The #MiamiTech Pod

Anna Skaya built Basepaws from “23andMe for cats” into a pet genetics company that ultimately sold to Zoetis in a nearly nine-figure exit.

But the path there was anything but straightforward. Anna was rejected by YC four times, initially turned down by Shark Tank, struggled to raise venture capital, navigated a painful co-founder split, and spent years hearing that her cat DNA company would never work.

In this episode, Anna shares how she turned that rejection into fuel, what she learned from Kevin O’Leary and Shark Tank, why founders should start building relationships with potential acquirers years before an exit, and what life after selling a company actually feels like.

Now a General Partner at Ani.VC, Anna also shares what she’s seeing next in pet tech and why she believes Miami could become a global hub for the industry.

Alex Wilson has already built and exited one crypto startup. Now he's doing it again.

After co-founding The Giving Block and selling it to Shift4 in 2021, Alex spent four years leading crypto at the payments company before leaving to launch Miami-based Cyclops.

Less than a year in, Cyclops has raised $28 million and grown to more than 30 employees, with a mission to change how money moves around the world.

In this episode, Alex shares what he's doing differently as a second-time founder, why investors were lining up to back Cyclops, what he learned from Shift4 founder Jared Isaacman, and why he believes Miami is one of the best places to build a company.

What does it actually take to win in venture capital?

Harlem Capital co-founder and Managing Partner Henri Pierre-Jacques joins Maria to unpack a decade of lessons. They talk about how to identify exceptional founders, why the best VC deals take years to build, the growing importance of an investor’s personal brand, and why founders should reference-check their VCs.

Henri also shares Harlem Capital’s approach to investment decisions, what it takes to make partner, how AI has changed the way he reflects and creates, and why he believes “winners want to be around winners.”

Skin cancer is the most common cancer in America, yet millions of people never receive the annual skin exam doctors recommend. So what if your primary care physician could detect suspicious moles in seconds using AI?

In this episode of the Miami Tech Pod, Maria sits down with Cody Simmons, Co-Founder and CEO of DermaSensor, the company behind America's first FDA-authorized, AI-powered skin cancer detection device.

Cody shares the incredible eight-year journey from research project to commercialization — including miniaturizing a 30-pound laboratory machine into a handheld device, navigating the tough FDA approval process, raising venture capital, and building one of Miami's most promising medical technology companies.

They also discuss:

• How DermaSensor works (and why it isn't just taking photos)
• Why primary care doctors miss up to half of melanomas
• The realities of building a healthcare startup versus software
• The future of AI in preventative healthcare
• Miami's evolution into a serious healthcare and technology hub

In this episode of the Miami Tech Pod, Maria sits down with Ricky Rosa, founder of Miami-based Oasis, the startup building what it believes is the next computer interface. Ricky shares how years of work led to a product that caught the attention of Marc Andreessen, generated millions of views worldwide, and is rethinking how we interact with AI.

In this episode, you'll learn:

•  Why Oasis says it's not building a smart ring — it's building the next computer interface 
•  The long-term vision for AI, voice, and what comes after the keyboard 
•  How Marc Andreessen became one of Oasis' earliest customers 
•  The launch strategy that generated 2.6 million views and unexpectedly took off in Japan 
•  Why Ricky ignored investor pressure to add health tracking and stayed laser-focused on one problem 
•  Why he believes the next generation of great startups will be built in hardware, not software
•  Why "greatness requires solitude" and how building from Weston helped him tune out the noise 

As AI-generated content floods the internet, one question is becoming increasingly important:

How do we know what's real?

In this episode of Miami Tech Pod, I sit down with Zach Meltzer, Founder & CEO of VeryAI, a Miami-based startup building technology that helps prove you're a real human online using nothing more than a scan of your palm.

Zach shares how his experience scaling Galxe to more than 32 million users exposed a growing problem with bots, fake accounts, and digital identity—and why he believes the internet needs a new layer of trust. We discuss biometrics, AI-generated content, agent verification, startup fundraising, and what it takes to build a deep-tech company from Miami.

We also dive into:

•  Why palm biometrics may be more secure than facial recognition 
•  The future of "Know Your Agent" (KYA) 
•  How AI is changing trust online 
•  Raising a $10M seed round led by Polychain Capital 
•  Why Zach chose to build VeryAI in Miami 
•  Lessons learned from scaling Galxe and founding a startup 

If you've ever wondered what the internet looks like when AI can create convincing humans, voices, and identities at scale, this conversation is for you. 

A Top VC’s Brutally Honest Advice for Founders (And Why Miami’s Just Getting Started)

Should founders raise venture capital? What actually makes someone fundable? And what does a top investor really look for in a founder?

In this episode of the Miami Tech Pod, Maria sits down with Ed Sim, founder of Boldstart Ventures and one of the most respected seed investors in tech, to unpack what separates great founders from everyone else — and why the future of AI (and Miami) is moving faster than most people realize.

We cover:

•  The founder traits Ed bets on (and the ones he avoids) 
•  The biggest misconception founders have about raising capital 
•  Why most people shouldn’t raise venture funding 
•  What AI changes about startups, work, and investing 
•  What Miami still needs to attract world class talent

Whether you’re building a startup, raising capital, or betting on Miami tech, this one is full of practical lessons.

Seawalls haven’t changed in over 100 years… until now.

In this episode, Anya Freeman shares how she left a legal career to build Kind Designs, a Miami-based startup using 3D printing to reinvent coastal infrastructure—making seawalls cheaper, stronger, and alive.

We get into:

•  Why traditional seawalls are failing (and costing homeowners $300K+) 
•  How “living seawalls” repair themselves and improve water quality 
•  The unexpected path from lawyer → climate tech founder 
•  How she navigated one of the toughest permitting environments in the country 
•  What it takes to scale a hard tech startup with a 10-person team 

A big thanks to our podcast home, The LAB Miami!

In this episode of the Miami Tech Pod, we sit down with Bruno Faviero, founder of Magna, the “Carta for crypto tokens,” to unpack how he built critical infrastructure for the web3 economy and navigated a rollercoaster journey from early traction through the crypto crash to a successful acquisition by Kraken / Payward. This conversation goes deep on building in emerging markets, scaling too fast, and what founders actually get wrong when raising capital.

We cover:

•  How Magna became the system of record for token ownership—and why tokens could replace equity 
•  The brutal reality of building through the Terra/Luna and FTX crashes 
•  Lessons from raising too much capital too early (and the cost of overhiring) 
•  Tactical advice on negotiating with VCs — and avoiding getting taken advantage of 
•  Why being a founder might be overrated (and when it’s actually worth it) 
•  What Miami still needs to become a true global crypto hub 

If you’re building, fundraising, or thinking about starting something in today’s market, this episode is packed with hard-earned lessons. Tune in to hear the full story.

In this episode of the Miami Tech Pod, Maria sits down with Elan Adler, founder of OneImaging, a fast-growing Miami startup on a mission to bring transparency, choice, and cost efficiency to one of the most opaque parts of healthcare: medical imaging.

Elan breaks down how the current system works (and why most people don’t realize they can choose where to get imaging done), how employers—not insurance companies—often bear the real cost, and why introducing marketplace dynamics could dramatically reduce healthcare spending.

They also cover:

•  Why 35% of people delay or skip care due to cost 
•  How faster access to imaging can directly impact health outcomes 
•  The surprising way insurance works (and who actually pays) 
•  OneImaging’s rapid growth to millions of covered lives 
•  Lessons from raising $31M in 6 weeks and why fundraising is just sales 
•  Why Miami is becoming a serious hub for healthcare innovation 

If you’ve ever wondered why healthcare feels so confusing—or how startups are reshaping it—this episode is for you.