Pitbull got famous singing about Miami and collaborating with Jennifer Lopez and Ke$ha. But he has also been building up a considerable side hustle as an entrepreneur and landlord, sometimes appearing at real estate conferences like his fellow Florida celebrity moguls A-Rod and Luther Campbell. Yesterday, Pitbull appeared at the eMerge of the Americas conference, touting Miami as a tech hub.
On a segment for CNBC, the musician, whose given name is Armando Perez, said the city has everything needed to bridge with Latin America — whether you call it "Silicon Valley, Silicon Alley or Silicon Paradise," he said.
He used his considerable linguistic skills to mash up WiFi and Miami's area code, 305, saying Miami would be "Silicon 3-0-Fi."
"We should have gotten that Amazon deal by the way, because Jeff Bezos happens to be from Miami," Pitbull said. Bezos went to Palmetto High before heading off to Princeton.
Pitbull appeared on TV with Miami Mayor Francis Suarez; they called each other "brothers" and "Batman and Batman."
Suarez touted Florida's lack of a state income tax and Miami having been selected as a finalist for an artificial intelligence hub that SoftBank wants to create.
The Kauffman Foundation, a nonprofit focused on entrepreneurship, ranked Miami No. 1 in the U.S. for startups. One South Florida company, Magic Leap, has raised more than $2B in startup capital. However, the region does suffer from a perceived lack of tech talent. Subpar transit and the threat of climate change are also dings against Miami.
As for his own investments, Pitbull said, "I always like to look at what's going on on the biotech side of things." He was bummed that he missed out on investing in Uber early, but said that he enjoyed discovering startups at conferences like eMerge, "to be able to see it from the root to the fruit."
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