Kingston BETA, aims to encourage Caribbean Tech Entrepreneurship…look who and what happened at July’s event.

KingstonBETA.com

KIngston BETA is part of a network of initiatives that  includes with us here at SiliconCaribe.com, Caribbean BETA, the annual tech conference coming in November, StartupWeekendJamaica, and  are all working on the same mission – to grow tech entrepreneurship in Jamaica and across the Caribbean. We believe tech entrepreneurship can and will become a major driver of startup businesses, job creation and innovation .

To that end we hold Kingston BETA, a bimonthly meet up for the Jamaican and Caribbean Tech industry, to pitch their startup ideas, learn, be inspired and network with like minds. Over its four year run, it has hosted over 2500 attendees and 70 Caribbean Startups.

As the head of ConnectiMass, the company that founded these online media, events, education and pending funding initiatives as its mission, I’ve always believed that “we need startup entrepreneurs who are successful, raising money, growing profitable businesses, creating jobs and having exits…. and it can’t just be one person, it needs to be several people. We need more of their faces online, on tv and in newspapers to make everyone see that it is accessible and possible. We also have to widen the understanding, economic and wealth building realities, beyond ICT only being about telecom and telemarketing call centres.”

On July 28th, we had another successful Kingston BETA, over 100 people in attendance and some startups pitching. WHo are they?

Lloyd Laing, Reggaetop40.com

Lloyd Laing, Co-founder, ReggaeTop40.com whose game changing business has single handedly eliminated payola and will help to legitimise and help make the Global Reggae Industry more progressive and profitable with this Nielsen-type ratings Global Reggae Music Index and marketing services.

David Mullings,Co-F0under of Random Media

The RealVibez App is a free iPhone app that will promote the best of Caribbean music and entertainment culture. Their app aims to be a tastemaker that promotes entertainers who are progressive makers of music and entertainment that enhances Brand Caribbean

Ramone Richards -Founder, Paperless Solutions

Paperless Solutions offers a range of tech services from cloud computing, web development to applications development to Caribbean companies.

Kim-Dave Willie, Co-founder of MenuVenues.com

MenuVenues.com allows you to search, book, and order from only Jamaican restaurants currently. Users will have full access to complete menus with prices, so they will get an estimate of their bill when they order a take-out. More features are promised over the next few months.

Rory Burchenson, Co-founder, LymeJuice Inc

TUMP- A free Blackberry Mobile app that helps you find places, events and services in Jamaica and soon the Caribbean. If you can’t find it, you can add it by using the “Map it” feature….which is like crowdsourcing for fresh information that can be shared with their other users.

Keron Munn, Founder of IslandDealsOnline.com pitches from New York via Skype

IslandDealsOnline.com  is like a Jamaican/Caribbean Groupon. Still in private BETA, yet have racked up 40,000 subscribers in 5 months, They offer 50 – 90% off the cool things to do in Jamaica right now such as: Restaurants & Bars, Spas & Salons, Recreational activities, Classes and more.

Support and Join the Movement to Grow Tech Entrepreneurship in Jamaica and the Caribbean

Support, promote and join the community. How? Join the mailing list here. Become a Kingston Facebook Fan and follow us in twitter @kingstonbeta and also the hashtag #kgnbeta