Small business resilience takes center stage at Tech Talent Coalition’s year-end event
By Maria Derchi Russo
The Tech Talent Coalition, backed by the Economic Development Administration, held its final quarterly meeting of the year this week, featuring inspiring stories from small business owners and highlighting an array of resources for the small business community.
Attendees heard from Reginald Andre, chair of the coalition’s Small Business Capacity working group, and founder of cybersecurity and IT company, ARK Solvers. Reginald shared his personal story of overcoming adversity – getting laid off from a business he spent 9 years building. With only $100 to his name and a two year old son, he foreclosed on his home, moved back in with his mother and returned to school. He would eventually start another business, now 14 years strong with over $1 million in sales, which has been voted one of the fastest growing cybersecurity companies for three years in a row. He credits his success to three things: an educational experience that inspired him, a local business owner that took a chance on him, and a community that believed in him. His advice to others? Forgive. “Life doesn’t happen to you, it happens for you. Holding onto grudges would have held me back.”
The community also heard from Aurelia Edwards, founder of Standard Measure Technologies, whom Refresh has covered previously (read more here). Her story of multiple pivots – medical school student turned chemist turned massage therapist – led to her entrepreneurial journey of launching a press-on nail sizing brand called Nailstry. This summer, the company expanded to Japan, secured a holiday feature at Target, and began discussions with a leading nail polish manufacturer.
The final story of the morning was from Eric Williams. Originally from Mobile, Alabama, he recently launched LocalPosh, which is transforming underused spaces in homes and small shops into thriving retail businesses. Eric himself was inspired to launch the business based on an experience with a small business owner at the age of eleven- the local grocer in his rural town shut down when a big box retailer came to town and they could no longer compete.
The meeting included an expo of student demos and local resources for small business owners including:
- 4Geeks – local coding school offering a variety of courses from Full Stack Development to Data Science and Machine Learning bootcamps.
- Breakthrough Tech Miami – helping employers gain access to early talent through their Sprintership programs (read more Refresh coverage here)
- Miami DDA – your front-line resource for everything business-related in Downtown Miami, including permitting, licensing, regulatory compliance, site selection, zoning and more.
- Prospera – bilingual training, support, and resources to help Hispanic entrepreneurs thrive in the U.S. and achieve community prosperity
- SBDC at FIU – no-cost consulting, affordable and high-quality resources, innovative tools and the knowledge of experienced small business experts
- SMB Growth Lab by eMerge Americas – digital tools, comprehensive training and exclusive connections with key players in the tech ecosystem
The final call-to-action given by Reginald: get involved and spread the word! You can learn more about the coalition and various working groups here.
READ MORE IN REFRESH MIAMI:
Maria Derchi Russo is Executive Director of Refresh Miami and VP of Platform & Community at Florida Funders. She is also the founder of Women in Miami Tech and co-host of the Miami Tech Pod.
link
