This week is filled with excitement. Yes, Miami went right from Post-Seed to Series B -- skipping its Series A.

BAM! @FrancisSuarez and @rabois @FoundersFund are the co-leads! @MarceloClaure kicked in $100M. @zebulgar and #MiamiTechWeek have been drumming up #FOMO like crazy.

We know about 1/4 of companies survive from Seed to Series B so lets party #MiamiBeach style!

This latest “investment” signals confidence in the platform (Miami) and brings new money and intellect to the cap table. And reduces the risk for all those who have invested before.

All too often when new investors in Series A, B and beyond join the cap table, it pushes early investors down the cap table in ownership, influence and share-of-mind. It's called dilution. But this case is different.

Miami has a highly involved cap table full of early “investors” worth calling out now as #Miami pops. Why? Each early stage investor has gone on to fund the next round with their intellect, network, money and enthusiasm. Let's continue to build together!

Some history...
PRE-SEED
#MiamiTech rolled fast out of the Great Recession:
-- The community was growing. @Ndahlberg ran the Miami Herald Business Plan Challenge writing about all things #MiamiTech. @RefreshMiami was building a tech community.

-- @Bellumio with his “mi casa es su casa” hospitality was connecting people then as he is doing today with bike and boat rides and other great events that promote #MiamiTechLife.

-- Great companies were getting solid traction. @OpenEnglish, @Nearpod too. @Chewy was rolling backed by @larryvc of @volitioncapital. @Launchcode started delivering TechEd to people with non-traditional backgrounds helping them into high(er) paying jobs.

-- @Codefever started “getting communities up to code.”

-- Unicorn exits began. Manny Medina sold Terramark to Verizon for $1.2B. Boom!

-- The first co-working space opened. @therealwifi opened @TheLABMiami in a 700 square foot space in Wynwood. @MattHaggman at @knightfdn provided funding, @CappelloJP, Tigre Weinrich, @MarcoGiberti and others invested in and nurtured dozens dozens of Miami companies.

SEED:
A few years later, things started to coalesce:
-- @MiamiAngelsVC – Members based in SoFla who invest together -- got rolling. @NicBerardi kicked it off as Managing Director, funded by @MattHaggman @KnightFDN with a great board...

...including Juan-Pablo Cappello, Tigre Weinrich and Marco Giberti. To date the board (including me -- @markis -- and @melissakrinzman who joined later) have made over 50 investments in local companies on our own, Miami Angels doing many more.

-- With @KnightFDN backing, @EndeavorMiami launched to help entrepreneurs expand their businesses (22 companies to date).
-- @500Startups got going, led by @aglez

-- @eMergeAmericas launched its first conference (and the original #MiamiTechWeek??) with @KnightFDN backing and Manny Medina at the helm, guided by @MelMedina305 and later joined by @fgorordo starting with 5,000 attendees in 2014 exploding to 16,000 attendees by 2019.

-- $100M in early-stage funding appeared on the scene when Krillion Ventures ( @melissakrinzman and Jeffrey Miller), @SecochaVC ( @SanketSParekh) and @LasOlasVC launched with the ability to lead rounds and write big checks.

-- @willweinraub, founder of LiveNinja worked on building his company and hosted the epic #WaffleWednesdays.

-- @Ironhack and @Wyncode started their coding schools. @SKTCHYAPP launched its community of artists (and I invested!). The founders of these plus @WherebyUs and @blanketai courageously chose to start in Miami despite criticism from potential investors outside Miami.

POST-SEED
Over the past 5 years, things have been jamming:

-- @RMoas joined @MiamiAngels as MD, building on Nico Berardi’s success. Then moved to @knightfdn, funding a $15M invest't in FIU and UM to expand Miami’s tech talent and groups like @BlackAngelsMiami, @UMCaneAngel and @FunctionVC (started by @MonicaSBlack), and others.

-- @RebeccaDanta picked up from Raul Moas expanding @MiamiAngelsVC to 130 angel investors w/ nearly 1/4 women. So far MA members have funded local startups with $17M of seed capital; 61% of whom are led by an underrepresented minority. Great ROI for @KnightFDN seed investment!

-- @NicBerardi launched @AnimoVC -- a $50M fund leading pre-seed and seed rounds.
-- Chris Sopher @cksopher, Rebeka Monson @RSM and @BrucePinchbeck launched http://Whereby.us  with their must-read newsletter about all things Miami -- @NewTropicMiami

-- @Jason came to town for a fireside chat with Refresh Miami which became the talk of the town, ultimately getting behind http://Whereby.us  and http://Blanket.io .
-- Read about all the great Miami startups at http://startup.miami/category/startups/

-- Chewy got acquired for $3B.
-- Nearpod sold for $650M.
-- Andrew Parker ( @AParktheLark) launched JoinPapa, and went on to raise Seed, A, B and C rounds totaling $90M+.
-- @TheVentureCity launched.

-- @MayorSuarz uttered the magic words now famous in tech “how can I help?”, brought on allstars like @Saif Ishoof as connector-in-chief and @melissakrinzman as VC in Residence...

...invited tech types from all over to his office for cafecitos, went long on crypto and single-handedly started a movement.

And here we are as @rabois so presciently said -- Miami skipped Series A and went straight to B.

[Folks, I'm no historian and I missed a bunch of stuff. Add it in the comments!]