022: Xavier Gonzalez (CEO, eMerge Americas)

Xavier Gonzalez on Innovation City

“Understand that failure is not something to be afraid of.” — Xavier Gonzalez

Welcome to Innovation City—powered by Venture Cafe St. Louis and Venture Cafe Miami—where Tyler Kelley and Michael Johnson, Co-Founders of SLAM! Agency, interview innovators, creators, and disruptors to discover how business is evolving in the modern world.

Innovation City gives you a behind-the-scenes look into the next generation of world-changing organizations. As business and culture continue to change at an extraordinary pace—thanks to increasing diversity and inclusion, greater connectivity, and heightened creativity—you can stay ahead of the curve, find out what’s coming next, and who’s going to bring it to market.

On today’s episode, Tyler and Michael are at the eMerge Americas conference, recording at the University of Miami booth. Today they’re talking with Xavier Gonzalez, CEO of eMerge Americas. Xavier is working hard to establish Miami as the technology hub of all the Americas; North, South, Central and Latin. In 2018, eMerge has grown to over 15,000 attendees from over 60 countries, with over 1 Billion impressions worldwide. Find Xavier on Twitter at @XG3.

They discuss:

• Establishing Miami as a technology and innovation hub
• Focusing on growth in Latin America
• Recent startup growth in Miami
• The sale of local startup Chewy.com, valued at $3.35 Billion
• The launch of Cyxtera Technologies, the 3rd-largest data/cyber security company on the planet
• Terremark, “the access point of the Americas”… thinking about establishing a technology conference
• Verizon acquired Terremark, plans grew in scale; need an event open to the community
• Founder and Visionary of eMerge Americas; Manny Medina
• Miami is the center of finance, media and entertainment for Latin America—why not for tech?
• Why Miami is such a wonderful place to live
• More serial entrepreneurs moving to Miami
• How Miami compares to Silicon Valley
• Developing tech talent in Miami
• Access to smart capital
• Venture City
• 500 Startups Miami
• The value of failure
• The need for passion
• Finding investors, but also clients, and partners at eMerge Americas
• How to build toward exponential growth by attending eMerge Americas