Tech Hub South Florida as a career launchpad
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Monica Rojas discusses her plans to continue building South Florida tech ecosystem
Tech Hub South Florida prides itself on launching the careers of South Floridians, and providing young innovators with exposure to some of our region’s most prominent companies.
Monica Rojas, Tech Hub South Florida’s Community & Startups Manager, recently announced that she will be joining professional networking platform Upstream as a community operations manager.
Monica’s Tech Hub journey started in 2015, when she worked as an intern. She then came back to the organization on a part-time basis in 2019, before joining the team full-time in 2020.
“I have really enjoyed my time at Tech Hub South Florida,” Monica said. “The organization’s growth has been pretty incredible,” underscoring Tech Hub South Florida’s 120% growth in 2020.
Reflecting on her time at Tech Hub, Monica said that she is most proud of the work she has done to help South Florida startups flourish: “It has been priceless to see our startup partners grow from just an idea to a whole company with employees and customers.”
Since Monica has been involved with Tech Hub, the organization has undertaken a variety of initiatives to grow our region’s tech community. Most notably, Tech Hub has developed nine different peer groups, where industry experts across verticals can come together to share best practices and support each other – all while continuing to develop the local ecosystem.
At Upstream, Monica plans to continue working to build South Florida’s tech hub. “Tech Hub and Upstream have a lot of synergies. I look forward to connecting the two because they can complement each other in their efforts to build up our community,” she said. Monica will continue to be involved in Tech Hub’s startup-related initiatives in a voluntary capacity.
“I learned at Tech Hub that creating a community takes time, takes the right people, and takes having a common mission,” Monica explained. “If you bring value to your community, the overall ecosystem will grow.”
For Monica, working at Tech Hub was an excellent opportunity to hone her skills. “I have worn a lot of hats at Tech Hub and done a bit of everything, from marketing to communications and events. It’s allowed me to be super agile and focused on getting things done, all while understanding the needs of the community.”
Recently, our interns and junior staff have also gained employment and additional internships at some of Tech Hub’s member companies. Ally Costa now works at PlanHub, Rebecca Bakels at CITY Furniture, Jose Delgado works at Office Depot, and Madison Cuellar works at NextEra Energy.
Madison, who also sits on the board of Code Palm Beach, said that she “couldn’t even imagine getting [her] start somewhere else.” She continued, “I was taught skills that no college class could ever prepare me for, all the while continuing my passion of spreading STEM education throughout the county. I always felt like my ideas were heard and my questions were answered. I never felt like ‘just an intern.’ I always felt like a valued part of the team.”
Tech Hub provided a door-opening opportunity for Madison: “It was through Tech Hub that I was able to build my network. Every event was a way to meet new people who in some shape of form were involved in tech. I was able to ask my questions and really get a feel for companies, just to see where I might fit in best. When I knew I wanted to be at Nextera, I was overwhelmed with support.”
“With such a young and vibrant staff and being connected to so many wonderful partner organizations and companies in our region, it’s only natural that we would be a great launchpad for career growth,” says Tech Hub’s Interim CEO, Nikki Cabus. “While we will greatly miss them, we thank them for their amazing work at Tech Hub and wish them all the best in the future!”