Opportunity Miami

Miami is a place where sea-level rise, extreme heat, and storm intensification collide with the realities of a growing, globally connected city. But Miami is emerging not only as the testing ground for climate challenges through innovation but also as the global hub for the solutions that will define how we assess and manage environmental risk. At the center of this is the Environmental Finance and Risk Management program at Florida International University, designed to rethink how we can better quantify and respond to environmental risk.

Florida’s economic future flows through the Everglades. It is not only the source of drinking water for nearly eight million residents across the South Florida region, but it also has a direct impact on our tourism, real estate values, and more. The Everglades generates over $1 trillion in value and nearly $31.5 billion in annual economic benefits for the region, according to the central finding of the Everglades Foundation’s recent report, Thriving Everglades, Thriving Economy: Nature’s Value in the Everglades. Dr. Meenakshi Chabba, Ecosystem and Resilience Scientist and one of the report’s authors, puts it plainly: “Miami and South Florida wouldn’t exist without the Everglades.”

In 1987, long before cloud computing and AI, a small group of technologists in the Bay Area saw how nonprofit organizations wanted to use technology to advance their missions, but lacked access, affordability, and the know-how. That’s when TechSoup was born, first as a matching service between “geeks” with technical expertise and social activists with big ideas but little IT support, explains Rebecca Masisak, Executive Chair at TechSoup Global. Four decades later, TechSoup has evolved into a global marketplace serving 1.4 million nonprofits in over 200 countries, distributing more than $15 billion in technology resources and training to organizations of every size and cause. It also supports almost *all* of the nonprofits in Miami-Dade County.

When most entrepreneurs think of government contracts, they picture red tape, slow approvals, and paperwork nightmares. The Rapid Innovation Accelerator is here to help change that. “Our job is to support emerging technology businesses to get access to federal contracting opportunities,” said Solomon Stavis, Director of the RIA in Miami. Based at The LAB Miami in Wynwood, RIA-Miami is on a mission to help small businesses and emerging tech startups access federal government opportunities.

Over the past two years, Juan Carlos (JC) Liscano has served as Chair of The Miami-Dade Beacon Council and Co-Chair of Opportunity Miami. During this time, the Vice President of American Airlines’ Miami hub has demonstrated to us what vision and service can accomplish. “Economic development touches many parts of our community, but the success of Miami is predicated on having a really strong economic development agency. The Beacon Council is exactly that.”

American Airlines is the largest private employer in Miami-Dade County, employing over 15,000 people with a payroll impact of nearly $2 billion.  “We’ve been a hub at Miami for more than three and a half decades, and we’ve always functioned on the premise that what’s good for Miami is good for American — and not the other way around,” he said. “American Airlines is inextricably linked to this market. I love that we’re Miami’s hometown airline.”

In the heart of Miami, on the fifth floor of the Omni building, something bigger than a coworking space is taking shape. The HUB is not just about “shared internet, shared desk, but more importantly, shared purpose,” says founder and CEO Noelle Jackson. The HUB was created to give startups and small businesses more than a physical address — it was built to give them a home. Jackson, who has spent her life as an entrepreneur, saw both the gaps and the opportunities in Miami’s business ecosystem.

If Miami wants to lead as a global tech hub, it must do more than attract companies—it must create opportunities for talent of today, talent of tomorrow, and talent from all backgrounds. “Talent is everywhere, but opportunity isn’t,” said Michael Ellison, co-founder and CEO of CodePath.org, the nonprofit reshaping computer science education and career pathways for underserved students. For Ellison, the key to Miami’s future lies in embedding access directly where students are—community colleges and state schools—so the next generation of engineers can drive innovation in AI, cybersecurity, fintech, and beyond. “It just is painfully obvious. You need to embed it where people are, and hopefully for free or as low a cost as you possibly can,” he explained.

Imagine thousands of electric vehicles across Miami working together to support our power grid during a hot summer afternoon. That is the near future Casper Rasmussen envisions for the EV charging industry. “All the magic happens on the software side,” said the CEO and co-founder of Monta, a Copenhagen-based EV charging software company that recently made Miami its North American headquarters. Monta’s mission is to make charging as seamless as filling up a gas tank, powered by software that connects drivers, charging stations, and the grid itself.

To transform the entrepreneurial landscape, culture is not only a necessity but an asset.

As Felecia Hatcher puts it: “Culture is our capital.”

As CEO of Pharrell Williams’ nonprofit, Black Ambition, she aims to reframe how we view success, innovation, and economic opportunity for historically marginalized entrepreneurs. Their most valuable assets: creativity, influence, resilience, and community.

“I don’t think there’s an area of culture, community or even continents that hasn’t been influenced by diverse entrepreneurs. The opportunity is to turn that influence into ownership and wealth,” she said.

In Miami, we’re always chasing what’s next. What was once a tourist destination is now a rising global finance, technology, and real estate hub. But with opportunity comes responsibility. Miami’s changing landscape is redefining how we grow, and real estate sits at the center, uniquely positioned to lead with vision, adaptability, and long-term impact. "Sustainability is really impacting the real estate industry,” said Angela Kyle, Vice President of Client Sustainability Partnerships for JLL, one of the world’s largest real estate services firms. Learn how unlocking climate capital in Miami’s real estate market can lead to a low-carbon future.