Tampa Bay had a little celebration this week as a women-owned start-up called gr8code received $5.4 million investment.
This is big for a number of reasons. It is one of the largest investments in a women-owned start-up in Florida. It is early stage money for a Tampa Bay based start-up, which is almost unheard of in this community.
GR8code is a school to learn how to code. It is a 9 week course. The start-up community in Greater Tampa Bay has been expanding the last few years. Notably, Eventjoy, a two-year old start-up in Tampa that launched at Startup Weekend Tampa Bay was acquired by Ticketmaster recently.
At the Startup Surge event a couple of months ago, over 80 startups attended to speak with the mentors. Many of these startups -- and existing businesses in the Greater Tampa Bay area -- seek coding talent, which GR8code could potentially provide.
I know this is outside the telecom window, but I'm kind of proud of Tampa Bay's tech scene right now. As co-founder of IGNITE Tampa and BarCamp Tampa Bay, it's nice to see the tech community get invested.