Fast Company magazine has recognized Florida as the Most Innovative State in the country for the year 2013 mainly because of significant increases in entrepreneurs, start-ups and investors in Florida. Fast Company based its ranking on statistics on newly launched private businesses, Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity, job creation by new businesses, and Startup America and Fundable performances.
Florida ranked high in revenue per startup in 2012, employment by companies less than three years old, rate of private-sector business launching in 2012, fundable entrepreneurs per million residents and fundable investors per million residents.
Taxation also figures significantly in the minds of entrepreneurs as most small-business owners file under personal income tax laws. It would help them a lot if they do not have to think so much about taxation when they are starting. This is one of the most attractive points of starting up a business in Florida, one of the few states that do not collect personal income taxes from its residents.
Another big factor is local effort. All over Florida, the business expansion and entrepreneurial effort is in high gear. Miami is pushing its hospitality-industry-focused information technology innovation; Orlando is supporting medical startups; Tampa is attracting biotechnology companies; and the state’s immigrant communities are attracting investments from their home countries.
Research programs in the top universities in Florida are also a big factor for business innovations. The top universities in the state are the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida State University in Tallahassee, University of South Florida in Tampa, University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida International University in Miami, University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Nova Southeastern University, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Florida Institute of Technology, and Stetson University in Deland.
The top colleges which are also ranking high in U.S. rankings are Rollins College in Winter Park, New College of Florida in Sarasota, and Eckerd College in St. Petersburg.
In February this year, a group of venture capitalists met in Orlando, Florida and expressed their readiness and commitment to fund startups companies. They were looking for startups in health care, Internet services, gaming, mobile payments, data analysis, online retail and digital forensic programs that help companies track and protect their online reputation.
According to the non-profit South Florida Technology Alliance, the original SmartPhone called The Simon was developed in South Florida in the 1990s. The ten top mobile startups in 2012, according to this nonprofit, were:
1. Modernizing Medicine, developing Electronic Medical Records
technology
2. Voispot, creating a social talk platform
3. AppwoRx, enhancing clinical photography for physicians
4. 3Cinteractive, created a consumer engagement platform
5. Alert.MD, enhanced medical application access technology
6. allAware, improved private social networking for nonprofits
7. appsbar, helping in the creation of mobile apps for free
8. Bareye, developed a social nightlife application
9. ConnectedCare by Watermark Medical, developed a remote
patient monitoring system for home care agencies
10. Consult a Doctor, launched cloud-based telemedicine services
for physicians