Above: Richard Florida kicks off ‘Start-Up City: Miami’. Photo credit: Michael D. Bolden.

Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine has become a believer in Miami’s potential as a tech startup hub.

The mayor, who notoriously called it “the dumbest idea in the world” for Miami Beach to do anything other than travel and tourism, agreed to be interviewed by urbanist Richard Florida at “Start-up City: Miami,” a conference put on by The Atlantic Cities and Knight Foundation Monday at New World Center. While Miami Beach lacks the cheap office space that startups seek, it can play an integral role in the greater metro area’s emerging tech ecosystem.

“Miami Beach is a great place to start a business. It’s a great place to live, and while we may not have a lot of office place, we have places right across the bay that do,” he said, referring to the city of Miami and adjacent communities. Miami Beach also has a tremendous concentration of capital, and as investors, “we can play a regional role.”

The conference, held for the second time in Miami Beach, brought together many believers in the region’s potential, as well as some who had already succeeded. A panel on attracting and retaining talent, for example, featured Maurice Ferré, who just sold his medical robotics company, MAKO Surgical Corp., for $1.65 billion, and serial entrepreneur Demian Bellumio, COO of big data content recommendation company Senzari.

While their success is rooted well before the current wave of startup activity, the clear message of the conference was that everyone – investors, mentors, coders, managers, educators – has a role to play in a building a startup ecosystem. Ferré, for example, gave out his email address so budding entrepreneurs could send him business plans to review.

Knight Foundation’s role is to help connect the pieces of Miami’s startup ecosystem, as a means to build and strengthen community. The more than 50 investments Knight has made in the past 18 months include The LAB Miami, a co-working space in the Wynwood Arts District, Endeavor, the global entrepreneur mentorship network, and multiple conferences and convenings.

Coming up behind Ferré and telecom billionaire Manny Medina, another conference participant, are entrepreneurs such as Andres Moreno, whose company Open English has raised $120 million in venture capital to change the way the world learns English. Moreno’s decision to put his headquarters in Miami, with his development team in Venezuela, highlight’s the city’s role as a business hub for Latin America.

Similarly, Brian Brackeen moved his facial-recognition company, Kairos, which was one of 24 finalists for Wall Street Journal Startup of the Year, from the Bay Area to Miami, which he maintains has gone from “Miami Vice” to “Miami Nice.”

Still, it was clear from the conference that there are gaps in the young ecosystem, notably smart, patient venture capital. Ideally, some of the startup founders represented on stage or in the 800-person audience will have big exits by next year, and promptly create Miami-focused venture funds, Endeavor Global co-founder Peter Kellner said. 

Andrew Sherry, vice president of communications at Knight Foundation