by SherlockTalent
About Andrew Goldner
Andrew is a Founding Partner of GrowthX. He has been in the technology sector since 1998, based in New York City, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Palo Alto. Andrew began his career in technology as a lawyer for the early Internet pioneers in Search (Alta Vista and Yahoo), AdTech (DoubleClick), SaaS (Salesforce) and others while practicing law. He left private practice at Skadden Arps to join DoubleClick leading up to the Google acquisition and then co-founded a financial news business at Thomson Financial leading to the Reuters acquisition. He then served as Publisher of Reuters News and then Co-Founder and Managing Director of the company’s legal media business in Asia Pacific and the Middle East.
In Silicon Valley, Andrew was early at Guidespark, an employee communication SaaS startup, and BrightTalk, a content marketing SaaS startup. He then co-founded GoodMoney to democratize high-performance, values-based investing. During that “wonderful learning opportunity,” Andrew met his current partners and co-founded GrowthX.
Speaker, Thought Leader & Mentor – Andrew is a Kauffman Fellow, Regional Board Member of Venture for America, and a Mentor at Endeavor, Alchemist Accelerator and Galvanize. Andrew teaches Venture Capital at Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management. Andrew received his undergraduate degree from the University of Cincinnati and his law degree from Georgetown University.
by SherlockTalent
About Stephen Garber
Stephen Garber’s purpose is helping people create spectacular results by working passionately well, together.
He has been in the personal and organizational development world for over 30 years, learning and growing on his own continuing journey as he helps others on theirs.
Stephen is a cum laude graduate of Tufts University where he first studied the impact of who and how decisions are made in the workplace. His early journey included working in the hospitality and real estate development industries before he found his calling as an executive coach, facilitator, and consultant in leadership and team development.
Stephen has worked with companies great and small – including great names like Rolls Royce, Lloyds Bank, Accenture, Bank United, and Connection. He has been featured on television stations around the country including affiliates of Fox, NBC, and CBS. He supports Homesafe with his time and efforts – a service for kids in the foster care system in Palm Beach.
Stephen’s passion is helping people to apply their emotional intelligence to all that they do in life.
by SherlockTalent
South Florida’s tech sector is not growing talent as quickly as it should, according to billionaire entrepreneur Jim McKelvey.
The co-founder of mobile payment company Square was addressing more than 2,000 technology professionals gathered Thursday at ITPalooza at the Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward Convention Center.
McKelvey also said South Florida’s educational institutions can’t compete with places like New York. And that free education from his nonprofit LaunchCode is more valuable than a technology degree from a university that profits from those students enrolled.
LaunchCode trains people of all ages to be coders and guarantees them jobs if they graduate.
Lower-ranking education and less talent are two reasons why South Florida didn’t get the nod for Amazon’s second headquarters last month, even though it was among the 20 finalists, McKelvey said in an interview before his presentation at the annual event.
“Was [South Florida] really a finalist?” McKelvey said, pointing to Amazon’s selections of New York City and Northern Virginia for its two new campuses. “Let’s look at what they chose: high tax, low lifestyle, high talent. The educational attainment of those regions blows South Florida away.”
“I think some Amazon execs wanted to expense a trip to South Beach,” said McKelvey, who splits his time between South Florida and St. Louis, where Launch is based. “Were we really in contention? They went to where the talent was.”
South Florida can better compete for high-tech projects by improving education, he said.
The answer is “talent, talent, talent,” McKelvey said. “You have a phenomenal lifestyle down here. The business climate is fantastic, the infrastructure, tax advantages. … What are we missing? We’re missing, basically, the talent. The educational institutions of Miami are not world-class. We just don’t have it.”
“Sometimes you only need one thing not to work for everything not to work. Every programmer knows this. You can have a thousand lines of code and you can have only one little one that doesn’t work, and that stops the whole thousand from working,” he said.
LaunchCode operates in Miami but has plans to expand into Broward County. The program uses a Harvard University curriculum.
“We need a talent pipe, and that’s what we are at LaunchCode,” he said.
McKelvey said the free education provided by LaunchCode is more valuable to students and employers because LaunchCode programmers are being trained for what employers need.
Some audience members disagreed with McKelvey’s comments about academic education.
“I was furious,” said Yair Levy, professor of cybersecurity for Nova Southeastern University in Davie. He said NSU teaches students not only how to code, but also how to communicate and collaborate. And he said NSU updates its technology curriculum every year.
He said 20 years ago, programmers sat in a backroom coding. Today, they need more well-rounded skills because “they have to sit in front of venture capitalists.”
Alex Funkhouser, chairman of ITPalooza and CEO of Miami Beach-based recruiter SherlockTalent, said he agrees with McKelvey that South Florida needs to build a better educational infrastructure to lay the foundation for tech talent.
He said South Florida is making some progress in internships and apprenticeships for students through GetMyInterns.org, a program for high school students that works with Miami-Dade public schools. The program placed 3,000 students with local companies last summer and will be expanding to Broward, he said.
by Alex Funkhouser
Join over 100 of the regions top industry experts as they discuss pivotal topics of interest to the tech community.
This is the most content-rich ITPalooza in history. We have over 100 speakers, presenters, and panelists representing 35 panels, presentations, and training sessions!
Click to view complete agenda: https://itpalooza.org/agenda/
It’s hard to pick out favorites, however, the morning keynote with Mike Maier, CTO of the City of Fort Lauderdale and the CIO-VIP Luncheon Keynote with Jim McKelvey, founder of Square and LaunchCode, would have to be high on my list.
I know I’ve mentioned this before but I encourage you to bring a new unwrapped toy of any value to add to our toy wall.
Other highlights have to be the magnificent Toy Wall which we build every year in support of the Marine Toys for Tots. This year, our partner Neiman Marcus held an ITPalooza VIP toy drive at their exclusive Fort Lauderdale store.
by SherlockTalent
Jim McKelvey might be best known for co-founding Square, the mobile payment system, but his entrepreneurial spirit goes beyond inventing new technology. A 1987 graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, McKelvey is also a master glass artist and author, having written the world’s most widely read text on the subject, The Art of Fire.
About Jim McKelvey
McKelvey co-founded Square in 2009 with Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter, to enable small businesses to run their storefronts on a mobile device. Square has since grown to more than 2500 employees and a $25 billion valuation. In 2014, the company expanded its scope into the food-delivery market by acquiring Caviar; those moves landed McKelvey on Inc. Magazine’s “15 Entrepreneurs to Watch.”
by SherlockTalent
Join the CIO Council for an afternoon of networking and education, kicking off with the Joint CIO-VIP Lunch, keynote with Jim McKelvey, founder Square, and LaunchCode.
Speakers: Jim McKelvey, Jason White, Gary Berman, Pete Nicoletti, and more…
The CIO Council presents a series of activities and sessions focused on the CIO with speakers and presentations designed to address current CIO concerns and interests. The breakout sessions are designed for CIOs and their designated I.T. team members. Funds raised, support the CIO Council Scholarship Fund.
Learn more: https://itpalooza.org/session_track/cio-only/
