Tech bootcamp: North Miami hopes to attract minority-owned companies with training

North Miami is hosting a bootcamp for owners of tech startups and businesses, with the hopes of laying the groundwork for the city to become a tech hub and attract companies to the area.

The program called NoMi Tech is a partnership with Lightship Foundation, an organization that provides resources and support to tech business founders from diverse backgrounds. The organization runs a bootcamp to help startups and other tech companies, and through its funding arm, Lightship Capital, offers financial help to firms, including some that have gone through the bootcamp accelerator.

The city’s partnership with the foundation is roughly $140,000 for the first year, North Miami Economic Development and Strategic Initiatives Director John Lorfils told the Miami Herald.

North Miami is the latest city added to Lightship’s bootcamp series. In the past five years, the predominantly Black city has seen steady job growth, according to data from the Miami-Dade Beacon Council. Last year, the top two leading business sectors in the city were retail and professional, scientific and technical services.

With roughly 60,000 residents — 56% of them Black — North Miami is positioned to attract Black and other diverse businesses, North Miami Vice Mayor and Councilwoman Mary Estime-Irvin said. “Everyone wants to be in South Florida and North Miami is that place where we can take advantage of that.”

Estime-Irvin said she started thinking about how to bring tech businesses to North Miami after hearing Miami Mayor Francis Suarez talk about bringing the tech industry to his city. “And I said to myself, wait a second, you know, everyone can’t come to the city of Miami,” she told the Herald.

“We as a city need to prepare ourselves and always think about what we can do to make sure that our residents have a place where they can work, live and play,” she said.

North Miami Councilwoman Mary Estime-Irvin
North Miami Councilwoman Mary Estime-Irvin

Estime-Irvin said she began attending tech conferences and worked with former city manager Theresa Therilus to craft the initiative with the hopes of making North Miami a tech hub. Part of that was partnering with Lightship to host a bootcamp that would provide training to minority tech founders who need the skills to start or grow their business.

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The free bootcamp will be held in North Miami from April 17 to April 19 and is intended for minority-, women- and LGBTQ-led companies, Lightship founder and CEO Candice Matthews Brackeen told the Herald. Attendees will spend time crafting their business pitch and refining it to attract investors. A second bootcamp is scheduled for December.

“We use artificial intelligence to help buyers to make more important decisions. We provide assistance around financial modeling, brand and design,” Brackeen said of what the bootcamp has to offer. “And there are several entrepreneurs and residents and mentors that come and teach the classes to the founders over the course of those three days.”

Brackeen said the idea is that over time, as North Miami establishes itself as a tech ecosystem, it could develop more startup companies and attract more tech businesses.

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Economic Development & Strategic Initiatives Director John Lorfils
Economic Development & Strategic Initiatives Director John Lorfils

Lorfils said he attended Black Tech Week in Cincinnati, Ohio, last year to familiarize himself with Lightship and their work. The event allowed him to see how many Black workers are in the tech space.

Black people comprise 12% of the workforce in the United States, but only 8% of employees in tech jobs, according to the McKinsey Institute for Black Economic Mobility. Tech jobs are expected to grow 14% by 2023, but Black tech talent in those roles are only expected to grow 8% over the same time period.

“Being able to offer North Miami as a destination for founders to consider to bring their startup companies to and to provide opportunities to them is the goal of the program,” Lorfils said.

Brackeen said the “secret sauce” to the bootcamp is providing new communities for the founders. “They’re able to have peers that join them in their journey of entrepreneurship. They’re just really great bonds that are built.”

The program, Brackeen said, will help North Miami residents dream a bit bigger. “I think lots of times intelligence is distributed equally, but opportunity is not, and so what we want to make certain that we do is highlight the fact that there’s some incredible things already being built in North Miami and we have to shine a light on that,” she said, adding that smaller cities often don’t get the attention they deserve for tech innovation. “I think it’s time to make certain that North Miami gets that same love for its Black residents.”

Through the program, participants will also have the opportunity to pitch their ideas to investors to receive funding. In some instances, companies have received funding through Lightship Capital, which recently awarded $500,000 to a company that went through one of the Lightship bootcamps nine months ago.

“That’s not trivial and that would be our fifth bootcamp investment over the last few years,” Brakeen said. “So for us, we’re super excited to be able to give people that opportunity and also it doesn’t mean that we are the only funder. So many of our bootcamp companies have gone on to get funding elsewhere.”

Chandler Malone went through Lightship’s bootcamp program in August 2021. At the time, Malone was based in Tulsa and had raised $500,000 for his business Bootup, an organization that helps people get their first tech job regardless of their academic or professional background.

Four months after the bootcamp, Malone raised $2.5 million and had $1 million in revenue. “Everything is not because of the bootcamp but there were definitely a lot of things just foundationally that they were helpful with that. It kind of unlocked those next steps for us,” he said.

Malone has since relocated his business to South Florida and has invested in other Black-owned tech startups. “When it was time to really just grow the business you want to be in a place where you have an opportunity to have a global reach and Miami definitely has that,” he said.

Lorfils is hoping that North Miami can also capitalize on those coming to Miami for the annual eMERGE Americas tech event that same week of the bootcamp. As for when North Miami becomes a tech hub, Lorfils emphasized it will take time.

“We’re in the beginning phase of it right now. But these are some of the things that need to happen, engaging these tech companies, marketing North Miami as a destination for their companies,” he said. “We’re actually bringing them here so they can see what we have to offer.”

Companies interested in attending the bootcamp can apply at this site: https://www.lightship.education/apply.

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