Jamaican Startup Hacker Hostel Headed for Facebook Startup Hub Caribbean Accelerator

Jamaica-based Hacker Hostel, a software developer agency focused on outsourcing short-term JavaScript programming jobs in North American companies with Caribbean talent, has been selected to be among the first cohort of companies in the Facebook Startup Hub Caribbean Accelerator program. It joins 10 other companies in the program, representing the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and another from Jamaica.

Hacker Hostel leverages voluntourism and institutional partnerships to reduce the cost to source, train and market remote Caribbean JavaScript developers to North American companies and generate a commission on the value exchange. Since its inception, Hacker Hostel has worked with companies like Amazon, the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, St. Lucia and Barbados, among others, and has also partnered with The University of the West Indies. These affiliations helped them grow their regional and international reach and with this new opportunity from Facebook, they hope to leverage this initiative for more significant jobs impact in the Caribbean region.

Hacker Hostel was born out of co-founder Akua Walters’ frustration with the brain drain epidemic that has riddled the Caribbean, where the migration of talent has created a vacuum and inspired Walters to take action. He partnered with a few American organizations and software engineers and embarked on a mission to help train Caribbean software engineers to fulfill the offshore needs of those seeking short-term technology solutions. According to Walters, “The Caribbean has long suffered a brain drain problem with the departure of our best and brightest, leaving for jobs in developed markets. This perpetuates developing world problems in the Caribbean and we continue to depend on solutions designed by the first world. Hacker Hostel believes in reversing the brain drain by empowering the Caribbean to solve our own problems with technology. Thanks to Facebook’s assistance, we are off to a good start.”

The company will benefit from best-in-class mentorship from Facebook’s extensive network, free technology and advertising credits from Facebook and its partners. It will also gain training in Facebook’s growth marketing and product development initiatives to help drive Hacker Hostel’s sustainability and expansion across both the English- and Spanish-speaking Caribbean.

To help facilitate its accelerator program, Facebook has partnered with Puerto Rico-based Parallel18, as they have joined forces to create a 12-week program to help post-revenue startups that are solving the Caribbean region’s most fundamental challenges and at least one of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals. It provides workshops and mentorship that combine virtual and in-person sessions hosted by Parallel18 and led by Facebook executives and other external experts.

According to the Startup Hub Caribbean website, Facebook’s Official statement on the program is “Facebook is firmly convinced that creative and innovative companies have the great potential to transform the lives of all people. That is why they support entrepreneurs looking to solve local problems and positively impacting their communities.”

Winston Wilkins, Hacker Hostel’s technology lead and COO, asserts that “With the increase in companies seeking help from offshore developers, Hacker Hostel is well positioned to help support the needs of those with React, NodeJS, Android OS and other software developer projects as our engineers are well-trained, English speakers, located near U.S. markets and are reasonably priced.” Wilkins said that the work that Hacker Hostel is doing is “helping to address the needs of both companies sourcing talent and helping the Caribbean communities to keep a highly capable workforce engaged with cutting-edge technology.”

Hacker Hostel is seeking companies to work with and is always looking for talent to help train and support the needs of the companies they serve.