Recently, we launched the Vultr Cloud Alliance and kicked things off with our fantastic "Cloud As You Are” inaugural event in Miami, home to both Vultr and a thriving tech scene. The Alliance is a new partner ecosystem of best-of-breed companies shaping the cloud computing market and embracing the principles of openness and composability. It’s all designed to make it easy for digital innovators and established enterprises to choose and assemble the right cloud computing infrastructure and services for each company’s unique needs profile.
The "Cloud as You Are” event enabled us to roll out the Vultr Cloud Alliance to the digital business community in Miami and beyond. With our partners, we showcased everything a high-tech company or established enterprise needs to accelerate the build, test, and deployment of new digital applications and AI-powered services.
To say the event was fabulous is an understatement. The room was filled with energy (tremendous enthusiasm for the composable approach to cloud), potential (great opportunities for networking within the Miami tech scene), and insight (bold vision provided by a distinguished panel of industry investors).
Our VC panel included Nekeshia Woods, Managing Partner, Parkway VC; Salomon Sredni, Managing Director, Ocean Azul; and Michael True, CEO of Prescient AI. Here’s some of what they had to say.
What are the most vital trends you see emerging today?
To kick things off, Salomon Sredni captured both the mood of the "Cloud as You Are” event and the pace of the broader Miami tech scene, particularly from the perspective of emerging digital companies. He said, "Cloud enables digital innovators to get going very quickly. In the old days, you had to put up a bank of computers; now you can start a new venture in hours – which means the cloud infrastructure you choose to set up your company is critical. From our perspective, it’s an exciting time for entrepreneurs, folks that want to disrupt the status quo.”
Nekeshia Woods continued that theme, saying, "Miami has the right foundation as far as an ecosystem to attract capital. When capital flows, founders follow, and the network forms. That brings more thought leaders, advisors, and strategic partners that founders can access.”
Michael True commented on how Miami itself is trending. "I came down here three years ago, and in that time I’ve seen so much change in the direction we want things to be moving. There’s so much support for tech in Miami, and we’re seeing many more VCs and startups make their way down here.”
What are you most excited about and hesitant about?
Michael True: "What’s occurring in the AI world is fascinating and a bit concerning because no one really knows the implications of what can come. We’re making a lot of great strides in data privacy, but more needs to happen. I’m excited to see how that evolves into us delivering value to customers.”
Salomon Sredni: "Every company needs to have an AI strategy. You can leverage AI to interact with customers, advertise and create content. If you don’t have an AI strategy or develop one quickly, you will become extinct.”
Nekeshia Woods: "The biggest thing is the humanoid robotic. Great potential, but lots of people are nervous about this technology and how it’s being built. In the next couple of years, this technology will change the way we manage labor. It’s extremely exciting, and we all need to be ready for it.”
Looking at the Miami ecosystem, what are our most significant liabilities?
Michael True: "It’s important for Miami to stay integrated, with all industries working together. The greatest innovation is underway with AI. We need the right new companies to get started on a consistent basis, which stems from the community.”
Salomon Sredni: "It’s a marathon, not a sprint. We are here for the long term. Companies need to be similarly committed. It’s a long-term play. San Francisco, Boston, Tel Aviv were not built in short periods of time. Miami needs to understand that.”
Nekeshia Woods: "We need new voices all the time. There are a lot of stats on women founders and women in VC. That makes it simple to track. From an overall perspective, it’s a matter of being more intentional. From the VC perspective, we are definitely out there; it’s just a matter of identifying women and people of color. It’s front of mind for a lot of people.”
How have your investments changed?
Salomon Sredni: "We prefer B2B today. We don’t do anything in the consumer product space. But the fundamentals are still the same. We’re looking at an entrepreneur and their team and assessing if they will be successful. If we invest early, it’s because we trust the team and like the space. We invest in companies that can win and which we can help.”
Nekeshia Woods: "Our investment strategy has not changed. It remains very intentional, as our co-founders were entrepreneurs. So we’re thinking about the founders. Can they also be operators, and where can we add the most value? We have always been into deep technology – quantum computing, data science –we’re going to continue to build on that.”
What advice would you give to startup founders today?
Nekeshia Woods: "Be nimble when it comes to your source of funding. Be flexible. It’s not just VC; there are grants, strategic partners, and other ways to raise capital.”
Salomon Sredni: "If you have a great idea and you have great conviction, you will find a partner and a VC that believes in you. Don’t worry about your valuation on day one. Build milestones. If you build a great engine and meet your milestones, you’ll be able to raise money at a higher valuation.”
Michael True: "Find a problem you are passionate about and continuously iterate and have conversations with the VC community. Have a thorough understanding of what it takes to have them write a check. In a tough market, it is still possible to raise capital.”
The Vultr Cloud Alliance
Our belief in the future of innovation drives us to make composable cloud infrastructure easy, affordable, and ubiquitous. The Vultr Cloud Alliance brings those guiding principles to life, enabling both new and established businesses to select from a verified marketplace of leading IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS providers. The Alliance gives companies a simple, intuitive control panel that makes it easy to deploy infrastructure and add services from one central portal, accelerating their ability to go to market.
Developers can find every kind of cloud service to perform all types of workloads, from the most advanced resources optimized for AI and ML initiatives to everything an organization needs on the back end to run all business operations – regardless of location. The Vultr Cloud Alliance provides a choice of more than 32 global data center locations, enabling customers to set up cloud operations in the markets they serve, preserving data sovereignty, reducing transmission and backhaul costs, and decreasing latency, all while improving performance and enabling powerful edge compute instances.
Our choice to stage the "Cloud As You Are” event in Miami is our endorsement of the next great U.S. hub for digital innovation, but breakthrough innovation can happen anywhere, so everywhere is where Vultr intends to be.
Look for new partners to join the Vultr Cloud Alliance. And keep watching this space for the newest and best in composable cloud. We’ll meet you where you are to help your business thrive.
