Miami Mayor Francis Suarez - Investing Into Bitcoin & Creating The Most Crypto Forward City

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All right, what is going on, everyone? Casey Adams here. Welcome back to the Rise of the Young podcast. Today it is the pleasure to have Mayor Francis Suarez on the show. Thank you so much for coming on, Casey.

Thank you so much for coming to the city of Maha City hall and for doing this amazing podcast with this amazing setup.

Thank you. So what prompted me to reach out to you was I've been seeing everything that's been happening in the Miami Tech VC culture, and I've had almost 300 plus entrepreneurs on the show the last three years, ranging from the Winklevoss twins to some great founders. Yeah, I saw that. That was amazing. And I saw what happened once you responded on what, December 4, it was say, how can I help?

Yep.

And after seeing everything, it, it brought us to this moment. So my first question to you is, what are you doing to create a better entrepreneurial hub moving into the future here in Miami?

Well, I think the first thing that we did was the how can I help you? Tweet was a message. And the message was we want you here. And I was, I was talking to a big founder and you know, one of the things that they emphasized was if their governments. Look, a lot of the governments that people are leaving are places that have, you know, a tremendously more expensive cost of living. A lot of them have much, much higher taxes. But I think the straw that breaks the camel's back for most people is having a government that, that doesn't want you there, or it seems like, doesn't want you there. And if, if government officials would have simply said to some of these people that are leaving, hey, we want you to stay. We understand times are rough. We want you to help us with some of these social, social problems instead of blaming the social problems on them. I think they would have been able to prevent some of this from happening. But I think now, when you, when you look at the landscape of quality of life, you know, weather, taxes, and you look at a landscape that's receptive to innovators and creators, Miami is standing out and is benefiting from a major, major migration.

Absolutely. And I definitely agree with that just from seeing a lot of my friends moving out here. And I know that you brought up the Winklevoss twins and they talked about just advancing cryptocurrency in the city of Miami. I've been someone that Since I was 17, the last couple of years, I've been an evangelist in the crypto world. How do you plan on integrating bitcoin and cryptocurrency as a whole more into the city of Miami and what does that process look like?

Well, first of all, I feel like an evangelist of crypto myself as a public official. I think I'm the. I feel like I'm the only public official in the US that's really talking about.

Absolutely.

Crypto and why it's important for cities to integrate and to become a crypto forward thinking. So we're doing a few things. The first thing is we're looking at the legislative and regulatory framework of places like Wisconsin, Wyoming and New York. And the first thing is, why should any of those places have more favorable laws than we do? And the answer is, I can't think of any good reason. So we're going to do everything we can to push the state legislature and we have great partners at the state legislative level to help us have an equal playing field with those other states. I think that will catapult us right to the very top. And then the second thing that we're doing is we're trying to integrate it. You know, crypto and bitcoin in particular are on a. On a journey to mainstream. Right, that's what I call it, the journey to mainstream.

Absolutely.

And I think interacting and working with government is a huge part of the path to mainstream. And so I think for us, accepting bitcoin or cryptocurrencies to pay for fees and taxes is something that legitimizes it significantly. And I think the second part is potentially looking at as an investment tool that we can invest in since the money supply is limited. And yes, it is a volatile investment and has been, but it's also been an investment that's risen incredibly and astronomically. And part of the reason why is there isn't any. Non. There's no reasons why the money Supply should grow. And, you know, as long as the regulatory environment remains stable, there's, you know, with the finite supply of bitcoin, it's the only way that it can go over. Time is up. It's like real estate.

Yeah, absolutely. What did you learn from sitting down with the Winklevoss twins the other day? Because I know I watched that Capacito talk, and I learned a lot. But what was the biggest takeaway that you had from that conversation?

I learned who Satoshi was. Yeah, but I can't say that's a big deal, guys. Satoshi, it's a big deal. No, I learned that, you know, and I read their book also, which they signed for me, Bitcoin billionaire. So I'm really thankful that they came. And what I learned is, is, is what I kind of already knew, but. But they reinforced it, which is a. You know, they would love to have a presence in Miami. They were in New York simply because New York was willing to help them create the exchange that they created in Gemini that allowed for the transfer of bitcoin on an exchange basis. So it was a regulatory framework that allowed them to exist. And that's the power of government. The power of government is facilitation, not denial. And I think for me, that was one of the biggest things. You know, we talked about their success. We talked about them potentially moving some. Some of their operations in Gemini or establishing some sort of Latin American presence here in Miami. And I think, you know, I found them to be incredibly brilliant, engaging, and nice guys.

I love that. When you say, like, the future looks like people being able to pay taxes with crypto, what would you say are the biggest challenges to make that happen, and how long would that process take, in your opinion?

The biggest challenges are easy. You know, not every elected official is a 43 year, you know, that understand some of this stuff. You know, I think, you know, there's. There's some. Some slight reputational things that happen, particularly at the beginning of bitcoin. And. And. And we're going to deal with those. And then I think it's just. Just. It's. It's. It's a learning process, and I think, you know, it can be done safely. And frankly, had I invested in bitcoin last year, right, and it would. It's up 273%. I wouldn't look like a genius. So certainly, you know, sometimes in life you have to take a risk, and when it works out, you look good, and when it doesn't work out, you don't look so Good.

Yeah, absolutely. And I want to say just I'm 20 years old right now and I graduated high school in 2018. I moved right out to Scottsdale and now I live in California right now, right in Los Angeles. Seeing what you've been doing as an official regarding not only crypto, but just for entrepreneurs, it's. It made my head turn and look in this direction. And I think that's not only because you're very bold as an official, but what's your not only advice, but what would you tell the younger community that is looking to move to a new city, Whether that's New York, LA and Miami. Like, what makes Miami different and what are you most excited about moving forward?

Well, the first thing I would tell them is come to Miami. No, because I think what's happening in Miami is something that is special and unique. It's unique because it's a confluence of two mega markets converging in a city. What do I mean by that? You have the, the private equity and the hedge fund managers and employees from hedge funds and private equity firms coming to Miami combined with the founders, the angel investors, the VCs and the engineers coming from Silicon Valley. That's never happened before. It's never, the conversion has never happened in the city. And so what, what's exciting about it is now you're going to see a cross pollinization and capital at levels that we don't see anywhere in the world. So I think Miami has unique, a unique opportunity to mix a tremendous amount of intellectual and financial capital with innovators and that has a room for explosive growth in the future.

Totally. I also want to touch on from a small business perspective, what, what do you doing currently to better enhance and support small businesses in Miami?

You know, small businesses have been hit really hard and you know, they're the lifeblood of our city. We are a city of entrepreneurs. We were number one in the nation in startups. According to the Kauffman Foundation. Many people don't know that one of the things that we've always, I don't want to say struggle, but one of the things that we've always been a challenge is scaling up. A lot of people start small businesses. Sometimes they're family businesses and they're doing well. And so they're like, we don't need to become a national company or an international company. We have a beautiful home, we have, we have cars, we have boats. You know, we have all the things that we could need. So I think what's different about this moment Is it's creating a scalability. And now we're starting to build unicorns, deca corns internally and of course, with external capital. So I think, you know, for small businesses, for me, this is an accelerator moment. This is a moment where you can take your small business, your business that is a Miami based business, and make it a national business, a statewide business, or a global business. And I think that is, it's one of the most empowering things that I can do as mayor for small, small businesses in my city.

I love that. I know that you talked about Miami is a global city and so many people are thinking about different places to move right now because everyone's working from home.

Sure.

Outside of Miami being a global city, just moving into the future of 2021, what are some of the other top priorities that you have in mind as mayor and what should people that are considering moving to Miami look forward to?

I think there's two things. I think one of them is obviously one, if anyone would counter brand Miami, they would say, oh, Miami is going to be underwater. So a lot of that is, is based on either just, you know, ill intent, you know, wanting to sort of create some negative brand in Miami or lack of knowledge. We are spending $200 million in a Miami forever bond, which is probably the largest bond in the United States, if not the largest, one of the largest and probably one of the largest in the world on our, on our resiliency climate, resiliency infrastructure. In addition to that, people don't know that cities like New York have suffered more damage from hurricanes in the last 10 years in the city of Miami. So yeah, it's, it's, it's a wild type. It's a wild. That's not even counting, you know, other, you know, phenomenon that you can't predict, like earthquakes and wildfires and things of that nature. So, you know, you know, we're in a building that was built in the 1940s. If you, the window right behind you. So some of this is on tv. The window right behind you is impact glass. All of our buildings have been upgraded to have impact glass. So we're the most wind resilient city on the planet. And now we're working with a $200 million to become the most water resilient city on the planet. So that's one. The second thing is, I think the biggest challenge for our generation, and there isn't a solution to it because if there was, we would have already implemented it, is income inequality. And so we're focusing a lot on building affordable housing, making sure that we have enough supply of housing so that young people like yourself and others can come to the city, can live in the urban core, can experience what it's like to be in the city and be successful and be close to the action. And so we're doing a variety of things with the private sector, doing public. Private partnerships, spending $100 million of affordable housing, money that we have through the Miami Forever Bond as well. And our leverage rate right now is about 20 to 1. So for every public dollar we spend, we're getting about $20 of private investment. That is. That is leveraging that. That one public dollar.

That is amazing. Very, very cool to hear. I know that you're very. You're a very, very busy man. I don't want to take up too much time. But on social media, I know that I read in a different interview, social media has become something that has been very important. You're in the Twitter DMS with Jack Dorsey and talking to Presidente, and it's this whole new culture that has been swept upon you.

It is.

How has social media changed for you? And how are you looking at it.

Differently, Moving to the future so many different ways. One is, it's been an incredible opportunity and venue for me to get my message out. I used to. I want to be married for three years, so I used to be very focused on Instagram. I loved Instagram.

Yep.

And when I got Covid and I was thrust into the national spotlight, I was the first elected official in the country, one of the first ones to get Covid. My Instagram went through the roof. I did 200 national interviews in a very short period of time.

Wow.

And. And then. And I never. And I never really got into Twitter because I found Twitter to be a little more negative. Right. And what happened was once this. How can I help you tweet happen? And I got the tech community involved and the bitcoin and crypto community involved. The amount of positivity is so much, even greater than Instagram that I've basically, you know, spent all my time on my Twitter account and very little time on my Instagram account. And it's balanced out. You know, Instagram and Twitter both have become places also. This is not something earth shattering. What I'm going to say is where there's a lot of partisan, you know, vitriol. Right. And that's something that I like to stay away from. For me, you know, I'll say, you know, I'm a Republican. I've been a Republican since I was 18 years old. But. But more than that, I'm a human being, and we're all human beings, and we're not defined by anything other than our background, who, you know, how we grew up, where we grew up, who our parents were. There's so many things that define us much more than a political label. And so for me, I just. I like to look at things differently. I like to look at the world in a more of a problem solution type of context.

Yeah.

And I like to look at it in a very humanistic way because I feel like once we. When we dehumanize each other, that's when it's easy to attack somebody. You can attack somebody that you've dehumanized. It's very difficult to. To attack somebody that you know and that you like totally. Which is why, you know, I always. I never. I try to stay away from the. In the conversation about other cities or other mayors because I like them and I know them. You know, I may not agree sometimes with all their policies. That doesn't. That doesn't impact the kind of people that they are, the way I see them.

I love that. Well, Mayor Francis, I just want to say thank you so much for coming on the show today. Your actions and your ability to be bold as not only a mayor, but as a human have inspired me, and I know that they're going to continue to inspire your followers and the people that support you moving into the future. So thank you so much for making this happen.

Well, I'm inspired by you. I'm inspired by this podcast, by the way you're putting this together. This is extremely professional. I've done many, many podcasts, and not many of them have been at this level of professionalism. So I really want to thank you.

Thank you so much. I appreciate that.

Thanks.

Monarch Legacy of Monsters An Apple original Series the world is on fire. I decided to do something about it on November 17th. This place, it's not ours. Believe me. The most massive event of the year arrives. If you come with me, you'll know everything. I promise.

Oh, my God.

Go, go, go.

Legacy of Monsters stre streaming November 17th only on Apple TV.