By Hilary McKenzie-Cahill, Vice President of Marketing, Cayman Enterprise City
Just a few years ago, Robert Powell was sitting in a London office wondering about his future and then something happened – the international media conglomerate he worked for went through a massive restructuring and he found himself without a job.
Usually, that is a very stressful situation. But in Powell’s case it came at exactly the right time – and with a severance package that gave him time to decompress and think.
“After a while, my IT management positon, to me, felt a long way from the sharp end of doing anything useful and I had come to realize that a career in the corporate world was not something I wanted to do,” Powell said. “I wanted to be involved in the whole gamut of the IT world – from development to running a company to the marketing – well, everything. I wanted to be able to see that my work was creating useful, tangible results.”
So he packed up, founded Tiggit Software, and headed to the Cayman Islands to start a new independent career – and found the perfect partner in the Cayman Enterprise City special economic zone. He hasn’t looked back.
What Powell says is the key to his current success is the ability to balance consulting work with large multi-national corporations with his desire to spend as much time as possible creating something new.
“With a reasonable consistent revenue stream (from the consulting work), we can invest time and energy in innovative projects, in keeping up with the latest technology, in creating apps – and to me that’s fun!” Powell said.
And profitable. Tiggit recently created one of the most apps for the new Apple Watch – Kronos.
“The Kronos app gives the wearer convenient control of their Sonos digital sound system by putting the functions they need conveniently on their wrist,” said Powell. “They can control the essential functions of Sonos and the app also displays the album art as they play their selected music.”
Powell has been successfully working with wearable technology for about two years and clearly the big boys from Silicon Valley were watching with keen interest. Developers dream of getting an opportunity like this, and Powell was lucky enough to get the call to work on one of Apple’s most exciting new products.
“I was surprised to be invited by Apple, and then to be accepted in the prelaunch phase was very exciting,” said Powell, who worked under strict confidentiality and security requirements set by the tech giant, to meet a tight deadline.
Powell said the success of Tiggit is in part due to his location in the Cayman Enterprise City special economic zone.
“The CEC has helped so much, from immigration and work permit matters to the creation of two key infrastructures – the physical plant and the personal networking,” Powell said. “There is such a collegial atmosphere – you can bump into people from other zone businesses and they ask ‘Oh, you do software – can you do X or Y?’ and you say yes and you’re on your way.”
Hilary McKenzie-Cahill, the CEC’s vice president for marketing, said that environment of endless cross-marketing opportunities is exactly what the zone team is working tirelessly to create.
“We are creating a collaborative, creative environment that is making businesses want to come to the Cayman Islands for more than just the tax advantages,” McKenzie-Cahill said. “As we expand the multiple benefits we offer will become even more apparent – and enticing – to businesses from all around the world.”
Powell agreed.
“The CEC is a perfect place to locate,” said Powell, “to help get you where you need to go.”
For more information on Tiggit, please email rob.powell@me.com.
For more information on the CEC, please visit www.CaymanEnterpriseCity.com, email info@caymanenterprisecity.com or call +1-345-945-3722.