Young entrepreneur, Tyrone Wilson, says building a strong support network was key in turning his dream into a reality

Twenty-six year old Tyrone Wilson will next month launch Jamaica’s first online television network, iVu tv.

It’s quite an achievement for the young entrepreneur, who says the development was made possible through mentorship, networking and incubation.

Tyrone Wilson with members of his eMedia team, managing editor Keresa Arnold (centre) and senior reporter Tracey-Ann Wisdom.

“These three ingredients aided us to convince Donovan Perkins and the rest of the PanCaribbean team that we have what it takes to make good on the investment,” Wilson tells Sunday Finance in reference to the US$350,000 ($30 million) his company, eMedia Interactive (formerly eZines Limited), managed to raise through a private placement deal with PanCaribbean Financial Services, one of Jamaica’s leading investment companies.

The January deal paved the way for iVu tv, the concept of which was long a dream of Wilson’s, before he officially embarked on his entreprenurial journey.

“I was researching it, but the technology was too expensive at the time,” he says.

Wilson started out with another innovative business model — while keeping his goal in sight — delivering digital magazines to the inboxes of e-mail accounts islandwide. By his own account, “It was a hard sell and a difficult task for various reasons,” among them the fact that advertisers were more sold on traditional sources of advertising, readers were still accustomed to physical magazines and, afterall, the man behind the venture was only 22 years old with no prior business experience.

Faced with those daunting challenges, Wilson banked on the wisdom and resources of established business heads.

He looked to Life of Jamaica (now Sagicor Life Jamaica) founder R Danny Williams for inspiration.

“The only way to build the company was to follow the footsteps of entrepreneurs who have done it before us. One notable individual was the Honourable R Danny Williams – one who I consider to be one of Jamaica’s greatest and most admired entrepreneurs,” notes Wilson, who shares an alma mater, Jamaica College, with the legendary businessman.

He also solicited and received support from Proven Investment boss Christopher Williams, National Commercial Bank’s Sheree Martin, and Dionne Palmer from the Technology Innovation Centre at the University of Technology.

“I knew that I needed mentorship, and Chris Williams and Sheree Martin were the first to provide that support needed, becoming mentors and also forming the advisory board for the company,” Wilson explains.

He adds: “I then went to the Technology Innovation Centre, where Dionne Palmer, the incubation manager, implemented a strong support system to keep me focused on the goals — We had monitoring meetings each month where the progress of the company was strongly supervised.”

This strong support network helped Wilson operate a profitable and growing business — the digital magazine product, which started out with one publication, Your Money, now includes Your Style, Teen Spirit and the recently launched The Weekender, a guide to how to best spend the weekend.

With a solid foundation and a business plan with strong prospects for the future, Wilson says the company was strongly positioned to source financing for major expansion plans, which including iVu tv.

The young businessman stuck with his “ingredients” to get the funds.

He recruited Kathleen Moss, a chartered business valuator and a well experienced corporate executive. She and her company, Sierra Associates, were keen on helping a young company / entrepreneur, with a strong idea and prospect for growth, in need of financing.

“We were able to get some invaluable consultation from Kathleen to finalize the deal with PanCaribbean,” Wilson informs Sunday Finance.

“Kathleen provided consultancy from start to finish — she was present in the meetings, negotiating with us, and without her, this deal would not have been possible,” he says graciously.

Along with financing, Wilson sought to have a reputable and successful corporate executive to chair the company’s board of directors. And with the support and approval of his mentor, Chris Williams, he approached Richard Byles, the president of PanCaribbean’s parent company, Sagicor Life Jamaica.

“Richard and I had several discussions where I shared my vision of the company and explained to him why I would want him on board as chairman,” reveals Wilson.

“The connection between myself and Richard is that we are Jamaica College alumni, making it easy to get through the door on that basis… but the (proposition) had to be substantial and beyond more than just being from the same high school,” Wilson shares, labeling it “a dream come true” to eventually get Byles on board.

Byles, who has led Sagicor to 11 consecutive years of growth since taking over as CEO of the company, can be described as one executive who puts his money where his mouth is. He used the platfrom at the recent Sagicor Corporate Awards ceremony to urge established corporations to invest in the nation’s small businesses.

“Most will agree, our small and medium sized businesses are the backbone of this country and have produced some of the most innovative ideas. They are key to rebuilding our economy,” Byles said, before issuing the task: “I take this opportunity to throw out a challenge to my colleague companies in the financial sector, to partner with government to devise a sustainable stimulus plan — one that involves the financial sector taking equity investments in these smaller companies to help bring some of their creative ideas to reality and to scale-up those that have proven potential. There are good business ideas out there and with the right financing we could tip the scales in Jamaica’s favor.”

Indeed, Byles was sitting next to Donovan Perkins two months ago when the PanCaribbean CEO explained the rationale for investing in eMedia.

“When you look at the creativity and talent we have here in Jamaica… I was moved by Tyrone’s confidence in himself and his understanding of the business,” he said. “We took the decision to invest US$350,000 in the business which is convertible at our option into shares. It has a very low coupon and we want to leave the cash in the business and allow it to grow.”

Wilson says the the capital injection allowed the company to acquire the equipment necessary to get iVu tv rolling — to produce content and distribute them.

eMedia is in touch with a number of private sector companies in order to produce content for them and is now working on producing a documentary on entrepreneurship to be released during Jamaica’s 50th Anniversary of Independence celebrations.

Time will tell whether eMedia will be a favourable bet. But there’s no question that the company would not have been in the position it is in now if nobody was willing to take the gamble.