TEN Habitat - Achieving Startup & Business Success W/ Selwyn Cambridge

Selwyn Cambridge is a serial entrepreneur, the Founder and Executive
Director of TEN Habitat. They focus on developing investor-ready firms, building strong Communities and ecosystems to ensure the success of founders in the Caribbean. ​He believes in nurturing the growth of entrepreneurs, the way nature nurtures’ its young - In habitat. 

In this episode we talk about business, entrepreneurship, female founders and building ecosystems within the Caribbean. Selwyn talks about his studies in Fine Arts and earlier career as a Creative Director in an Ad Agency, which he says allowed him to stay creative and curious; and enables him to look at things from a different perspective. 

The origin of TEN Habitat, came after he started his own Ad Agency, and saw gaps  arise. He first started TEN (the entrepreneur network) which primarily served founders by building capacity in the sales and marketing. He then discovered that the founders required more fundamental business/entrepreneurial training, which led to TEN Habitat. The habitat for entrepreneurs. 

He talks about the services of TEN Habitat and how it operates within the Community and network. Selwyn spoke about becoming investor ready, he said   that a lot of businesses within the Caribbean region, start small and stay small, mainly because of the approach they take. 

TEN Habitat therefore provides a hybrid accelerator program to get them equipped. He mentions some of the businesses that are more attractive to investors; for example tech-enabled companies, services, tourism, business services, beauty, skincare, agriculture and agri-business to name a few. One key factor that is important to investors is that the business should have a good functional team. 

We talk about the Caribbean Startup Summit, an annual event
which connects the global startup community to regional entrepreneurs. To share their experiences and insights to help the Caribbean people grown and scale. It exposures the Caribbean businesses, founders and entrepreneurs to different perspectives from world leaders, investors and partners in an exchange of passions and ideas, to create opportunities for success. 

Selwyn talks about the importance of mindset, trust and the prospect of failure.  He said business is about  "discovering the best path to pursue" and if you fail, fail forward. He talks about having ideas, but if you do not execute them nothing happens. He said, business is about solving problems and specifically "if you are solving people's problems really well, the money will come". 

He shares some tips on finding co-founders and building the right teams for your business. The first place to look is within to determine your why. Knowing why you exist will help you determine what you need to deliver the why and execute on the fundamentals. When building your team, don't just look at skills and competence, find out if they have your belief system. 

Selwyn spoke about TEN Sisterhood, a Community for women founders to support each other in their journey. The intention is to build strong founders who can then build strong businesses. 

The evolution is the Caribbean Women's Growth Summit.  Selwyn spoke about the impressive cast of women leaders presenting, what to expect in the programming and the experience that awaits women in beautiful Barbados. 

This is conversation with Selwyn is for Caribbean founders, business people and specifically female founders. Selwyn shares a wealth of knowledge and his invaluable experience after working in this sector for years; will inform, enlighten and inspire you.