00:10.500 --> 00:17.460 Johny Fernandez: All eyes are on Miami as it's becoming the main attraction for the tech world. The man behind the movement, Mayor 00:17.460 --> 00:26.370 Francis Suarez, a second generation Miami politician. The mayor sat down with deBanked to discuss the tech movement and how Miami is evolving. 00:26.730 --> 00:31.470 Mayor Suarez, what does it mean for you to connect with our viewers and with our company deBanked? 00:31.950 --> 00:36.840 Mayor Suarez: It's incredible. It's a great opportunity to be able to connect with your audience and for them to understand what's going on in 00:36.840 --> 00:41.070 Miami. You know, this is like we say it's a moment that we're trying to convert into a movement. 00:41.430 --> 00:47.430 Johny Fernandez: The movement he's talking about started back in December. That's when he received a tweet about turning Miami into a 00:47.430 --> 00:50.880 tech hub. His response was simple. How can I help? 00:51.170 --> 00:57.560 Mayor Suarez: I never thought when I sent the tweet that it would have that would it would reverberate in that way. It got over two and a half 00:57.560 --> 01:05.840 million impressions. You know, the remaining part of that month, which was I think, was December 4th, or 5th all the way to December 31st. I 01:05.840 --> 01:11.570 tweet over 800 times because I realized that there was a clear runway, for me as a public official to do something that I've been trying to do 01:11.570 --> 01:18.650 for 10 years, which is to grow the technical system in my city, understanding that the path to prosperity of our city goes through 01:18.650 --> 01:19.310 technology. 01:19.490 --> 01:25.910 Johny Fernandez: Suarez called this movement, his 10 year passion project. He believes Miami's future is in technology. 01:25.970 --> 01:31.730 Mayor Suarez: The path to prosperity of our city goes through technology, whether you like technology or not, whether you think 01:31.730 --> 01:38.210 technology is you know, is doing the right things from a political perspective or not. You have to acknowledge that technology is part of 01:38.210 --> 01:45.530 our everyday choices. It's part of how we make decisions every single day. And it's part of it's going to be part of creating an economy that 01:45.530 --> 01:53.150 is going to serve not just my generation, but my children's generation and their unborn children as well. Johny Fernandez: He believes the future is technology. 01:53.240 --> 02:02.150 Even when it comes to its currency. Mayor Suarez: The Commission approved my resolution, which did three things. One is it allowed for us after after 02:02.150 --> 02:12.470 review from our city manager to give our residents an opportunity to pay for fees and taxes in crypto, it allowed number two employees to have an 02:12.470 --> 02:18.710 opportunity to get paid a portion of their salary in crypto. And number three, it allowed us to study the possibility of holding crypto as an 02:18.710 --> 02:25.610 asset. So that's what they approved. And I'm really grateful that they did that. You know, obviously, you know, you know, some of them have 02:25.850 --> 02:34.460 concerns which are totally understandable about engaging in a new frontier on something that is, you know, new and exciting. But it's 02:34.460 --> 02:41.450 something that also has created a lot of enthusiasm among the financial community and financial tech community and the crypto community about 02:41.450 --> 02:43.220 the fact that we're on the vanguard of this technology. 02:43.680 --> 02:50.580 Johny Fernandez: The mayor says since December, more than a dozen tech companies have already agreed to call Miami home. He says his goal is to 02:50.580 --> 02:57.060 bring Miami up to the level of other cities, especially when it comes to things like transportation and education. 02:57.060 --> 03:03.270 Mayor Suarez: The other thing that's changing as cities Miami is no different is kind of going to a 15 minute walkable city model, where 03:03.270 --> 03:10.950 you have neighborhoods within the city, that where people can work, where they can live and where they can play all within a 15 minute walking 03:10.950 --> 03:17.190 radius. So that's also happening in our city. And the third thing I would say is we're looking at Transportation Technology. So I'm meeting 03:17.190 --> 03:25.230 with Elon Musk, about tunnels and Boring his Boring Company to see if there are inexpensive, efficient ways to bore tunnels so that people can get 03:25.230 --> 03:33.960 from one part of the city to the other. I just had a conversation with the former Google executive who's talking about flying cars. So we are 03:33.960 --> 03:40.080 on the cusp of transportation technology to make sure that to the extent that there are technologies out there that make it more efficient 03:40.080 --> 03:43.080 for people to get from point A to point B, we want to be on the vanguard of that. 03:43.080 --> 03:50.370 Johny Fernandez: The mayor shared with me he's not only opening Miami to the tech world, but also would like to see other companies here too. New 03:50.370 --> 03:56.940 York State specifically is putting up hurdles when it comes to small business lenders and merchant cash advance companies. Would you want 03:56.940 --> 03:59.430 those companies from New York to relocate here to Miami? 03:59.490 --> 04:07.200 Mayor Suarez: Absolutely. And we definitely want to make sure that you know that small business merchants and lenders are able to capitalize 04:07.230 --> 04:13.890 small businesses in our community, Miami's a very thriving small business community. A lot of our you know, one of the things that people 04:13.890 --> 04:20.970 have criticized us for is we don't have those big massive companies. We're actually really built on small businesses. So for us, having 04:20.970 --> 04:27.630 fluidity of capital, liquidity of capital, access to capital are enormous things in terms of scaling. And I think that's one of the things that 04:27.630 --> 04:33.540 we're seeing change now is we're getting because of technologies. We're getting a tremendous amount of access to capital that we weren't getting 04:33.540 --> 04:33.990 before. 04:34.140 --> 04:39.570 Johny Fernandez: With so much happening in Miami, the mayor shared with me his plans to retain talent here in the Magic City. 04:39.570 --> 04:45.270 Mayor Suarez: I think part of that has to do with you know, the deals that are done here, having made sure making sure that there's an 04:45.270 --> 04:51.870 adequate deal flow, making sure that there's an adequate talent pipeline and we're working very hard on that. We created an office called Venture 04:51.870 --> 04:59.340 Miami. That is meant to be a launch point for companies that are deciding to come here that gives them all kinds of concierge services 04:59.550 --> 05:08.850 from domiciling all the way through to finding employees. To making sure that they understand what the incentives are. So we are making it easy 05:08.850 --> 05:11.460 for someone who wants to come and set up a company here. 05:11.850 --> 05:18.000 Johny Fernandez: His goal is to make sure everyone in Miami can benefit from the changes, old and new business owners alike. 05:18.330 --> 05:22.620 Mayor Suarez: We've made it easy for people to do business in the city since I became mayor, we first of all, we created something called 05:22.650 --> 05:30.060 ePlan, which allows people to transmit plans and permits with the city electronically. Then we did something we followed up on that with 05:30.060 --> 05:37.380 something called eStart. So now you can start a business in the city of Miami, basically, on your phone or off your laptop, you never have to go 05:37.380 --> 05:44.250 into a government building. It's fast, and it's easy. So we've been implementing a variety of pro business policies for small businesses, 05:44.280 --> 05:50.610 they've remained open. So they're incredibly happy. In fact, most of the time when I go to a small business or a restaurant, they're extremely 05:50.610 --> 05:53.070 happy about the fact that they've been open throughout this pandemic. 05:53.100 --> 06:00.930 Johny Fernandez: What would you say to any small business owner, or small business lender merchant cash advance? That is in another state, 06:00.930 --> 06:05.970 but is considering moving to Miami whether it's in the FinTech world, or just a small business? What would you say to them? 06:06.080 --> 06:11.660 Mayor Suarez: I would say that, that they should move that the question shouldn't be after hearing this, you know, why should you move to Miami? 06:11.660 --> 06:20.030 The question should be Why haven't you already moved to Miami? I think the you know, Miami has been a financial powerhouse for many decades. And 06:20.030 --> 06:25.730 now we have an opportunity to be a financial tech powerhouse. And I think that's important because every single industry is being 06:25.730 --> 06:34.850 revolutionized by tech finance, in particular, where you're going to have digital tools, as a small business owner, as someone who which will 06:34.850 --> 06:41.060 give you access to the same tools that you would have if you were a major business owner, or had a major banking relationship finding 06:41.330 --> 06:51.590 democratization of financial assets, is something that is going to change and allow for a lot of upward mobility and a lot of wealth 06:51.590 --> 06:52.100 creation. 06:52.610 --> 06:55.910 Johny Fernandez: In Miami. I'm Johnny Fernandez with deBanked News.