 Welcome back folks of Dow. Dow's down 215 to get the Nasdaq off 110, S&P's are off 27. We'll get some selling committees to close, no doubt. I guess today folks is Richard Horuska. Richard is the executive director of the Thai Tampa Bay Network. This is a non-profit organization devoted to entrepreneurs in all industries and stages. Their mission is to foster entrepreneurship through the robust Thai network. Richard, welcome to TFNN. Thanks, Tom. It's awesome to be here. We appreciate it. So tell us first off about exactly what the Thai Tampa Bay is. So Thai actually is a global organization founded in Silicon Valley in 1992. The organization now has over 60 chapters worldwide and we were founded locally in Tampa Bay in 2012. Predominantly the organization was founded by folks from the Indian community a good 30 years ago but now the organization has grown to support all entrepreneurs no matter their background. So we do a couple of key things. We fund entrepreneurs. We mentor entrepreneurs. We educate entrepreneurs and we network with fellow entrepreneurs. So those are kind of the four key pillars of Thai Tampa Bay. Nice. And you've seen quite a difference now since 2012, you said you opened, right? Yeah, sure have. So what's pretty fascinating about the organization. So I'm actually the volunteer leader and the president of the organization. We just brought on a full-time executive director. The organization has predominantly been led by volunteers locally in the community. So that's what's pretty fascinating. But we really wanted to kind of grow to the next level. We just brought on our first full-time executive director, Mona Patel and she was just named Business Journal 2525 just this morning. Well congratulations, man. That's great news. You know, and it's been no doubt really intriguing for all of us to kind of run that Tampa Bay has had these last basically 10 years. You know, and it's intriguing. I told a couple other entrepreneurs, you know, I've been down here 25 years but I remember when Boston wasn't the Boston that people see right now. In fact, one of my offices was right beside the guy that Lotus 123. Mitch had three people in his office. I had 25 and he had three. So it was just really cool how fast things can go, right? When you have a support system. No question. You know, I've, when I was an entrepreneur earlier in my career I didn't have the benefit of having the ecosystem we have now. And there once was a time in Tampa Bay where maybe once a year there'd be a big company with a big successful sale of their company or maybe one company would be moving to the area now. It's like once a week. Others is coming called fast. They just moved, you know, you can't keep up with all the momentum. So now we were just named the top tech city, I believe by Forbes. So yeah, we're, I believe we're unstoppable to use a mantra of my alma mater USF. I like it. So let me ask you, you know, I saw that Dr. Patel is on there and what ends up happening like in any big city folks, you know, I believe he was in the medical business, right? Sure was. Made a huge, you know, entrepreneur. They had a lot of patents. It's really cool that you have someone like that and then they're willing to basically, whether it's fund, I use the Rolodex, I get education going so that the next crowd, you know, meaning whether it can be people in their fifties, forties, thirties, you know, twenties to get going, right? Can you talk a little bit about that? Yeah, no questions. So when I first became the volunteer leader and president, you know, him being the chairman emeritus, I just kind of thought he was more there for overall support and I had the pleasure meeting him one on one and was so gracious with his time. And he is very hands on. Actually, I get consistent emails from him and direction and call me one time with some advice. So yeah, he's been an unbelievable advocate for what we do and a great supporter and him and his wife, their foundation is an annual sponsor as well. And then also his son, Sheila, he's become incredibly involved in the chapter as well. He actually spoke at our first in person event that we had with Commissioner Weigel, the statewide financial regulation commissioner and other cool news. We just got accepted to embark collective. So in addition to having a full-time executive director, we actually have a place to call home now. So we're trying to move on up, my friend. Well, that is awesome. And you know, with Dr. Patel, it's interesting, you know, before the crash, I actually was in his office interviewing him. And I know, I know you're talking about hands on. And folks, it's really cool, man. Like, picture this, when you have someone that's been so successful and this guy's just right down to earth. I mean, like, it was just the normal thing saying, Tom, I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. And it was like, man, and he had the, he had the, he had all these real estate models inside his office when we were interviewing him. So it was really cool, man. There's no doubt. So, so yacht, when we say Tampa Bay, it's Tampa Bay, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, I mean, the reality anyone can come to some of your meetings, right? 100%. Yeah. We have an open membership for kind of all entrepreneurs. And we have kind of an extra kind of, you know, special group called our charter members. Those are what I call a kind of heart and soul of a Thai Tampa Bay, very successful executives, entrepreneurs. It's an annual membership of 1200 a year. And excuse me one second. What's up? Okay. I'm on a live interview champ. So the joys of entrepreneurship and having three boys at home while your wife had a meeting, you know, that's good. I like it. Listen, man. That's where it's at. And to him, the big urgency was that the lesson for his basketball didn't show up yet. So I love it. No more problems in the day of COVID that we live in. But anyway, so yeah, it's just been a fascinating run. And the charter members, we have over 40 now and we're looking to set a bunch, Mark, to get to past the 100 by the end of next year. And one thing I want to share, Tom, with you and your listeners and as well as we just partner with the Thai Lana and Thai Carolina chapters and came together and our charter members invested over $400,000 into women and minority entrepreneurs. So that's just another example of Thai doing its part to help the underrepresented community. And what do you find is there a certain niche that we're getting in the Tampa Bay area, meaning entrepreneurship or is this kind of spread out? You know, that's a phenomenal question. So I used to be the accelerator director at the Tampa Bay Wave and now I'm a part of Embark Collective and I support all the fellow entrepreneur support organizations. I would say health tech, cyber and secure tech, marketing, advertising tech, education tech is really growing as well. So those are some of the financial tech is rapidly growing. Actually the Wave just announced its new accelerator and FinTech. So, you know, those are some of the top sectors that come to mind. But the great thing is these entrepreneurs, they've got ideas. You know, there used to be a time you had to build a company in the other markets, but now the access to capital and the support network is there. So, yeah, we're seeing tons of different models emerge. And we certainly have the place to live. We know that. You got it, my friend. There's no doubt about that. Well, listen, folks, you can get hold of them by, it's tamper.tai.org, right? Yes. So tamper.tai.org, folks. Okay, check it out. Richard, this has been awesome. We appreciate all the help. We appreciate the education. We appreciate you marketing Tampa Bay, man, and getting these entrepreneurs going and helping them out, man. Yeah. And I would say for my friend J.P. Dubuque and the St. P.E.D.C., who's a rock star, I would say our Tampa St. Pete is definitely the way to further market it. So there's no doubt, man. There's no doubt. Okay, man. Listen, you have a great one. Safe one. We look forward having you on again. All right. Thank you. Thank you.