For much of its history, Tampa Bay’s innovation infrastructure existed more as ambition than as a system with clearly defined outcomes.
Rebecca Brown joined the ARK Innovation Center last summer with a focus on changing that.
Instead of rushing out announcements, she spent her first six months reworking the strategy, the support model and what the center should actually deliver.
“What we are doing now is incubating early-stage technology companies,” Brown told TBBW. “But we’ve redefined how that incubation works.”
That reset led to a rebrand.
The organization, formerly known as the Tampa Bay Innovation Center, now operates as spARK Labs by ARK Invest. The building itself remains the ARK Innovation Center in St. Petersburg.
“The name of the building stays the ARK Innovation Center,” Brown said. “The organization running the incubator is spARK Labs by ARK Invest.”
Rejecting the Silicon Valley script
Brown is careful about how she talks about Tampa Bay’s role in tech.
She does not like comparisons to Silicon Valley and says the region does not need to borrow another market’s identity.
“I don’t actually like to use that analogy,” she said. “We’re defining who we are.”
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Instead, Brown points to Tampa Bay’s existing strengths.
She cited the business climate, quality of life and the region’s long ties to defense technology through MacDill Air Force Base.
If there is any comparison to Silicon Valley, she said, it comes from history, not imitation.
“The roots of the Silicon Valley that we know today did originate out of the Department of Defense,” Brown said.
A different definition of incubation
At the center of the overhaul is a move away from short accelerator programs toward longer-term support.
Traditional accelerators often run 12-week programs with the same curriculum for every company.
spARK Labs is taking a different approach, working with companies for 12 months or more, depending on each business’s needs.
“We’re doing more of a high-touch, customized support model,” Brown said.
She defines that support around what she calls the three C’s: capital, customers and community.
spARK Labs does not deploy capital or take equity. Instead, Brown said the focus is on helping founders navigate fundraising.
“We are not writing checks,” she said. “We’re helping them in the capital-raising process.”
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Customers are the second pillar. That includes helping startups clarify their value and find real traction in the market.
“Every business needs customers,” Brown said.
Community is the third. Brown said it is often the reason founders keep going when momentum slows.
“Community is what keeps a founder going when things get tough,” she said. “And things will get tough.”
The physical space matters, she added, because it creates daily interaction, shared learning and accountability.
Brown acknowledged that part of the reset required recalibrating expectations after earlier timelines and outcomes did not always align, a gap she said can quickly turn into skepticism if not addressed directly.
Brown said part of the reset involved recalibrating expectations after earlier timelines and outcomes did not always align, a gap she said can quickly turn into skepticism if not addressed directly.
“Anything worth doing takes longer than you want it to,” she said, framing patience as a response to experience rather than hesitation.
How companies are selected
spARK Labs also evaluates companies through ARK Invest’s research framework, which focuses on five core innovation themes: artificial intelligence, robotics, energy storage, blockchain technology and multi-omics sequencing.
Brown described the framework not as branding, but as a filter that determines which companies belong in the incubator and which do not.
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She described multi-omics sequencing in particular as a long-term opportunity, pointing to technologies that work across DNA, RNA and proteins to improve how diseases are treated and understood.
Because ARK Invest is a partner, Brown said spARK Labs can align its work with broader research already shaping capital flows and technology adoption.
Innovation shaped by place
Brown sees Tampa Bay’s geography as an advantage, not a limitation.
She pointed to the bay itself as a real-world testing ground for autonomous transportation and mobility technology.
“We need to get across the bay,” she said. “Tampa needs to come to St. Petersburg.”
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She also cited Florida’s exposure to hurricanes as an opportunity to lead in faster rebuilding and permitting innovation.
“What we can do is be faster and more efficient when we have to rebuild,” Brown said.
Making innovation visible
Brown said innovation needs to be seen to matter.
“The best way to bring attention is to actually show the world what technologies we’re deploying here,” she said.
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That visibility, she said, helps attract capital, founders and companies looking for a place to build.
Beyond startups
spARK Labs plans extend beyond its resident companies. Brown said the organization will offer education programs for the broader community, especially around artificial intelligence.
“If you’re somebody that doesn’t even know how to use AI or doesn’t know where to start, we’re going to help with that,” she said.
She acknowledged concern around AI but said education is the answer.
“There are a lot of negative news articles that come out around AI,” she said. “I think that’s misguided.”
Growing deliberately
The ARK Innovation Center currently houses more than 30 companies, with space for about 50. Brown said the goal is to reach full membership by midyear.
The bigger challenge is pacing.
“We want to do so much,” she said. “Things take longer than you want them to.”
If the model holds, the impact extends beyond startups, translating into jobs, a broader tax base and technologies that become part of daily life across the region.
For Tampa Bay’s innovation ecosystem, the shift underway is not about proving potential, but about sustaining it.
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