With lockdowns and curfews the norm since 2020 due to COVID-19, business and economies worldwide have suffered. In this episode we check back in with one of the tech businesses we featured in 2018: Caribbean Transit Solutions, a location and logistics-based services, headquartered in Barbados. Co-Founder, Khalil Bryan, gives us an update on the state of the company and on his entrepreneurial journey to date.

 

This episode is also available in Apple iTunes, Google Play Music and on Stitcher!

To a considerable degree, 2020 was a bad year for the transportation sector. Thanks to the  pandemic, and the resulting lockdowns, curfews and social distancing requirements, people could no longer travel as they had been used to, or would have liked. To that end, buses, trains, airlines and cruise lines have not been as active as they would have been, and have experienced a significant dip in revenue, which is likely to continue well into this year.

For businesses specialising in transportation data and logistics, the challenges the sector has been facing would have had a ripple effect. Declining demand for transportation and logistics-based services would have severely tested then-existing business models, and ultimately, threaten the survival of those businesses.

Back in 2018, in our first year of the ICT Pulse Podcast, we spoke with Khalil Bryan, Co-Founder and Business Development Lead of Caribbean Transit Solutions, which offers location and logistics-based services, in Barbados. Two years have passed since we last spoke with Khalil, and we thought it a good idea to touch base with him and get an update on his entrepreneurial journey so far, and the impact of the pandemic on Caribbean Transit Solutions.

 

More about our guest

Khalil Bryan

Khalil Bryan is a Barbadian entrepreneur focused on improving transportation using technology. He has been involved in start-up ventures in New York City and in Barbados, and has worked as a management consultant at PwC in New York City, where he specialised in project management and process improvement. In 2014, he co-founded Caribbean Transit Solutions, which provides on-demand and real-time information for buses and for fleets of vehicles.

Khalil has a Master of Business Administration degree, from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario, and an undergraduate degree in Computer Engineering, from Howard University (Washington, DC). He has used his complementary mix of skills in engineering, consulting and business in his entrepreneurial ventures, which in turn has developed his knowledge of strategy implementation, business development, marketing, start-up financing, IT and logistics.

 

Insights into our conversation

Talking to Khalil is always joy. He is articulate, and seems to give honest, yet well-considered, responses; so although I always have prepared questions, he always shares some interesting insights that take our conversations in interesting directions!

As much as 2020 was personally challenging to Khalil and to Caribbean Transit Solutions, in the midst of the uncertainty and crisis, the team buckled down and leveraged opportunities. Interestingly, the opportunities were in their specialty area: location and logistics-based services, which to the ‘Average Joe’ would have seemed a risky proposition, when the transportation and logistics markets were already being adversely affected.

In the Caribbean region, it is frequently argued that diversification lowers risk, but Caribbean Transit Solutions turned that notion on its head. However, noting that the company offers niche services, the choices and opportunities available to it might not be same, nor might they be viable, for other businesses.

 Some of the questions posed during the course of our conversation included the following:

  1. Since we last spoke in December 2018, give us a sense of what happened at Caribbean Transit Solutions since January 2019
  2. What were some of challenges that you, and Caribbean Transit Solutions, experienced last year?
  3. What were some of the adjustments that you had to make personally, and to your business over the past year?
  4. What are lessons you have learned since we last spoke in 2018?
  5. With all of the challenges experienced in 2020, in particular, how have you (and your team) been able to manage burnout? And to balance work and your personal lives?
  6. How close is Caribbean Transit Solutions to achieving the goals you stated when we spoke in 2018?

 

We would love to hear from you!

Do leave us a comment either here beneath this article, or on our Facebook or LinkedIn pages, or via Twitter, @ICTPulse.

 

Select links

Below are links to some of the organisations and resources that either were mentioned during the episode, or otherwise, might be useful:

 

 

Image credits: K Bryan; LibreShot; cskkkk (Pixabay), TruckPR (flickr)

Music credit: Ray Holman