$25K Accelerator no equity in sunny Miami, FL

[jbermudez5]

I was part of the first class, great program from a joint effort between Venture Hive and the city of Miami. Startups in the hospitality industry, trade and logistics, creative arts and healthcare should apply.

http://miami.venturehive.co/

[cerrelio]

This seems a little fishy. As someone who grew up in south Florida - you never get something for nothing in the swamp. Applicants should background-check their financiers and read the fine print.

[jbermudez5]

I was in the program (http://pando.com/2012/08/29/nightpro-gives-nightclubs-some-t...) So was Everypost (http://tech.co/everypost-raises-850k-seed-round-sees-weekly-... ) and Fan Machine ( http://www.thefanmachine.com/?lang=en )

Some of the mentors/speakers during my class were Neil Patel, Dave McClure, Murat Aktihanoglu( ERA NY , Open English CTO, Jesus Rodriguez from Kidozen and many more.

It is a legitimate effort from the City of Miami to attract and foster tech companies that are relevant to local verticals.

[cerrelio]

I left Miami for California years ago for the following reasons.

- The industries are all quite conservative and technophobic. - A non-trivial percentage of businessmen are associated with money laundering and/or drugs. - There is a paucity of talented/capable programmers. - The local government is ridiculously corrupt.

All of these make it extremely difficult to grow any sort of tech business. I actually don't believe Miami will ever become more than a resort/vacation city; not before I die. I applaud the City of Miami government for attempting this, but I can't say I'm hopeful anything useful will be produced from this effort.

During the last "boom" in Miami I had two friends who went into business with a well-connected Latin American businessman and he eventually sold the company to a large corporation (you'd know of it). They all started with double digit ownership percentages, but after time and a ton of legal acrobatics my friends had been watered down to a pittance. They were able to pay off their car loans after the sale (multiple millions). They got scammed, in short.

So be careful in Miami and read the fine print. :)

[lemma]

The financier is Miami-Dade County. Looks like the idea is to encourage new startups in the city.

[auston]

I know several companies that have went through the program - it's legit.

[mazeway]

Is it open to foreigners?

[simonll]

Thanks that looks great