florida
(17)
The PR Firm That Taught a Highway to Explain Itself
Global-5 found a durable niche in the least glamorous moment of a public project: when a driver, resident or reporter asks, “What does this mean for me?” Its answer is equal parts newsroom, research lab and road crew.
The company selling solar the way Netflix sells movies: no download, just a monthly bill
Rooftop solar has always been sold like a mortgage: big money down, decades of commitment. Terra Energy sells it like a phone plan instead - $0 upfront, a three-year term, and up to half off the power bill from day one.
The Quietest Big Phone Business in Florida Moves 150,000 Devices a Month - and Wants No Press
For nearly three decades Daniel Kaufman has run a bulk phone empire on carrier relationships, R2 certification, and a strict no-publicity rule. Here is how the anti-marketing wholesaler actually works.
The Orlando Fund Betting That the Next Big Startup Won't Come From Silicon Valley
A venture firm in Orlando is wagering that the founders worth backing are the ones nobody in Silicon Valley has a flight booked to meet - and it wants to be the first money in.
The Landlord Betting That America Still Needs to Buy Milk in Person
While the internet was busy declaring the shopping center dead, a West Palm Beach firm quietly assembled 14 million square feet of the stuff - and keeps selling it at a profit.
The Gulf Coast Chain That Sells 15 Badges Under One Name
One Toyota store in Bradenton became 20-plus rooftops and 15 badges. Here is how a Florida family kept buying dealerships while national groups consolidated the rest.
The Pineapple That Ate Florida
A married couple built a single South Beach cafe into a 45-store wellness chain on one stubborn idea: food you would actually feed your own kids, served all day. Then a $13 billion private-equity firm bought in.
SouthState Bank
It grew from a single 1933 South Carolina bank into a $65-billion Southeastern lender - and its biggest business is one most of its own customers have never heard of.
Karen Lithgow
Karen Lithgow is the Chief Marketing Officer of Goodwill Industries of South Florida, the Miami-based nonprofit that employs roughly 3,600 people and reports annual revenue near $196 million. She arrived at Goodwill after a corporate and consulting career that included brand and marketing roles connected to P&G, Disney, ADT and Western Union, followed by partner-level brand strategy and interim CMO work at the consultancy Chameleon Collective. At Goodwill South Florida she oversees marketing for an unusually wide portfolio: a chain of donation centers and thrift stores, an e-commerce operation, and Blue Box Solutions, the organization's B2B manufacturing and logistics arm that produces tens of millions of dollars of military apparel each year. Her public message centers on a single idea she has stated plainly - focusing on abilities rather than disabilities.
Bill Catania
Bill Catania is the founder and CEO of OneRail, an Orlando-based last-mile delivery orchestration platform he started in 2018 with his wife Lisa at their kitchen table after a broken refrigerator exposed the gaps in same-day delivery. A three-time founder whose first company began in his Cornell dorm, Catania built OneRail into a venture-backed logistics technology company connecting enterprise retailers to a network of millions of drivers, raising a $42M Series C in late 2024 and earning recognition from Goldman Sachs, Deloitte, Gartner and FreightWaves.
Heavenly Massage
Heavenly Massage is the brand persona behind A Heavenly Foot Massage & Spa, a premier reflexology and therapeutic massage destination at 5510 PGA Boulevard, Suite 109, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Established in 2014, the spa has built a reputation for exceptional foot massages, full-body treatments, and facial services in a clean, welcoming environment. Ranked among the top spas in Palm Beach Gardens on TripAdvisor, the business combines traditional reflexology techniques with modern therapeutic approaches, offering everything from deep tissue massage and lymphatic drainage to European facials and micro-needling. The person behind the brand holds the titles of VP Operations and CMO, driving the spa's growth and marketing presence.
Scott Zieglar
Scott Zieglar is an Area Vice President at Adobe focused on Content and Experience Delivery at Scale With AI. Based in Indialantic, Florida, he is a seasoned enterprise sales and technology leader with a career that spans Adobe Experience Manager, AI-driven personalization, and content supply chain solutions. With roots in financial services tech and previous executive roles at Accent Technologies and Communication Intelligence Corp, Zieglar has carved out a specialty at the intersection of content operations and artificial intelligence within one of the world's largest software companies.
Homebound
Homebound is a tech-enabled homebuilder headquartered in San Francisco that manages the entire home construction process from design to move-in. Founded in 2018 in the wake of the devastating California wildfires, the company combines a proprietary software platform with a vetted trade partner network to offer semi-custom homes at fixed prices. Homebound handles everything from lot sourcing and permitting to interior design and construction management, compressing what typically takes years into an industry-leading timeline. With over $308 million raised and 500+ homes built across markets in California, Texas, Colorado, and Florida, Homebound is rewriting the rules of residential construction for a new generation of homebuyers.
Chris Cockreham
Chris Cockreham is the founder of beewise Media LLC, a Fort Lauderdale-based digital and creative consulting firm. Drawing on years of hands-on experience as a content producer, editorial associate, and designer at companies like Ecomii and DermApproved, Cockreham built beewise Media around the idea that the best creative work, like a beehive, emerges from collaboration and collective intelligence. The firm delivers web design, branding, marketing, and content services, positioning itself as an embedded creative partner for clients seeking to grow their digital presence.
Stand
Stand is a San Francisco insurtech that uses physics-based simulation and AI to underwrite and insure homes in places most carriers have abandoned - the wildfire belt of California and the hurricane corridors of Florida. Instead of statistical averages, Stand builds a digital twin of each property and models how embers, wind, and water would actually attack it, pairing coverage with concrete mitigation upgrades.
Sher Baig
Sher Baig is the Founder and CEO of CyberSalus (Cyber Salus Inc.), a global MedTech cybersecurity company protecting medical devices and clinical ecosystems across 150+ hospitals worldwide. With 17+ years of healthcare experience - including a decade building GE Healthcare's global Medical Device Cybersecurity commercial organization from the ground up - Baig launched CyberSalus around 2022, scaling it to manage over 2-3 million medical device endpoints. He also serves as an Advisor to the Ministry of Health, Singapore on medical device cybersecurity policy, and is a recognized speaker at HIMSS, Arab Health, and Hospital Management Asia conferences.
Katherine Boyle
Katherine Boyle is a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), where she leads the American Dynamism practice - a $1.1B+ fund focused on startups that serve the national interest. A former Washington Post journalist turned VC, she champions defense tech, manufacturing, aerospace, and critical infrastructure companies. She sits on the boards of Anduril Industries and The Free Press, and is widely regarded as one of tech's most important bridges between Silicon Valley and Washington.