> like Florida

If Florida is "backwater", then so is most of the rest of the country outside of a handful of overpriced cities where earning 80k is required to be able to afford a room in an apartment - not the whole apartment, and certainly not buying one.

I mean yea, they absolutely are economically speaking - especially when looking at where new grad college educated jobs are located [0].

Heck, most states have fallen into a technical recession [1]. Florida is weird simply because of how much tourism and retirement adjacent industries skew it's economy (eg. Elderly care, primary care, etc) - in fact, healthcare services (as in elderly care, hospice care, and homecare) is the only non-skilled industry that is seeing a significant expansion in the US.

I personally along with HN, other VCs, and PE funds have been actively following the MSO space for a couple years now because of this boom.

And I say this as someone who kinda likes Florida (Dr Philips reminds me and moreso the missus of bougie gated communities back in ASEAN).

[0] - https://www.axios.com/local/denver/2025/02/28/white-collar-w...

[1] - https://www.ft.com/content/e9be3e3f-2efe-42f7-b2d2-8ab3efea2...