As artificial intelligence reshapes the workforce, most conversations have focused on layoffs. But Miami entrepreneur Chandler Malone thinks there’s another story worth watching: the cities best positioned to turn displaced workers into founders.
For Malone, co-founder and CEO of Bootup Studios, AI is replacing jobs, sure – but it’s also making it dramatically easier to start companies.
“If AI is shrinking the labor market, why not use it to help more people build businesses instead?” became the question that led his team to launch the Miami startup.
Bootup Studios is building an AI-powered business platform designed to help entrepreneurs operate with much smaller teams. The software combines AI advisors with task-specific agents that can carry out work across functions like customer success, operations, finance, product, and go-to-market execution.
“Every company that I’ve raised and launched has either been in AI or the workforce space,” Malone told Refresh Miami. Watching wave after wave of tech layoffs, he said he noticed two trends unfolding at once. Companies were reducing headcount while entrepreneurs suddenly had access to tools that dramatically lowered the cost and complexity of building software.
His previous venture, an AI-powered test preparation platform, convinced him the economics of startups had fundamentally changed.
“It was the most technical product that I’ve ever been a part of,” he said. “But it was also the easiest one to get out because of the tooling that is available now.”
Bootup Studios officially launched in August with Malone and a small engineering team. Since then, the company has signed Morehouse College as its first institutional customer, launched a pilot with the University of Tulsa, and was recently selected for Parallel18, Puerto Rico’s internationally recognized startup accelerator.
Another milestone came in June, when Bootup Studios was selected for Parallel18, one of the Caribbean’s best-known startup accelerators. As part of the program, Malone and team will receive investment, mentorship, and access to Puerto Rico’s growing innovation ecosystem.
But Malone believes the bigger story is Miami.
Unlike cities such as Seattle, San Francisco, or Atlanta, Miami has relatively few large public technology employers. Instead, its economy has long been driven by founder-led businesses and smaller companies.
“I think Miami is very much a city of entrepreneurs,” Malone said. “It’s more SMB. It’s more entrepreneurial.”
That could prove to be an advantage if AI continues reducing hiring at major technology companies.
“I wonder if the next exciting thing for Miami is that we’re the city that doesn’t have these massive layoffs because we don’t have all these Fortune 500 tech companies,” he said.
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