.

 

 

Nikki Cabus, VP at Palm Beach Tech, was able to catch up with Lou to get some insight on the big  decision to move to South Florida. 

 

  • What was the number one thing that caught your attention about South Florida?
We’ve been coming to Palm Beach County for years for vacation, and then it occurred to us, why in the world is our marketing + tech agency headquartered somewhere else?
And then, when we started exploring the area we realized that Palm Beach County and South Florida is home to one of the fastest-growing technology and venture start-up communities in the country.
 
  • Why did you choose South Florida over areas like New York City, Austin, The Bay Area, etc.? 
I am from San Francisco. I went to college at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. And I’ve had opportunities to move back home over the years, but South Florida and Palm Beach County offer a wonderful combination of low taxes and cost of living, but also provide a wonderful lifestyle for individuals and families. You have access to a wealth of cultural activities and amenities, including world-class dining, entertainment and beaches, but in a more livable, intimate setting. In West Palm Beach, we can get to the airport, sports events, museums, shopping in literally 5 to 10 minutes whereas before, we had to travel an hour and fifteen minutes to access the same amenities. It’s a no brainer.
The other primary reason for Moving Minds to relocate was the access to a larger, more qualified talent pool of technology, marketing, and creative personnel that we need to grow our agency and meet our client’s increasing demand for integrated, multi-channel marketing and growth capabilities.
 
  • Who were some of the organizations you partnered with who made the move happen?
One of the first organizations we reached out to was Palm Beach Tech. Palm Beach Tech’s existence validated our thinking that Palm Beach County had a vibrant community of technology companies and personnel that we wanted to be a part of. There is a vibe and sense of growth and momentum that Palm Beach County has that was intangible, but definitely could be felt.
The other organization that has been instrumental in our relocation was the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County. Both pre-relocation and post-relocation, their team and support we have received have been tremendous. They have been very active partners in helping us integrate with the business community, facilitating introductions to other companies through their membership program.
 
  • What has it been like so far for you? (personally, the culture here, etc.)
We have been blown away by the reception we have had and the support we have received from Palm Beach Tech, The Business Development Board, the Chamber of Commerce of the Palm Beaches, Discover the Palm Beaches even the Mayor of West Palm Beach’s Office.
We have been received with open arms. There is a warmth to the people here; it’s a welcoming place both professionally and personally. West Palm Beach is a great and growing city, but it’s not overwhelming like New York, San Francisco, or Los Angeles, but a smaller, closer, and more intimate community. It’s the perfect size in that you have the city, the beaches, and access to great dining, museums, performing arts, sports, and business amenities such as sizable conference centers and other intimate settings for as The Breakers resort for hosting clients from all over the world.
Palm Beach County is also an instantly recognizable and destination business address. When you say your company is based in the Palm Beach area, it has a certain cache, and everyone knows where it is. We have many clients who prefer to meet with us here in Palm Beach rather than having us come to their offices because they know how much there is to do and what a great place to vacation it is after our meetings are done.
  • Summarize Moving Minds and what the company does in 5 sentences or less. 
Moving Minds is an award-winning on-demand marketing+technology agency enabling forward-thinking companies to get to market faster and smarter with ‘Growth as a Managed Service,’ a fractional, more agile #martech model designed for CXOs.
From early-stage venture-backed start-ups to the Fortune 500, companies rely on Moving Minds as a dedicated partner for driving growth and outsourcing their multi-channel marketing and tech programs. Moving Minds’ global team brings a diverse range of skills on demand, faster than internal resources associated with recruiting, hiring, and retaining a multi-channel marketing department, and at a fraction of the cost of full-time employees.
Moving Minds serves a global roster of clients in technology, healthcare, financial services, and digital services, including Siemens, Citi, Schweiger Dermatology, MasterCard, HealthSouth, Axogen, and Norwest Venture Partners.
  • What do your growth plans look like over the next 2 years?
We plan to double our marketing + tech agency’s size over the next two to three years. Founded in 2006, our agency has been a virtual company from the start because of our lack of proximity to marketing talent and a more vibrant business community. But being headquartered in Palm Beach County and South Florida open up so many opportunities for us, not only in assembling and accessing an intelligent high educated workforce, but proving access to a vibrant business community of prospective clients in all types of industries.
  • What would you tell another CEO about the area that you wish somebody had told you sooner?
We’ve been visiting Palm Beach for many, many years for vacation. It’s our favorite place in the world to be. One day the light went off while visiting, and we said to ourselves, what are we doing? If we love living here so much, let’s relocate our agency. When we reached out to Palm Beach Tech and the Business Development Board, it opened our eyes to the opportunities for us to grow and prospect in a super-friendly business environment at all levels; local, county, regional, and state.
And we’ve been thrilled with our decision. We wish we had decided to relocate10 years ago, so we are making up the time we missed as fast as we can.
From a business and personal perspective, South Florida and Palm Beach County, in particular, is where you want to be.
Want to learn more about Moving Minds? Check them out at www.movingminds.io
07
Dec, 2020

By Nancy Dahlberg

Member Spotlight | 2TON & Ryan Boylston

Read Time 4 Minutes

Business: 2TON is a full-service creative agency

HQ: West Palm Beach

Year founded: 2011 (formerly called Woo Creative)

Founder and CEO: Ryan Boylston (also Vice Mayor of Delray Beach)

No. on team: 21

Website: 2ton.com

 

It’s not easy for a small business to find a good creative partner for web development and marketing. So about a decade ago, Ryan Boylston began bringing those services in house as part of his consulting firm and kept adding new services as the team grew. Soon his company was a full-service creative agency.

In 2017 the company (then called Woo Creative) acquired the marketing department of a larger technology firm and rebranded as 2TON. “A lot of agencies say they have a ton of talent — we have 2 tons,” said Boylston, the agency’s founder and CEO.

Today 2TON is a team of 21. It services small to medium businesses as well as large companies. Its main office is in West Palm Beach’s warehouse district and there is a satellite office in Delray Beach. In addition to all the usual creative services – branding, package design, web design, print design, etc. – the company also offers strategy consulting. In fact, more than half its team is on the strategy side of the business.

“A lot of our clients come to us and they’re not looking for just pretty things … At the end of the day no matter how great it looks, if it’s not driving sales, then it doesn’t matter.”

 

FOUNDING THE ANTI-AGENCY

Before founding the agency, Boylston had an eclectic career in the auto industry and then publishing. Since 2018, he’s been serving on the Delray Beach City Commission, where he is Vice Mayor He was a founding board member of Palm Beach Tech Association and a past chairman of Delray Beach Downtown Development Authority, among other roles.

Boylston founded 2TON to be the anti-agency. You won’t find account reps at 2TON. Clients work directly with project managers and project consultants. Also, he said, “we’re not a turn and burn shop, we’re not a one-time project shop. We look for relationships with our clients.”

Customer service sets 2TON apart. “We don’t believe in outsourcing. Period. Everything is done in house — you’re working with our team,” he said.

The key to happy longtime clients is happy employees. 2TON doesn’t pigeon hole team members to one industry, as some agencies do. “My team is constantly dropping in and out of different industries and bringing best practices from one industry to another. It really keeps my team sharp.”

As for hiring, he said, culture fit is key and good people know good people. “So when we go to hire for a new position, we’ll put it out our own network and we’ll post it out to the world, and nine out of 10 times, someone on the team knows someone that is dying to work at 2ton who they will vouch for… and it turns out to be great fit.”

 

KEEPING EVERYONE HAPPY

Chief of Happiness is Lily Myers. “She used to be chief of client happiness but we found out Lily makes everybody’s life better.”

She keeps the office running, takes care of birthdays and fun team activities, and she is also the first touch for new clients and potential clients. “We do not have salespeople so if you call in to 2ton, you’re going to be on a meeting or on a call with the CEO and founder of the company within 48 hours,” Boylston said.

Early on during the pandemic crisis, 2TON’s team made the strategic decision to stick together and be as flexible as possible with its clients,

“It was a tough summer. But it was really our team deciding that rather than lose clients or lose one or two people we’re all going to get through it together and we are starting to see that was the right decision.”

The company did not have to lay off anyone and its clients that had to pause their marketing are all returning now.

 

LEARNINGS FROM COVID

The office is open for team members who want to use it, but some are still working remotely and that has been a challenge. “Being together brainstorming bouncing ideas off of each other, there’s just a magic that happens when we’re all together in our office.” Indeed, by design, 2TON’s West Palm office is one big room – there are no cubicles or private offices, not even for Boylston.

Knowing the struggles of clients in particularly hard-hit industries during COVID has been particularly difficult, but a silver lining is that the crisis pushed some to make digital moves they had been putting off for years, whether it was a more powerful website, e-commerce capabilities or a home delivery model. “These are going to be tools for their business forever.”

Boylston was pushed, too. Boylston has always been a meet-in-person kind of guy, but COVID pushed the agency to embrace the video conferencing and it has seen incredible efficiency. “It’s been a game changer,” he said. “I’m usually the type that would rather get on the road and drive to 30 or 40 minutes to meet you in person than to  jump on video but I have seen the fruits of embracing video conferencing.”

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23
Nov, 2020

By Nikki Cabus

Our Strategic Partnership with Code for South Florida

Read Time 2 Minutes

This is a repost of an article that originally appeared on the Code for South Florida Website

Expanding our program reach to Palm Beach County through a community-based organization

Code for South Florida is partnering with the community organization, Palm Beach Technology Association, to bring our digital services and research efforts to the 3rd most populous county in Florida. This partnership is so we can maximize reach in Justice Discovery and Workforce Development efforts.

As civic technology non-profit, we recognize that modernizing government and increasing the adoption of open-source technologies do not happen overnight. It takes a relationship and a willingness to be in the work for the long haul. Our focus from Day 1 continues to be demonstrating change through services that inspire and help others to do it themselves. This is why as we grow, we recognize the need for partners who can help promote our digital service initiatives in municipalities or counties. We hope to do this through Palm Beach Tech Association in the following:

  • Expanding Reach to Palm Beach County by promoting our digital services and services through their network of employers, partners and affiliates.
  • Fostering relationships with the public sector to amplify “tech for social good” volunteering on Code for South Florida’s workforce development and small business initiatives.
  • Collaborating on a Smart City Peer Group to drive conversations with public-private partners around cities that put people first.

Palm Beach Technology Association is a membership association that recently expanded its vision to transform South Florida into a Tech Hub. For 5-years it has grown its base of employer and partner members while creating branded content for the Palm Beach Tech ecosystem. This includes a range of content like podcasts, peer groups, member directories, and most recently the Palm Beach Tech ‘Code for Good’ Hackathon. Through this partnership, we will be added to their Member Directory, not as a paying member but as a technology partner. In addition, we will work on select community initiatives.

Code for South Florida’s mission continues to be modernizing technology in the public sphere through a people-first approach. We expect our partnership with Palm Beach Tech will help us in our workforce development and justice discovery work in South Florida, connecting us with employers interested in supporting Tech For Good initiatives, and forge a path for a Smart Peer Peer Group in 2021. Through this work, we will elevate public interest technology by fostering Civic Engagement, Digital Transformation, and Smarter Cities across South Florida.

We hope to see a brighter future built on tech for social impact, a future that is not only envisioned but measured consistently to better serve the greater public. We understand the importance of location is having roots and understanding of demographics. Our user research dives into understanding this community and its system across Miami-Dade, Broward, and now Palm Beach in the foreseeable future. To stay true to our objective we believe the best way to serve South Florida is having services that reach every County, and this partnership positions us closer to that goal.

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16
Nov, 2020

By Nancy Dahlberg

Two Palm Beach Tech Members Named Florida Companies to Watch

Read Time 4 Minutes

Congratulations to Palm Beach Tech Members Salesmsg and The SilverLogic, who were selected from more than 400 nominations as premier Florida companies expected to see significant growth over the next several years.

The two companies were among 50 named to Florida Companies to Watch, a statewide competition to honor excellent small businesses organized by GrowFL. Their management teams, competitive market positions and strong community involvement were among factors that sealed the wins for them. 

 

In all, 13 companies from South Florida were awarded. 

Companies to Watch was developed by the Edward Lowe Foundation to recognize and honor second-stage companies that demonstrate high performance in the marketplace with innovative strategies and processes, making them “worth watching.” 

“These stand-out companies are all led by entrepreneurs, and have demonstrated not only their willingness to grow, but their capacity to do it successfully,” said Dr. Tom O’Neal, GrowFL’s founder.  “They are all positioned to make a significant impact on Florida’s economy with their products, services, critical intellectual property or a niche position that gives them a competitive edge in their markets. These business owners demonstrate strong leadership, philanthropic involvement, perseverance and all it means to be an entrepreneur.” 

 

Let’s look at Salesmsg, The SilverLogic, and some of the other tech winners from South Florida:

Salesmsg, based in Delray Beach and founded in 2017 by CEO Chris Brisson, enables simple, scalable, two-way business texting, allowing professionals to easily send, receive, and manage text message conversations online. Salesmsg also makes it easy to have instant real-time conversations over SMS.

The SilverLogic, based in Boca Raton and founded in 2012 by CEO David Hartmann , is a software consulting and development company, The innovative company’s motto “we make ideas happen”, whether they require sophisticated apps, websites, business automation, artificial intelligence (AI) or augmented reality (AR), basically any technology. 

4ocean PBC, based in Boca Raton, is a mission-driven for-profit business dedicated to removing trash from oceans and coastlines while inspiring individuals to work together for cleaner oceans. It was founded in 2017 by Andrew Cooper and Alex Schulze, a pair of surfers-turned-entrepreneurs disgusted by filthy beaches on a trip to Bali. Made from recycled materials, 4ocean bracelets purchased so far have funded the cleanup of more than  7 million pounds of trash.

Aventusoft, based in Boca Raton, is the inventor of the “HEMOTAG CPAS” cardiac diagnostic system. Aventusoft developed the diagnostic system at the Research Park at Florida Atlantic University, worked on clinical trial testing at local healthcare facilities, and intends to manufacture the product in Palm Beach Gardens. The company was recently awarded $3 million to expand the technology through a SBIR FastTrack grant.

Xendoo, based in Fort Lauderdale and founded by Lil Roberts in 2016, simplifies bookkeeping and accounting for small businesses by providing three simple monthly rates that include bookkeeping, sales tax, tax planning, corporate tax return filing, and unlimited access to a dedicated CPA team. 

To see a list of all 50 winning companies, go here.

 

Second-stage companies are defined as those with 6 to 150 full-time employees and between $750,000 and $100 million in annual revenue. Companies were judged on a number of criteria including:

  • growth in number of employees
  • impact of the business in the job market
  • increase in sales and/or unit volume
  • current and past financial reports
  • innovativeness of the product or service; response to adversity
  • and contributions to aid community-oriented projects.

With this year’s honorees, GrowFL has now recognized 500 companies throughout Florida.  From 2016 through 2019, these companies have during the 4 years period:

  • Generated $813 million in revenue
  • Added 668 total employees
  • Had 103% increase in revenue growth (27% avg annual)
  • Had 113% increase in job growth (20% avg annual)

Even through the pandemic, these companies projected continued growth in 2020, with a 15% revenue increase and 17% growth in employees compared to 2019. If their projections hold, these companies will have generated $1.14 billion in revenue and added 887 employees over the last five years — a 133% increase in revenue and 150% increase in jobs since 2016.

Companies named to the list will be officially recognized at the 10th Annual GrowFL Florida Companies to Watch Celebration on February 18, 2021 at the Hammock Beach Resort and Spa in Palm Coast, FL, and the event will also be broadcast live.

For more information: https://www.growfl.com/flctw20/about-flctw/ 

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09
Nov, 2020

By Nancy Dahlberg

Member Spotlight | I.T. Solutions of South Florida & Deana Pizzo

Read Time 4 Minutes

Business: A managed service provider specializing in solving IT and business challenges for small to medium size businesses.

HQ: Lake Worth

Year founded: 2004

Founders: Deana Pizzo (CEO) and Jason Pizzo (CIO)

No. of employees: 16

Website: www.itsolutions247.com

 

 

I.T. Solutions of South Florida  has racked up a lot of industry and community awards. But the one CEO Deana Pizzo is most proud of is being honored as a Best Place to Work by the South Florida Business Journal last year.

“That was a really big deal to me. Best Places to Work means that you have the right people in the right seat on the bus. They like what they’re doing,” Pizzo said about her Lake Worth-based company. And it’s her people, she says, that drive her business forward while keeping the businesses of her customers running smoothly.

Pizzo started I.T. Solutions of South Florida with her husband, Jason, in 2004 in their living room, and they evolved the company over the years into a Managed Service Provider overseeing the networks of dozens of small and mid-sized companies. Services of the certified woman-owned small business include managing everything from cloud services to local servers to phones to copiers and more. “We do a lot of 24-month technology road mapping with our clients” so there are no surprises, she said, along with ongoing consulting and educational training.

Clients include SunFest, Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium, United States Polo Association and United States Polo Global Licensing, among others. I.T. Solutions of South Florida manages networks in some unusual places, too.  “We are part of the Porsche North America racing team,” Pizzo said. “One single race car has seven servers, which is surprising to a lot of people.”

Feeding South Florida in Fort Lauderdale, the third-largest food bank in the country, is also an I.T. Solutions of South Florida client. For Nonprofits First, I.T. Solutions of South Florida not only supports its network but also teaches classes for the nonprofit’s clients on everything from cybersecurity education to how to use Microsoft Teams – big requests during the pandemic.

 

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE PEOPLE

What sets her company apart from the competition, Pizzo says, is a people-first mission and approach.

“When you grow your team with great people, the client’s come,” she said.  “We hire for personality and sharpen the tech. You can teach tech but you can’t teach personality,”

To find the best people skills, I.T. Solutions of South Florida doesn’t even talk about the tech with job applicants until the end of the second interview. “The very first interaction with us is a video submission. Can they talk to people and make eye contact? … And then we test the tech,” Pizzo said.

It’s working. I.T. Solutions of South Florida has had very low turnover, Pizzo said. “I can count my turnover in 17 years on one hand. I have people that been with me 10 years.”

‘NO GEEK SPEAK’

I.T. Solutions of South Florida’ 16-person team is nearly half are women, very unusual in tech. The ways the team goes about treating customers differently starts with no geek speak, Pizzo said.

“We do not do that. We want plain old conversation. Nobody wants to be talked down to, which my industry is full of.”

Once new team members are on board, they get an education plan. “We get them certifications and they’re part of their onboarding as part of their first year. They are doing ongoing technical training — sharpening the sword is very important.”

Since 2016, I.T. Solutions of South Florida has been on South Florida Business Journal’s fastest growing companies list. With COVID-19 in the picture, growth is down a bit this year, but growth will still be in the double digits, thanks to getting an early start following its disaster recovery plan, Pizzo said. “We actually are getting ready to hire two more people by the end of the year.”

I.T. Solutions of South Florida went 100% virtual early in the crisis and then worked quickly to get its customers — about 1,700 people — virtual in a period of two weeks. “We were prepared and had a plan. And that’s something that we do with our clients. Every year we sit and we revisit their disaster recovery plan. I don’t think anybody could have planned for this but having those plans in place was a huge help in helping all of our clients get all of their employees remote.”

 

COMMUNITY FOCUS

Pizzo is active in the community. She was selected for the Palm Beach Tech Association’s Board of Directors this year, a position she is very excited to hold. “I love the mission of creating a tech hub in the South Florida region — it is very needed. I’m excited for what they’re doing and I want to help them be better at what they do.”

Pizzo also serves on the Board of Governors for Leadership Palm Beach County, is a member of the Board of Directors for Nonprofits First and is a corporate member of the BDB and a Corporate Trustee in the Palm Beach North Chamber of Commerce.

In her new role on Palm Beach Tech’s board, Pizzo says she is looking forward to listening to the community, finding out what the demands are and helping Palm Beach Tech meet those needs. She also has some of her own ideas.

“We need our college graduates to stay here. We need to lure college graduates to this area. We need to become that tech hub. Joe [Russo] has definitely made some waves, and we are moving towards that.”

 

Shown at top of post: I.T. Solutions of South Florida’ co-founders, Deana (CEO) and Jason Pizzo (CIO), at a Leadership Palm Beach County event. Photos provided by I.T. Solutions of South Florida.

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02
Nov, 2020

By Nancy Dahlberg

Code for Good Hackathon | GetSpeedBack creates Winning Solution

Read Time 4 Minutes

To create a winning solution in Palm Beach Tech’s Code for Good Hackathon, team GetSpeedBack attacked a big problem that food banks and other social impact agencies are having delivering to their home-bound clients.

These agencies often rely on volunteers to help make deliveries, and that becomes tougher during a pandemic when a large portion of their volunteers are seniors as well as others that need to stay home. For hunger-relief nonprofits like Feeding South Florida, it could become an administrative headache when a deliverer can’t work and the volunteer’s address list had to be divvied up.

 “So there’s a shortage of volunteers and an increasing number of meals that need to be delivered… We figured there’s got to be a better way to do it,” said Matthew Meadows, who won the hackathon with team member Mihai Oprescu.

Team GetSpeedBack came up with a solution that “optimizes routes for each driver, and all they have to do is click on a link in a text message and follow the directions, minimizing the administrative problem and saving volunteer hours on the road so they can more efficiently help more people,” said Meadows, who Co-Founded the Boca Raton HR-tech startup GetSpeedBack.

You can see Team GetSpeedBack’s web-app work from the hackathon here.

In all, 19 teams competed in the Palm Beach Tech Hackathon presented by Office Depot on October 23-25. “While Team GetSpeedBack emerged the big winner, it was really the greater South Florida community that won,” said Palm Beach Tech President & CEO Joe Russo

“Amidst the pandemic, we were able to bring positivity to our community by supporting two local nonprofits, Feeding South Florida, attacking hunger relief, and Gift of Life, a bone marrow registry,” said Palm Beach Tech Vice President Nikki Cabus. “With Palm Beach Tech’s recent expansion to support the entire region, we were excited to see that over 40% of our hackers were from Broward and Miami-Dade counties. The top three cities represented were Delray Beach, Miami, and Pompano respectively, and 1 on every 4 being a woman in tech.”

 

1st Place, $2,500 prize: GetSpeedBack

  • Solution: Route optimizer for delivery drivers, minimizing administration and saving volunteer hours
  • Team Members: Matthew Meadows, Mihai Oprescu
  • See Presentation | See Github

2nd Place, $1,500 prize: Sunny Six

  • Solution: Application that aims to connect people in need with healthy food, simply and securely
  • Team Members: Fernanda Rodriguez, Joy Bushnell, Dan Mathison, Hanadi Alotaibi, Nic Maltais, Earl Cameron
  • See Presentation | See Github

3rd place, $1,000 prize: Forij

  • Solution: Eco-system for food donors, volunteer drivers, and Feeding South Florida, accelerated by rewards program
  • Team Members: Kavin Kannan, Camila Alfonso, Douglas Rodriguez
  • See Presentation | See Github

Click Here to View All Teams

 

Mark Volchek, a venture capitalist with Las Olas Venture Capital, said: “As a first-time judge, I was really impressed by the quality of work put forth by all the teams.  It was exciting to see how much the teams were able to accomplish in such a short time – a great testament to the emergence of the South Florida Tech ecosystem!”

Michelle Bakels, a coach from NextEra Energy, agrees. “This year’s hackathon participants raised the bar! Overall, our teams showed the most complete and well-designed solutions of any hackathon to date. I was really impressed by how uniquely each team approached their problems in order to focus on this year’s theme, Code for Good.”

Bakels and over a dozen coaches worked closely with the teams during the 24-hours to help them build the very best versions of their projects. “Coaches are there to support teams and make sure everyone leaves with something they’re proud of, so it’s a great role and definitely something I love doing,” Bakels said.

This was the 5th annual Palm Beach Tech Hackathon, and organizers had to take the annual event virtual for the first time. But Meadows said the virtual experience was flawless and moving around the virtual rooms to collaborate was easy. Oprescu, who was part of the Office Depot team that won the Palm Beach Tech hackathon two years ago, also said the set up worked well but “nothing beats the in-person experience of a hackathon.”

Palm Beach Tech hopes that new friendships were made and collaborations continue in the weeks and months to come. It’s always a hope that some teams will continue working on their ideas born during a hackathon – for the greater good.

As for Team GetSpeedBack, Meadows said:  “We’re hoping to get in touch with Feeding South Florida to see if we can actually help them with real world implementation. The whole point of the hackathon is to benefit them in some way, so we’d like to see it through, if we can.”

26
Oct, 2020

By Nancy Dahlberg

Member Spotlight | Exepron & John Thompson

Read Time 3 Minutes

Business: Exepron combines a powerful systems architecture and a simple user interface with embedded intelligence to deliver an advanced CCPM software solution capable of handling any size project.

Headquarters: Palm Beach Gardens

Co-founders: John Thompson (COO) and Daniel Walsh (CEO)

Employees: team of 7 plus contractors around the world

Website: www.exepron.com

 

In 2010, sitting in a pizza rodizio in Brazil, John Thompson and Daniel Walsh sketched out their plans – yes, on a napkin — for a cloud-based project management company.

“Planning is easy, execution is hard. We said we could provide sophisticated predictive project management capability,” recalled Thompson. “That’s what we set out to do.”

Fast forward to 2020 and their venture, Exepron (which comes from Execution Project Network), is one of Palm Beach County’s newest technology companies and offers a predictive project management and scheduling solution for enterprises. It relocated its headquarters to Palm Beach Gardens earlier this year.

THE BACKSTORY

Thompson explained what sets Exepron apart from competitors.

In project management environments, 60% on-time delivery rates seem to be accepted as the norm and on-budget rates are even lower that that. That just seemed wrong to Exepron’s co-founders. As a consultant, Thompson worked for many years with the Goldratt Institute, founded by one of the gurus of business management, Eli Goldratt. Goldratt, a physicist, also authored The Goal, required reading in many business schools. Walsh, a former Navy Captain, was also a project management consultant before founding Exepron and is a follower of Goldratt’s principals.

In developing Exepron (V1.0 launched in 2012), “we identified all the fault lines and addressed them and we did two things. We kept the complexity and the intelligence behind the curtain for the average user and we also simplified the interface,” Thompson said.

A project management interface that is easy to use and very intuitive leads to wide adoption throughout a company, he said.  “It’s like driving a sophisticated car. You just know how to turn it on, put it into gear and drive. You don’t know how the engine works, you don’t care, and that is the approach we took developing Exepron.”

And about that 60% on-time rate in the industry? Exepron clients experience a 90% or more on-time and on-budget operation, Thompson said. “Ship building, aircraft maintenance, repair maintenance environments, engineering, construction, large custom fabrication – those are the environments which Exepron thrives.”

A PREDICTIVE SOLUTION, TOO

In 2016, Exepron began moving into business intelligence, which helps guide and prioritize the decision-making processes. The tool is moving from a sophisticated multi-project management environment into a decision application, Thompson said.

Today, Exepron can handle over 100,000 tasks in one project and can also schedule over a thousand projects in one portfolio. It predicts the resource requirements well into the future. “As you add more work, it will tell you where your limitations are starting to emerge in the future in terms of resources,” Thompson said.

Tools that claim to be project management tools are often just cool-looking task lists with no governance rules or oversight capability, he said. “We provide the governance, the guidance and the critical intelligence that you really need to be successful.”

Exepron’s customers include BAE Systems, Thomas-Sea, Charles River Labs in healthcare, and  Danfoss, which has nine factories globally, and others in 15 countries. In 2018, Exepron won the President’s Export Award.

WHY PALM BEACH COUNTY?

To support its growth, Exepron couldn’t find the talent it needed in Louisiana and began to hire contractors around the world. But the company wanted to begin consolidating in one location where there was more access to talent and chose Palm Beach Gardens as its new HQ.

Since its relocation in February, the company has recruited four employees – full stack and front end developers – and plans more hiring locally. Exepron employs seven here and still has contractors around the world.

“Our perception is there are enough resources in the area to support our growth,” said Thompson. “Also, the environment is so desirable.”

,
14
Oct, 2020

By Kurt Abrahams

Guest Blog | Nigerian Prince? You’ve Got Bigger Cybersecurity Problems

Read Time 4 Minutes

October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month

We’re living through some incredibly strange times, and cybercriminals are taking full advantage of the ill-prepared. With the shift to a remote workforce, we’ve all become more susceptible to threats from the web!

Cyber Intelligence offices around the globe have reported unprecedented spikes in email scams and malware attacks due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. The cyber attackers know that we’ve all become more vulnerable working from home because our home office simply doesn’t offer the same protection as a corporate network would.

Part of the compounding problem is that the scams have become significantly more advanced. Yes, people still get scammed by the “Nigerian Prince” email scam to the tune of an average of $700,000 per year, but these tricks have evolved into much more elaborate tactics and schemes. For example, most people have social media accounts or Linkedin profiles, making it easier to personalize emails that come from; let’s say, your CEO? This is a form of a Social Engineering attack that often requires some common sense more than anything else. The key take away is, we need to be more vigilant than ever with our inboxes and attachments. One wrong click on an infected attachment could trigger a Ransomware attack that plunges your company into chaos.

Some companies may implement additional measures to secure their new remote workforce, while others may choose to risk a breach before taking any action. As a cybersecurity company, we often go over and above what is required to secure our data and our customers’ data. These involve advanced measures, which include AI-driven Anti-Virus, Anomaly Detection, and Insider Threat Prevention tools.

But the average person can take numerous steps to secure their own home environment from would-be attackers without breaking the bank. Follow these basic steps to improve your remote cybersecurity today.

 

Cybersecurity 101 For The Average Joe

 

1) Use Strong Passwords

Passwords are one of the most undervalued security tools available to the everyday user. The more complex the password, the tougher the hack. Use a combination of capital and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols. Wherever possible, use 12 characters or more. This could be a phrase, which is often easier to memorize. Always avoid using personal data in your passwords (you know who you are, and I’m guessing many of you are using a combination of your child’s name and their birthdate, see how easy that was?). Change your passwords regularly to keep the criminals guessing. Never use the same password for multiple accounts, and use dual-factor authentication where ever possible.

 

2) Install A Stand Alone Home Firewall

A firewall is effectively a sort of gatekeeper between your computer and the internet. Any potential cyber threat would first need to pass through the firewall before entering the home network, acting as a digital sentinel before reaching your computer. While this may seem like an extreme security measure, it is becoming more common due to much lower price points.

 

3) Antivirus Software

Consumer-grade Anti-virus software now comes with a multitude of additional tools such as:

  • Ransomware detection 
  • Wifi security scanning to detect network problems
  • Banking protection via a secure browser
  • Password manager
  • Vulnerability scanner
  • Basic firewall
  • Spam Filter
  • VPN
  • Webcam protection
  • Microphone monitor – which shows you which apps are accessing your microphone

The most important thing when it comes to anti-virus is always updating the software. These warnings are annoying, but they may save your computer and its contents one day. These updates ensure that your anti-virus can detect the latest malware signatures, amongst other things. If possible, choose an anti-virus that updates on its own, as it may update itself multiple times a day to keep pace with the barrage of attacks sent out by cybercriminals.

 

4) VPN

Using a VPN is suggested if you’re sending and receiving any sensitive data. This may not be relevant to home users who do not need to access company information remotely. But for anyone accessing data from a shared server, a VPN is crucial as the VPN enables you to mask your IP and encrypt data being sent back and forth between your home and the company’s Server. In most cases, a secure VPN connection is required before accessing any data remotely, creating a sort of data tunnel between your home and the company Server.

 

5) Common Sense

Last but not least, the most powerful tool in your cybersecurity arsenal is common sense. If an email looks suspicious or too good to be true, don’t open it. If your CEO sends you an urgent email, but the email domain looks strange, do not respond. If a Nigerian prince asks for your bank details because he needs to move his money out of the country, please ignore the email and move on with your life. Lastly, DO NOT CLICK on an attachment from a sender you cannot verify.

We’ve all been through enough this year; the last thing you need is your computer getting infected or, much worse, someone requesting $50,000 because your computer was just hit with a ransomware attack. Nobody needs this additional stress, so let’s ignore the “Nigerian Prince” and continue to operate as safely and as cautiously as we possibly can on the World Wide Web.

 

Written by Kurt Abrahams, Marketing Director @ Veriato

,
12
Oct, 2020

By Nancy Dahlberg

Member Spotlight | Wyncode Academy & The Mikkola’s

Read Time 3 Minutes

Business: A tech training bootcamp immersing students in a demanding and inspiring learning environment engineered to develop successful coders with business acumen. In-person & remote options available.

HQ: ‘Wynbase’ in Wynwood, Miami

Leadership: Johanna & Juha Mikkola

Founded: 2014

Awards: Beacon Council Educator of the Year, an Inc. 5000 Company, an Endeavor Company, South Florida Business Journal Startup of the Year.

Website: wyncode.co

 

With the COVID-19 crisis keeping unemployment too high in South Florida, particularly in communities of color, Wyncode Academy will bring back the Future Leaders of Tech Fellowship, with Knight Foundation support.

The fellowships offered by the Miami-based technology training academy will include a choice of Wyncode’s full-time 10-week Full Stack Web Development or UX/UI program and a paid 3-month tech internship with a South Florida company in the tech sector upon graduation.

It’s the fourth iteration of its partnership for the Future Leaders of Tech Fellowship, supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Raul Moas, Knight Foundation’s Miami program director, called it “an investment in Miami.”

The goal is to provide technology education to low-income, underrepresented residents in the tri-county area impacted by pandemic.

“As the tech ecosystem grows, we must work to make the benefits of working in this industry accessible to all those who seek to be part of it, and through it find upward mobility,” Moas said.

Initially, scholarships valued at $60,000 will be provided to four students. However, through a partnership with The Miami Foundation, individuals or companies can make contributions to fund more scholarships. Wyncode is contributing 40% of each scholarship.

Applicants must belong to an underrepresented group in Miami’s technology ecosystem, have under $50,000 in combined family income, and be authorized to work in the U.S. Preference is given to candidates with limited to no post-secondary education. The deadline to apply for Wyncode Academy’s upcoming Full Stack Web Development cohort is Oct. 16th, 2020. There will be more opportunities later in the year.

Fellowship program applications are now open here: wyncode.co/futureleaders.

“We are proud to continue leading this initiative and work towards supporting communities who have historically not had fair access to well-paying jobs in tech, an issue that has only been exaggerated due to COVID-19.” said Johanna Mikkola, CEO of Wyncode Academy and chairwoman of the Future Leaders of Tech Fellowship, “We need to create opportunities in order to see our city’s diversity represented in our tech ecosystem, as that is our strength compared to other more established technology ecosystems.”

Also this week, Wyncode released its 2019 Jobs Report. The overall job placement in 2019 was 90% among job-seeking graduates, and 85% of them took jobs in technical roles – most frequently as Software Developer/Engineer, Product Manager/Support, and UX/UI Designer. Nearly half – 49& — of them landed jobs within two months. The average salary for grads was $53,721. Access the jobs report here.

Other interesting findings were around the diversity of its cohorts:

  • Wyncode has an internal goal that half its student enrollment will be female by 2020. In 2019, female enrollment reached  35%, up from 31% in 2018 and just 20% in 2014. “We are particularly proud of this because while women make up 47% of the U.S. workforce they hold only 25% of the tech roles,” said Mikkola. “We previously pledged $1.4 million in scholarships to help close this gap.”
  • Wyncode nearly doubled the number of veterans in its programs between 2018 and 2019, growing from 7% to 16%, Mikkola said. “According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate for post-9/11 veterans exceeds that for the general population. Having veterans trained in the skills companies are looking for is extremely important, and veteran Wyncoders now work at companies like Microsoft and Amazon.”

Since its founding in 2014, Wyncode has trained more than 850 people in South Florida through its accelerated, immersive programs. The team now numbers 15, and Wyncode’s programs went virtual during the pandemic (shown in photo at top).   Wyncode has more than 400  hiring partners in its network.

This report was written for Refresh Miami and republished with permission.

 

,
21
Sep, 2020

By Nancy Dahlberg

Member Spotlight | Boca Code & Todd Albert

Read Time 4 Minutes

Business: A coding academy offering short courses in web and mobile development,  game development, data analytics and UX/UI.  In the plans for early 2021: a 10-week career course.

Address: 7035 Beracasa Way, 207, Boca Raton

Team: Todd Albert, founder and lead instructor; Emily Cleary, lead UX instructor; Mariela Pascual, developer and instructor; Ashley Taylor, creative director; Pearse Brolly, business development, Maddie Galvelis, social marketing.

Website:  Bocacode.com

 

Todd Albert learned to code when he was 7 and built his first arcade game as a teen. For some reason he did not pursue a career in tech, but instead he became a scientist as a NASA research fellow and then taught at in universities for 15 years, as well as at the middle school level. “And through my research and in my teaching, I was always coding.”

When Albert decided to leave teaching after moving back to South Florida in 2012, he followed his heart into tech and started a tech agency. At one point the agency had 17 developers, and Albert said finding local developers was always difficult. Most of the resumes were coming from code schools in Miami or from out of state.

That’s when Albert began noodling with the idea of starting a local code school. Then, after he has seen some schools come into Palm Beach County or northern Broward and then fail – and the mistakes they made — he took the plunge, founding Boca Code in February of this year.

“I love to code and I love to mentor young developers. And I realized — and people around me realized too — that having a code school was really not just my dream but it almost felt like that was what I was destined for. My background in teaching, in coding, in mentoring, it was all me leading towards this.”

 

MAKING AN IMPACT

With a code school, you’re helping people enter a good career with great earning potential, he said. Graduates can earn $60-$65k in their first job, and in just a few years it could be six figures.

But just as important: “The community is desperately needing the talent.”

Boca Code’s home – a 2,900-square-foot bright and modern space at the intersection of Palmetto and Powerline in Boca Raton — is nearly built out, but Boca Code started offering virtual intensive short courses classes this spring and summer and has offerings such as Data Analytics & Python and AR, VR and Game Development through the fall.  It is in the process of obtaining its state of Florida license to teach its signature career course – a 10-week full-time bootcamp – and Boca Code expects to begin offering that in January. Boca Code also offers a number of free workshops and offers a scholarship to women.

While other code schools have tried and failed, Boca Code has a few differentiators that will make it successful, Albert believes. First, Albert is not only the owner but the lead instructor, so he doesn’t have to worry about the lead instructor quitting mid- class, as happened at other schools. He also has built a very talented team who are also instructors as well as experts in sales and marketing. He and his team are also well-connected within the community. “Being a part of the larger South Florida tech community I think is really important for the success of the school but for placing the students in jobs afterwards.”

 

DEDICATION TO COMMUNITY

Another key differentiator is that Boca Code students are going to be doing real projects for real companies. “So for small businesses that are just getting started, we can help develop their app or their website. The students are getting real experience and the companies are getting affordable development work. And I don’t know anyone else who is doing that.”

In addition to the 10-week bootcamp, Boca Code plans to always offer the 15-hour short courses, such as Intro to Web Dev for people who just want to dip their toe into an introductory coding course or who want to upskill in the latest technologies, like React, or learn more about UX/UI. The courses are often offered at nights and weekends to accommodate full-time employment.

“We are all dedicated to helping not just the students but the community as a whole,” Albert said. “We want to become a central hub in the community for training and for talent, and we are starting to make good progress.”

This is Albert’s third time living in South Florida, and he likes what he sees: a unique and cohesive tech community.

“Rather than competing and vying for talent, we’re all getting together and supporting each other as a community, which is owed in large part to South Florida Tech. Joe [Russo] has provided us a central hub,” Albert said. “And when you have such a giving community it makes you want to be a part of it and it makes you want to help others. It’s contagious.”

,
14
Sep, 2020

By Nancy Dahlberg

Member Spotlight | Digital Resource & Shay Berman

Read Time 3 Minutes

Business: A full-service digital marketing agency

HQ: West Palm Beach

President: Shay Berman

No. of employees: 55

Website: yourdigitalresource.com

 

When Shay Berman moved his digital marketing agency, Digital Resource, into new offices last year, he wanted room to grow.

The company had been on a growth tear over the past couple of years and had outgrown its 1,500 square foot offices. The trade-up: 9,000 square feet that can accommodate up to 101 employees. Now that the team is back in the office, the much roomier space seems rather prescient with the pandemic still a threat.

Berman believes a creative team like his needs to be together physically to bounce ideas off one another and collaborate. “There is a culture that’s created when we’re physically together that can’t be recreated in a digital environment,” he says. So as soon as they were able to go back to the office, they did, although they moved back into physical offices in four phases.

And when the company – now with about 55 employees — is ready to grow again, there’s room for that too.

 

‘AMAZING PROCESSES’

In the past two years, Berman has been busy putting systems and processes in place to maximize growth and efficiency. He says the company has increased services by about 50% and the team has been growing by about 15 members a year and has become more specialized. “We used to have one person doing multiple things, and now every one of our services has its own dedicated specialists,” Berman says.

Clients represent over 100 different verticals, including fitness, restaurants and bars, medical groups, retail stores and financial companies. Berman is justifiably proud to be a Great Places to Work winner twice, which says a lot about the team and the company culture.

Digital Resource has racked up a number of awards, including its third time in the Inc 5000 Fastest Growing Companies. Shay was also named to the South Florida Business Journal’s 40 under 40 this year and to the 4 under 40 by the American Marketing Association.

Berman believes a key to Digital Resource’s success is its focus on innovating customer service processes. That included invested in custom reporting software that will report on all aspects of the client’s digital marketing campaign. “It’s 24-7 accessible by the client, It’s manipulatable and maneuverable to where the client can look at all the different metrics they want without support from a team member here.”

The company also systemized how team members communicate with clients, and incentivized account managers for retaining clients. Now, the account managers own the relationships — and the results.

“We have optimized the last two years to have amazing processes,” Berman said, adding that Digital Resource has a two factor layer of communication among team members so “almost nothing falls through the cracks.”

BERMAN’S AMA

Berman also does one on one sessions with everyone in the company every quarter now. “They can ask me anything … and it has also allowed us to continue to innovate for clients with new ideas I never thought of.”

We did our own AMA with Berman:

Areas of growth? Over the next year, Berman wants to steer the company into a lot more automation to help clients. “So instead of just sending them a lead, we help nurture that lead and track the metrics at a level that we don’t really see other marketing companies doing.”

What about hiring? “My philosophy for hiring is hire fast, fire faster. We give a lot of people that opportunity and we expect performance right away. … When I’m in the hiring process, I look at who the person is — are they someone who I see passion in their eyes or are they looking to punch a time clock.”

Secret to culture? “I believe in being fully transparent, where people know the goals and intentions behind everything, not just for themselves or their team but for the entire company, because if you want to get everyone rowing in the same direction, everyone has to know where they’re going …  If you show people your cards and  they are on the same team, they are going to help you get the win.”

,
31
Aug, 2020

By Nancy Dahlberg

Member Spotlight | Bridge Connector & David Wenger

Read Time 4 Minutes

Business: a healthcare integration platform-as-a-service

CEO: David Wenger

No. of employees: 165 (12 in Palm Beach Gardens)

Main offices: Nashville and Palm Beach Gardens

Funding: Raised $45.5 million in Venture Capital

Recent awards: Inc. 2020 Best Places to Work; Gartner 2020 Cool Vendors; Modern Healthcare 2020 Best Places to Work;  South Florida Business Journal’s 2020 Best Places to Work and 2019 H. Wayne Huizenga Startup Award.

Website: Bridgeconnector.co

 

Bridge Connector, the healthcare platform-as-a-service company founded in 2017 and born in Palm Beach County, now has 165 employees and services about 100 enterprise customers spanning some 750 sites across the U.S. The company has raised $45.5 million, including $25.5 million announced last week — yes, during a global pandemic.

David Wenger, Bridge Connector’s co-founder and CEO, makes hyper-growth look easy, but he has led the company through a number of strategic moves that have unleashed the growth, including properly scaling up talent by continuously bringing on additional roles and raising levels of expertise. “We’ve been really good at seeing the forest through the trees, so to speak, and overcoming any major issue that would prevent us from ultimately continuing to grow at the pace we’re growing now,” he said.

 

THE STORY

The story of Bridge Connector begins with a pitch competition at Palm Beach Tech in November of 2017, says Wenger. (Bridge Connector didn’t win. It still stings.) But shortly after that, Wenger raised the startup’s first round of funding and “it has been a rocket ship since then,” he said.

Bridge Connector provides a suite of vendor-agnostic integration solutions and a full-service delivery model, helping healthcare vendors, providers, and payers more easily share data between disparate systems, such as electronic health records or patient engagement solutions.

“What we figured out is a way to build an integration in healthcare that is agnostic of specification – we can work with any type of vendor no matter how you expect to connect to it. And then, what we’ve created is a way to reuse the integration,” Wenger said. “On top of that, we’re a no-code platform. We’re in that new wave of technology vendors that are focusing on the business user rather than the engineer.”

The company moved its headquarters to Nashville, a healthcare hub, last year and recently expanded the offices there to 37,000 square feet to accommodate about 250 people. But Palm Beach Gardens will always be an important base for the company, Wenger said. Much of the company’s management team, including Wenger, work out of offices above The River House restaurant in Palm Beach Gardens. The company also recently hired a president who will also be working from Palm Beach Gardens. Wenger said South Florida Tech (formerly Palm Beach Tech) has been very supportive as the company has continued to grow. Even that 2017 pitch competition he didn’t win pushed him to push on harder.

 

KEY TO SUCCESS

A key to the company’s success has been its focus on scaling partnerships and creating an ecosystem of healthcare technology vendors.  About a year ago, the company made a strategic decision to focus on hospital vendors instead of hospitals or health systems. “Simultaneously we have created a technology here that we don’t view as another tool or another technology. We view it as a solution to a pain point for all health systems,” he said. Instead of hiring an engineering team to build an integration, they pay Bridge Connector a monthly recurring fee not to worry about it. “Our customers rely on both our people and our technology to help stand up their integrations.”

The result: Business grew 1,000% last year and has doubled during the COVID-19 pandemic, Wenger said. During the pandemic, the company has seen many additional use cases for Bridge Connector, from contactless check-ins and SMS appointment reminders to integrating telehealth visits directly into the EHR. Bridge Connector has hired 40 people since the pandemic started.

To be sure, fund-raising during a pandemic has been a major challenge. Originally planning to raise more than $25.5 million, Wenger met with 100 or so or the top VC firms in the country during the first 8 weeks of COVID, all remotely. Some were interested but a lot of them were just not doing deals. Bad timing.

So Bridge Connector decided to keep the round to its internal investors, which include the firm of former Public CEO Howard Jenkins, and pursue a larger round with top-tier VCs as soon as they can, Wenger said.

 

A DREAM TEAM

For now, Wenger said he couldn’t be happier with his dream team. “It’s because they truly love what they do and where they work. We’re lucky to have the level of talent that we have here.”

To entrepreneurs, he advises: “Stick with your guns and always believe in your idea, you’ll find someone eventually who also believes in it. Create a solid distribution strategy and your go-to-market segment early on. Focus on customer segmentation early on in the life cycle of being an entrepreneur. First, figure out what your ideal customer profile is… and figure out how to create a scalable pricing model that has a solution for any type of buyer that fits within that ideal customer profile.”

Why is your product better than everybody else? Have a good answer for that, Wenger advised, and as you scale proper financial modeling will be a key to success. “And ultimately, don’t be afraid to dream because it might just happen.”

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18
Aug, 2020

By Nancy Dahlberg

Bridge Connector raises $25.5 million in Series B funding

Read Time 2 Minutes

Bridge Connector, a hyper-growth healthcare platform-as-a-service company born in Palm Beach County, on Tuesday announced it has raised $25.5 million in Series B financing to continue its national scale-up.

The round was led by its largest investor, Tampa-based Axioma Ventures, which was co-founded by Howard Jenkins, former CEO of Publix Super Markets. Entrepreneur and Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik also participated in the round, which was  joined by all existing investors.

To date, Bridge Connector has raised $45.5 million.

Bridge Connector provides a suite of vendor-agnostic integration solutions and a full-service delivery model, helping health care vendors, providers, and payers more easily share data between disparate systems, such as electronic health records or patient engagement solutions.

“The lack of integration in health care has resulted in care teams relying on antiquated technology like fax machines to relay mission-critical information,” said CEO and co-founder David Wenger, in announcing the raise. “In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has never been clearer that this inability to share patient data between health care technology vendors creates dangerous care gaps that can mean the difference between life and death for some patients. Bridge Connector is building an ecosystem of connected solutions that is solving this problem.”

Founded in 2017, the company now employs about 165 people, said Wenger, in an interview with South Florida Tech. That’s up from just 25 employees two years ago. Coming off 2019 with 1,000% growth, Wenger said the company’s revenues nearly doubled during the COVID-19 pandemic. Bridge Connector has also added 40 employees since the pandemic’s spread in the U.S., Wenger said.

The company moved its headquarters to the healthcare hub of Nashville last year, but still has offices in Palm Beach Gardens, said Wenger, a serial entrepreneur was raised in Palm Beach County and previously ran a marketing and advertising agency before founding Bridge Connector. Wenger and much of the executive team are based in Palm Beach County. Bridge Connector recently hired a president, who is also based in Palm Beach County.

The new funding will further support the company’s scale-up as well as the growth of Destinations, a new integration-platform-as-a-service  that connects health data systems using use-case-based interoperability blueprints to speed integrations with major vendors.

“We believed strongly in Bridge Connector’s mission to improve interoperability in health care when we made our seed investment, and they’ve exceeded all of our expectations along the way,” said Jenkins, who has participated in every funding round.  “With the company on track for 800 to 1000% growth in 2020, we are eager to see how our continued investment will help Bridge Connector impact the industry and create a health care system that works better for patients.”

Stay tuned for a Member Spotlight coming soon with more about Bridge Connector.

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17
Aug, 2020

By Ally Costa

Guest Blog | ‘Tech Webinars for Teachers’

Read Time 2 Minutes

Our mission to “Build South Florida Into a Tech Hub” includes our next generation of techies. We aim to create a positive environment that promotes tech, coding, engineering, and robotics education.

To further aid our mission, South Florida Tech partnered with the Palm Beach County School District, Broward County Public School District, and Path to College to organize the “Summer Webinar Series.”

Path to College has taken on the mission of securing the acceptance of low-income, high-achieving students into top-tier universities and helping those who are willing and ready to help themselves, empowering our community’s best and brightest regardless of their race or financial background.

The “Summer Webinar Series” was geared towards current highschool students, those who have recently graduated, and their teachers. We hosted five webinars to share tools, resources, and advice about various topics. 

 

 

‘Career Paths in Tech’

We discussed the wide-ranging careers in the tech industry, as well as the varying paths to obtain them. In particular, our guest speakers presented their respective journeys through the tech industry and provided advice on how to have and maintain a successful career in tech.

  • Meggie Soliman | Director Strategic Innovation @ DSS 
  • Todd Albert | Founder @ Boca Code 
  • Kathy Underwood | Director, Data Analytics @ Levatas 

‘Video Conferencing Tips & Tricks’

With the quick shift to remote work in 2020, video conferencing has become essential for teams to communicate on a day-to-day basis. In light of this current trend of video conferencing, experts in remote working provided tips and tricks of Zoom, MS Teams, and Google Meets.  

  • Pat La Morte | Account Executive of Education @ Zoom
  • Barkha Herman | Senior Cloud Solutions Architect @ Microsoft  
  • George Whitaker | Director of Information Security and Cloud Architecture @ PGA of America 

‘Best Practices for Learning Remotely’

Online classes are becoming more prevalent in today’s society. Both students and teachers need to be prepared for the shift from in-person to online classes. This discussion focused on teaching the basic tools to keep organized, communication techniques, and best practices for learning/working remotely. We learned some useful productivity hacks. 

  • Adi Raina | Principal Consultant @ Improving
  • Scott Townsend | Vice President of Sales @ PeakActivity
  • Cathy Miron | President & CEO @ eSilo

‘Engagement Through Gamification’

Enrich your classes and increase student engagement through gamification. What is gamification? Gamification is “the application of game-like mechanics to non-game entities to encourage a specific behavior.” We learned how you can motivate and inspire students by changing the way they view learning. 

 

‘Work Based Learning’

The best way to learn is by “doing”. Work based learning is the students’ chance to gain a new skill or perspective that can’t be taught in the classroom setting. We introduced work based learning from the perspective of the company — what they expect students to learn, why work-based learning is so important, and the different opportunities available to students. 

  • Ann Savage | Founder & CEO @ PATHOS
  • Randall Deich | Chief Networking Officer @ ReGenerate Tech
  • Natasha Menon | IT Intern Ambassador & Tech Lead @ FPL
  • Luke Williams | Director of the Fischler Academy @ NSU

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Member Spotlight | Digital Resource & Shay Berman
Member Spotlight | Bridge Connector & David Wenger
Bridge Connector raises $25.5 million in Series B funding