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Kyle Maloney is a 33-year-old entrepreneur who has been making a name for himself in the ICT/tech industry. He launched his first venture in university before going on to launch F1RST.com. When that company folded, he launched Tech Beach Retreat in an effort to create an enabling environment for young tech start-ups. Since then, he has pursued his passion, working diligently to advance digitalisation in the region. With a recent USD1m grant from the IDB, he is one step closer. This is his MENtions story:

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I am the first born of five children. My brother, Nicholas and I are quite close. We both went to St. Mary’s College, Port of Spain. Life was not always easy. I vividly remember the tough times we experienced during my first five years in secondary school when my dad worked taxi on the Edinburgh 500 Chaguanas route and my mom didn’t have a job. We lived in Longdenville at that time. My family on both parents’ side supported us during these times. To this day, I’m eternally indebted to them for their kindness and love. We are a really close-knit family, influenced largely by my grandparents 50+ year-long marriage. They have instilled in us a strong sense of duty and sacrifice for the greater good of the whole. These value systems are deeply entrenched in me.

This set our trajectory toward the tech industry

After secondary school, my brother and I went on to study Aerospace Engineering at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, Florida.  It was there that we started our first venture: a website that enabled students to buy and sell items from each other and see events happening around campus. We generated USD2-3K monthly from ads which targeted students at bars and speciality shops in the city.  Notoriety on campus came quickly for us because of this platform. This really set our trajectory towards the tech industry. Around that time, Twitter and Facebook had launched so we were excited and wanted to gain similar traction. The experience developing this website and the buzz around these digital platforms, motivated us to leverage our new skills and grow our knowledge in the field so that we can return to Trinidad and create similar opportunities and experiences.

We were F1RST

On our return to Trinidad, my brother and two of my closest friends from St. Mary’s, Kiev Wilkie and Eesa Mohammed, started F1RST.com, a platform built for people to search for any business, stay connected with their faves, see reviews and get access to deals and discounts. The brand was launched in July 2013 and gained positive traction, managing to attract 100,000 people who signed up even before the platform became publicly available in February 2014. Around that time, Digicel acquired a 25% stake in the company for USD1.75M. This was a major high point for me and the company because it showed that our product and ideas had the ability to attract big investments. However, this investment was contingent on the achievement of aggressive goals which would ultimately lay the foundation for a follow up investment. The approach we took over the next twelve months yielded tremendous toppling growth and we generated just under $1M USD in revenue within our first year. But, our success and business high were short lived as a series of unfortunate events took place, which led to us being unable to raise the additional investment and funding.  By August 2015, we had burnt out our available cash. In less than two years, F1RST was no more. One of the biggest learnings from that experience was that there isn’t support nor the enabling environment to support the growth of tech-start-ups like ours. I felt like that the onus was on me to help fix this situation.

Bridging people and organizations

In 2016, Kirk-Anthony Hamilton and I formed Tech Beach Retreat, an active community which brings together tech entrepreneurs, investors, influencers, enthusiasts and innovators to discuss and exchange knowledge, resources and opportunities. We aim to be a deal makers’ paradise where the best in the world can gather in idyllic settings to muse over excellent content and curated experiences. By creating this environment, we want to arm participants with the roadmap, resources and skills to help them excel. In 2016, we successfully hosted our first event in Montego Bay, Jamaica to bring the necessary pieces of the technology ecosystem together and connect the Caribbean. The following year, TechBeach Retreat hosted the CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey. This engagement produced favourable mentions in a number of global media publications like Forbes and Inc Magazine and since then, TechBeach has attracted partnerships from the leading technology brands such as Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Dropbox, YouTube and Microsoft. The positive feedback we have received paired with the sustained interest, led us to launch three additional platforms: Beyond the Surface, TBR Lab and Venture Island which engage undiscovered talent, provide upskilling programmes through youth development, a start-up accelerator, and workforce development programmes to help organizations drive reinvention and transformation.

Good news for the Caribbean

My passion to connect the region and support tech startups, drive me to consistently seek out opportunities to achieve these goals.  In July 2020, TechBeach signed a USD $1M funding deal with IDB Lab to execute the region’s first major Technology Accelerator Programme for tech-enabled start-ups. The programme will be executed under TBR Lab, in partnership with the leading Toronto based Accelerator, DMZ at Ryerson University. Through this programme, we expect to impact at least 250 start-ups over two years and bring together the required resources to help companies scale globally. With digital transformation high on this Government’s agenda, I believe that our programme will be complementary to their efforts. Every aspect of our society is being touched by technology and we need more people equipped with the skills to solve problems on their own.

Grateful for it all

From our first taste of success in university to the setback with F1RST and now with the success of Tech Beach, I am grateful for all the experiences. I don’t believe in regrets. I believe that all my decisions have shaped me, even if I had to learn some of them more than once. I have also been blessed to have an amazing support system of family and friends who became family. So many of them have played and continue to play crucial roles in my overall development.

What value can you bring to this world?

While I would always encourage anyone to be part of the tech industry, I would simply advise people to think more about the value they can bring to this world and what problems they can solve for themselves and their community. In school, we aren’t taught enough to be problem-solvers and value creators. We still see “the job” as the end goal and not as another milestone in the journey.

To that young man who while reading this, is feeling confused about his future plans, I want to tell you to let go of trying to find “the thing”. Many times, where we start, is miles from where we pick up the most steam and it may be light years from where we end.  So, choose a direction where you feel that you can add value and about which you are passionate. Trust me, life will begin to unfold from there.  I believe that we can’t connect the dots looking forward, but looking back is when it all makes sense.

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Kyle makes time to read a lot and recommends the following foundation books Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, Good to Great by Jim Collins and The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham.