Orlando Is Preparing To Become A Serious Competitor To Silicon Valley
Orlando is preparing to become a serious competitor to Silicon Valley
Red 6, a defense and technology startup, is establishing a development center in Orlando to further the development of its airborne tactical augmented reality system.
It is one of a long list of companies with offices in the central Florida city, which also includes Lockheed Martin, Oracle, Verizon, and Deloitte & Touche LLP.
For many years, people thought of Florida as primarily a vacation and retirement destination, but organizations such as the Orlando Economic Partnership have been working to raise the state's profile as a technology hub.
According to Tim Giuliani, president of the Partnership, "Everyone in Orlando is familiar with the Disney story." "The space race is a part of the story that most people aren't familiar with or don't remember."
More than seven decades have passed since NASA began conducting launch operations at Cape Canaveral. Other notable attractions in the city include the Kennedy Space Center and US Army, Air Force, and Navy simulation command centers, which have prompted an influx of other technology, defense, and training companies to locate there.
In Giuliani's words, "you have this cluster here that has developed over a long period of time, and now you're seeing it reach a critical mass." "You're seeing an increase in the number of companies relocating away from California and New York."
In addition, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer stated, "We've made significant strides in building our reputation as a city where technology companies and start-ups can not only open, expand, relocate, and thrive, but also be in close proximity to some of the world's leaders in innovation."
Orlando has a lot of talent, good transportation, and low taxes
Execs from companies such as Electronic Arts, Luminar, and Stax told Insider that Orlando's large pool of talent made it easier for them to recruit in the area.
According to Suneera Madhani, founder of Stax, a payments platform for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), "we have all these great colleges that are literally in our backyard." The University of Central Florida, the University of Florida, and Valancia College are among the institutions involved.
It is estimated that there are half a million college students within a hundred-mile radius of downtown Orlando, according to Giuliani.
According to Luminar CTO Jason Eichenholz, "we have been able to tap into that talent." The self-driving LIDAR startup employs approximately 400 people, with approximately 60% of those based in Orlando.
"In the early days of Luminar, when we would meet with a potential customer, they would only have one specific LIDAR engineer, whereas we would have millennia of men and women with decades of experience in LIDAR technology, which gave us a significantly unfair advantage over our competition," Eichenholz continued.
The executives claimed that it was simple to recruit employees from other states to relocate to Orlando as well.
Electronic Arts vice-president Daryl Holt said the company's Orlando studios employed more than 850 people, some of whom were from the area, including many UCF graduates, and others who had relocated from other parts of the country.
Migration to the state has increased dramatically as a result of the state's pleasant climate, low living costs, and lack of income tax.
"Who wouldn't want to relocate to Florida?" says the author. Mahdani shared his thoughts. He went on to say that many of Stax's C-level executives and middle management had relocated from New York, California, and Atlanta.
After graduating from Florida State University, Eichenholz said he and his colleagues relocated to California to work for companies such as Google, Apple, and Facebook. But once they started a family, Eichenholz said, "we do exceptionally well in attracting them back to Florida."
The executives claimed that Orlando had a pro-business environment as well as a thriving tech scene. Stax was founded by Madhani in 2014, and she serves on the board of Starter Studio, a venture-tech accelerator that assisted her in establishing the company.
According to Holt, "it's a wonderful nexus point of industry, education, and government all rowing in the same direction."
In Conclusion
Orlando, according to Giuliani, is a well-connected city. Apart from a new international airport, Brightline plans to build a rail line connecting Orlando with Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach, which is expected to be completed in 2022.
According to Giuliani, "Obviously Silicon Valley is not going to die, and New York is not going to die either." "The only thing that will change is that there will be more for everyone else."
