From IT Worker to Tech Entrepenuer

Startup accelerators and hackathons have become prominent over the past decade in Jamaica geared towards youth with the goal of promoting technology entrepreneurship in the country.

Governments, NGOs and other institutions have consistently increased their investment over the last decade in these ecosystems looking for the next Uber, AirBnB and DropBox. The Govt. of Jamaica has the Startup Jamaica Accelerator whose goal it is to provide budding software entrepreneurs with the resources, mentorship and funding to see them succeed but with some degree of success.  The results of these initiatives have been speculative, with few companies gaining real traction and momentum to be considered serious businesses.  Contrast the relative success seen in other jurisdictions like the United States Northeast (Boston, New York) and the West coast (San Francisco) with their incubators and accelerators booming with success stories. A fallacy that seemingly exists is that the next set of tech entrepreneurs will be younger than 30 and their knowledge superior to that of their older counterparts. This clearly goes against the reality that in the US according to the Harvard Business Review article, How Old Are Silicon Valley’s Top Founders? Here’s the Data (April 03, 2014), 51%  of the top founders of technical companies are 30 year olds and older. If we overlay these statistics in Jamaica the numbers are clearly much less.

In conclusion, the opportunities abound for Information Technology professionals who have honed their craft to accede themselves of the resources made available like incubators, the Junior Stock Exchange and other channels to create abundant opportunities for wealth and to do what they love so much, that is, solve problems.

Delton Phillips

Director of Strategy & Innovation, Particular Presence Technologies

http://www.particularpresence.com info@particularpresence.com

References


How Old Are Silicon Valley’s Top Founders? Here’s the Data (April 03, 2014)

https://hbr.org/2014/04/how-old-are-silicon-valleys-top-founders-heres-the-data