“Present Your Startup 2019” was part of the Road to GES2019 Caribbean. The Semi-Finals were held on March 14, 2019, at Villa Maria. Ten entrepreneurs presented their startups to a jury and the attendees. Our commercial officer, Mrs. Diana Intriago was one of the jury members. The Startups participating are the following:

1. Chaneil Imhoff from Antigua presented Snappcart. Snappcart offers delivery services for online shopping.
2. Hubertienne Decaster from Curaçao presented Dotline. Dotline is a Caribbean directory for architectural design.
3. Frank Reid from the U.S presented Steam Drones. Steam Drones offers training for the youth about coding, organizes coding competitions. Through coding, the youth can understand drone technology and use that knowledge to build a career. Drone technology is used for rescue missions, journalism and more.
4. Ester Oosterhuis from the Netherlands presented Natuve. Natuve focused on locally produced goods and services and aspires to work for example with local tour operators.
5. Tesla O’Brien from the U.S presented Synergize. Synergize offers a platform to connect social projects with the community, working force and investors.
6. Shaggeor Fraites from Curaçao presented Informami. Informami is an online directory that offers detailed information about the local businesses.
7. Cristal LeGrand from St. Maarten presented Le Grand Voyages. Le Grand Voyages offers a vacation solution “amazon style” for the islands Saba, St. Maarten, St. Eustatius, St. Barths, and Anguila.
8. Aliva Lindgren from Curaçao presented CaribAlgea. CaribAlgea offers a solution for the waste problem. One of the products that will be created with this technique is bio-fuel. The infrastructure needed for this solution is basically the infrastructure similar to that of the refinery and the workforce needed is the same workforce of the current refinery.
9. Patricia Chin A Fo and Nelson Mambre from Curaçao presented the New Moon Project Curaçao. New Moon Project Curaçao offers a solution to heal the healthcare system in Curaçao.
10. Alec Macklis from the U.S. presented Gridspan Energy. Gridspan Energy offers mobile energy storage that will be useful during natural disasters.

During each presentation, the entrepreneurs answered questions from the jury and the audience. The five Semi-finalists were chosen: Synergize (US), Informami (Curaçao), Le Grand Voyages (St. Maarten), CaribAlgea (Curaçao) and Gridspan Energy (US).

The Finals were held on March 15, 2019, at Villa Maria. The event was hosted by Mr. Ramon Koffieberg, CEO of CINEX. The finalists were able to sell their pitch to the jury and attendees. In the end, Alec Macklis (Gridspan Energy) won the first place and the opportunity to participate in another pitch competition in Miami for free and Cristal Legrand (Le Gand Voyages) was announced as the ultimate winner. She won the opportunity to participate at the pitch competition in Miami as well as participating at the GES2019 in Holland for free.

Once again we thank Mrs. Valerie Vallenduuk and her team for giving us the opportunity to participate as a jury member. We were impressed and commend all these entrepreneurs for their innovative ideas and encourage them to continue. You’re all Winners! We are truly inspired by your passion, drive, and commitment. Don’t give up and keep up the good work!

Sources Images: Present Your Startup/David Bertad Photography