South Florida is becoming a mission-critical hub for defense innovation

There was a time, not so long ago, when the most high-stakes defense strategy in Miami involved choosing the right SPF or scouting a table at Joe’s Stone Crab before the rush. But look around today, and you’ll find that the Capital of Capital has traded in a few of our linen guayaberas for tactical vests. 

As if the recent eMerge Americas programming wasn’t clear enough (yes, DARPA was in the house, and xTech gave out $600K in non-equity funding to startups for problem sets with the 101st Airborne), it’s now fair to say that South Florida has become a mission-critical node in the U.S. national security ecosystem.