Supporting entrepreneurs across Tampa Bay

The Kauffman Foundation research of 2016, was a year-long project that yielded a model for strengthening entrepreneurial ecosystems in Tampa Bay and other cities nationwide. The project was spearheaded by Rebecca White, along with a team of professors across the nation, and included in-depth surveys of entrepreneurs and their businesses in Tampa Bay. Each year, the study reports on updated findings and new research on strengthening entrepreneurship in Tampa Bay.

The 2019 research highlights the numerous Entrepreneurial Support Organizations (ESOs) scattered around our region that are poised and ready to assist budding entrepreneurs. We have conveniently mapped and segregated these ESOs into 5 categories of support: accelerator/incubators, investors, educators/trainers, entrepreneurship events, and co-working spaces. At over 100 organizations, the number of ESOs in the region continues to grow, making the Tampa area a vibrant and supportive place to launch and grow your next company. Details of Tampa ESOs are included in the following map.

Research Papers

2020 Florida Venture Capital Yearbook

The 2020 Florida Venture Capital Yearbook provides venture capital data for funds and venture-backed companies headquartered in Florida. The National Venture Capital Association has created a yearbook for the last 22 years highlighting venture capital data trends for the United States which has shown that the Venture Capital (VC) industry in the United States is vibrant and growing. Venture Capital enables the growth and innovation required to support the entrepreneurial ecosystem of the modern world by turning ideas into products and services. Venture Capital firms help take these entrepreneurs’ ideas and build them into long term sustainable businesses that change society through innovations.

2019 Report

The University of Tampa research team was joined by Jeff Vinik in 2019, who discussed his vision for the Tampa Bay entrepreneurial ecosystem.  The Lowth Entrepreneurship Center research report focused on updating our survey of the entrepreneurial support organizations in the Tampa Bay region and introduced an interactive map to help guide entrepreneurs to the proper resources in the area that can help them to grow their businesses.  Important aspects of the overall economic scene in the Tampa Bay region were also highlighted and the research included a thorough review of the capital deal flow that went to Tampa area businesses within the past year.

2018 report

In 2018, researchers at the University of Tampa updated their cluster analysis of the “dealmakers” within the Tampa Bay region and found that, while the density of companies improved within the ecosystem, connectivity among stakeholders remains as a challenge.  In partnership with the Embarc Collective, we also surveyed 159 local entrepreneurs to assess ecosystem challenges on a local level using 6 domains of support for entrepreneurial activity, including policy, finance, entrepreneurial support organizations, human capital, markets, and culture.  As reported by these entrepreneurs, access to early-stage capital and entrepreneurship-friendly policy initiatives are the biggest areas of need for growing their businesses.  Our survey of the macro-economic scene within the Tampa Bay area demonstrated substantial population and GDP growth along with increased revenues and rising costs of doing business in the region.

2017 report

In 2017, University of Tampa researchers at the John P. Lowth Entrepreneurship Center of the Sykes College of Business conducted our first cluster analysis of influential regional “dealmakers.”  These “dealmakers” are individuals and organizations with 3 or more concurrent equity in Tampa area businesses who play a vital role in making connections throughout the entrepreneurial ecosystem and promote new business development.  Our findings indicated that the Tampa area has a diversified ecosystem in terms of industry participation, however, the connectivity between market sectors and important entrepreneurial stakeholders is an impediment that needs to be addressed.  

2016 report

The inaugural Tampa Bay Entrepreneurial Ecosystem study, conducted in 2016, was sponsored by a generous gift from the Kauffman Foundation.  In-depth interviews were conducted with over 40 influential policymakers, investors, and entrepreneurs who started their careers and businesses in the Tampa Bay region.  Using a theory of bottlenecks approach to provide insight into the constraints on entrepreneurship within the ecosystem, our study highlighted the lack of collaboration between stakeholders, the lack of a strong urban core and public transit, limited corporate buyers of entrepreneur’s output, a lack of funding for early-stage companies, and a perceived difficulty in “telling our story” for the Tampa Bay region.  

the power of regional dealmakers

Networks of serial entrepreneurs, investors, and their affiliated companies play a critical role in driving entrepreneurial behavior, investor focus, and innovation hot spots within specific industry sectors and are critical for shaping the character of robust regional economies. This research explores the impact of “dealmakers” Zoller ( 2010; Senor and Singer 2009) who are actors that have founded, managed, or invested in multiple private entrepreneurial firms, and hold concurrent equity ties to multiple firms.