“If you want something done right, do the math first. Then do the work.”
David Suarez
FADE IN:
Act One
THE ENGINEER
INT. UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA — ENGINEERING LAB — 2005
A mechanical engineering lab at UF. Whiteboards covered in equations. 3D printers humming. YOUNG DAVID SUAREZ (early 20s) stands at a workstation, disassembling a small engine with the precision of a surgeon. Every bolt goes into a labeled container. Every wire is documented.
He's the kind of student who makes professors uncomfortable — not because he's disruptive, but because he asks the question they don't have an answer for.
University of Florida. Gainesville. 2005.
David (V.O., present day) (breaking the fourth wall)
I studied mechanical engineering because I wanted to understand how things work. Not on the surface — at the component level. Why does this gear turn that shaft? Why does this material fail at this temperature? Engineering teaches you that every system has a logic. If you can find the logic, you can optimize the system. That applies to engines. It also applies to businesses. And it definitely applies to city government.
EXT. SUAREZ FAMILY HOME — SOUTH FLORIDA — WEEKEND
A warm, loud Cuban-Israeli household in South Florida. DAVID'S FATHER (50s, charming, hands that have worked) grills in the backyard while family circulates. The conversation switches between English, Spanish, and Hebrew mid-sentence.
David's Father
(flipping steaks)
Mijo, you graduate in three months. You coming to work with me or you going to build rockets?
Young David
What would I do at LifeCell? I'm an engineer, not a skincare guy.
David's Father
You're a problem solver. I have problems. Good problems. Growth problems. I need someone who thinks like an engineer but can talk to people. That's you.
David looks at his father. The man who built a skincare company from nothing in a new country. The man who provided for his family through pure hustle. David takes a bite of steak.
Young David
Show me the numbers first.
“My dad built the product. I built the machine that sells it.”
— David Suarez
Act Two
THE MARKETER
INT. LIFECELL OFFICES — SOUTH FLORIDA — 2008
A small office. David (mid-20s) has a whiteboard covered in marketing funnels, conversion rates, and customer acquisition costs. This doesn't look like a skincare company. It looks like a Silicon Valley growth lab.
David
(to his father, pointing at the board)
The product is good. The problem isn't the product. The problem is the funnel. We're spending $40 to acquire a customer who spends $35. We need to flip that ratio and open new markets simultaneously.
David's Father
Speak English, mijo.
David
We need to sell more, spend less, and go to Latin America. In that order.
A montage: David rebuilding the marketing operation. New ad creative. New channels. Direct-to-consumer optimization. Late nights testing headlines, pricing, offers. He approaches marketing the way he approaches an engineering problem: measure, analyze, optimize, repeat.
Month One: 2x revenue. Month Three: 15x revenue. Month Six: 100x revenue.
INT. LIFECELL OFFICES — SIX MONTHS LATER
The office is bigger. There are employees now. David stands at a conference table reviewing reports from Latin American distributors. Mexico. Colombia. Brazil. Argentina. The numbers are staggering.
David's Father
(reading the quarterly report)
One hundred times. In six months. How?
David
Math. The product was always good, Papi. We just needed to put it in front of the right people in the right way at the right price. Latin America was wide open. Nobody was doing what we're doing there. We just showed up first.
David (V.O.) (breaking the fourth wall)
Growing a business 100x teaches you something that no engineering class ever will: the system that works is the system that serves people. You can optimize all you want, but if the product doesn't genuinely help the customer, the math doesn't matter. LifeCell worked because the product worked. I just made sure more people knew about it.
Act Three
THE ACTIVIST
EXT. SOUTH OF FIFTH (SOFI) — MIAMI BEACH — 2020
The SoFi neighborhood. Quiet tree-lined streets. Low-rise condos. Ocean views. The most livable part of Miami Beach — and the most coveted by developers.
DAVID (late 30s) walks with ELENA along their street. A construction sign announces a new luxury tower project. Another one. The third this year.
Elena
That lot was a park when we moved here.
David
(reading the developer's sign)
Forty stories. Ocean-view luxury residences. “Redefining SoFi.” They don't want to redefine it. They want to demolish it and sell the rubble to tourists.
Elena
What are you going to do about it?
David looks at the sign. Then at his neighborhood. Then at Elena. The same look he had when his father asked him about LifeCell. The engineer seeing a problem that needs solving.
David
I'm going to do the math. Then I'm going to do the work.
EXT. SOFI NEIGHBORHOOD — MONTAGE — 2020–2022
David goes door to door. Not with a political pitch — with a clipboard and data. He shows residents the zoning changes, the developer applications, the traffic impact studies. He explains what each new tower means for parking, shadows, noise, property values.
The clipboard becomes a petition. The petition becomes Save SoFi. Yard signs appear. Community meetings fill living rooms. David runs the campaign the same way he ran LifeCell: systematically, with data, and with relentless follow-through.
Save SoFi. 1,000+ signatures. 47 community meetings. One clear message: Protect our neighborhood.
INT. MIAMI BEACH CITY COMMISSION CHAMBER — PUBLIC HEARING
David stands at the public comment podium, facing the seated commissioners. Behind him, fifty Save SoFi supporters wearing matching blue t-shirts. THE DEVELOPER sits in the front row with his legal team.
David
I have 1,047 signatures from residents of South of Fifth who oppose this zoning variance. I have a traffic impact analysis that your staff didn't bother to commission. I have noise projections, shadow studies, and a survey of comparable developments in other coastal cities that shows a 23% decline in residential property values when towers above thirty stories are permitted in low-rise neighborhoods.
He places a thick binder on the podium.
David
This isn't opinion. This is data. And the data says this project will degrade the quality of life for every resident in South of Fifth. We're asking you to represent the people who elected you, not the developers who funded your campaigns.
Silence in the chamber. The commissioners shift uncomfortably. The Developer's lawyer begins furiously writing notes.
“I didn't start Save SoFi because I wanted to be in politics. I started it because I wanted to keep living in my neighborhood. The politics came after, because I realized the only way to permanently protect the community was from the inside.”
— David Suarez
Act Four
THE CANDIDATE
INT. SUAREZ HOME — DINING TABLE — 2023
David and Elena sit across from each other. Between them: a legal pad with two columns. PRO and CON. The PRO column is longer.
Elena
You want to run.
David
I want the commission to actually work. Every meeting I attend, I sit in the audience and watch them make decisions that don't make sense. I can read a budget. I can read an engineering report. I can read a zoning application. Most of them can't. Or won't.
Elena
It'll cost money. A lot of money.
David
I'll self-fund. I won't owe anyone. No developers. No lobbyists. No PACs. My money. My campaign. My positions.
Elena
(studying the legal pad)
Six hundred thousand dollars?
David
Six hundred and fifty-one thousand. I did the math.
Elena looks at him. Then at the legal pad. Then back at him.
Elena
Of course you did the math.
EXT. MIAMI BEACH — CAMPAIGN TRAIL — MONTAGE — 2023
David knocks on doors. Holds community forums in parks. Stands at farmer's markets with brochures that have more data than slogans. He campaigns the way he does everything: systematically, personally, relentlessly.
THE INCUMBENT holds flashy fundraisers in restaurants. David holds town halls in living rooms. The Incumbent has endorsements from political insiders. David has petitions from residents.
The Incumbent
(at a fundraiser, to donors)
This guy — this Suarez kid — he thinks engineering degrees and petition signatures win elections. Elections are won with relationships. With endorsements. With the machine. He'll learn.
INT. ELECTION NIGHT WATCH PARTY — NOVEMBER 2023
A modest venue. Save SoFi supporters, neighborhood residents, family. Elena holds David's hand. The results come in on a TV screen.
David Suarez wins.
The room erupts. David stands still for a moment, looking at the screen. Then at Elena. Then at his father, who is crying quietly in the back of the room.
David Suarez. Elected Miami Beach City Commissioner, Group 5. November 2023.
David
(to the crowd)
This isn't about me. This was never about me. This is about the thousand people who signed the Save SoFi petition. The neighbors who showed up to every community meeting. The residents who are tired of watching their city get sold to the highest bidder. We did this together. And starting tomorrow, we govern together.
Act Five
THE COMMISSIONER
INT. MIAMI BEACH CITY COMMISSION CHAMBER — FIRST SESSION
David takes his seat on the commission. The same chamber where he used to stand at the public comment podium. Now he's behind the dais. The perspective has changed, but the mission hasn't.
David (V.O.) (breaking the fourth wall)
The first thing I did as commissioner was read the entire city budget. Line by line. Every department. Every line item. Seven hundred pages. It took me a week. Most commissioners never read it at all. They vote on billion-dollar budgets based on staff summaries. An engineer doesn't do that. An engineer reads the blueprint.
INT. COMMISSION CHAMBER — VALET PARKING VOTE
David presents a motion to close the valet parking loophole. Simple, practical, unglamorous. The kind of policy that doesn't make headlines but makes residents' lives measurably better.
David
Valet operators are currently allowed to reserve public parking spaces without paying market rates. This means residents are subsidizing valet services for restaurants and hotels. The math is simple: close the loophole, return the spaces to the public, and use the revenue for infrastructure. Motion to adopt.
The motion passes. No drama. No scandal. Just better governance.
David (V.O.) (breaking the fourth wall)
People expect politics to be dramatic. Fights. Scandals. Speeches. The best governance is boring. It's fixing a valet parking loophole. It's reading the stormwater management report. It's showing up to the committee meetings that nobody covers and doing the work that nobody sees. My engineering professors would be proud. The system works when you maintain it.
EXT. SOUTH OF FIFTH — MORNING
David walks through the SoFi neighborhood. Same streets. Same trees. Same low-rise character. The construction sign from three years ago is gone. In its place: a small community garden. Residents wave. He waves back.
His phone buzzes. Another constituent email. Another zoning question. Another system to optimize.
Elena
(on the phone)
You coming home for dinner?
David
After one more meeting. Infrastructure committee. Stormwater drainage.
Elena
Sexy.
David
(laughing)
You married an engineer. What did you expect?
He keeps walking. The ocean in the distance. The neighborhood he fought to protect. The city he now serves.
David Suarez grew LifeCell 100x in six months. He gathered 1,000+ signatures to save his neighborhood. He self-funded $651,000 to run for office. He won. He serves Miami Beach as City Commissioner, Group 5.
FADE TO BLACK.
Credits
Written by
Glen Bradford
AI Assistance
Claude by Anthropic
Based on the life of
David Suarez
Dedicated to
Everyone who shows up to the meeting nobody else attends