Election Day is August 18th
I remember the day I decided to start Fortitude Security. I had a vision, a business plan, and more determination than good sense. I was ready to build something.
What I wasn’t ready for was my own city government. The permits that took forever. The different departments that didn’t talk to each other. The feeling that nobody was rooting for me to succeed.
I made it through. A lot of people don’t. They take their dreams just north to Alachua, where things are easier. They go to Newberry. They go to Austin. They go anywhere but Gainesville.
And every time a dreamer leaves, our whole community loses—the jobs they would have created, the taxes they would have paid, the innovations they would have brought to life.
In 2016, our city made a promise. They created the “Department of Doing”—a one-stop shop where business owners could get all their permits, licenses, and approvals in one place. The slogan, which cost the City of Gainesville $50,000 was “Citizen Centered, People Empowered.”
It was a good vision. It was the right vision. But it was never delivered.
Leadership changed. The department was renamed. And today, entrepreneurs still face the same fragmented, frustrating process that drove them away a decade ago.
I will fight to finally deliver on that 2016 promise:
We have everything we need to be Florida’s startup capital. The University of Florida—ranked #1 among public universities—has doubled its Innovation Hub. UF Innovate has launched nearly 300 companies. Santa Fe College runs two thriving incubators at CIED and GTEC.
But if the city itself is the obstacle, none of that matters. I will:
Here’s something nobody else is talking about: artificial intelligence is going to transform our workforce in ways most people aren’t prepared for.
It’s already happening. Customer service, data entry, legal research, even coding—AI is changing what jobs look like and which ones exist at all. We can’t stop it. But we can prepare our people.
I will champion:
Every dreamer who stays in Gainesville creates jobs, pays taxes, and builds our community. Every dreamer who leaves is a loss we can’t afford. I’ve lived the frustration of building a business here—and I’m committed to making sure the next generation of entrepreneurs has it easier than I did.