Despite recently laying off 150 Miami-based employees, Kaseya CEO Fred Boccola appealed to the local tech community in a speech at the Miami Tech Summit on Wednesday.
The invitation-only event was held at the Perez Art Museum in downtown Miami and was attended by approximately 150 technology leaders and entrepreneurs.
Voccola moved to Miami in 2016 and brought his software company, Kaseya, with him after learning that Florida's tax laws were favorable to businesses.
Caseya's CEO moved to Miami, weeks after the company, which received taxpayer incentives to create new jobs in Miami-Dade, cut 150 employees from its local account management and sales team in early April. shared an affinity for the workforce. This was at the request of Mr. Xavier, Caseya's chief communications officer. Gonzalez said it's performance-based.
“This city is a city of immigrants,” Boccola said Wednesday. “There's a sense of immigrants wanting to make their lives better. This creates a work ethic, loyalty, and very talented workers. I believe our workforce is the best in the world. We employ more than 1,000 people here and plan to hire thousands more over the next two years.”
As Kaseya expands into what is now a $1.5 billion business, Voccola said he has focused on ways to further expand the brand and visibility. Early in his career, Voccola was attracted to Intel, which makes processors that research found were in 75% of his laptops.
Voccola remembered Intel's prominence when he worked in San Francisco and wanted to emulate that influence. “It's gotten to the point where everyone who buys a computer says they won't buy it unless it has Intel in it.”
Brand recognition played a role in his own company's decision to pay for the naming rights to Caseya Center, a 19,600-seat arena in downtown Miami that hosts the Miami Heat. Caseya has a seven-year agreement with Miami-Dade County for naming rights. The county has not yet received promised job creation incentives, including $4.25 million from the County Relocation and Expansion Incentive Program.
Boccola said the opportunity to raise his company's profile is a top priority.
“The end customers of our technology, dentists and law firm owners, have no idea what technology their IT security providers are using,” he said. “One thing I want them to say is, are they being driven by Kaseya?”
