 This is where it all begins. So say goodbye to all your fears all your doubts This is where they die. This is where we come to win. This is where we make our dreams come to So Miami is is equally American and Latin American just inherent in part of the immigrant experience the exile experience in particular It's kind of a hustle, right? You're seeking out a better future. I think that's true for America as a whole Whether you kind of settled the West whether you were the Irish or the Polish or even kind of the founding fathers You were looking for something better, right? And so that hustle that ethos that desire for the American dream to be more for your kids to do more and have more opportunities that's ever present here. We are entrepreneurs like by Blood here, right? It is in our system to be testing things and hustling and grinding and that's just who we are as a city Really importantly, we have the anchor institutions. I think universities and colleges play a big role That's gonna help kind of create then the new generation, right? We're an early ecosystem, but we're we're eager to to build it and And I think it's a matter of time for me It was really a dream to try to move to the US and build a company and Miami seemed like a great place to do it There's so much entrepreneurship In fact, it was just picked the top city for entrepreneurship by the the coffin foundation and it's always been in the top two or three So it's a great place to do it and if you can live where everybody else vacations. It's a pretty nice lifestyle. We have probably the most amazing environment for testing and and adopting medical technologies healthcare products and so if you think about wanting to Test something if you're gonna break it it'll break here If it works here, then there's a good chance you can take it anywhere in the country It's been a majority minority city for a long time already And so I think that the country is all moving in that direction, right? And I think that's somewhere where we can lead as an example of you know This is how we can all live together and work together in every individual problem area There's dozens of people all at the same time trying to solve that problem And they often view each other as competition, you know, why would I give to you instead of them? Why would I invest in your thing and why are you better than them? That's the wrong question It's the wrong orientation But the right question is like was it gonna take to solve that problem and how many of you can get your heads together and do Something bigger and bolder There's enough money here to build bigger bolder ideas and the ones we've got going already If we would trust ourselves to go bigger than we've already done and to say like here's what I've got What do you got like what what could we do if we did together? We are gonna be the voices that Will be rebranding and reshaping the city, right? And if we're gonna be those voices who are gonna be building non-profit for-profit companies Then we're gonna be demanding better ways smart city practices, you know But because nobody else will health and education are connected because they are the two fundamental investments in people Education defines your future and health defines your present So if we really believe that it's the human capital that counts the most Then we have to invest in people what drives me is really making sure that especially our children have access to The opportunities that they deserve to be able to be you know productive healthy citizens We need to make sure that everyone has equitable access to the opportunities and if we get it right I think it's gonna be a model for the rest of the nation a lot of of people growing up They don't know their options because they have not been exposed to Options right and until someone sort of kind of pops that bubble and get you outside of that bubble You don't know, you know, you don't know what's out there and and then you don't have the examples set before you You know to really to really go out there and do it and I think that once you expose individuals to their options There are a lot more open to exploring if it's possible for them But you got to lead them and when you start to form real meaningful relationships with kids You start to uncover some of the obstacles that are standing between them in success Those obstacles and the access to music are all rooted in inequities and injustices in our society and larger systemic issues and my mission is always to try to find ways to Create jobs for our students a little bit about Miami-Dade College like it's the largest education institution in the country and We graduate more Latins and African-Americans than any other institution in the country We have the raw material meaning we have a lot of wealth But there's a gap there around how it's activated and deployed around startups and more risky things that are not you know Real estate or some of these more proven rate of return type projects. And so that's a gap that we can fill That's a gap that's in our expertise. I wanted to do something that made us smile and I wanted to also train our employees In the most marketable skills possible. We knew that they weren't going to be in popsicles forever And so we set it on like just doing this Literally a one-day event for our employees like their friends and their family and like we're gonna teach you how to code and we're gonna bring all our cool friends that do really cool stuff and We end up having over 80 people show up I moved back to Miami to start my company here because I wanted to build here and I really believe we have the capabilities here. I started off working in a machine shop Building my high school battle bots and that's what got me hooked And I was like I want to make things and I can make things being an engineer and it's what led me to To college my dad paid for his engineering degree while being a mechanic for me I see it as a way to help the community to help people that might not have access to same educational opportunities to to have people have easier access to To great incomes. We are a cultural capital in the world There's no doubt about it and what sets us apart from other cities that are cultural capitals is our cultural mix You won't find this kind of cultural mix anywhere else in the world it is really unique to Miami and that mix of cultures and heritage and traditions and and live arts backgrounds really is what Sets this city apart from any other in a 10 year stretch one billion dollars was invested in Cultural infrastructure no other city in the United States has put a billion dollars into cultural infrastructure for 50 years Once you make that step once you take that step graduate to that level The entire city lifts itself because imaginations are on fire everywhere and It has made a difference a lady from the Seattle group comes to me and she says Billard, do you realize that you are Hispanic your minority you're brown you are an immigrant and you are a kick-ass entrepreneur and And I don't know if it was it was that and it was a stepping outside like my bubble of the day to day That made me realize like you know what it's true. We need to own who we are we need to own the success the fears the Opportunities that we bring as women we have this light inside of us that we need to let shine and illuminate really brightly But we we dull it and dim it down sometimes because we don't see those role models never I talked to someone about the city I always said this is the time where you want to be here because you can really sort of be a part of the growth of it And you can really have a hand in how Miami moves and want to become