Emily Adams is the chief operating officer of Tampa Bay Tech Week and managing partner of HyLo Inno, an innovation and investment firm focused on closing gaps in the Tampa Bay tech ecosystem. In addition to consulting on accelerators, funding, and community building, she leads confidential skunkworks engagements for manufacturers and growth-stage companies through Gulf Works Lab.
Her personal story explains her extraordinary success. At 17, Emily left the strict Amish community where she was raised. She had only a sixth-grade education and a dream of being a "corporate woman." From there, she built a career spanning automotive manufacturing, cybersecurity, entrepreneurship, and now the innovation infrastructure of one of the fastest-growing regions in the U.S.
Emily shares what it took to save $1.5 million at Honda, what proof stacking is and why it works, and why the most underrated asset in any career pivot is the skills you already have.
Jack Clabby and co-host Kayley Jerrell talk with Emily about building Tampa Bay Tech Week from scratch in four months with a team of six volunteers, what went right and wrong in its first year, and why a centralized space where founders, operators, and investors can build something together had been missing from Tampa. She also explains Human Design, why she is a Manifestor, and what that means for the people around her.
In the lifestyle polygraph segment, Emily talks about competing in powerlifting at the world level, what she does during downtime, why her favorite Tampa thing is cigar lounges, and why her leap of faith is far from her defining moment.
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