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Florida Funders is a hybrid between a venture capital fund and an investor network

Florida Funders is a hybrid between a venture capital fund and an investor network that discovers, funds, and builds early-stage technology companies.

11/02/2026

Samyr Qureshi’s fallback plan was the job he already had. That made the decision to start a company far easier to commit to.

He was excelling in his corporate role but no longer felt challenged by it, and he was paying close attention to a shift in technology he believed in. When a $100 million company approached him with an offer, he saw it as confirmation that others recognized his potential. He chose to trust his instincts and build something of his own.

On the latest episode of Skin in the Game, Samyr shares the other signals that gave him the confidence to make the leap and how that decision changed his career trajectory. Listen to the full episode:

10/28/2026

Saxon, Rachael, Jake, and Michael spent a packed week in San Francisco at SF Tech Week with the newly closed FLF Accelerate Fund in hand. Tech Week is a citywide series of events hosted by founders, funds, and operators, and our team made the most of it.

The anchor was a16z speedrun Demo Day. Before it, we mapped the full SR007 batch and vetted our shortlist within our network so we could spend the day on founders instead of first impressions. Between Demo Day, a dinner we hosted with the speedrun team, and time with the SR007 founders we're backing, it was rewarding to see the Accelerate Fund strategy come to life.

Each of us came home with something different to share. Here are our team's takeaways from the trip.

Thanks to the founders who shared their time and to the speedrun for an incredible week.

10/27/2026

Before Knack, Samyr Qureshi was selling candy out of his backpack.

By college, he'd moved on to a T-shirt printing business run out of a garage. His self-described "growth hacker" instinct showed up early.

Samyr also grew up with a mindset many immigrant families know well, where a stable career and a 401(k) are the goal. He respects that view. He also sees the other side of the immigrant experience, the hustle behind many of Silicon Valley's most successful founders.

After a lot of conversations with the people closest to him, he decided to build while he was young enough to take the risk. He tells Saxon the full story on Skin in the Game.

Listen to the episode here: https://hubs.la/Q04BMZ6j0

10/26/2026

Samyr Qureshi left a corporate career at 21 to start a company. More than a decade later, he knew it was time to step away from it.

Samyr grew up as an immigrant in Tampa and went on to found Knack, a peer-to-peer learning platform that grew into a B2B education company. He joins us on Skin in the Game to talk with Saxon about what Knack does and his personal motivation to build it. He also walks through the pivots that took Knack past $1M in revenue within six months during COVID, along with the harder side of rapid growth, including over-hiring and the impact of generative AI.

Tune in to get his view on the future of education and AI in the classroom, and why he doesn't think Florida needs to become the next Silicon Valley to build a strong identity in tech.

Listen to the full episode here:

10/23/2026

We came back from Venture Atlanta feeling energized! Our favorite part had to be seeing our new Fund 3 portfolio company Circuitry.ai present on how its Service Intelligence Platform helps manufacturers make better service decisions that create better outcomes.

10/22/2026

Two startups can have the same runway and tell investors two very different stories. Runway shows how long a company can keep going, while burn multiple shows how much new ARR each dollar of burn is producing. Many VCs lean heavily on burn multiple when deciding whether to back the next round.

In this new episode of The Founder Playbook, Rachael walks through how to calculate burn multiple and where the benchmarks sit. She also flags the mistake that throws off the math for a lot of founders, so double-check whether you're using gross burn or net burn.

10/21/2026

We're excited to introduce the FLF Accelerate Fund, Florida Funders' dedicated strategy for investing in founders coming out of a16z speedrun.

speedrun is one of the most competitive front doors in early-stage venture. SR007 drew roughly 31,000 applications for about 80 spots, and the best rounds come together in days around Demo Day. The Accelerate Fund is built for that window: 8 companies per cohort across SR007 and SR008, 16 companies in a single vintage.

Before Demo Day, our team mapped the entire batch, ranked every company on team, defensibility and market position, and put our shortlist in front of the experts in our network, including our cybersecurity and fintech advisory boards. When most of the room was seeing these companies for the first time, we already knew who we wanted to back.

Our first five investments:
🔹 Keythorn: insurance underwriting for AI agent risk
🔹 Lazyweb: real-world design and growth data for AI coding agents
🔹 Codos: a virtual Chief AI Officer for the enterprise
🔹 Kairo: a security gate for every software change
🔹 Sotant: AI employees for supply chain and operations

Congratulations to the founders, and thank you to the speedrun team for an incredible Demo Day. More to come.

10/20/2026

Where does AI belong in the classroom? 🎙️📚
In this episode, Erika Donalds shares her perspective on how AI can support learning, from helping younger students build foundational skills to preparing high school and college students for the workforce.
The goal isn’t to replace great teachers. It’s to give students the tools they need to succeed in a world where AI is becoming part of everything we do. What are you thoughts on this episode? Listen here: https://hubs.la/Q04BPmg60

10/19/2026

Entrepreneurship isn’t always the highlight reel. 🎙️
Erika Donalds shares a raw look at the realities of building a business, managing cash flow, and carrying the responsibility of having people depend on you.
Because sometimes, taking the risk means facing the moments when everything feels uncertain. Catch the full episode here: https://hubs.la/Q04BDVjC0

10/14/2026

Students learn twice as fast in an immersive classroom, according to Stanford research Erika Donalds shared with Saxon Baum on our latest podcast episode.

She's putting that research to work at Optima Academy Online, the world's first virtual reality school. Teachers take students inside the lesson, whether that's Ancient Rome or Independence Hall during the forming of the Constitution. Optima now has more than 300 of these virtual locations.

The results come down to focus. Immersive environments keep students engaged in a way a textbook can't.

The full conversation also covers how AI fits into learning and what Florida needs to attract more founders and capital.

Don't miss this one.

https://hubs.la/Q04B0wv60

Address

1311 N Westshore Boulevard Suite 101
Tampa, FL
33607

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 5pm
Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm

Website

http://www.floridafunders.com/

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