New Tampa Bay founder support group debuts

A new Tampa Bay business group is connecting company founders with executives, advisers and investors who can help them navigate the challenges of growing and running a company. 

Momentum Partners Exchange, or MPX, launched Sept. 15 with a sold-out event featuring entrepreneur and former Fintech CEO Scott Riley at Tampa’s Centre Club. The inaugural gathering attracted 74 founders, executives, investors, advisers and strategic partners, according to the new group’s announcement. 

The organization’s approach centers on members sharing their expertise, contacts and resources to help other businesses grow. Formed by leaders who met through Tampa Bay’s entrepreneurial community, MPX plans to work alongside existing business support organizations, the release says.

“Founder communities don't need more panels,” founding partner Diane Buckley-Altwies says in the release. “They need real conversations about scaling, fundraising, mistakes and execution. Seeing 74 people show up tells us that Tampa Bay is ready for something different.”

The launch featured an unscripted discussion with Riley, whose career has spanned advertising, media, marketing and payments.

Riley built and sold an advertising agency, co-founded several media and marketing companies and helped launch the GTE St. Pete Grand Prix, according to the release. He later spent more than 13 years as CEO of Tampa-based Financial Information Technologies, known as Fintech, and is the author of “Zero to 30 Billion!”

His company provides technology that manages invoices, payments and other operations in the alcohol, retail and hospitality industries. Private equity firm TA Associates invested in the company in 2018, the same year Riley sold most of his stake, according to the MPX release.

“Tampa Bay has the talent and the drive to build great companies. What founders need most is access to people who have been there,” Riley says in the release. “MPX is creating that access, and I was proud to be part of the first conversation.”

MPX enters a region with an established network of organizations serving entrepreneurs. Tampa Bay Wave is one such nonprofit technology startup accelerator, as is Embarc Collective, which provides founders with coaching, strategic support and opportunities to learn from other entrepreneurs. Several other groups dot the region. 

MPX describes its audience as growth-oriented founders building their own companies, and the organization is focused on connecting them to other local business leaders and strategic partners.

The group’s next Founder Conversations event is scheduled for Dec. 2, according to its website.