Keith Rabois says Miami is still a great place for startups, even with a16z leaving

Keith Rabois, managing director of Khosla Ventures, was having dinner with a “very successful CEO” in October 2018 when the CEO asked him: How many individuals does it take to create a completely latest Silicon Valley? 10,000? 100,000?

Rabois didn’t know, but he decided to take up the challenge and check out to make Miami the following Valley.

And even though other major investors, comparable to Andreessen Horowitz, relocated and closed its Miami office just two years after opening, Rabois said he stays bullish on the South Florida city.

At the Primary Venture Partners Summit in New York on Thursday, Rabois said 11% of all seed investments within the U.S. come from Miami, which is “up from almost nothing,” and he hopes to extend that to twenty%.

Although seed investing in Miami startups has only made up 2.6% of total U.S. seed investing to date this yr, based on PitchBook data. In 2023, it can make up 3.5%.

“And the statistic you should be looking at if you’re interested in the future of technology is the fraction of seed investments, where are they happening?” Rabois said, adding that later-stage investments reveal less in regards to the way forward for technology.

Rabois also said Khosla Ventures is preparing to speculate in its fifth Miami-based company that may “change education for the better,” but he didn’t provide details.

In April, Khosla and Founders Fund, where Rabois worked from 2019 until January, led a $150 million investment in expense management startup Ramp. Rabois said that Ramp, which is based in New York, has an office in Miami, which adds to the town’s appeal.

Rabois said he’s often lively on X/Twitter, touting Miami as a great place for founders because he thinks it takes work to construct a latest tech hub. He added that he wants founders and investors to know there are opportunities in vibrant cities where you don’t get up day-after-day and fear “assault and abuse,” an apparent reference to San Francisco’s homelessness and opioid epidemics.

While Rabois still believes in Miami’s future as a tech hub, he hasn’t completely abandoned San Francisco and it appears to be he spent about a quarter of his time at home.

As an interesting aside, Rabois said he would support Daniel Lurie for mayor of San Francisco, who has tough attitude on solving the opioid crisis.

“To create a technology ecosystem, you need angel investors. You need founders. You need Series A investors. You need a lot of different skills in the company — engineers, designers, business people, salespeople. It’s really hard to start an ecosystem,” he said. “That’s why proselytizing is important.”