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Simply put, Chike Farrell is a visionary. For more than thirteen years, he and his business partner have led Caribbean Ideas Limited (now Caribbean Ideas Synapse), one of the first companies in T&T to focus specifically on digital marketing and digital touchpoints. Since then, other agencies began to capitalise the trend that Chike had championed years before. Prior to heading to Toronto to do a business degree, an MBA at MIT or working for Microsoft, he was just a young Tacarigua boy with a dream to one day own “Chike-Tech”. MENtions is pleased to highlight Chike’s story and learn how he transformed this childhood dream into a successful company that helps Caribbean people and companies harness best practices, new skills and technologies :

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I always wanted to be a business owner or an entrepreneur. When I was younger, I used to tell my parents that one day, I would start something called “Chike-Tech”, which looking back now, might have been a very unfortunate name.  Although I wanted to own a business, technology had always fascinated me. When I read one of Bill Gate’s first books about Microsoft, I fell deeper in love with the field.

My family life was happy. I am fortunate to have had two professional, attentive parents who helped to nurture a strong work ethic and drive from an early age. Those two qualities have helped me to this day and are what I rely on the most. My mother backed me on pretty much everything I’ve ever done and my father, until his passing in 2013, was someone who constantly challenged me. We didn’t always agree but I relied on him for support and advice always.

The irony: working at the place I read so much about.

Life has a way of aligning in a way sometimes that is so ironic. After attending St. Mary’s College, I was fortunate to win a national scholarship that took me to the University of Toronto for a business degree. There, I developed a real passion for marketing. However, it wasn’t until I completed my MBA at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and began working at Microsoft (yes that’s the ironic part) that the entrepreneurial bug bit me for real. My time at Microsoft was enriching because it provided me with great exposure to the mainstream ‘tech’ industry and the field that I loved. After a few years there, I returned to T&T to start Caribbean Ideas.

Starting a new business in a field that was not widely known (back then) was not easy but I am thankful for the people who provided formal and informal guidance along the way.  My family and close friends from St. Mary’s College, MIT and other areas were instrumental in this regard.  I’ve also taken inspiration from other entrepreneurs like Bill Gates and a few others. They are all part of that fabric that contributes to my drive.

We are credible equals and worthy competitors

Challenges are part of the journey and I have experienced many of them on mine. Some are mightier than others but I’ve always embraced challenges. I like to attack them head-on: for better or poorer, I like to say. One of the main challenges over the years, has been the need to continually prove myself in the international arena and represent where I’m from. When one is from a small Caribbean country like ours, it is important to let competitors go beyond the superficial fascination with the Caribbean to realise that there are credible equals and worthy competitors who hail from small island states. So, I’ve always made it my business to represent us well on the global stage and focus on creating more Caribbean innovators who are disruptive and competitive out there.

It is important to have mentors as you navigate your professional journey. At Microsoft, I had a couple of formal mentors but I’ve realised that it is important to not just have mentors, but also to have role models. It is helpful when some of those role models look like you or sound like you.  So, I appreciate the idea that younger black men and men of all races in Trinidad & Tobago, can benefit from some of the great local role model examples that are out there, some of whom just need to be discovered and have their stories told. This is why I love MENtions. Learning about others’ stories and journeys can help to give you a little nudge on your own path.

If you are now starting out and are at that career-making stage, you must first find the things that give you excitement and passion. Find the intersection of those things and the areas where you’re really strong. (There’s a great book and programme called Strengthsfinder that talks about this. It helps people discover their strengths).

You should also test and learn. This is a big part of how I think about work, business and life these days. You see, it is okay to try something and pivot away from it in search of an incremental improvement but you have to be fast about it. Being fast doesn’t mean that you should hop aimlessly from thing to thing. If you test and learn with a purpose and a focus, you can get to amazing outcomes in just about anything. That can be a very useful way to figure out what you’re going to love and excel at.

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Currently, Chike “straddles worlds, operating easily between North America, the world at large and the Caribbean”.  He spends his time leading Caribbean Ideas Synapse, spearheading global marketing for SkyKIck; a cloud software company and being a proud father.  He recently started a podcast called UpTick (http://getsynapse.agency/uptick ) that doesn’t only focus on black entrepreneurs, but Caribbean entrepreneurs and innovators with the aim of helping them to inspire a next generation. At MENtions, we support this and every effort to inspire and motivate our future leaders.

(Originally published in July 2020 on Facebook and IG)