Former Miami Mayor Francis Suarez: Why I’m joining Stephen Ross and Ken Griffin in betting big on ambitious business leaders

In December 2020, a tech founder posted on Twitter (now X) suggesting that Silicon Valley should consider moving to Florida. I was mayor of Miami then, and I responded to the post with “How can I help?” My reply went viral. My phone started ringing with calls from founders, venture capitalists, engineers, operators — people who had been quietly thinking about leaving San Francisco or New York or Boston — who wanted to learn more about relocating to Miami. I have thought a lot since then about why the four words I posted hit so hard. I realized that if you are building a company from the ground up, your default experience with government is that it does not help. City Hall is the place that slows you down. You experience a two-year permitting fight, unanswered emails, bureaucracy that treats your ambition like an inconvenience. So when someone in office showed up and asked “how can I help?” it resonated because it broke the pattern. That moment taught me that the single greatest competitive advantage any region can offer ambitious people is not a tax incentive or a zoning variance. It is a culture that supports them and genuinely wants them to succeed. That is why, when I recognized that same culture in the people behind “Ambition Accelerated,” I wanted to be a part of it. Launched by The Florida Council of 100 and backed by Stephen Ross and Ken Griffin, the “Ambition Accelerated” campaign is a nationwide effort to reach CEOs, founders, investors and young, hungry, ambitious professionals with a simple message: Florida’s Gold Coast — Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach — is the best place for the next generation of American business. I joined as a Senior Advisor because this is an effort led by people who deeply care about Florida, who have experienced what Florida did for them, and who want to extend that opportunity to others. I recognized in them the same grassroots energy that animated my own approach as m