The 13 women-led startups who make up the inaugural cohort of Tampa Bay Wave's 2020 TechWomen Rising Accelerator include two from St. Petersburg. They are Vacayou, which aggregates wellness, spa and active travel; and Wedzee, a consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer marketplace that is designed to connect former and future brides, wedding planners and small business owners. Another eight companies are based in Tampa, with the remaining three out of Boca Raton. The new accelerator program is supported by a two-year $500,000 philanthropic commitment by JPMorgan Chase in a partnership between Tampa Bay Wave and Embarc Collective. Read more about TechWomen Rising here.
Clearwater-based cybersecurity training firm KnowBe4 is preparing for an initial public offering, according to Reuters. The company has engaged investment banks to help with preparations for the IPO, which could come later this year or early in 2021, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The report should come as no surprise to St. Pete Catalyst readers. Stu Sjouwerman, KnowBe4 CEO, told the Catalyst in March that he was starting to run the privately held company as if it were a publicly traded firm. The company brought two veterans of public company boards onto its own board of directors and promoted two C-level executives to serve as co-presidents.
The League of Women Voters of the St. Petersburg Area will hold its second Thursday Nights With The League virtual forum tonight (Thursday, Sept. 10) at 7 p.m. with the two candidates vying for Pinellas County Sheriff. They are incumbent Bob Gualtieri (R), and Eliseo Santana (D). This forum will be moderated by local attorney Tamara Felton-Howard. To watch live, visit the League of Women Voters Facebook page or YouTube channel.
A research project that will identify, preserve and record unmarked and abandoned African American cemeteries is one of 23 research projects that will be funded by University of South Florida. The African American Burial Grounds & Remembering project will focus on Oaklawn Cemetery in St. Petersburg and Zion Cemetery in Tampa. The project was among those that will share $500,000 in funding in an initiative announced earlier this year. See a full list of projects here.
The City of St. Petersburg has announced a 30-year agreement with the Glazer Vision Foundation in which the foundation will support the playground at the St. Petersburg Pier, which opened in early July. An unveiling ceremony with new signage for the playground will be announced at a later date. The Glazer Vision Foundation honors the legacy of the late Malcolm Glazer, who attributed his first pair of prescription eyeglasses to an enhanced ability to learn and succeed. To date, the foundation has provided more than 100,000 free eye screenings and 20,000 free prescription glasses to local students.
St. Petersburg city officials expect to release a final report on StPete2050, a citywide visioning process, next month. The report will be presented to the City Council when it is meeting as a Committee of the Whole on Oct. 22, Derek Kilborn, manager of urban planning and historic preservation, told the Community Planning and Preservation Commission on Tuesday. It will first be made public around the beginning of October. The community was very engaged in the visioning process and the city received a lot of feedback about successes from an earlier Vision 2020 plan, as well as opportunities for improvement, Kilborn said. The final report will include a summary and recommendations, as well as three appendices: a progress and opportunities report, a market assessment and a public engagement report. After the City Council's Committee of the Whole presentation, the next phase of StPete2050 is to incorporate the feedback into the city's comprehensive plan and long-range planning efforts, including land development regulations, Kilborn said.
Skyway Group Private Equity Funds, a Tampa private equity firm has changed its name to SCP & CO. The name change reflects the company’s new strategic direction to make larger investments on a national scale and draw a greater distinction between its past history and future plans, a news release said. The company was originally founded in 2002 as Skyway Capital Partners, and more recently was Skyway Group Private Equity Funds after selling its investment banking operations, Skyway Advisors, in 2016. SCP & CO focuses on control investments across the healthcare, human capital, information technology, and real estate industries, and is headed by co-founders Bryan Crino, who is president, and Scott Feuer, who is CEO.
BayCare Health System will resume limited visitation at its hospitals starting Wednesday, Sept. 9, allowing most inpatients to have one visitor a day from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. Visitors must be 18 or over, pass a Covid-19 screening and wear a mask during their entire visit. Extended hours and provisions are allowed for pediatric, neonatal intensive care, labor and delivery and mothers and newborns. No visitors will be allowed for Behavioral Health or Covid patients, and those arriving for surgeries and procedures will be allowed one visitor during pre-operation and recovery times. Special circumstances can be approved by hospital leadership on a case-by-case basis.
Tampa International Airport served nearly 27,000 passengers on Friday, Sept. 4, its busiest day since the Covid-19 pandemic reduced business by more than 90 percent in late March and early April. Between Thursday, Sept. 3, and Monday, Sept. 7, more than 117,000 arriving and departing passengers traveled through the airport, a news release said. However, Tampa International is still seeing significantly less traffic than it did prior to the pandemic slowdown. During the same Labor Day period last year, about 293,000 passengers flew through TIA. September and October typically are slow months for Florida airports.
Pat O'Conner, president and CEO of Minor League Baseball, has announced he will retire on Dec. 31. O’Conner has spent 38 years in professional baseball and 28 years with St. Petersburg-based Minor League Baseball. He joined the Minor League Baseball staff in 1993 as chief operating officer and was named vice president, administration, following the 1995 season. In December 2007, O'Conner was named the 11th president of Minor League Baseball, embarking on a 13-year run as president as he was re-elected in 2011, 2015 and 2019. O'Conner's tenure is the fifth-longest presidency in Minor League Baseball's 120-year history, a news release said. This year's Minor League Baseball season was cancelled in June, because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Pinellas County will host a series of Zoom webinars for businesses owners who need assistance applying for the Pinellas CARES Local Business Grant. The webinars will cover a variety of topics including eligibility, required documents and how to submit a completed application. The 30-45 minute sessions will be held September 10 at 12 p.m., September 11 at 2 p.m. and September 15 at 10 a.m and will be recorded and posted on Pinellas County's YouTube channel. To register, click here.
