Startup Fever getting hotter across the Caribbean…Martinique, Trinidad, Jamaica

Startup fever is beginning to make the Caribbean even hotter. First there was Martinique, now Jamaica and Trinidad is launching their Startup weekends in 2013. What is Startup Weekend? Startup Weekends are 54 hour events where developer, designers, marketers, product and business heads and aspiring entrepreneurs- come together to share ideas, form teams, build products and launch startups. Yes all in a weekend!

Startup Weekend is an ideal space to find out if ideas are viable. By moving beyond having “great ideas”, participants are expected to create, craft and test a business strategy. Further, the “fail fast, succeed faster” mantra of Startup Weekend makes clear the critical role of agility to aspiring entrepreneurs.

Startup Weekend is an organization with global presence that is sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation and has Google and Microsoft as its partners. A team of local organizers led by UWI’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering is collaborating with Startup Weekend’s Head Office in Seattle, U.S.A. to ensure that the Trinidad and Tobago version stays true to the spirit and rigour of the franchise that has been replicated across 300 cities and in over 100 countries.

So far Jamaica and Martinique signed on to launch their national versions in 2011 and Trinidad is staging theirs on May 22-24th, 2013.

Added to that ConnectiMass in association with Startup Digest which is owned by Startup Weekend Global, has launched a free monthly enewsletter that is an events list of Meetups, Workshops, Competitions, Conferences Competitions, created by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, that is laser-focused on the needs of aspiring and current tech entrepreneurs and startups in the Caribbean. It will be launched April 2013.

The 3 year old StartupDigest email newsletter currently reaches over 230,000 subscribers across 99 cities and 43 countries around the world. It was recently acquired by the global organisation Startup Weekend, the organization behind the weekend-long  encouraging entrepreneurship. Startup Weeknd has had over  300 events, across over 200 cities in 67 countries, with over 45,000 attendees.

Subscribe to Caribbean Startup Digest here.