Brian Breslin started Refresh Miami, the largest tech entrepreneur organization in South Florida, with just five people meeting at a Starbucks in 2006. Today, Refresh’s membership has sported a hockey stick growth curve that any startup would envy. The group has grown to 8,500 members and routinely attracts 300 to 500 people to every monthly event, giving countless entrepreneurs a platform to connect with others and learn about the community.
Breslin and Peter Martinez, co-directors of Refresh Miami, received Knight Foundation funding last year to help continue high-quality programming, such as the ability to fly in a speaker from Silicon Valley, and add features like a job board and revamped events calendar.
The group has steadily grown and produced about 100 monthly events. Recent events have included themes like lean management, Bitcoin basics, founder matchmaking and fashion tech. Indeed, one of the recent challenges has been to find venues big enough to host Refresh Miami.
Breslin, 31, may be best known in the tech and entrepreneurship community for his leadership of Refresh Miami — and for being a Miami evangelist and one of a few go-to people for help navigating the growing community. Breslin has been one of the pioneers of the community’s latest efforts to build a tech hub; indeed, he was honored as a Miami Herald 20 Under 40 in 2010. We talked to Breslin about his entrepreneurial roots, his businesses and his views on the community’s development.
Q. What was the first business you ever started?
A. When I was 9 years old I started selling candy at school that my parents would buy for me from Costco. This business funded my early comic book habit.
Q. How and when did you know you wanted to be an entrepreneur?
A. I think I knew in high school that I was always going to be an entrepreneur. I ran a network of blogs with writers around the world and sold advertising on them. At that point is when I knew that I probably couldn’t work a conventional job.