Dominican Republic Start Up Scene
The entrepreneurial ecosystem in Dominican Republic is weak. Government iniciatives lack of planning and effective operational infraestructures. Efforts are disperse and mediocre. Although, as Gerardo said, there are several iniciatives that help entrepreneurs to meet each other.
More talented people get together through entrepreneurial events and facebook fan pages like Startup Weekend Dominican Republic and Hackers and Founders. But it is very dificult for entrepreneurs to develop something considering what phillip mentioned before. There is a lack of angel investors and mentors that are willing to share there experience, knowledge, network and time. However, I believe that entrepreneurs have to find a way to overcome so many obstacles if they really want to get their startup to work.
We can waste our time pointing the fingers at so many organisations and people and acuse the economy and the political corruption and blablabla but entreprenreurs need to understand their envrionment, their market and how to execute their ideas to build succesfull startups. Once entrepreneurs have a sexy prototype and have proven their model, smart people will start approaching them, including investors, mentors and well-connected people. This people might not be located in the Dominican Republic, though.
Tech entrepreneurs are starting to learn more about building a startup through courses, seminars, workshops and via online. The tech industry in DR is backwards and universities are more aware now. They know that they have to make some changes to their currriculum. INTEC and ITLA are starting to include more programs such a UX/UI, mobile development, digital marketing. But this is really new for them. coworking.do is a coworking space that organises courses for entrepreneurs as well. They are growing! This is the case study of a succesfull startup in Dominican Republic. (There are a few startups that are now doing well)
Tech entreprneurs can also study online now: coursera, udemy, novoed, google for entrepreneurs. There are many free tools for them to work their prototype.
The only thing that separates your idea from success is execution. By saying this I invite dominican entrerpreneurs to start their movement by executing their ideas and bringing them to life. The rest is conversation. The government will then start listening amd invesors will be more motivated. The entrepreneurial communnity can only be built by entrepreneurs.
NOTE: The Dominican Republic might not be the best market for tech startups who are thinking globaly. A few global startups had to do some research and start looking for countries where there is a demand for what they are building and concentrated their efforst in these regions. A few startup where succesful first in Russia or China before being succesfull in USA for example. Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Mexico are new emergeant countries where startups are also being succesfull.
