Kudos to St. Pete Times business writer Robert Trigaux for his recent blog post (Can new fund boost Florida’s venture capital?) and his update on Florida’s Opportunity Fund. While the fund is far from new news, having several false starts and changes in leadership, the post does a good job of capturing some of the challenges that we face in Florida and why the old school economic development crowd needs to stop what they are doing and start paying attention to what works.

Now I am not suggesting that a state venture fund is anywhere close to what we need to boost real economic development, but if they are going to start throwing money at the right type of opportunities and not wasting it on relocation packages so north east pharma company CEOs can play golf in Naples, then I am all for a new direction. Will it solve the problem, no way. Bigger name VCs will come to Florida when enough promising new companies create products and build local teams that can deliver the goods. In the mean time, we can sit on our ass and wait for the state fund to lead the way (insert your own joke here) or we can start by changing the business climate rut that we are stuck in that makes VCs and startup founders look elsewhere.

Everyone got their panties in a twist when Wikipedia picked up their marbles and moved West. Their was much gnashing of teeth, second guessing and finger pointing as to how this could happen without any of our astute business organizations (TB Partnership, Chamber of Commerce, TBTF, IT Florida, High Tech Corridor, etc.) noticing and trying to retain this icon of internet culture and information. This was of course followed by the demonizing of Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and the rationalization that it was OK since they only had 6 employees and didn’t really make money.

Yup, that’s the Tampa business mentality, I have only been here 6 years, but that about sums it up. Real companies, have hard assets, real companies employ more than 50 people, real companies make money the old fashion way, none of this new fangled online stuff. Why invest in technology when we can put all our eggs in the real estate or tourism basket, technology startups are risky!

Of course our local leaders do try to facilitate new business ventures. There are brochures, templates and classes on everything from Quckbooks to business plans.. all very useful for the way traditional mom & pop businesses get organized when opening a brick and mortar small business, but far from the way most startups get launched and nurtured in other tech hubs. The tech community is not an adult education bound crowd. Nor do these folks plan out their monthly calendars figuring out which networking event has the best meatballs and the most free drink tickets. Techies, innovators, inventors and other creative people focus on what they are good at and what they love. If they can turn that into a cool new product or service, then great. Maybe that product will spawn a new business that hires a few employees, helps a few customers and maybe even attracts some angel investors. That is the way most real tech companies start, an idea, a small group of supportive friends/peers and the ability to explore, test, tinker and occasionally fail. Oooops, I used the “F” word, yup most startups fail at least a little. This makes the mature business folks in Tampa crazy. Again, here we are stuck in that 70′s business mentality. If you are a dry cleaner or a car wash and you fail, bad things happen. On the other hand, if you are a tech startup and you fail (early & often) you learn, start over, tweak you model and try again.

Are we building an innovative community of entrepreneurs that encourages risk or are we perpetuating a business mentality that is risk averse and needs the comfort of old school businesses we know vs. what we really need to grow. What types of businesses and business leaders will it take to really attract venture capital to the state and are we attracting / retaining those people. What types of investments and events attract and encourage these people (BarCamp, CoWorking, Jelly, GEW, Startup Workshops) and if there isn’t the mindset to lead, can the folks in Tallahassee at least follow or get out of the way?