Reefside Venture Story

PART 1

The Reefside Ventures story is nearly a decade in the making. Erick Gavin and Chris Daniels have a long history of working together and a proven track record of identifying gaps in the startup ecosystem, creating innovative programs, and then implementing those programs to drive meaningful results across the South Florida community.

Erick and Chris met while working at the University of Miami Launch Pad in 2016. Chris was a Venture Consultant advising University of Miami startups, and Erick was a Legal Fellow helping startups navigate various legal challenges. The pair worked together to advise startups, make meaningful connections, and support entrepreneurs at University of Miami. Both Erick and Chris showed their passion for the startup ecosystem and began getting involved in the broader tech community outside of UM.

Early in his career, Erick Gavin established himself at the intersection of community building and technology in Miami's emerging innovation ecosystem. At Venture Café Miami, he built and scaled their flagship Thursday Gathering program, creating systems to sustainably connect innovators, entrepreneurs, and industry experts. Building on his technical foundation in UI/UX design, Erick then worked as a Product Designer and Design Lead at two startups. At the Center for Black Innovation, Erick merged his community building expertise with his technical skills, launching the organization’s first accelerator program, conducting a national assessment on entrepreneur support organizations to analyze resource accessibility in underserved communities, and organizing Black Tech Week to advance conversations around technology's role in economic mobility.

Chris went on to be an operator in early stage startups, as well as founding and exiting two early stage ventures. As an early employee of a local startup Secberus, Chris was the proverbial “jack of all trades hire” where he spanned sales, fundraising, hiring, product, and customer success. The company grew from 3 employees when he joined to 26 employees and raised over $25 million in capital. Chris co-founded SpotX Games which was acquired by Niantic, the founders of PokemonGO. After the acquisition, Chris led a Product Innovation team within Niantic where he and a lean team launched numerous new products.

Throughout this period, Chris created the Shrimp Society in 2021 with a vision to build the “Y Combinator of Miami”. The Shrimp Society was supported by a grant from the Knight Foundation to create programming and tools for the Miami founder community to thrive. The Shrimp Society helped local startup founders raise $53 million in early stage capital, hosted 500+ community events, and connected hundreds of founders and talent. Given Erick’s experience creating innovation programs and accelerators, he and Chris collaborated numerous times on different initiatives, events, and programs.

For six years, Erick and Chris showed their passion for both startups and the South Florida tech ecosystem through hands-on support, evangelism, and connecting dots for those around them.

PART 2

Everything changed at the start of 2022 when Erick and Chris’ paths collided more formally under the new initiative from the City of Miami called Venture Miami. In January 2022, Erick was tapped by Mayor Francis Suarez to lead Venture Miami as Executive Director. Tasked with the open directive to foster innovation and tech talent in Miami, Erick called Chris to brainstorm what would become the Built in Miami Startup Program.

In every brainstorming session, the big gap on the whiteboard was clearly early stage startup programming. At that time, the existing programs in Miami lent themselves towards post-revenue startups, but Erick and Chris had experienced the gap for truly early stage startup support. The pair had a unique shared perspective with Chris’ experience at the “ground floor” with the Shrimp Society, and Erick’s “30,000 foot” visibility as Executive Director of Venture Miami.

In 2023, Erick and Chris created and launched the Built in Miami Startup Program with the Venture Miami team. This program was an in-person, intensive incubator to help Miami founders turn ideas into launched products. The program came to life thanks to the Venture Miami team, mentors, and supporters across the ecosystem. In its first year, the Built in Miami Program supported 120 entrepreneurs and helped launch 60+ new startups in Miami.

In 2024, Erick and Chris doubled the size, resources, and outcomes of the Built in Miami Program. The 2024 cohort of the Built in Miami Startup Program became the largest incubator in the State of Florida, graduating over 160 startup founders and launching 100 new startups. It was clear that there was overwhelming demand for early stage programs, support, and connection in Miami.

As Erick transitioned out of the Venture Miami office, Erick and Chris decided to build upon the Despite the success of the Built in Miami Startup Program., Venture Miami was shut down by the City of Miami as political leadership turned over. Given the demand, momentum, and success of the Built in Miami Startup Program, Erick and Chris brainstormed once again what a long-term solution could look like.

The experience of nearly a decade of building starting programs, supporting innovative talent, and evangelizing the Miami startup community has come together now in Reefside Ventures.

PART 3

Reefside Ventures is an incubator and accelerator focused on Miami's next wave of exceptional startups. Our vision with Reefside Venture is to create an institution in Miami that supports startup founders from idea to exit, all here in Miami. We are launching three distinct programs in 2025 to support startup founders at different stages:

Reefside Sprints are weekend-long, actionable bootcamps on specific startup topics to boost startup founders in a 2 day sprint. These sprints will be held in Spring and Summer.

Reefside Incubate is an 8-week in-person incubator to help new founders launch first products. This program is application based and will be held in April and May.

Reefside Accelerate is our flagship accelerator program held in the Fall. This 10-week program for post-product startups is focused exclusively on increasing traction and fundraising. This program is application based.

More information on these programs and the venture fund will be coming throughout 2025. We are incredibly excited for the next wave of startup and technology growth in Miami.

If you’re interested in getting involved, please email Erick Gavin.