Entrepreneur in Residence Program
The Entrepreneur will serve as a champion, advocate and connector for both the entrepreneurial community and city government.
Meet our EiR - Reuben Pressman
Reuben is the Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Presence, a software platform which he founded to help higher educational institutions understand data and take action to increase student engagement, success, and workforce readiness. Reuben was born and raised in Tampa Bay and moved to St. Pete to attend USFSP’s Entrepreneurship program in 2008. He’s been programming since age 10 and started his first company at age 12. Since then, he’s started, built, failed, joined, sold, and other verbs, many more ventures.
He serves on boards of community organizations in the arts, technology, university, entrepreneurship, works deeply with economic development, and is an ambassador of, and has a major crush on, St. Pete. When he’s not working, he enjoys the outdoor recreation opportunities the city has, cooking, and spending time with his wife, Jami, and Instafamous dogs.
EiR Roles and Responsibilities:
- Promote St. Petersburg as an entrepreneurial hub and work in concert with the City and City partners to assist with three major targets:
- Company recruitment and expansion
- Investor recruitment and expansion
- Workforce pipeline
- Create, convene and facilitate the “Mayor’s Panel on Entrepreneurship,” a think tank committing to meeting quarterly and represent all levels of entrepreneurial activity with a goal to advise/share/discuss policies and initiatives that help foster growth and awareness of and for St. Petersburg
- Examine, advise and assist to improve government efficiencies and provide an entrepreneurial approach throughout city departments and initiatives as needed
- Engage entrepreneurial community in an educational capacity on behalf of priority city projects
- Create a six-year strategic plan for the EiR program, alongside city staff
- Participate in St. Pete's Grow Smarter Entrepreneurial Work Group
