St. Pete and the Tampa Bay region have quietly become one of the nation’s favorite data analytics and technology hubs, drawing workers eager to be part of an innovative and supportive tech community with an outstanding quality of life.
Find your fortune in St. Pete
Tampa Bay is repeatedly climbing the lists of best tech hubs. In its roundup of best tech clusters in the South in 2024, which includes Tampa-St. Pete-Clearwater, Commercial Café highlighted the growing prominence of smaller metros, noting that
“For small to medium-sized tech companies, these markets offer opportunities to build their brand quickly and tap into local talent pools not yet dominated by larger, household-name firms. It also means talent doesn’t have to leave smaller metros for bigger destinations, which creates a win-win for companies seeking skilled workers and professionals looking to build careers closer to home.”
FinanceBuzz named Tampa-St. Pete-Clearwater the #2 place in Florida for tech jobs in 2024, analyzing factors like tech job competition, salaries, cost of living, and per capital tech job availability, noting that, “Home to some of America’s top-rated beaches, the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro area also boasts a perfect score when it comes to the number of highly rated tech companies.” In 2021, the Tampa Bay region was the #1 region in Florida for tech employee relocation and #6 in the nation.
When Enrico Palmerino, founder of automated bookkeeping solution Botkeeper was looking for a new corporate headquarters location, he was impressed by the local workforce, saying,
“When you are building a company you want to build in a place where the talent pool is growing and where the market isn’t over saturated. Next you look at the population age to gauge the potential workforce, and Tampa Bay also has benefited from a migration of people out of Miami and up to Tampa Bay. With this migration have come a lot of engineers that were a part of the Miami crypto boom, which is a great pool to pull from for machine learning and AI engineering.”
St. Pete has an array of space for tech companies looking to grow. spARK Labs by ARK Invest, the Maritime Defense & Technology Hub in the St. Pete Innovation District, and Thrive DTSP all provide structured and informal support to growing tech companies and provide the flexibility they need. Larger companies are welcomed in the Class A space in and around downtown and in the Gateway/Carillon District. As companies grow, St. Pete accommodates them. CitrusAd, a retail media platform that opened its U.S. headquarters in St. Pete in 2021 opened in shared office space at Thrive DTSP. Since opening, the e-commerce ad network has hired more than 100 team members, about 60% of them in St. Pete. To accommodate that growth, the company moved to larger offices at 200 Central.
The region provides extensive support for tech companies. spARK Labs by ARK Invest and Tampa Bay Wave accelerator programs offer the opportunity for tech startups to take off through cohort education and mentorship. Tampa Bay Tech helps tech professionals at all levels to advance their careers and their companies through their CIO/CTO, CEO, Emerging Leaders, and InnovatHERS & Allies Councils. In addition, an informal network of tech leaders welcomes new people to the region. As Marissa Huggins, co-founder of data analytics platform Spontivly said,
“Although the palm trees were convincing, it’s the community that compelled us to settle our roots here for the long-term.”
Local programs and higher-education institutions support St. Pete’s data analytics industry and a highly skilled workforce. USF-St. Petersburg and St. Petersburg College offer curriculum and applied experience opportunities at varying levels in predictive analytics, information technology, business management, systems networking, mathematics, statistics, and digital media, while nearby Florida Polytechnic University offers Florida’s only completely STEM-based curriculum.
Data analytics and technology companies reap the benefits of doing business in St. Pete. Corporate taxes are low, and there are no state personal income or capital gains taxes, making living here and selling a business here advantageous. In addition, St. Pete is ranked Florida’s #1 best-run city.
Venture capital investment continues to expand, and there is increased local funding from VCfirms like TampaBay.Ventures, Florida Funders, and Seedfunders.
Because there’s more to life than being in front of a computer screen, tech execs and employs revel in all that St. Pete has to offer. From arts and culture downtown to living the salt life on the beach or bay, St. Pete provides a uniquely balanced environment that helps companies attract and retain top talent.
A hallmark of business in St. Pete is collaboration, and data analytics and tech is no exception. In this tight-knit community, businesses often find ways to work together. Data analytics firm PVM (which relocated to St. Pete in 2022) is partnering with tech defense company Pole Star (which opened its U.S. HQ in St. Pete in 2020) to enhance the U.S. Coast Guard’s Track Management System to improve maritime security. Spontivly, a data analytics platform that relocated from Canada to St. Pete in 2022, is partnering with procure-2-pay provider Bedrock to help them deliver real-time spend analytics and advanced supplier performance insights to procurement and sourcing leaders. Bedrock also relocated its headquarters to St. Pete in 2022.
Reuben Pressman, founder & CEO of edtech startup Presence and former City of St. Petersburg Entrepreneur in Residence, describes himself as “St. Pete’s #1 fan.” He founded the company, which developed student engagement software, in St. Pete in 2012 and grew it to 40 employees before Presence was acquired by Modern Campus for an undisclosed sum. He is currently developing paddle club St. Pete Athletic, which will offer pickleball, padel, and table tennis under one roof.
Serial entrepreneur Chad Nuss relocated to St. Pete from Silicon Valley after starting and selling two companies there. After co-founding sales innovation firm Inside Out (acquired by Harte Hanks), he moved to document automation platform PandaDoc, St. Pete’s first unicorn. He currently serves as chief commercial officer for Glassbox, an AI-fueled customer intelligence provider. Talking about relocating to the Sunshine City, Nuss said,
“We wanted to be here because it feels like the early stage of growth. It felt like the 1995 San Francisco when Netscape put out a little CD and we started building browsers. A lot of this is timing, that you can build here. There’s room to play, and room to grow, and room to matter.”
Find your fortune in St. Pete
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The St. Pete EDC is located at 111 2nd Ave NE, Ste. 610, St. Petersburg, FL 33701. Parking is available in the Plaza LAZ lot located next to the building; use GPS for 221 1st St N, St. Petersburg, FL 33701, which is near the entrance located on 1st Street N. between 2nd and 3rd Avenues.
Parking is $5/hour for the first 3 hours and $20 thereafter; it is a card payment facility only (no cash). Visitor parking is on the 1st and 4th floors; please note there is no handicapped access from the parking garage above the first floor.
There is also surrounding street parking; pay with ParkMobile or in the Sundial Garage located 2 blocks away.
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