- il y a 2 jours
Bridging the Americas' Tech & Startup Ecosystems
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00:00Merci, tout le monde.
00:01Merci.
00:02Et merci à Viva Tech pour l'invitation très gentile,
00:09à Manatech pour faire ça,
00:12avec la French Tech, Corrine et son équipe.
00:16C'est vraiment incroyable et excitant
00:18être sur cette plateforme et partager cette scène avec vous.
00:23C'est vraiment excitant.
00:24Et représentant Miami, le 305.
00:27Merci.
00:29Merci.
00:30Merci, Melissa.
00:31First of all, where is Corrine?
00:32Is she here?
00:34Corrine?
00:35Ben Hamo?
00:36I don't see her.
00:37She is the one that really put it together
00:40and she worked so hard to get the whole event together.
00:45She did.
00:45Very hard.
00:46She really deserves the credit.
00:48I don't know why she's not here.
00:50Working somewhere, I'm sure.
00:52Making things happen.
00:53Right, right.
00:54So, Melissa, you know, maybe you tell me
00:57or you tell us a little bit more
00:59because you are the first comer in technology in, you know,
01:04in Miami and being active in the scene
01:07and your father and everything else.
01:09So maybe tell everybody a little bit about your organization,
01:12the image that you've been working every year and so forth.
01:16and so tell us a little bit.
01:18Sure.
01:18Thank you, Moish.
01:20Well, we don't have that much time, but I'll start with,
01:24I'm born and raised in Miami, Florida.
01:27I'm first-generation American.
01:28Both my parents are Cuban immigrants.
01:30And so very tied to Miami and South Florida, given that they flew communism
01:37and landed in what we consider is, you know, the greatest country in the world for us
01:42and where American dreams are made.
01:44And our family is a testament to that.
01:47And I worked in the family business for almost a decade.
01:51And it was a company called Terramark Worldwide that my father founded in 1980 as a real estate company.
01:59I know we're going to talk about your incredible background, Moish.
02:03And the company then transformed in the late 90s, early 2000,
02:07into an IT infrastructure and cloud computing company.
02:10How did the real estate pay into that?
02:12Essentially, we were building data centers.
02:15The first one was in Miami called the NAP of the Americas.
02:18And it quite literally connected Latin America to the rest of the world through Miami.
02:22And that's sort of where we really started getting into technology.
02:27In 2011, the company sold to Verizon.
02:31And this is where the journey begins with Emerge Americas.
02:35After the company sold to Verizon, the first conversation that my father and I had
02:40was how exciting it was that a tech company had sold, gone public and sold from Miami.
02:50Exactly, it was.
02:51It was the first major exit in Miami.
02:54And then the second part of the conversation was also the frustration that came with building a technology company in
03:02Miami.
03:02Because there just wasn't a thriving tech ecosystem.
03:06It was very difficult to hire talent.
03:08And we decided we wanted to try to do something about it.
03:13And with that big ambitious idea, the first project was, well, why don't we host a conference?
03:20Why don't we bring together entrepreneurs, investors, global tech execs, government from all over the world in Miami,
03:30so people can start hopefully believing what we believed,
03:34which was that South Florida and Florida as a whole has all the elements become a thriving tech ecosystem.
03:40That's sort of how the story was born.
03:42It's been 11 years since we launched Emerge Americas.
03:45It's grown significantly.
03:46It's not just a conference.
03:48We're much more than a conference.
03:49We are a platform.
03:51We have an accelerator program.
03:52We have a fund.
03:53But all of it is to promote Florida and South Florida specifically, you know, as a tech ecosystem.
04:02And I think it's really exciting to be here and see the parallels that we have between what's happening in
04:09South Florida,
04:10what's happening here in France and in Europe.
04:12And I'm just really excited to continue to create bridges and very thankful also for all of the companies, organizations,
04:21people that believed in us from the beginning,
04:23because a lot of people thought it was crazy.
04:25But we had Miami-Dade County was one of our founding partners.
04:28A lot of Miami-Dade County is represented here.
04:31Yeah.
04:33And, you know, it's it's been a it's been a long road, but exciting.
04:36And look, I'm here on stage with you at Viva Tech.
04:39So things are going well.
04:41But I want to turn it over to you, Moish, because I truly I say this from the bottom of
04:45my heart.
04:46I'm very humble and honored to be sharing the stage with you.
04:48I know a lot about your background from Israel to New York to Miami.
04:54And, you know, you have you have done incredible, incredible work in real estate, in technology as well.
05:01And so if you can give some of your background would be great.
05:05Okay, great.
05:06Thank you, Melissa.
05:08Thank you.
05:10I met a father twice, but he's an amazing guy.
05:13So just like just talking to him is a great guy, you know.
05:16So anyway, so so my story goes back where I came from, how I came, how I came about and
05:26how I evolved as a person.
05:28But in general, I came to America in the early 80s, dishwasher, pot washer, vending on the street when needed,
05:39evolved to logistic, built the biggest moving company, got involved and the people needed storage.
05:47And when you buy, when you need storage, you know, to buy buildings and to store the people goods, ended
05:54up in the meatpacking.
05:55And we made, we became the catalyst for the toll change and of the meatpacking in New York City, a
06:03company called Milk Studios.
06:05And this was the biggest change that brought the whole change of the meatpacking.
06:10I don't know how many of you know some milk makeup.
06:13It's part of the, yeah.
06:14Of course.
06:15Yeah, one of the, it became as an offshoot of the business.
06:20But over the years, I, you know, so I built many businesses, platform, information management, third largest information management company
06:29in America, in different cities, in China.
06:33Now we're in Latin America, digital, physical.
06:38But over the years, I really start really philosophizing my business model and what I do and how, you know,
06:47how I can be more effective and more impactful.
06:50And my, the, the, the meatpacking was a big experience for me.
06:54And then I went to Jersey City and I built the biggest art center in America, which is 2 million
07:00square feet.
07:01Artists work, create, sell and we impacted Jersey City in an incredible way.
07:06And at the same time, I came to Miami and Miami presented the whole new kind of vision.
07:12What year was that Moish more or less?
07:14When I came to Miami was 2009, just after the recession and, uh, uh, within the recession.
07:21And, uh, I came back with, uh, to do, because I got lost for a few years earlier to, in
07:28the world, I got lost.
07:29So.
07:30That's a good problem.
07:31Yeah.
07:31So, and then I came back because I needed to make a change and, uh, what we're going to do.
07:37And I got involved in, uh, Wynwood and Wynwood was a crime infested area, which reminded me the meatpacking.
07:44And I said, we could do a change.
07:46Goldman at the same time, you know, it was there was just the beginning, but was crime infested.
07:51I assembled 45 acres and we were doing, uh, the street art, the music event, the fashion event.
07:57I was spending two, $3 million a year just on, on this, uh, on the arts, on the, on, on
08:04the music event and paying people to come.
08:06Play and so forth.
08:08Uh, Wynwood did not come out of nothing.
08:10We were a major catalyst in, uh, leading Wynwood.
08:13Uh, but as I was getting involved in Miami, I totally understood, whoa, this is not possible.
08:20People come asking me for work.
08:22And, uh, I see young people, energetic people want to work and have, but there is no opportunities in Miami.
08:28Talk about 2010, 11, 12.
08:31It's exactly around the time that we were having in the conversations as well.
08:34Exactly.
08:35So, uh, so what I really, I said, okay, we need to build a global hub connecting the, uh, the,
08:43uh, the Americas, Latin America, not, not America, to China, to Vietnam, to the Far East, to do showrooms, banking
08:51and legal, because B2B.
08:54Because this, I thought, will ignite the economy of Miami.
08:57People don't need to travel anymore to China or to Vietnam and so forth.
09:01And, uh, I was working with China.
09:03I was working with Vietnam.
09:04I was working with Korea.
09:05I was working with different countries in Latin America and traveling around, making agreements.
09:10I got permits for 10 million square feet in the west side of Wynwood to do it.
09:14I worked, I worked very hard with my team and everything.
09:16And then came Trump with the idea of America first.
09:19I'm a globalist.
09:21And it's conflicted exactly everything that I said and everything that I've done in my life.
09:26And, uh, you know, then we had to pedal back.
09:31And me going to Latin America and understanding Latin America at the same time, I said, this is crazy what
09:40we're doing.
09:41Latin America and North America should be one economy.
09:45We must dollarize Latin America.
09:48And we are only 350 million people in, uh, in the world, which is 4% of the world.
09:55This is not sustainable.
09:57We're not going to be able to compete with China, one and a half billion people.
10:01We're not going to be able to compete with India, one and a half billion.
10:03Look, 20 years, 30 years, 40 years down the road.
10:07How are we really going to compete?
10:09There's no way.
10:10And Miami is sitting right between Latin America and North America, two hours south,
10:15not covering most of the Americas.
10:17So if we dollarize Latin America and we make America like the European Union kind of business model,
10:23I call it collaboration, not occupation, then we can really create the new America.
10:28Because visiting Latin American companies, I said their chances to raise money is slim to none.
10:34I visit them in Latin America.
10:36I visit them in Silicon Valley.
10:38And nobody can take it seriously because it's 5 million economy, 50 million economy, 50 million people economy.
10:44Investors are not going to go to Colombia to invest in tech.
10:47So I said, aha, so if we bring them into one ecosystem, then it's 700 million people.
10:55Then they collaborate.
10:56They can connect.
10:57They can get investors on much easier.
11:00But we need to build the facilities.
11:02We need to build the live-work-play kind of neighborhood.
11:05And that's exactly when I went to downtown Miami.
11:08I walked one night into downtown and it was an empty ghost town.
11:14I said, okay, so we're going to buy everything, whatever I can do in order to...
11:18And I loved it from first look.
11:20And I put together within the last 10 years over 72 properties to make this vision live-work-play kind.
11:29I call it the Silicon Valley of Latin America.
11:32And that's where we designed the street.
11:35My own money.
11:36My own design.
11:36My own team.
11:37We designed the street.
11:39And I went to Jimenez.
11:40And I was able to raise the first 7 million dollar.
11:43And then, although some people like to take the credit for it, but I can tell you and I can
11:48look in your face.
11:49I was the one designing it.
11:50I was the one to pick up the bricks.
11:52I was the one to do the whole thing with my team.
11:55We went to Jimenez.
11:56Jimenez was great to give us the first 7 million.
11:58And then Francis gave me the rest.
12:00And then FPL gave us the rest, you know, we needed for the infrastructure.
12:04And the folks he's mentioning are the mayor of Miami-Dade County, which essentially represents 34 different municipalities in South
12:13Florida.
12:14And then Francis is Mayor Suarez, which is the city of Miami, just for context.
12:18Right.
12:19So that's what we've been doing.
12:21At the same time, back when then, we had no tech.
12:25People used to laugh at us when we were talking tech in Miami, right?
12:29Yeah.
12:29No one would use Miami and tech in the same sentence at all.
12:33It just didn't happen.
12:34And that was partially the reason that we decided it made sense to put forward the effort and the energy
12:40to change that trajectory for us as a community.
12:45You know, we're the absolute pioneer even before us, you know.
12:47No, it was a lot of, I feel like there's been a perfect storm of elements in our community and
12:54from the government sector, from the private sector, all really coming together to promote technology.
13:00And it's something that you don't see in a lot of cities and states.
13:05And I feel that in South Florida, we really do have that now.
13:08We've had that, you know, especially the last five, six years.
13:13And I think it's put us in a really good position for what the next decade is going to look
13:17like.
13:17And if you, you know, I am an evangelist of our community, but you don't have to believe me.
13:23You could look at the data and you could see that just in 2024, South Florida alone had almost $3
13:30billion in venture activity.
13:32We are now, as a state, fifth in the nation in deal count for venture activity.
13:39We're sixth in the nation for deal value.
13:42We were not even, I don't even know, if I say top 25, 10 years ago is probably giving us
13:49a lot of credit.
13:51And so I think if you look at the data and you trace it, you see that the J curve
13:57effect that has happened is amazing.
13:58And I think the internationalization of our community to, you know, the connection, yes, to Latin America, extremely important part
14:06of our DNA in our community, but also the connection to Europe, which is why it's so exciting to be
14:13here, have these conversations, create deeper bridges.
14:15And then hopefully also invite all of you to come to South Florida as well, to come to Emerge America's
14:24Art Conference next April, 2026.
14:26And to together, you know, rally and bring VivaTech, right?
14:31Right, right, right.
14:32Big part of what we want to do is help support.
14:35This is an incredible platform.
14:37And I think it will just sort of fertilize the relationships that we have between Europe and the US.
14:44Excellent.
14:46And to continuation to what you said, that's to understand the opportunity that Miami will present.
14:51First of all, I positioned Miami long ago of the Western Hemisphere Global Hub Connecting the Americas.
14:57And as the Hong Kong of the Western Hemisphere.
15:01And this is where Miami is going to go.
15:04We are at the beginning of the road.
15:06We just started it.
15:07I agree.
15:08That's why I double down with everything that I've done.
15:11I focused on Miami.
15:13I have projects all over America, but my focus is Miami.
15:17But also what we're bringing to Miami also, we're bringing also the cultural end of it, you know, because there's
15:25no business with no culture.
15:26So we must bring it.
15:28Fashion.
15:29Miami still need like a long way to go because become fashion hub, which is not totally.
15:36So we built showrooms, material bank, events.
15:40And this last two weeks ago, we had the Miami Swim Week, which I don't like the name Swim Week.
15:47Why?
15:48Why?
15:48Just curious.
15:49I mean, really, we can elevate it.
15:52And it's going to be beyond Swim Week.
15:54And rebrand the whole fashion week.
15:56But it really gave me a glimpse of what we did in the meatpacking in New York City with fashion
16:03and how we evolved fashion designer, how supported fashion designer and change it.
16:07We're building a building dedicated for this, for the fashion designers, make it affordable for them.
16:12And we are very involved in fashion.
16:15If it is Milan, if it is France, if it is Latin America, North America, this is it.
16:21The same with the arts.
16:23Arts is, you know, we've been supporting artists for the longest time.
16:27And sometimes when I see artists a little bit not selling much, I go, I just sell it.
16:32I just buy it to make sure they have enough income, which I've done.
16:38We have a huge community of artists in New York.
16:41And it's affecting Miami also.
16:43We've been doing a lot of the street arts.
16:45I don't know if you've seen the street art in the downtown.
16:48Yeah, I have.
16:49The Mona Lisa is the largest Mona Lisa in the world.
16:53We put 120 gallon of paint and 1,100 cans.
17:00And we had the girl with the diamond earring.
17:02And we're going to do a lot of this classic art in downtown,
17:05because I'm tired a little bit from the contemporary.
17:08So downtown is the renaissance of downtown.
17:10And we're going to do downtown.
17:11And so it's going to bring the museum down to, you know,
17:15going to bring it to downtown.
17:18But in general, Melissa, I like, you know, what do you think?
17:24These are technology people today.
17:26And you've been working with so many technology people.
17:28What do you think the problems that our world is facing today,
17:32the biggest problems that we're facing in context of Miami too, of course?
17:36In the context of Miami in tech?
17:38Yes, in tech and, you know, just in general, you know?
17:41Yeah, you know, I think one thing that at least talking geographically from South Florida
17:46and kind of going back to the venture activity that we struggled with,
17:50which was the chicken or the egg concept, when we built our accelerator program,
17:55when we built this platform and this international technology conference in Miami,
18:00we were able to connect and bring together startups from all over the world,
18:05not just the U.S., from Europe, from Latin America, from the U.S. as well.
18:11And we had a lot of trouble getting investors to even acknowledge that these startups
18:18were going to be put in front of them in Miami.
18:23In the legitimacy, you mean?
18:25Completely.
18:25They did not validate, you know, this at all.
18:28This was circa 2014.
18:32And what's really exciting to see now, and I agree that we're just scratching the surface,
18:36but to see the difference in the conversation and give perspective.
18:40So this is 2014.
18:42We couldn't get, you know, a handful of investors to come meet a hundred pre-qualified startups.
18:50And usually they're looking for deal flow, right?
18:52So it was kind of frustrating.
18:54And now, 11 years later, the conversation has switched.
18:58It's the investors are now, can I get access to them earlier than when you're showcasing them at the conference?
19:04Because we have an eight-week accelerator program leading up to the international conference that we host.
19:09And now, how can I get access to them early?
19:12And now we have thousands of investors that come and meet with them.
19:15And, however, saying all of that, I still think we need a lot more funding for startups, for scale-ups.
19:24And I have a feeling that this is not just a South Florida or Florida challenge, that this is something
19:32that affects a lot of emerging markets.
19:34So I'm very much the glasses half full mentality and agree that this is still early on.
19:40We're scratching the surface.
19:41So that gives us, I think, a lot of opportunity in what the next 10 years are going to look
19:46like across emerging markets.
19:49But, you know, speaking to the market that I work in.
19:51So I think that's one of the challenges that I think have gotten better.
19:55But it's certainly a challenge that has taken a good decade to change perspective on.
20:02Okay, I'm trying to think with you.
20:04Okay, this is one challenge.
20:06I mean, yeah, there's...
20:07Okay, there's some of the challenges.
20:08There's multiple...
20:09But if I come to think about, you know...
20:12I mean, first of all, I really want to understand for everybody, what is technology?
20:16What is really...
20:17Why we're doing technology and what it means to do, you know, what are we doing really?
20:22At the end of the day, technology was supposed to make us live better, health-wise, longer, easier life, opportunities
20:33of elevating.
20:36Absolutely.
20:36Of elevating.
20:37But, you know, the challenges really, at the end of the day, is coming when some people use this technology
20:44to do the opposite, what it's supposed to present.
20:46Oh, of course.
20:47With AI, we have those conversations, right?
20:49You know, I mean, everybody knows.
20:50But one thing I needed to...
20:52And then I'm going to go to Florida in connection, maybe.
20:56You know, we really have to understand, as people, the world is getting smaller.
21:02And we live in one house at the end of the day, and becoming closer.
21:08And the problem that we're facing today as people, as a human being, as the universe, the problems are global
21:17and not local.
21:19So when you have global warming, it's not only a problem of Florida, it's a problem of America, it's a
21:25problem of everybody.
21:27Human engineering, AI, terrorism, hunger, you name it, it's all global.
21:34And when somebody says, America first, this is something we need to stand up and say, there's no first, there's
21:40no second.
21:40And we're all in it together, and there's a leader always.
21:43But we need to really work more as more understanding that we are one, I don't want to say one
21:54nation, the whole world.
21:55And nationalism is a big issue.
21:57And we need to really to, you know, we're getting a little bit into America, which is, we need to
22:04be careful.
22:05But as far as what the faces, what the challenges that we're facing, Melissa also, President Macron here initiated the
22:13take in Europe.
22:14And France, as government, involved very strongly with it.
22:18Many countries that I go, the government is involved, politicians involved.
22:22I'm sorry, I don't see it in Florida.
22:24Although we have 25 representatives from Florida and this and that, you're not getting enough tools from the authorities to
22:32be more impactful.
22:34And we need initiative more of the politicians from the top to support what we are doing.
22:40We are doing strictly, strictly business.
22:43And there's, I don't want to say zero, but close to zero support when it comes to support tech and
22:49support business.
22:50And this is something, a big challenge that we're seeing.
22:56But Florida also facing, and I'm not trying to say it here, just like any other country.
23:01I was driving, I was coming with the driver today, the cab, the taxi driver, and he asked me where
23:08I am and this and that.
23:09So I said, from America, and he was laughing.
23:14He said, I just had a passenger a couple of days ago that he told me only when he gets
23:19off the cab, he's going to tell me where I'm from, where he's from.
23:22When he got off, he told him he's from America because they didn't want to tell him.
23:25So we are losing the tourists, and we are losing the in and out.
23:31We're closing our doors.
23:33And my message always to the people, closing your door doesn't make your home safe.
23:38And throwing your garbage to the window doesn't keep your home clean.
23:42And this is something I'm very concerned about, Florida.
23:45You see tourism, accessibility of technology.
23:48And the cab driver told me that people are scared to come to America now.
23:52And this is what Florida is facing also, how we can really become more nicer even at the airport.
24:00You know, because we got here, many people from Florida, so I can do the laundry outside, it's okay.
24:07So this is something that I'm very, very concerned about.
24:11We're trying to close within and while we need to go in the open.
24:18So I think, you know, for me, and for Emerge as a platform, and maybe it's just, you know, we
24:27really have had a lot of, been very fortunate, I'd say.
24:31Because I think the pushback from the public sector in the beginning was more because of educating the public sector
24:41on the importance of supporting a knowledge-based economy and the growth of technology.
24:50And honestly, you know, like I said, Miami-Dade County was one of our founding partners.
24:55That's massive for us.
24:56And have continued to support us through many, many different channels for 11 years.
25:02The same goes for many public universities and private, but public universities as well.
25:08Many cities.
25:09The state, actually, one of Emerge's employees and my colleague is here worked for the state of Florida, who was
25:18one of our partners for a very long time.
25:20And now he's fully on board.
25:22And really what we're working on, Moish, is the messaging.
25:26Technology cuts across every sector.
25:28It's important to invest in this very fast-paced industry.
25:33And we're doing our best to share that message to market South Florida and Florida as a place, as a
25:44tech ecosystem.
25:46And, you know, those that want to be supportive, great.
25:49And those that don't, I mean, we will continue sharing our story internationally.
25:55And I just feel like there, again, you know, I really like to look at things as a glass is
26:01half full.
26:01There is pendulums that swing.
26:04There are always challenges.
26:06There's economic uncertainty, I think, across many countries right now.
26:11And if we could be, you know, a positive voice and messenger, that's what we're trying to do at Emerge.
26:21And I know it's, you know, it's very interesting times.
26:28Interesting time.
26:30But you know what, Melissa, I mean, for me at least, it's not only the voice, not the messaging, building
26:37the facilities.
26:37And that's why we're here today also.
26:40Because I see Miami as the future city.
26:43And as a future city, you have to have as many international companies, as many international representation, business, and so
26:52forth.
26:52Today, in the world, there's Dubai, Singapore, and there's Miami.
26:56This is the city.
26:58And now I see France coming in, I see Paris coming into, you know, and also Paris to some degree,
27:04okay, when it comes to tech and innovation.
27:06We love it here.
27:07You know, but this is the initiative of President Macron with the establishment of Station F and so forth.
27:15But we took it another step forward.
27:19We're building, we're finishing within the next couple of months, the building of the Nikola Tesla Innovation Hub, which dedicated
27:26to innovative tech, biotech, quantum, AI.
27:32It's going to be curated careful, and it's not in the end of a broker, go get me an accounting
27:36firm.
27:36It's really going to be totally curated for this purpose.
27:40And we've been doing also similar to you events.
27:45Charlie and his team has been doing a great job.
27:48Last year, we had 135 events.
27:50We bring companies from Latin America to connect, go to market, raise money, to collaborate.
27:56And I see a big opportunity here, and I always tell people Miami is the city of the future.
28:02And the same people that we see in our events, these are the people going to be the millionaires and
28:07the billions of the future.
28:08And what do they do first thing?
28:09They come and invest in Miami, they buy in Miami.
28:13That's why I think I was in China in 1996, before wealth was created.
28:18And I saw how wealth, what did to China, how fast China grew.
28:23It was nothing there.
28:25When I worked in China in 1996, people used to look at me like somebody came from Mars or something,
28:31you know.
28:31Like today, they move away, you know.
28:34And I saw the changes.
28:36And Latin America, Melissa, represent a big opportunity for people, for France, for Europe, because think about it.
28:43Absolutely.
28:43There are 250 million people at the end of the day, and they need to export the technologies.
28:48They need to export the businesses, if it's fashion, if it's food, if it's anything that they have.
28:55And I like to say that we're building the platform for them for the expansion.
28:59And you cannot expand without physical facility.
29:03We're still in physical body, so we need the physical.
29:06Agreed.
29:07And the way I see it, I see it as outpost for countries, for Latin America.
29:12We're finishing.
29:13Okay.
29:14So you finish last word.
29:16Thank you.
29:17I have the last word.
29:18Okay.
29:18I'll say quickly, agree with you the importance of Latin America.
29:21I've been traveling through LATAM the last eight to nine years, speaking with entrepreneurs.
29:25Eight, nine years ago, their North Star was always to raise funds and to expand their company to Silicon Valley.
29:33I could tell you that has changed dramatically, to your point.
29:36Now they're looking at emerging markets all over the world.
29:41And they are realizing there are launch pads of innovation that are aside from Silicon Valley.
29:47I'm with it too.
29:48Completely.
29:49The lifestyle.
29:49The lifestyle comes with it as well.
29:51Well, thank you so much for your time.
29:53Thank you, Moish.
29:54Thank you, everybody.
29:55Thank you.
29:56Thank you.
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