Happy Thursday! This is Mind Your Business.

First, a quick warning for anyone whose IT provider backs up Microsoft 365 through ConnectWise: ask them today whether your backups are running again.

Tampa-based ConnectWise found a breach in its cloud environment on October 14 and shut down its backup service. Restoration began October 28 through a brand-new app, and nothing comes back on its own. Your provider has to reset passwords, set up MFA, re-authorize your account and confirm new backups are actually being taken. Expect a gap in backup history, and have someone review sign-ins going back to October 13.

Now, onto what's happening around Tampa Bay…

How much room do you have to grow?

That question ran through Tampa Bay this week. An insurer doubled its credit line, a drone company reported a backlog more than three times its robotics revenue so far this year, an accelerator stretched to a second city, and Tampa jumped 26 spots for high-wage job growth. Meanwhile, the expressway authority put downtown land in play, and Pinellas got ready to hand storm aid to small businesses.

🔔 WHAT JUST MOVED
Recent news from the last week shaping Tampa Bay right now.

Here's what's on the board:

🛡️ ConnectWise restores backups two weeks after a breach.
🛩️ XTEND reports an $84M backlog and a new U.S. CEO.
🏠 A Tampa insurer doubles its credit line to $1.07B.
🩺 Wave's first two-city cohort brings in 15 startups.
💼 Tampa jumps to No. 4 for high-wage job growth.
🏗️ Who gets 2.83 acres next to Water Street?
🌀 Pinellas readies $22.1M for storm-hit small businesses.

Big numbers, unexpected moves and a few developments worth watching.
Scroll down for the details…

🛡️CYBERSECURITY / CLOUD

Tampa-based ConnectWise began restoring its Microsoft 365 backup service on October 28 at noon ET, two weeks after discovering intruders in its cloud environment on October 14.

By October 17, the company had disabled seven app identities and suspended Cloud Backup, SaaS Security and Cloud Management. It reset credentials on October 19, and its October 21 advisory tied the attack to a China state-aligned group that Microsoft tracks as Storm-0940, which used an AI attack framework called ARTEX.

Service is coming back in phases through a new app, ConnectWise Cloud Backup for M365. Partners must re-authorize every customer tenant, and ConnectWise is telling them not to re-enable the old apps.

⚡Why It Matters: Many small businesses never deal with ConnectWise directly. Their IT provider does. When a vendor that sits behind your IT provider gets breached, you only find out if somebody tells you, so ask.

🛩️DEFENSE TECH / DRONES

Tampa-based XTEND AI Robotics (NYSE: XTND) reported preliminary, unaudited revenue of $24.5 million to $26.5 million for the first nine months of 2026 on October 26, already more than all of 2025.

Its AI Robotics segment produced $23 million to $24 million of that and carried a backlog of about $84 million on September 30. The company also named Matt McGraw, a retired Navy SEAL Captain who scouted emerging technology at the Defense Innovation Unit, as CEO of XTEND U.S. He'll run U.S. sales, production and delivery.

Full third-quarter results are due November 16. The numbers are preliminary and could change.

⚡Why It Matters: A backlog that size means the hard part is no longer winning orders. It's building and delivering them, and XTEND just put an operator in charge of doing that in the U.S.

🏠INSURANCE / CAPITAL

Tampa homeowners insurer Slide Insurance (Nasdaq: SLDE) closed a new $1.07 billion credit facility led by Huntington, replacing a $530.4 million line at pricing a quarter point lower.

The same week, Slide reported third-quarter net income of $138.2 million, up 24.5%, and raised full-year net income guidance to $500 million to $520 million, up from $455 million to $470 million. The board also declared a one-time $1.50 per share special dividend, payable November 30 to shareholders of record November 23.

Slide is pushing beyond Florida.

⚡Why It Matters: A Florida insurer that only writes Florida lives and dies by one hurricane season. Twice the borrowing room gives Slide more ways to grow somewhere else.

😂MEME STREET

🩺HEALTH TECH / ACCELERATORS

Tampa Bay Wave named 15 behavioral health and addiction startups to its 2026 HealthTech|X Accelerator on October 26. It's the first run with Vanderbilt Health's Brock Family Center and Brock Recovery Group in Nashville.

Tampa sessions started October 26. Nashville sessions follow the week of November 2, and the cohort pitches at Demo Day in January 2027. You can see the full cohort on Wave's site.

Wave says it has supported more than 670 startups that have gone on to raise more than $2 billion.

⚡Why It Matters: Behavioral health startups have a hard time getting in front of clinicians who will actually test their products. This cohort gets clinical partners in two health care cities at once, and Tampa gets a direct line into Nashville.

💼TALENT / JOBS

Lightcast's 2026 Talent Attraction Scorecard ranks Tampa Bay No. 4 among large metros for high-wage job growth, up from No. 30 last year. The region held at No. 10 overall.

Lightcast sets the high-wage line for Tampa at $66,477 a year. The Tampa Bay EDC, which shared the ranking, reports 22 completed projects representing 1,888 jobs and more than $221 million in investment. The Business Observer has more on the rankings.

⚡Why It Matters: More jobs paying above that line means more experienced people already living here. For a founder, that's a bigger pool to hire from without convincing someone to move.

🧠TICKLE YOUR BRAIN

Banks extend me.

A sold-out stadium hits me.

Factories run at full me, and airports plan for me before a big week.

The more of me you have, the more you can grow.

What am I?

(Answer at the bottom. No peeking.)

🤖FEATURED EVENT / AI

AI is moving too fast for another event that spends the night explaining what it is.

On November 19, we're teaming up with Disrupt The Bay to bring together voices from Microsoft, Google, SOFWERX, RebelEdge Advisory and Byte Strategy AI to talk about the tools, workflows and real use cases worth paying attention to now.

Expect practical conversations, speed networking, food and drinks, and a room full of founders, operators, investors and technologists.

Note: Net proceeds will support pediatric cancer research through Save The Kids. You learn frontier AI from the pros and help kids at the same time. Win-Win!

📅 November 19 | 5–8 PM
📍 SOFWERX, 1925 E 2nd Ave, Tampa

→ Get your Early Bird Techapalooza ticket

🏗️REAL ESTATE / DOWNTOWN

The Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority board voted October 26 to move SPP, Hines and Gotham forward in its search for a partner on two sites of about 1.4 acres each, roughly 2.83 acres in all.

One parcel sits beside Water Street at Meridian Avenue and Whiting Street. The other is THEA's own headquarters at 1104 E. Twiggs St., home to a 27,727-square-foot building. The agency could sell the land or sign a long-term lease.

No deal has been approved yet. The shortlist is the start of negotiations, not the end.

⚡Why It Matters: Public land next to Water Street rarely comes up. Whoever wins will shape the next piece of downtown's eastern edge.

🌀SMALL BUSINESS / STORM RECOVERY

Pinellas County is preparing a $22.1 million Small Business Community Recovery Program with grants from $35,000 to $500,000, discussed at an October 22 work session.

The county puts unmet small business need at about $525 million, so the money won't cover everyone. Food service, hospitality, tourism, transportation and childcare businesses go first, and businesses that have since closed may still qualify.

Launch is expected before year-end. There is no application date yet.

⚡Why It Matters: Most storm aid assumes the business is still open. This program reaches owners who lost the business entirely, and with demand far above the budget, being ready on launch day matters.

⚡QUICK HITS

♨️ Watson's Buys Tampa Bay Spas
Watson's acquired the 25-year-old, three-store retailer with locations in Tampa, Brandon and Lakeland, bringing it to 42 stores with plans for 50+ within 18 months. Terms weren't disclosed.

✈️ The World Series Pushed TPA Toward 80,000 Passengers a Day
Tampa International planned for 75,000 to 80,000 daily passengers during the series, compared with about 55,000 on a typical October day. The Brewers clinched on October 28 at Tropicana Field, so the outbound rush is happening now.

💧 Tampa Bay Water Gets $10M to Expand Treatment
The state awarded $22.6 million to Tampa Bay area water supply projects, including $10 million for 12.5 million more gallons a day of treatment capacity and $12.6 million for brackish water projects in seven Polk County communities.

📉 Florida CEO Confidence Cools From a Record
The Tampa-based Florida Council of 100's third-quarter CEO Index fell to 96 from a record 106, still above the national reading of 94. Hiring plans cooled the most, with the employment index at 89.

☕ A California Coffee Chain Picks Brandon for Its Florida Debut
Better Buzz Coffee is opening its first Florida cafe in Brandon on a 15-year lease.

⚖️ Hill Ward Henderson Joins Embarc as a Shared Services Partner
The Tampa law firm is now a shared services partner for Embarc Collective's startup members.

🎯OPERATOR'S TAKE

Tampa International knew the World Series was coming, so it planned for up to 80,000 passengers a day.

Most of us don't get that kind of warning. Not before a rush of customers, and definitely not before a vendor we've never heard of gets breached.

This week's stories were about room to grow. A bigger credit line. A fuller backlog. More land, more water, more people earning good wages. That's all capacity, and capacity only counts if you can use it on the day you need it.

ConnectWise is the reminder. Plenty of businesses had backups they never thought about, sitting behind an IT provider, sitting behind a vendor. On October 14, that chain broke.

So here's one thing to do before Friday: ask your IT provider, "If one of your vendors gets breached, how fast do I hear about it, and what do I have to do?"

If the answer takes more than a sentence, that's your November project.

Want to swap answers with other founders and operators? Come find me at Techapalooza on November 19th.

All the best,
Jon Tavarez

WORTHY MENTIONS

Market Signals
⚖️ Fear & Greed: 36 (FEAR), up from 20 a week ago | CNN Business
₿ Bitcoin: about $80.6K (Oct. 29 morning ET) | CoinGecko
🛢️ WTI crude: about $100.65/barrel (+0.99% week over week) | CME

Market readings reflect October 29 snapshots, not fixed closing prices. WTI is the front-month CME futures quote compared with the October 22 settlement. Market figures can change before this email is sent.

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RIDDLE ANSWER

Answer: Capacity.

Simple explanation:
Capacity is how much you can handle before you run out of room. Slide doubled its borrowing capacity, Tampa Bay Water is adding treatment capacity, and TPA planned for a World Series crowd before it arrived.

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