by Head-Banana | Jul 26, 2025 | Founder Focus, Startups, Tech Rant
Of the many roles that startup founders must tackle in the early stages of their new venture, Chief Focus Officer is probably the most important.
It is far too easy to get distracted by all the bright, shiny objects and side quests that seem intriguing but do not move the needle as you try to transform your new idea into an actual product.
I’m not exaggerating when I say that Focus is the number one hurdle that most startup founders are struggling to overcome. Some recognize this fact and are aware enough to seek help, but most do not and continue to be frustrated by their lack of progress.
They stay busy hopping from task to task, working on all the wrong things, without the ability to prioritize what is most likely to help them win or fail.
#startups #startupfounders #focus #startupmonkey
by Head-Banana | Sep 15, 2024 | #EDI2, Startups, Tech Rant, Technology-based Economic Development
Building a tech community requires intentional and sometimes uncomfortable efforts. There can be a lot of hand-waving and noise generated while trying to garner attention, but two rather important criteria that often get swept aside are authenticity and humility. Hollow marketing efforts to create the illusion of success only encourage more noise that drowns out the actual progress of those putting in the work to build and ship meaningful products. Even worse are those efforts to deceive the public and the press by creating hallucinations in an effort to attract or placate investors.
This post by Alexis Muellner in the Tampa Bay Business Journal came as a bit of a surprise, but it was the culmination of many discussions and coffees over the past 15-ish years, where we discussed my personal observations of the rollercoaster ride that is the Tampa Bay tech ecosystem. I often mentioned the Savtira debacle in these conversations by asking (of the press) are we making an effort to highlight the actual technology innovators and business builders in our community or are we just waiting to hype up the next Savtira-type fraud?
And please stop referencing the Forbes Council “poll” proclaiming Tampa Bay’s position as the number one emerging tech hub. It is another sad example of wishing vs. working. The number of politicians and news outlets that gave this pay-to-play social media post credibility without fact-checking the source is yet another example of how we rush to be cheerleaders for the noise and drown out the signal.
Be authentic, be humble, and let’s put in the work required to support real progress without tripping over each other in an effort to take credit for the wins achieved by others.
https://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/news/2024/08/23/press-releases-over-products.html
(full access may require a subscription)
A previous editorial in the Tampa Bay Times focuses on the same theme. Thanks to Bob Trigaux for focusing on this topic back in 2015.
by Head-Banana | Nov 7, 2018 | Founder Focus, Startups, Tech Rant, Technology-based Economic Development
Details
The 11th annual BarCamp Tampa Bay will be Saturday, Nov. 10th at the University Mall (west end) – 2200 E. Fowler Ave. Tampa, FL 33612
Store #2127 – Where Spirit Halloween Store was located in University Mall
If you’ve attended or spoken and past BarCamps, you get it. So check the box, save the date, and RSVP at the Ticketing link. Don’t forget to comment below and tell people what you love about BarCamp, the sessions, the people you meet, the ideas that have turned into products and companies, or something else.
If you’ve never attended a BarCamp, you are in for a treat. Join us for a day-long unconference of collaboration and peer-to-peer tech education. It is free to attend, we feed you, give you a cool t-shirt, and immerse your brain in all things tech.
RSVP now at: http://bit.ly/BarCampRSVP
Visit www.barcamptampabay.org for more info and follow us on Twitter @BarCampTampa
So Get your Geek on, bring a friend and we will see you on Saturday, Nov. 10th!
by Head-Banana | Sep 6, 2016 | Startups, Tech Rant
BarCamp Tampa Bay
is an annual one-day “un-conference” hosted by TechNova Florida. Join ~ 800 of your technology peers to share knowledge and collaborate on a broad range of topics. Those looking to share dynamic technical content can sign-up the morning of the event for their opportunity to present. This year’s presentations are expected to cover such topics as Agile Development, User Experience Design, WordPress, IoT, driverless vehicles, augmented and virtual reality, wearable technology, digital media, cyber security, robotics, 3D printing, gamification and, much more. Attendees can expect to learn about start-up issues such as lean methodologies, how to hire a developer, startup lessons learned, venture and angel funding mistakes, marketing your new product, and other tech business related topics.
Event Details:
- Saturday, October 1st
- USF Muma College of Business – 4202 E Fowler Ave, Tampa, FL 33620
- Doors open at 7:30 AM
- Speaker Sign-up at 7:45 AM
- Sessions start at 9:00 and run until 5:00 with a break for lunch (provided)
- Wrap-up session and raffle at the end followed by an after party
In keeping with the BarCamp tradition and our audience’s expectations , technology topics only – no sales pitches or product demos of any type.
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The event is FREE, but please register so we can order enough food and T-Shirts.
Don’t just register here on MeetUp, Please get your tickets HERE!
Be sure to thank the great sponsors that make BarCamp possible. For those businesses interested in helping sponsor BarCamp Tampa Bay, we still have several opportunities that will put your company’s name in-front of Central Florida’s best and brightest designers, developers, startup founders, and others. Basic sponsorships are available through the Eventbrite ticket site, bigger sponsorships (>$1,000+) can be discussed by contacting a TechNova board member.
BarCamp is an all volunteer event and we need you to make it happen. Volunteer sign-up is open, we need anyone that can help out for an hour or more and we need committee leads for food, T-shirts, speaker sign-up, room set-up, clean-up, etc. –
Be sure to follow us on Twitter @BarCampTampa & #BCTPA for event updates and other news.
by Head-Banana | Oct 19, 2015 | #EDI2, InfoSec, Startups, Tech Rant, Technology-based Economic Development
Mil-OSS exists to improve technology development and innovation by connecting and empowering an active community of patriotic developers and solution providers with government organizations. Fortunately the Tampa Bay area is blessed with two of the U.S. government’s most visible and recognizable commands, U.S. Special Operations Command and U.S. Central Command.
We’re working closely with them and other organizations across Tampa Bay to develop Hackathon topics that support the Mil-OSS goals of improving use of the taxpayers’ funds through thorough requirements extraction, wise execution, and streamlined delivery by leveraging open source and open technology innovation.
Challenges for this event will focus on the following:
- Open Source OSINT Framework
- Ensuring Cloud Security of Server Instances
- Common Operating Model
- 3D Model Visualization and Collaboration
Read more about these challenges here.
This challenge is open to industry, government. military, students and academia.
Registration is free for this event but the registration process will close on October 21st at 5:00p.m.
Teams will have the option of working from one of the official event locations or work from a location of their choosing.
All participates must attend the event kickoff and the closing presentations to be eligible for awards.
Event dates: October 23rd – 25th 2015
Contact Jeff Young at jeff.young@marjausystems.com or contact the steering committee for this event
at cfl-steering@mil-oss.org for more information.
This event supports the
Special Operations Warrior Foundation
by Head-Banana | Dec 11, 2014 | Market Strategy, Startups, Tech Rant, Technology-based Economic Development
We started Tech Rant back in late ’07 as a supplement to the workshops hosted by TBTF’s Emerging Companies Academy 
program. These weekly coffee chats were structured as an informal support group for start-up founders and early stage tech companies. They were held every week for almost two years before moving to the IdeaField space, the first full-time coworking facility in the Tampa Bay region.
With the Hillsborough County Entrepreneur Collaborative Center (ECC) about to officially open this week in Ybor, it seemed like a good time to revisit the Tech Rant format to see if there was interest in restarting these startup brainstorming sessions.
Please let us know what times / days work best. As a test run, let’s shoot for a brown bag lunch format on Thursday Dec. 18th at 11:30 am.
As it was before, all topics are fair game. Stop in to discuss any challenge you may be facing in your start-up including:
• Idea validation
• Creating a product roadmap
• Finding co-founders (and do you need one)
• Creating / refining your business model & roadmap
• Market validation & product readiness
• Sales & distribution strategy
• Hiring contractors or full-time employees
• Applying for an incubator / accelerator program
• Raising outside funding (angel, venture, crowd, etc.)
• Partner development & agreements
• IP strategy & licensing
• Hiring service providers (attorneys, accountants, other)
Details:
Thursday Dec. 18th
11:30 – 1:00
Hillsborough County’s Entrepreneur Collaborative Center
2101 E. Palm Avenue (in Ybor City)
Parking lot north of Palm is free
RSVP on TechRant’s MeetUp page
If you have any other questions, feel free to ping me on MeetUp or on Twitter @StartupMonkey.
