More than 1,200 graduate and undergraduate students applied for internships at @EmbarcCollectiv this summer. Meet @EmbarcCollectiv's Summer 2026 Genspiration Foundation Internship cohort. They include: 💠Anenka Colan-Rojas (USF 26 BBA Economics), Sales, Threshold 360 💠Dayne Guy (USF 27 MS Computer Engineering), AI Engineering, BiaTech Corporation 💠Jazlynn Hirschhorn (USF 27 MBA), Digital Marketing, CaresLink 💠Alianah Camacho Joya (USF 26 BS Digital Marketing & Analytics), Digital Sales & Marketing, Threshold 360 💠Grace Kelly (USF 27 BA Economics & Pre-Law), Sales, Women in Tech & Entrepreneurship 💠Mustafa Mannan (USF 27 MS Computer Science), AI Engineering, Trustate 💠Keisha Martinez (USF 26 BBA Marketing), Social Media & Content, IYA 💠Mel Mello (USF 27 BS Biomedical Sciences), Marketing & Sales, ryco.io 💠Jake N. (USF 27 BASc Information Technology), Operations & Platform Management, Soteria 360 💠Minh Ha Pham (USF 26 BS Business Analytics & Information Systems), Data Integration & Business Intelligence, Esencia Property Maintenance, Inc 5000 Company 💠Ayush Pramanik (USF 28 Computer Science), AI Engineering, Clarky AI 💠Kautilya Veer (USF 28 BS Computer Science & Astronomy), Data & AI Engineering, Stablein Solutions For more info about our Genspiration Internship Program, visit embarccollective.com/resourc…. Developing and nurturing talent is crucial not only for Embarc Collective's community of 145 Florida-based early-stage tech companies but for the startup and innovation ecosystem in Tampa Bay and across the state of Florida. As Florida's largest tech startup hub and one of the fastest-growing hubs in the country, we understand that our region’s momentum depends on creating stronger connections between students, founders, universities, and ecosystem partners, ensuring tech talent can circulate between venture opportunities in ways that create density in the network and produce real pathways for talent to capitalize on opportunities to build high-growth startup careers. Last fall, we expanded our partnership with the Genspiration Foundation – the family foundation of USF President Emerita Dr. Judy Genshaft. The $175,000 grant marked an important milestone for Embarc's efforts to provide top talent from the @USouthFlorida and FUSE Program schools with hands-on, immersive learning opportunities with early-stage tech startups through year-around paid internships. Unlike traditional internship programs in which students are left “on their own,” we wrap startup programming and coaching and mentorship around the internship assignment to enhance the learning experience for students in ways that prepare the next generation of entrepreneurial talent within our community. For more info about our talent efforts, visit embarccollective.com/resourc… For more info about Embarc Collective and to explore membership, visit embarccollective.com/explore…. #Startups #HighGrowth #VentureCapital #Founders #Technology #Innovation #EcosystemBuilders #StartupTB #StartupFL @TB_Times @FloridaTrend @TBBJnewsroom @TampaBayInno @FloridaC100 @FLChamber @TampaEDC @TBBWMagazine

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A BIG thank you to @KenBabby, CEO of the @RaysBaseball and a member of the majority ownership group, who shared the stage this morning with @JAughey_TBSC, Senior Vice President of Sports Tourism at the @SportsTampaBay, in a fireside chat as part of @EmbarcCollectiv's quarterly Builder Series Program. For a recap of Ken's fireside chat with Jason, visit embarccollective.com/resourc…. Drawing on his experience in professional sports ownership and leadership, Babby shared lessons on building enduring organizations, creating cultures of accountability, and balancing immediate operational priorities with ambitious long-term goals. For founders navigating their own growth journeys, the message resonated: build with the future in mind, but never lose sight of the fundamentals. Long-term success is achieved through thousands of small decisions, a commitment to continuous improvement, and a team aligned around a shared vision. Ken began his career with The @washingtonpost as an intern before working his way up to Chief Revenue Officer, where he oversaw $500 million in annual advertising revenue and led the company’s transition into the digital era. After leaving The Washington Post, Ken developed a successful track in in professional sports, having owned minor-league teams in Akron, Ohio (the @AkronRubberDuck) and Jacksonville (the @JaxShrimp Baseball Club) before joining forces last fall with Patrick Z Zalupski, founder and CEO at @Dream_Finders Homes and Bill Cosgrove, CEO of @UnionHomeMtg, to purchase the Tampa Bay Rays from Stuart Sternberg. The Builder Series by Embarc Collective is a quarterly educational program that provides unparalleled access to business icons and thought leaders in Tampa Bay and across the state of Florida — each sharing the innovative leadership lessons and frameworks that led them to success in their respective careers. Join us for our Q3 2026 Builder Series for an impactful fireside chat with Dr. Moez Limayem (@USF_Pres), President of the @USouthFlorida. The event will be held on Wednesday, September 9, at 8:30 AM ET in the @ReliaQuest Auditorium at Embarc Collective. Mark your calendars and stay tuned for more information! For more information about Embarc Collective or to explore membership, visit embarccollective.com/. #EcosystemBuilders #Startups #Founders #HighGrowth #VentureCapital #Innovation #Technology #StartupTB #StartupFL @TB_Times @TBBJnewsroom @TampaBayInno @MLB @TampaEDC @TB_Chamber

Congratulations to Embarc Collective member company @krewsocial1 on its work with @TGHCares, a member of our Corporate Partner Program, to strengthen employee connection, engagement, and workplace culture. 🎥Check out the story today: shorturl.at/WaPUY

Congratulations to Embarc Collective member company Running Mate on becoming an Official Verified Community on Strava 🎉 ⭐️Read the press release for this incredible milestone today: getrunningmate.com/strava-pr…

Every company we've walked into has the same problem. The people who actually know how the business runs are carrying that map in their heads. It never makes it onto paper. And it's costing them. That's what we fix at Myelai. We map how the company actually operates. Find where money is leaking. Act on the highest leverage point first. Sat down with @tampabay28 at the @EmbarcCollectiv venture summit and talked about what that looks like. The companies sustainably growing the fastest right now are the ones willing to try something small, prove it works, and scale from there. Map. Diagnose. Act. Adapt. Thanks to @MichaelPaluska for the coverage and @TimRayHolcomb for continuing to create real opportunities for founders in the community. Full interview: tampabay28.com/news/region-h…

"A common thread [that binds] the team at @EmbarcCollectiv is our [shared] passion to see founders succeed ... The fact that we've got companies solving some of the world's most pressing problems creates a lot of enthusiasm for our entire team." Enjoyed sitting down with Sarina Gandy on the CyberBay Podcast to explore how Embarc Collective is helping shape Tampa Bay’s rapidly growing startup and innovation ecosystem by supporting founders of early-stage tech companies through every stage of the startup journey. During the 40-minute podcast, we discuss Embarc’s unique approach to founder support, the importance of community in entrepreneurship, the impact of rapid technology emergence in the region, and how partnerships with organizations like the @USouthFlorida, Tampa General Hospital @TGHCares, @ReliaQuest, and @FloridaFunders are helping strengthen Florida's technology workforce. For a video version of the podcast, visit youtu.be/kn6HqB0swEE?si=tarG…. For an audio version of the podcast, visit: 👉@Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/04x… 👉@ApplePodcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas… 👉@Simplecast: cyberbay-podcast.simplecast.… Embarc Collective is a 501(c)(3) startup platform and Florida’s fastest-growing startup hub. We provide founders of Florida-based early-stage tech companies access to curated programming and a growing repository of startup resources and frameworks; on-demand coaching and mentorship; tech and tech-enabled talent, including paid internships and capstone projects with graduate and undergraduate students from several Florida-based universities; corporates, universities, and investors for a variety of resources, including market and tech SMEs, new technology and IP, and capital; workspaces, assigned offices, conference rooms and event spaces in our 32,000 sq ft hub in downtown Tampa; and, perhaps most importantly, a peer community of 330 founders and founding team members of 145 Florida-based early-stage tech startups and growth-stage companies across 60 industry sectors, including healthcare and medtech, life sciences and biotech, cybersecurity and data analytics, AI and frontier tech, fin tech and legal tech, education, renewable energy and climate tech, and defense and national security, among others. Embarc Collective member-companies have created 1,300 Florida-based tech and tech-enabled jobs, driving more than $100M annually in economic returns to the state, and have secured $750M in funding, accounting for more than $100M in capital invested into Florida’s startup and innovation economy each year. For more information about Embarc Collective, visit embarccollective.com/. #Startups #HighGrowth #VentureCapital #Founders #Technology #Innovation #EcosystemBuilders #StartupTB #StartupFL

Thrilled for Speros and @MoffittNews to help lead FORGE, a bold effort that will help position Tampa Bay as a national hub for #radiopharmaceuticals alongside regional partners including @EmbarcCollectiv, @USouthFlorida and @PHSCedu. Radiopharmaceuticals are targeted therapies that deliver radiation directly to cancer cells with precision, offering new ways to reach cancers that have been historically difficult to effectively treat. moffitt.org/newsroom/news-re…

Pleasure to join Tampa Bay business leaders for a roundtable discussion with Acting U.S. Department of Labor @USDOL Secretary Keith Sonderling on Friday. The roundtable was organized by The @FloridaC100 CEO Michael Simas and hosted by @brianmurphyRQ, founder and CEOat @ReliaQuest and member of the Founder’s Circle and Chair of the Board of Directors at @EmbarcCollectiv. #Startups #HighGrowth #VentureCapital #Founders #Technology #Innovation #EcosystemBuilders #StartupTB

Ambition Accelerated connects high-growth companies directly to customers, capital, and leadership across the state, aligning Florida’s regional strengths into a coordinated system designed for scale. Applications open this summer. Sign up to receive updates at AmbitionAccelerated.com.

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our Q2 Tampa Bay HealthTech Meetup! This quarter, our panelists expounded on cybersecurity, compliance, patient trust, and the evolving role of AI in healthcare. ⭐️Check out the the official recap blog: shorturl.at/MCnSQ

Shared the main stage yesterday at the US AI Congress in Washington DC with Brent Rippe, Managing Partner at RKCA Investment Banking, Bobbye Jo Green (moderator), Head of Programming at @StationDC_HQ, Robert Sheesley, Chief Information Officer and Chief Information Security Officer at @slavic401k, and Tyler Mantel, Partner at Roll Tack Ventures, in a discussion on "Accelerating the AI Economy." Congratulations to Zack Huhn, Executive Director of the US AI Congress and Chairman of the Enterprise Technology Association, Summer Crenshaw, CEO of the Enterprise Technology Association (@Enterprise69902), and their team for organizing an outstanding two-day cross-industry forum that brought together leaders researching, legislating, funding, architecting, designing, building and deploying artificial intelligence from all 50 states. For more information about the US AI Congress, visit usaicongress.org/. For more information about @EmbarcCollectiv, visit embarccollective.com/. #Startups #HighGrowth #VentureCapital #Founders #Technology #AI #Innovation #EcosystemBuilders #StartupTB #StartupFL

Earlier this month as part of @sof_week in Tampa, @EmbarcCollectiv hosted Ryan Benitez, Chief Commercial Officer at @NATO DIANA (Defense Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic), an organization established by NATO to find and accelerate dual-use innovation capacity across the Alliance, and Taylor Johnston, Chief Operations Officer at @USF_IAE Institute of Applied Engineering, Inc., to discuss Tampa Bay participating inthis program as a Test Centre for Health and Human Performance that can support Phase 1 (initial technical development and rapid adoption service) and Phase 2 (transition to a portfolio-based, scale-up phase where startups receive funding and specialized support to validate their solutions for commercial and defense adoption). For more information about NATO Diana, visit diana.nato.int/. For more information about USF Institute of Applied Engineering, Inc., visit usf.edu/engineering/iae/. For more information about Embarc Collective, visit embarccollective.com/. #Startups #HighGrowth #VentureCapital #Founders #Technology #Innovation #EcosystemBuilders #StartupTB #StartupFL @USouthFlorida

We're eager to announce our participation in @MoffittNews' new regional coalition FORGE, alongside several other globally accredited institutions. 🚀Read the full press release: embarccollective.com/resourc… 🚀Read the official @TBBJnewsroom story: shorturl.at/3CVp7

Tampa Bay is home to one of the top startup, technology and business hubs in the nation. 👉 No. 1 Emerging Tech City in the Nation 👉 No. 1 Best Place for International Businesses in the Nation 👉 Top 10 U.S. Market for Tech Talent Growth and "Brain Gain" 👉 No. 8 Best Place in the U.S. to Start a Career 👉 No. 4 Best Place in the U.S. for Veterans to Live 👉 Top 30 U.S. Market for Manufacturing Employment 👉 No. 8 Fastest Growing City in the Nation According to @PitchBook, Tampa Bay early- and growth-stage tech companies raised $891 million in 2025, including cybersecurity giant @ReliaQuest's $500 million round led by @eqt Group, @KKR_Co, and @FTVCapital with participation from @1011vc and Finback Investment Partners that closed in March. Q1 2026 started with a bang as well with Tampa Bay companies closing 20 venture deals for a combined $415 million across the region. That amount included Sarasota-based @TENEXai's monster $250 million Series B in March led by Crosspoint Capital Partners with participation from Shield Capital and @DeepWorkCapital that placed the post-money value of the company at $1 billion, adding another unicorn to the region (shout out to TENEX.AI’s founder and CEO Eric Foster who participated in the panel that followed ours).

Very excited to announce @EmbarcCollectiv's partnership with @MoffittNews and Speros by Moffitt, Moffitt’s massive $1.5 billion, 775-acre global patient care and research and innovation campus in Pasco County. Embarc Collective will lead Speros's new Florida Oncology and Radiopharmaceutical Growth Engine, or FORGE, startup incubation program, an innovative effort to bring new precision medicine solutions for cancer treatment across different modalities to market. “FORGE represents a transformational opportunity to position the Tampa Bay region at the forefront of one of the most promising advances in cancer care,” Speros President and Moffitt Chief Integration Officer Josh Carpenter (@jdcarpenter1) said. “By bringing together these regional partners, we are building the talent, infrastructure and innovation ecosystem needed to accelerate next-generation radiopharmaceutical therapies." The collaboration includes Moffitt Cancer Center, Speros by Moffitt, Embarc Collective, the @USouthFlorida, and Pasco-Hernando State College (@PHSCedu). The goal is “… to build an end-to-end radiopharmaceutical ecosystem that could generate 4,000 jobs and $2.6 billion in economic impact over the next decade” and establish the Tampa Bay region as a preeminent life sciences and healthcare hub for next-generation modalities that deliver best-in-class precision medicine. For more information about the new partnership, check out @anjelicamrubin's recent article in the @TBBJnewsroom here: bizjournals.com/tampabay/new…. Earlier this year, Embarc announced the addition of its first radiopharmaceutical tech startup to its community, TMAB Therapeutics, Inc, and named TMAB Therapeutics' founder and CEO, Dr. Tinashe Chandauka, as our first dedicated Healthcare and Life Sciences Coach (for more information, see embarccollective.com/resourc…). FORGE plans to launch an integrated theranostics center, a startup incubator with Embarc, imaging technologist training programs at PHSC and nuclear pharmacy opportunities at USF to allow companies to move from discovery and production to clinic use anchored at Speros. “We are excited to partner with Speros and Moffitt Cancer Center [to] support efforts to bring radiopharmaceutical and other precision medicine modalities to market through the Speros FORGE startup incubator," Embarc CEO Tim Holcomb said. "By bringing together world-class partners across research, health care, workforce development and entrepreneurship, we have an opportunity to build a globally competitive radiopharmaceutical and precision oncology hub right here in Tampa Bay." For more information about Embarc Collective, visit embarccollective.com/. #Startups #HighGrowth #VentureCapital #Founders #Technology #Innovation #EcosystemBuilders #StartupTB #StartupFL @FloridaC100 @FloridaEDC @FLChamber @FLACommerce @TB_Times @TampaEDC @TB_Chamber @PascoEDC @PascoChamber

GOD BLESS AMERICA.

Chilling moment as the U.S. Army Orchestra and Joint Armed Forces Chorus performs on the grounds of Arlington National Cemetery.