The Caribbean’s biggest tech-entrepreneurship competition and showcase was held on

June 3-4, 2016

Meet the winners!
- Network
- get mentorship
- Meet market players
- meet funders
- understand investor expectations
- get publicity

25

entrepreneurs will pitch

On June 3 - 4, 2016, twenty-five finalists from across CARICOM will have the opportunity to pitch their mobile app to a panel of judges and an audience of regional and global investors at the PitchIT Caribbean Challenge, at the Mobay Convention Centre in Montego Bay, Jamaica.

5 winners will each be awarded US$5000 and a place in one of the five PitchIT Caribbean incubators around the Caribbean. During their incubation they will receive mentorship and coaching from some of the world’s best business coaches, and trips to international conferences and competitions.

5

winners will be chosen

The Final 10!

BookFusion
Caribbean Transit Solutions
ClickPaye
Directory.GY
MediRevu
MekUP
Mobile Money Solutions
Reach
Samelogic
Wanderscape

Terms & conditions

The following is a summary of the terms and conditions for the PitchIT Caribbean Challenge June 2016. Please download the official rules (pdf) and read it through carefully before you enter.

download rules
Who Can Enter
Judging Criteria
Requirements for Finalists
  • The Competition is open to Contestants from Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago.
  • Contestants must be part of a team of at least two members.
  • Contesting organizations may be profit, non-profit or academic with fewer than 10 employees. Public sector agencies/organizations may not compete.
  • There is no cost to make a submission.

Submissions will be judged on the following criteria:

  1. Problem, Customer Segments and Opportunity Size
  2. Proposed solution to the customers’ pain
  3. Revenue Streams Envisaged and Tested
  4. Analysis of the competitive landscape and positioning
  5. Customer and User Growth Strategy / Channels
  6. Team Composition and Commitment
  7. Market Traction and Secondary Achievements
  8. Projections for milestones and Key metrics
  9. Completeness and Overall Impressiveness

25 finalists will be selected to pitch at the PitchIT Caribbean Challenge in June 2016.

  • The 25 finalists, when selected, will be asked to submit a three minutes video which will become part of their company profile and be used for a people’s choice Facebook competition, the prize for which will be awarded at the PitchIT Caribbean Challenge.
  • Two members of the 25 finalist teams must be willing and available to travel to Jamaica for the period May 29 – June 4, 2016. Travel and accommodation costs will be provided by PitchIT Caribbean. Selected Finalists will also get the opportunity to be a part of a two day intense pre-challenge Bootcamp that will prepare them to win over leading world investors and close deals.

Benefits for finalists

If you are selected as one of the 25 finalists, apart from the opportunity to win the main prize, the PitchIT Caribbean Challenge will provide you with opportunities to:-

network

Benefit from being a part of a community of innovators who share experiences, knowledge and resources. Source talent and build collaborative efforts for the future.

get mentorship

Ramp up your skills and knowledge through the training, coaching and mentorship we will provide to the selected teams.

Meet Market players

Get connected to important players in your target market - large corporates, development organizations, government entities - who can help you to reach your intended customers. intended customers.

Meet funders

Pitch your MVP to startup funders and build relationships that may lead to your project being funded.

Understand investor expectations

Grow in your understanding of investor expectations and how you can present your concept in ways that are more attractive to them.

Get publicity

Take advantage of the publicity and media around the PitchIT Caribbean Challenge and bring your app into the limelight.

How to enter

1

Create an executive summary

You’ll need to explain your vision for what your app will do. Use our guide document to create your executive summary.

Download executive summary guide

2

Create an investor pitch deck

You’re going to need to create a pitch deck. Here’s a template we’ve created that will help you with that process.

Download pitch deck template

3

Complete the entry form

Fill out the entry form. You'll need to attach your executive summary and investor pitch deck.

Enter now
 
PyCon Jamaica 2016 is the most valuable technology conference dedicated to a single programming language in Jamaica this year.

Speakers

 PyCon Jamaica 2016 Speakers.jpg
Here’s a sample of some of the speakers were going to have. Lorena Mesa works with Sprout Social a significant player in the manage social media engagement, publishing and analytics space. Star Ying, our keynote speaker, works with the US Department of Commerce in Washington DC, Joir-dan Gumbs, from IBM, is flying in from San Francisco and he's going to be talking about Serverless Python. Dominic Mills is a Jamaican masters student who interned at CERN, the only person from Jamaica to contribute to software for the Large Hadron Collider. Rhys Stewart does significant GIS related work at the Jamaica Public Service and Marc Murray has implemented a system built in Python that is in used at the Ministry of Health. This is significant stuff, just to give you an idea of the topics that are going to be presented, Python at the Ministry of Health and how the Caribbean Maritime Institute is using Python, Big Data and Machine Learning. We're going to have tutorials to teach you how to use Python among other things. 
 
PyCon Jamaica dates.jpg
 
The dates, November 17, 18 and 19. On the 17th we will have Tutorials and Lightning talks, on the 18th presentations by our speakers and on the 19th… The Great Python Scavenger Hunt Race at the Hope Zoo.
 

Sponsors

pythonsoftwarefoundation.png plonefoundation.png JetBrains Logo
So far our sponsors are the Python Software Foundation, the  Plone Foundation and JetBrains, a software company that develops tools for developers including one specifically for Python developers called “PyCharm”, one of the best IDEs for Python development. We've also raised funds through crowd funding. 
 

Where is PyCon Jamaica going to be held?

PyCon Jamaica 2016 locations.jpg
 
Basically across two locations: At the Hope Zoo and on the University of the West Indies campus where we'll be running tutorials. In summary the University of the West Indies for tutorials and the Hope Zoo. The cost is $110 US dollars and students (with ID) get a very very very deep discount $1500 Jamaican for both days or $1200 for just one day. Entry to the scavenger hunt will be only 10 US dollars.
 
If you need to register we have a website and its really not hard to find and this whole thing is being put on by PythonJamaica, that's a group that comes together to learn about Python. We have meetups, tutorials and other events and we currently meet at StartUpJamaica every last Wednesday of the month at about 5:30 p.m.  We're really looking and we're really excited to start new chapters of PythonJamaica.
 
The biggest event coming up right now is PyCon Jamaica 2016 if you do miss  it then make sure you come to our November 30 Meet up. We encourage you to get involved, here is the URL and if you need to find more info about us literally we're on google just google “python jamaica” Thank you and make sure you come to PyCon Jamaica 2016.
powered by
&