Miami gets the spotlight. Julia Lucidi is building what happens just north of it. Her Fort Lauderdale Tech Meetup has hosted more than 6,000 guests, and her Founder Tactics podcast interviews the region's operators.
This is part of a peer-to-peer series of conversations MAIN runs exclusively with Miami's AI founders, investors and leaders.
We asked her five questions by email. Her answers, lightly edited for length, are below.
What does Broward offer founders that Brickell and Wynwood don't?
"Miami has done an amazing job putting South Florida on the global tech map."
Broward, she said, offers something different.
"Because the ecosystem is younger, founders have more room to build, connect, and become part of something that is still taking shape. The cost of living is also more competitive, which matters when you are an early-stage founder trying to build a company."
She points to the meetup's own numbers. About 39% of the audience are startups, 22% are SMBs, and 19% come from corporate companies. For AI founders, that mix is the point.
"The opportunity is not just building another AI product. It is finding businesses with real problems, real customers, and real budgets, then building something that solves those problems."
"Miami has the spotlight. Broward has a tremendous opportunity to become one of the places where the next generation of startups in South Florida actually gets built."
The biggest mistake founders make when plugging into the community?
"The biggest mistake is treating the community like a directory of people they can sell to."
Pitching, seeking introductions, and chasing customers are legitimate goals, she said, but not if that's the only reason someone shows up.
"The best way to build a network is to become someone people want to have in their network."
Her advice: come consistently, introduce people, share what you learn, help someone before you need something. Around 160 people attend each event, half of them first-time guests.
"Do not just attend the event. Participate in the ecosystem."
How are South Florida founders actually applying AI?
Her answer is not another product category. It is AI as a leadership tool.
"AI is taking over a lot of the operational work that used to consume hours of a founder's time. That frees people up to focus on what they are actually good at: thinking, creating, innovating, and building new things."
Her example: Solon Angel, who built a digital brain that generates a weekly AI video briefing for his team. The system reads company activity, from Slack messages and emails to employee kudos, and turns it into the brief.
"What used to take him more than an hour to prepare for his weekly all-team meeting now takes him zero minutes."
That, to her, is the real lesson.
"It is not just about automating a task. It is about giving a founder an x-ray of what is happening in their company, helping them understand what is working, what needs attention, and where they should be spending their time."
What turns three counties into one ecosystem?
"South Florida needs to start operating as one ecosystem with different neighborhoods, rather than three separate markets competing for attention."
Her mapping: Miami-Dade has international reach and venture capital. Broward has the founder community and established businesses. Palm Beach has concentrations of capital. The next step is deliberate connection. Founders traveling across the region, investors engaging outside their geography, events that mix instead of silo.
"We should be asking, 'How do we make South Florida a great place to build a company?' Not, 'How do we make my neighborhood the great place to build a company?'"
What is next for Founder Tactics?
More connection, up and down the coast.
"We want to help connect those communities and make it easier for founders to discover what is happening beyond their immediate geography."
The goal is a stronger platform linking local founders to the broader South Florida and national ecosystem. That means more partnerships, more resources, more ways for startups to grow.
For a region whose parts often compete for attention, Lucidi is building the connective tissue. South Florida's AI map needs more of it.
Julia Lucidi is the founder of Fort Lauderdale Tech Meetup and host of the Founder Tactics podcast. Learn more at ftltechmeetup.com and foundertactics.com/podcast.
Fort Lauderdale Tech Meetup 2026 at the Levan Center of Innovation: