When Pablo Casilimas gave his girlfriend, a journey nurse, an inventory of cities he would favor to dwell in, he put Seattle close to the highest, lured by the town’s tech and startup ecosystem.
Now he’s getting a style of the Emerald Metropolis.
Casilimas is the co-founder of OneSixOne Ventures, a Gainesville, Fla.-based digital accelerator and fund that launched in the summertime of 2020. He has been in Seattle since February, networking with founders and traders.
OneSixOne’s accelerator has hosted greater than 40 startups which have raised greater than $12 million collectively from traders, together with OneSixOne.
Casilimas shall be in Seattle by this summer season. We caught up with him to speak extra about why he’s right here, the variations between the Florida and Seattle startup ecosystem, what he seems for in startups, the primary startup he labored with, and the advantages of becoming a member of a Florida-based accelerator. The dialog was edited for brevity and readability.
GeekWire: Gainesville is a good distance away from Seattle. What brings you right here? And are you scouting any startups to your accelerator program?
Casilimas: One of many causes that I got here out right here was for the tech ecosystem. I feel lots of people don’t notice that Seattle is certainly one of many high 5 [ecosystems], if not one of many high within the nation. A part of the journey is to attach with extra traders so we are able to have extra value-add for our founders that we’re working with. Mainly, something we are able to do to assist them elevate capital is including worth to our accelerator program and including worth to us and our community.
After which, in fact, founders. We’re geographically agnostic. So, any founders that we meet round right here that could be an excellent match, we are able to completely make investments on this ecosystem as nicely.
What are among the key variations between the Florida startup ecosystem versus the Pacific Northwest? What makes them related?
The factor about Florida is that we’ve bought all these cities which might be fairly unfold out, comparable to Miami and Tampa, that are two to 4 hours of a drive aside. Gainesville, clearly, is in a smaller ecosystem, but it surely is likely one of the greatest funnels for expertise as a result of it has the College of Florida, and that’s a few five-hour drive from south Florida and Miami. However I feel probably the most basic variations is simply the best way Washington is laid out. Every thing is inside an hour of Seattle. It’s one centralized tech hub with much more occurring. However, in each ecosystems, there are lots of people who’re very nice and open to soak up outsiders.
What do you search for within the startups you’re employed with?
There’s three components, and I feel each enterprise agency would say the identical factor. It’s the founding group, the market and the product. For us, the founding group is crucial, then the market after which the product. What we search for within the founding group is coachability. Then one of many greatest issues we search for is: why are they doing this? Are they doing this to become profitable, or do they need to clear up a giant downside? Are they following an expertise or one thing that their household skilled? That’s truly how we made our first funding.
Inform us about that first funding.
We had been mates with the founder for years, after which we began the accelerator program.The founder truly participated in our first cohort ever in summer season 2020. It’s an organization referred to as Ease Alert. It’s principally a sensible pre-warning system for first responders.
Blake, one of many founders, began doing analysis and digging and located that the main explanation for on-the-duty deaths within the hearth service is definitely a coronary heart assault. That’s why he began Ease Alert, which principally provides first responders a pre-alert earlier than the precise tones go off within the station. It permits firefighters to ease into it as a substitute of being startled.
For him, he was doing it as a result of his father was a firefighter. He wished to do one thing to assist make that burden a little bit bit much less and to assist make the job a little bit bit much less nerve-racking for his father and different first responders. And so for us, that was a extremely compelling story.
Promote me on the concept of spending 10 weeks with a digital accelerator primarily based in Florida. Why now?
I feel it’s necessary to have a look at our monitor file. We at the moment are about to complete our fifth cohort. And with these cohorts, we’ve helped greater than 40 firms and we’ve helped these firms elevate over $12 million. Then again, we’ve bought OneSixOne Ventures Managing Companion Justis Mendez and I. We is probably not founders who had billion-dollar exits, however we’re prepared to hustle for our firms. And we deal with our accelerator and our fund as a startup itself. We take into account ourselves startup founders.
If I used to be a startup in Seattle trying to be part of an accelerator program, what are among the geographic advantages of entering into the Florida community?
For one, they’re capable of elevate capital from an outdoor ecosystem. Typically it might be robust in your present ecosystem to get in entrance of individuals as a result of there’s already established gamers. These individuals are set of their methods. There’s one other value-add from Miami being one of many quickest rising tech hubs, and also you’ll have the ability to faucet into that. If it is smart for the founder, we can assist open up some doorways for them to get plugged in.
You attended the Acquired podcast present at Local weather Pledge Enviornment in Seattle. What stood out to you probably the most?
Casilimas: Being from Gainesville, which is a university city with a really tight-knit neighborhood, I’ve by no means been to a tech occasion at an area like that. Everyone there was constructing one thing. And the individuals who weren’t are working at firms and occupied with making their subsequent transfer. In fact, there have been additionally VCs and angels. Simply being surrounded by a lot of that was so thrilling and refreshing.
I might say my favourite of the three periods was the second with Anu Hariharan, who’s a accomplice at Y Combinator’s Continuity Fund. I feel I’m biased, but it surely was my favourite as a result of we truly modeled our accelerator after Y Combinator. We’ve watched lots of of hours of their content material, learning Paul Graham’s essays. So, for me, that was the one I engaged with probably the most.