"In practice, the search for [product-market] fit is never a straight line. Instead, it happens over multiple cycles of iteration. You start with a market, build an initial version of the product, look at who actually gets value from the product, then redefine the market and redefine the product."

— Brian Balfour on the elements of product-market fit that are most misunderstood and overlooked

Featured Growth Story: Tarra Koonce

Role: Client Concierge

Organization: Ideal Agent

Hometown: Tampa, FL

Tactical advice on building a startup: Always be prepared, be consistent, ask questions, double-check your work, stay focused on the bigger picture, and always believe in yourself no matter what.

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Seven Secrets of Product-Market Fit
Product-Market Fit Presentation with Dave Payne, Managing Director of Techstars Atlanta
Presented by Techstars
Monday, February 10 at 12PM - 1:30PM


Synapse Summit
Innovation Conference with 6,000+ Expected Attendees, Keynotes, Breakouts and Company Exhibits
Presented by Synapse Florida
Tuesday, February 11 and Wednesday, February 12


Ignite The Night Tampa Bay
Pitch Competition
Presented by NASA iTech
Tuesday, February 11 at 5:30PM - 7:30PM


Embarc Collective Open House
Tour Tampa Bay's New Startup Hub
Presented by Embarc Collective
Wednesday, February 12 at 5PM - 7PM

Two Tampa Doctors Trying to Reduce Wait Times with an App
10 News WTSP • Tampa-based DocClocker, a digital platform that brings transparency to the waiting room for patients, shares with 10 News WTSP the latest progress of their app. The DocClocker app is currently being piloted to improve care delivery efficiency for hospitals and providers.


City of St. Pete Will Start Funding Local Startups Under New Plan
TBBJ • St. Petersburg City Council will now provide loans to local startups and small businesses in order to help them grow and stay in St. Pete. By way of the new Redevelopment MicroFund Program, companies can receive grants from the City of St. Pete and may be eligible for additional funding after successfully completing the program.


Tampa AdTech Wins Spot in Techstars Accelerator
St. Pete Catalyst • Nickelytics, an advertising technology company headquartered in Tampa Bay, is one of 12 companies accepted into Techstars Mobility Accelerator for 2020. Nickelytics plans to improve on its product, which puts ads on vehicles that travel at least 30 miles per day through busy city streets.


This Local Startup Wants to Be the Better Version of Google Maps
Tampa Bay Inno • Founder of Raven Spatial, Bobby Quinn, shares with Tampa Bay Inno how the company got started and where they plan to head next. Raven Spatial's initial focus is the real estate industry to help provide professionals real-time imagery of land and properties.


EDCs, Startups Accelerators Are Behind the Influx of Companies in Tampa, St. Pete
TBBJ • The Tampa Bay region has seen an influx of technology-focused companies moving to the region from places like Boston, Washington, D.C, and New York City. Over the past few months, TBBJ highlights how economic development centers and local startup support organizations have been actively recruiting promising tech companies to Tampa Bay.

Company: Intrinio

Elevator Pitch: A digital platform that provides affordable access to individual data feeds and fintech applications.

Position: Sales Development Representative

Position Highlights: Intrinio is looking for a hungry sales development representative to join its team and help qualify new sales opportunities, both inbound and outbound, and create new deals for our sales team. If you have experience identifying and qualifying new leads, are a good communicator and have worked in customer support, and enjoy working in a fast-paced environment, this is the job for you.

Apply Here

12 Things About Product-Market Fit
Ensuring your company has a product the market actually wants is the key to building a sustainable business that can scale. Oftentimes, early-stage founders believe that they have product-market fit before they actually do. On the Andreessen Horowitz blog, Tren Griffin shares observations, best practices, and insights from product-market fit pioneers to help founders better understand how to think about product-market fit and ways to ensure you actually have it before scaling your product.


How Superhuman Built an Engine to Find Product-Market Fit
When building a new product, knowing what is not a product-market fit is much easier than knowing what is. Rahul Vohra, Founder and CEO of Superhuman—a startup building the fastest email experience in the world—shares why current product-market fit descriptions are not useful to early-stage startups and how this led Superhuman to explore new ways of finding out what product-market fit meant for them. Rahul shares Superhuman's product-market fit playbook, including the benchmarks used, details on their feedback loop and how they used this data to build a roadmap rooted in customer needs.

How to Find Your Product-Market Fit by Former Microsoft PM
One of the toughest challenges for founders—and especially technical founders who are used to focusing so much on product features over sales—is striking “product-market fit." Matt Fleckenstein, Former Project Manager at Microsoft, shares with The Product Podcast how to find the right market fit for innovative technologies.
Listen Here

Florida Polytechnic University
eMerge Americas and Florida Polytechnic University are partnering to host a one-of-a-kind Pitch Night. A minimum of two startups will be selected to be fast-tracked directly into the 2020 eMerge Americas Global Startup Showcase in Miami. Florida Poly students and local entrepreneurs are encouraged to apply.
Deadline: January 31
Apply Here


500 Startups Marketing and Sales Bootcamp
500 Startups mentors will share the secrets and hacks they have used to grow startups. Topics include setting and tracking growth goals and reviewing your go-to-market strategy. This bootcamp is for founders of tech startups in pre-seed, seed and post-seed stages that have not yet raised a Series A or equity round.
Deadline: February 5
Apply Here


Volunteer at the 2020 Synapse Summit
Synapse is looking for volunteers to help with the 2-day conference taking place February 11 and 12. Volunteers are needed to help with pre-event, during event and post-event tasks. Participating volunteers receive a free ticket to the rest of the event with event parking comped, a Synapse t-shirt and a unique networking opportunity.
Deadline: February 9
Apply Here