What did Silicon Valley investor, Mayor Suarez say in private Miami event. We have details

Silicon Valley entrepreneur and early Uber backer, Jason Calacanis, and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez held a wide-ranging discussion Wednesday night on the future of technology, Miami’s role, the importance of artificial intelligence, and what kind of startups appeal to the prolific angel investor.

The private event, held at citizenM hotel downtown at Miami Worldcenter, also touched on topics like podcasting, immigration, and the importance of maintaining friendships through political differences.

About 50 people turned out to listen to the question-and-answer conversation between Calacanis and Suarez, and most were invited local investors and entrepreneurs.

There were moments Wednesday that showed why Suarez, who was asking the questions, has become popular among many tech entrepreneurs and investors across the country even as critics view him mostly as a Miami marketer and industry cheerleader.

On one occasion, the mayor recognized Miami entrepreneurs in the audience, saying “I see a couple of good founders in here,” and started naming several of them, including Andrew Parker, CEO and founder of Papa. “That’s a good story.”

Calacanis responded, “It’s pretty amazing that the mayor knows who the founders are in town.”

The venture investor, whose holdings include multiple Miami startups, and the mayor have developed a friendship in recent years. Calacanis explained one reason why to the audience. “You actually see entrepreneurs as these amazing, wonderful people who take a ton of risk to change the world, to build products and services for people and create jobs.

“That’s why Miami is doing so exceptionally well.”

On Wednesday evening, Calacanis reiterated what he told the Miami Herald in an interview this week, that he sees the recent layoffs at large tech companies like Google and Microsoft as a potential catalyst for a new wave of entrepreneurs.

“This is probably the best time ever to start a company,” he said. “It’s quite paradoxical because we just went through this big correction and all these layoffs are happening.”

Calacanis said his team usually meets with about 3,000 companies a year and financially backs about 150 of them. This year though, he expects to invest in a larger number of startups, albeit for smaller amounts.

When asked by Suarez what startups or entrepreneurs he is most likely to back, he emphasized he does not limit himself to specific sectors “because a lot of verticals where we’ve seen success did not exist previously.” He cited Uber, the ride-hailing company, as one example.

The investor was bullish generally on the importance of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and augmented reality.

“AI and machine learning might be underhyped,” Calacanis said. He cited weather and healthcare as two areas that could be even further transformed from the application of those technologies.

And he thinks augmented reality will boom once Apple comes out with its smartglasses. “That’ll inspire a lot of interesting apps and products just like the mobile phone did,” he said.

Calacanis added that, “The augmentation of human insight is going to be unprecedented and I think we can’t fully understand the ramifications of it.”

The two men did not discuss cryptocurrency — Calacanis has been critical of crypto — even though it was hard not to notice even during the event. The citizenM hotel sits directly across from the arena where the Miami Heat play, still with the FTX name on it visible to all attending the event.

The global cryptocurrency trading firm abruptly imploded late last year and its ex-CEO faces criminal charges. FTX’s name still dots the arena, under the defunct company’s $135 million naming-rights deal inked in 2021 with Miami-Dade County. County officials and FTX severed the deal, so soon the name will be coming off the building now temporarily called Miami-Dade arena.

Suarez at one point looked towards towards the nearby arena and joked “next door is rebranded. That’s interesting. I’ll have to go there,” as laughter broke out in the crowd.

The discussion stayed away from politics except for the two men’s standard criticism of the media.

Calacanis, however, did call for a more nuanced discussion of immigration.

Noting he’s seventh or eighth generation Irish, the angel investor said he’d like to see the U.S. recruit more entrepreneurs from other nations.

“There’s great value in letting people immigrate to this country,” Calacanis said.

Venture Miami, an arm of the city dedicated to luring tech and finance firms here, co-organized Wednesday’s forum with officials from host citizenM hotel.