GROWING TECH HUB
Both PandaDoc and Inside Sales
Solutions are examples of St. Petersburg’s
rapidly growing entrepreneurial
sector that is bringing an in-
��ux of innovators, creative thought
leaders and young professionals to
town. An emerging new business
culture in technology is changing
the face of St. Petersburg. It’s
no surprise that last year Forbes
magazine named St. Pete, “One of
the Best Cities for Young Professionals.”
Over the past decade,
the ‘Burg has become home to
dozens of innovative tech ��rms like
Squaremouth, Eagle Datagistics,
Savvy Card, Intrinio, i��or, Priatek,
Kobie Marketing, Tower Cloud and
Check I’m Here.
“St. Pete is de��nitely becoming a
place where tech companies want
to come,” says Kyle Taylor, CEO of
the Penny Hoarder. In fact, Taylor
was one of several tech leaders
who came together to show off the
city and help in��uence PandaDoc’s
decision to move to St. Pete. “Having
more great tech companies
move here will only attract even
more talent,” says Taylor. “People
aren’t staying with one company for
30 years any more and they want to
know there are options if down the
road they want a new challenge.”
A self-described serial entrepreneur,
Joe Mauro, president of
MXTR Automation, says that when
he decided to look around for the
company’s ��rst satellite of��ce, he
asked his daughter to research
where one of the best places in
the country for millennials – his
target workforce.
“Millennials are looking for a lifestyle,
not just a job,” says Mauro.
“Our research kept bringing up
St. Pete as the number one spot.
We’re looking to grow and we
know that a big part of who we
are is our people. We want them
to be happy. This is a great place,
de��nitely a go-go city.”
Mauro set up shop in the city’s
TEC Garage, an incubation and
co-working space downtown that
is run by the Tampa Bay Innovation
Center. “We were looking for space
that would be laid-back but ef-
��cient – something our employees
would like, and a stepping stone
for us to get started in the St. Pete
area,” says Mauro.
GLOBAL LEADERS
In addition to small, fast-growth
tech companies, St. Petersburg also
has a strong foundation of larger
national and global ��rms, including
Fortune 500 companies. Jabil, Raymond
James, Catalina, Valpak, ASI,
Mother Kombucha
Brick Street Farms
32 'BURGLIFE | Living, Working and Playing in St. Petersburg, FL