Johny Fernandez: All eyes are on Miami as it's becoming the main attraction for the tech world. The man behind the movement, Mayor
Francis Suarez, a second generation Miami politician. The mayor sat down with deBanked to discuss the tech movement and how Miami is evolving.
Mayor Suarez, what does it mean for you to connect with our viewers and with our company deBanked?
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
Miami. You know, this is like we say it's a moment that we're trying to convert into a movement.
Johny Fernandez: The movement he's talking about started back in December. That's when he received a tweet about turning Miami into a
tech hub. His response was simple. How can I help?
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
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
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
for 10 years, which is to grow the technical system in my city, understanding that the path to prosperity of our city goes through
technology.
Johny Fernandez: Suarez called this movement, his 10 year passion project. He believes Miami's future is in technology.
Mayor Suarez: The path to prosperity of our city goes through technology, whether you like technology or not, whether you think
technology is you know, is doing the right things from a political perspective or not. You have to acknowledge that technology is part of
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
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.
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
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
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
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
concerns which are totally understandable about engaging in a new frontier on something that is, you know, new and exciting. But it's
something that also has created a lot of enthusiasm among the financial community and financial tech community and the crypto community about
the fact that we're on the vanguard of this technology.
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
bring Miami up to the level of other cities, especially when it comes to things like transportation and education.
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
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
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
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
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
on the cusp of transportation technology to make sure that to the extent that there are technologies out there that make it more efficient
for people to get from point A to point B, we want to be on the vanguard of that.
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
York State specifically is putting up hurdles when it comes to small business lenders and merchant cash advance companies. Would you want
those companies from New York to relocate here to Miami?
Mayor Suarez: Absolutely. And we definitely want to make sure that you know that small business merchants and lenders are able to capitalize
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
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
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
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
before.
Johny Fernandez: With so much happening in Miami, the mayor shared with me his plans to retain talent here in the Magic City.
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
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
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
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
for someone who wants to come and set up a company here.
Johny Fernandez: His goal is to make sure everyone in Miami can benefit from the changes, old and new business owners alike.
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
ePlan, which allows people to transmit plans and permits with the city electronically. Then we did something we followed up on that with
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
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,
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
happy about the fact that they've been open throughout this pandemic.
Johny Fernandez: What would you say to any small business owner, or small business lender merchant cash advance? That is in another state,
but is considering moving to Miami whether it's in the FinTech world, or just a small business? What would you say to them?
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?
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
now we have an opportunity to be a financial tech powerhouse. And I think that's important because every single industry is being
revolutionized by tech finance, in particular, where you're going to have digital tools, as a small business owner, as someone who which will
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
democratization of financial assets, is something that is going to change and allow for a lot of upward mobility and a lot of wealth
creation.
Johny Fernandez: In Miami. I'm Johnny Fernandez with deBanked News.