Kyle, a Trinidad native, is a tech enthusiast passionate about leveraging technology and entrepreneurship to create opportunities in the Caribbean. His journey began at university when he launched a platform allowing students to buy and sell items, earning up to $4,000 monthly from advertising. This sparked his interest in building scalable technology businesses.
Upon returning to Trinidad, Kyle co-founded First, a platform which Digicel invested $2 million however the business didn’t succeed. He views failure as a crucial part of the entrepreneurial journey. Learning from his setbacks, Kyle partnered with a Jamaican co-founder to create TechBeach Retreat, which has since grown into a global brand recognized by Entrepreneur magazine as a top event in Latin America.
TechBeach’s unique retreat-style events, offer a blend of technology discussions and relationship-building. The core focus is on technology’s cross-cutting impact across industries, with recent themes centered on artificial intelligence and the metaverse.
Kyle believes that while the Caribbean isn’t 20 years behind in technology, a significant challenge is the lack of internal competence within organizations and governments. This gap creates a fear of embracing innovation. The absence of an enabling environment stymies the growth of tech companies, limiting their potential to scale.
In addition to its signature events, TechBeach has expanded into education and investment, running accelerator programs to help tech founders learn key business skills. Kyle emphasizes the importance of creating a supportive ecosystem for technology-driven businesses to thrive, combining investor support, talent development, and government backing.
He cites Estonia as a model for digital transformation, where the entire society is digitally savvy, from schoolchildren to the elderly and advocates for a cultural shift in the Caribbean, urging governments and organizations to prioritize technology education.
Looking ahead, Kyle stresses the need to embrace AI quickly and dreams of a future where technology skills are central to education and where the Caribbean can compete globally by leveraging its talent and resources. To achieve this, he believes in aggressive, all-encompassing education reforms, from workshops to full-scale digitization agendas.
Ultimately, Kyle’s vision is for the Caribbean to move beyond its current slow adoption and fully embrace the transformative power of technology.
Dennise Demming 