Bringing It Back to Beyond the Beach 2024 - Vauyani Bailey

In this installment of Bringing it Back to Beyond the Beach, a series where we catch up with the attendees of our March conference in Montego Bay, Jamaica, we spoke to Vauyani Bailey. Vauyani is a Jamaican entrepreneur whose company Black Sigma Technologies was selected to be a part of the Microsoft Startup Founders Hub. Black Sigma Technologies was the only startup chosen to be part of JAMPRO's Technical Innovation District Accelerator (TID), the first Jamaican government-led technology accelerator of its kind. Vauyani has a passion for innovation and a relentless drive to make a positive impact, values he found he had in common with his fellow entrepreneurs and tech leaders at Beyond the Beach. Read on to learn about how Vauyani heard about Beyond the Beach, what it was like pitching for our investors, and why he considers Beyond the Beach to be like “jumper cables” for his business.  

How did you hear about Beyond the Beach and why did you decide to attend?

Black Sigma Technologies was the only startup that made it into Jamaica Promotions Corporation’s [JAMPRO]  Technical Innovation District accelerator. So I asked my program director, Tastey [Blackman], for an introduction to [EAB partner] Ingrid Riley; we’d heard of each other but hadn’t met. After a couple of weeks, I got through to Ingrid, and said… I want to come and pitch [at Beyond the Beach].  Ingrid said once you pass through [her tech event series] Kingston Beta, then you can come to Beyond the Beach. I went to Kingston Beta, I pitched, I came in second—my pitch was good enough for Ingrid to say ok, you’re ready.

Did you have any expectations of Beyond the Beach going in? 

No. It was my first time at Beyond the Beach and I didn’t have any inclinations or perspectives on what it would be. I knew Beyond the Beach was in its second year, it was a new concept, so I went in with an open mind. 

What were some highlights of attending Beyond the Beach for you? 

A lot happened, as you know. When me and [my friend] Adam Cummings got there and started mingling…we realized how easy conversations were with people who were interested in as well as not interested in the business. I don’t mind talking to persons who are not interested in my business, because I don’t mind building personal connections outside the realm of business. The most organic connections you can build are those personal connections. [Past Beyond the Beach pitcher] Melissa Powell helped me go through my pitch the night before.. and sharpen up some edges that were rather dull. Pitching was, for me— it was 18 degrees inside but I was pretty sure I was sweating. I remember all the raised  hands [following my pitch]—because when you pitch… you’re conscious but not necessarily noticing your surroundings. As soon as the pitch is finished, all your senses kick back in…I remember specifically, Melissa [Pegus] and Nasir [Ali] were drilling into me. However, I saw that as necessary. Having persons critique what I pitched from an unbiased point of view allows me to truly understand what I need to work on. Because, a lot of times when you get [startup] advice from persons in Jamaica it's highly segmented—based on what they know and the businesses they’ve been in, that’s where they give their advice. However, with Melissa and Nasir, because they invest in thousands of companies, literally, they have the knowledge across multiple verticals to give you advice from an amalgamated standpoint. They say, ‘I’ve seen this before, we’ve got to do this, ok, tweak that’..that was extremely helpful for me. I had a conversation with [American entrepreneur] Peter [Dean] and his wife, Cynthia that was very heartfelt. It wasn’t just about business, Peter was very vulnerable, so was his wife—telling me about his come up, his struggle, his battle with failure, Cynthia’s undying support of him during that time, it was a lot. It gave me hope. Usually when you’re struggling, you think it’s a singular experience. You think, ok, ‘the world is coming to an end and I’m the only one experiencing this.’ Then you realize, you’re not—these people shared their story, they’re ok, they actually got over it.. That, for me, was basically jet fuel to keep going, because it’s very easy to become dejected from rejection…Getting into an environment like Beyond the Beach, you realize the world is much bigger. And you have to remember this even though we have access to the internet—the world is much bigger than Jamaica—[the world] is not this dot of 3 million people. Of course, I’d traveled before, however it’s very easy to get stuck in that type of mentality. Beyond the Beach was basically like the jumper cables in kind of reminding me, restarting that expansive mindset you need to have when you’re going after something large. 

What were some of your other takeaways from Beyond the Beach? 

I’m going to go with two things—the final dinner and Melissa’s office hours. Melissa [Pegus] sat down with us for about three hours on Saturday and basically went through some of the most pressing problems that some of us [entrepreneurs] had on an individual business basis. That was extremely helpful because then I was able to take that advice and build my financial model and start putting more tangible figures on paper so that when I approach investors they have a clearer understanding of ‘ok—this is what you’re doing.’ And the dinner was a shock to me to be very honest—it was a very intimate moment with persons that I had become friends with over two days. Peter [Dean] and I are best friends now. I’ve been meeting with him the last three Fridays now. Nasir [Ali] has been checking in, he’s been giving me introductions to persons overseas, he’s guided me through some things for the proof of concept we’re doing for our first customer. He’s going to give me some introductions for funding as well… and then Melissa [Pegus], she’s been open and honest in providing any assistance with questions, because we decided we’re going to be applying for Tech Stars. Having persons who actually keep their word and are actually invested in your progress, in your advancement as a human being, those are persons that you have to cherish.

Have you been able to put  any of the business advice you received at Beyond the Beach into practice?

Yes. Melissa said, ‘let your customers pay for the proof of concept.’ I was apprehensive [at first], but she was like ‘do you wanna go broke?’ When I went back to the client, I was like, ‘hey guys, we’re going to do this thing for you, but you’re going to have to pay for it.’ They were like ‘sure.’ It worked! Nasir spoke to us about relying on external parties for our vital business processes. So we were engaging an international partner before to do implementation for us, I don’t know if this was a coincidence or fate, but the relationship with that international partner fizzled out and Nasir’s advice basically played out. Last thing—Mr. Babinec told a story about [the early days of] Trinet and about the fact that he had hired a sales executive that he thought would  solve all his problems. Three months in, he realized nothing was happening. He couldn’t understand what was going on so he hired a sales coach. That sales coach taught him how to engage with customers—what time frame, what systems to use. Having that information, and [after] doing that sales process for a while he was then able to teach it to sales executives. That for me was an actionable piece of advice, because we basically had to rein that process in for myself and my cofounder.

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