Ethan James Appleby

believer that Miami can be the home of the Modern Renaissance. creativity + culture + humanism. @medicisofmiami @mediciventures @VenturesUnknow

[Ethan James Appleby @ethanappleby]

@hpierrejacques Too soon

[Ethan James Appleby @ethanappleby]

@thdxr .@thdxr would love to have you on Miami Dialogues to discuss this. DM if you would https://t.co/5T8iH00tpC

[Ethan James Appleby @ethanappleby]

@tarakeeney @thelabmiami DM me if you want to Come by @zakthebaker Friday 9am with the @MedicisOfMiami and work out the Lab.

[Ethan James Appleby @ethanappleby]

@tarakeeney .@thelabmiami

[Ethan James Appleby @ethanappleby]

@rsg @OmarMora1es @Hernandez_A @tarakeeney @OmarMora1es you’re going to have the lonely planet effect and let this hidden gem out.

Not to mention the lobby smells like a billion bucks!

[Ethan James Appleby @ethanappleby]

“The future is already here – it’s just not very evenly distributed," sci-fi author William Gibson.

I rode my first Waymo in Miami and I felt 10 years in the future

[Waymo @Waymo]

Get ready ✨We’re going fully autonomous in Miami—meaning an empty driver’s seat, and the Waymo Driver in complete control🤖🚗. Up next: Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando.

[Ethan James Appleby @ethanappleby]

@bunsen Loved learning about @krea_ai

[Ethan James Appleby @ethanappleby]

This offers a good guide on what we need to improve in Miami
- identify our innovation identity
- build a nucleus of Miamis best building founders to enable and shine a light on

[dax @thdxr]

https://t.co/dkZW4ZzI8X

[Ethan James Appleby @ethanappleby]

@RSalermo He should sit with @bunsen @gabednconfused and @init_official

[Ethan James Appleby @ethanappleby]

Momentum —> approaching tipping point in Miamis entrepreneurial ecosystem

[Auston Bunsen @bunsen]

ThErE aRe No BuIlDeRs iN mIaMi

[Ayal Stern @ayalstern]

On a random Friday night in Wynwood…
Sergey Brin walks into @thelabmiami .

Room full of builders deep in a @googlecloud hackathon shipping all weekend.

Miami isn’t coming, it’s here 🔥

[Ethan James Appleby @ethanappleby]

@PalantirTech Would love to support this on behalf of the Medicis of Miami.

[Ethan James Appleby @ethanappleby]

@JosephAbehsera @KurtLWagner The place I always take people to remove their stereotype of Miami

[Ethan James Appleby @ethanappleby]

@PeterJ_Walker Where can we find this interactive graph? Tried to via google and https://t.co/U0qpaNnUlR

[Ethan James Appleby @ethanappleby]

@andrewfribush @PeterJ_Walker thats ok to have to leave after series A....and thats only for now. give us 5 years and lets see if we can bump that up to later rounds.

[Ethan James Appleby @ethanappleby]

This is spot on re Miami tech ecosystem

[Krishan Patel @KrishanPatel_GP]

Having lived in three major tech hubs

Silicon valley (my whole life)

Miami (during the blockchain boom and shortly after)

Now Austin (current life)

I can attest Miami has a culture thats known for partying BUT when you live there you actually experience the drive of all the entrepreneurs who are there trying to build.

The amount of support and ease it was to just meet with other founders or startup ecosystem players was refreshing.

Silicon Valley (because its established and highly competitive) has many hierarchies and social ladders you have to navigate and due to an imbalance of opportunities, it can feel ingenuine and tough when you are constantly battling (essentially its probably like how the gold rush felt back in the day).

In Miami, you could have easy access to the mayor, HNWI LPs, and other founders who were willing to introduce you to strategic connections all in one room. It was definitely much more collective.

[Katherine Boyle @KTmBoyle]

Four years ago, American Dynamism began as an idea. It wasn’t a complicated one but it was radical at the time. We asked ourselves what if instead of organizing an investment practice around consumers or enterprises or new types of technology, we built a practice with a simple mission: to invest in companies supporting the national interest.

American Dynamism.

Many people in technology and the investment community were stunned. For one, we said the word America out loud. National interest was even more shocking. And we very much heard their criticisms. In their minds, America was a limiting premise. The investment community is a set of global institutions that invest in Silicon Valley for access to the best technology companies. To critics of American Dynamism, reminding them that these companies are born in and of America seemed unnecessary or even annoying. The narrative in Silicon Valley at the time was that all great companies aspire to be global institutions. For so long, many treated Silicon Valley as merely an economic zone. What does America really have to do with technology?

It turns out, everything.

America is the font of civilizational dynamism and it has been throughout our history. “Never bet against America” isn’t just a smart investment strategy reiterated by the greats. It’s a truth that has played out time and time again for 250 years. Across technology and across governance. Across wars, culture, settling new lands and building at the frontier. Against all odds, this great nation has thrived and led the way for civilization for specific reasons, some obvious and others that continue to be revealed to us.

Andreessen Horowitz believes an important truth: that building is a political philosophy and a choice, and by its nature an inherently good one. There is dignity in building new things, small and large. It is my belief that building for the national interest is the ultimate good. That building for your family is good. For your neighbors. For your fellow citizens and the values we share and defend.

We have raised $1.776 billion to invest American Dynamism. We began with a $600 million early stage fund in mid 2024 and nearly doubled the size of American Dynamism Fund II, which we are announcing today as the 250th anniversary celebration of America begins.

It is our duty to build companies that support this country’s future and to be stewards of what others have built before us. It is unacceptable to leave this nation worse for our descendants— to accept decay, stagnation or to blackpill in the midst of hard problems that need solving. The urgency to leave this country greater for the next generation should animate us every day — and it’s the motivating force of the American Dynamism team and the founders we have the honor of working with.

The goal of American Dynamism has always been bigger than what many see on the surface. It is greater than any one company or founder: we work to ensure that investing in the national interest becomes a lasting category of investment and company creation. We work to ensure the Second American Century. We’ve always believed if we do our jobs well, every firm, bank, endowment and asset manager will have an American Dynamism team and see it as a critical category to invest in for decades to come. We wake up every day motivated to make this a mission a reality and to ensure it outlasts us all.

We’re grateful to our limited partners and to all of a16z for proving the naysayers wrong and believing that a new category can be bound by a single, unifying principle: to build in service of America.

Most of all, we’re grateful to the founders, who like the original Founders, understand their purpose is greater than themselves. They know their mission is to ensure we build companies that enrich and protect this great nation for the next 250 years. And we’re honored to support them on their journey.

To all the believers, thank you for your faith in American Dynamism.

[Ethan James Appleby @ethanappleby]

@rrhoover Why are you leaving?

[Elad Gil @eladgil]

Share this view of Miami boom feeling

Miami has the alt health metrics for a city:

Family oriented
-% of population children
-How integrated children are into day to day life

Civic art & beauty
-Public art (whether art is good or not) Miami has ongoing investment in public beauty, art everywhere, etc

Influx of people
-People moving from multiple other states/countries to be there

Government that wants a better life for its citizens
-Govt that appears focused on making its city & people happier and more successful in an ever better environment

Industry cluster for something central and/or compounding
-May be the weakest on this. Strong on tourism, real estate, LATAM/international trade. Some finance and tech moving there, but still not a major cluster for something central or compounding fast yet

[Ethan James Appleby @ethanappleby]

Very cool program, very good for miami

[Ayal Stern @ayalstern]

Miami doesn’t yet have enough deeply technical founders.
Instead of waiting, we’re building density.

This winter, we are launching the @focal_vc //@thelabmiami Winter Residency for 10 cracked AI technical founders, fully in person!

Why now:
•⁠ ⁠Escape the miserable winter and build in Miami
•⁠ ⁠Lock in with other elite teams, in one room, 6 days/week
•⁠ ⁠Strip away the noise and focus entirely on the build
•⁠ ⁠Free space + relocation support
•⁠ ⁠Direct access to a founder-first fund
•⁠ ⁠Mentorship from founders/operators who’ve built $1B+ companies,
including DigitalOcean, Mural, vLex, Papa, Quicknode, Spotnana, and more
•⁠ ⁠No heavy dilution

Apply now → https://t.co/yR7i173axI
Tag a founder who should be in the room.