Hey, Y Combinator: Stop Hating On #MiamiTech

I am doing a startup in Miami Beach and I think its great. Moved here from San Francisco 6 months ago and have no regrets.

We have better weather, no income tax and lots of people genuinely willing to help out. Its actually the smaller size of this startup community which makes it great. You can get to know most everyone here within a month and there is a ton of local events.

In contrast, Its much harder to feel any sort of community like that when you are in a larger city (Boston/NYC/SF). You really have to work for it. The discouraging part is when there is a infinite supply of college grads named 'Zac' who are working on a new mobile app moving to the city every day. It just starts to feel a bit... odd.

But... it's not. That's not to say there isn't capable talent in Miami (there is), however it's not traditionally "listed as one of the top startups cities". I can't name a single startup that came from Florida.

Off the top of my head, I'd go with SF/SV, NYC, Boston, Austin, Boulder (TechStars), Portland, Seattle.. and the list trails off after that.

We're getting to the point where a YC CEO can't say anything without it being taken out of context and vilified.

I think the very fact Miami is entering the discussion shows it has come a long way. Let's not get ahead of ourselves, but this is a good thing.

So a few recent successes to come out of Miami come to mind:

.co just sold for $109M 35 person company (not billions, but still very respectable)

Healthcare.com is here in Miami, just doubled their revenues

CareCloud is growing like crazy

Open English has raised close to $200M in capital.

Citrix is here, multi-Billion $ in sales enterprise software dev company.

Article cites http://wlrn.org/post/miami-s-not-top-start-city-says-silicon... as the source of the comment.

Found no sign of hate (except towards YC).

Audio clip doesn't explain the context of the comment. Very conveniently edited.

I don't think Sam meant anything derogatory by it, he's just stating his opinion. Frankly I agree Miami Beach isn't a startup capital, but that doesn't mean great companies can't come from it. It's just not popularly recognized as a startup capital.

I'm from Miami, a junior studying Computer Science at the University of Miami- and I want to get involved with a startup! If anyone has any tips- contact me! Info at: jacobmizraji.com

"We're in the top 15"?

Kept looking for the hate with no luck.