In an era of tighter funding, rising development costs, and increasing pressure to demonstrate real value, digital venture studios are proving to be an alternative to the more traditional incubator and accelerator startup models. Seasoned tech entrepreneur and innovator, Rodney Browne, launched the Innovation Factory in 2025 in Saint Kitts and Nevis, which is currently building four ventures with plans to bring them to market later this year. In our conversation with Rodney, he shares with us, among other things: the ventures he has been building; how he balances his time between the Innovation Factory and his other commitments; how the startup/entrepreneurship landscape in Saint Kitts and Nevis changed since he launched his first business; and the advice he would give to someone wanting to build something similar to the Innovation Factory.
This episode is also available on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music.
As digital transformation reshapes economies worldwide, a new model for building startups is gaining momentum: the digital venture studio. Also known as startup studios or venture builders, and positioned between incubators, accelerators, and traditional venture capital firms, venture studios offer a structured, repeatable approach to creating high-growth digital companies—often faster, cheaper, and with greater odds of success.
Unlike traditional accelerators or incubators, which support external founders for a limited period, venture studios are hands-on builders. They ideate, validate, and develop startups internally, often providing capital, talent, infrastructure, and strategic direction from day one.
At their core, digital venture studios operate as startup factories. A central team identifies market problems, tests ideas rapidly, and spins out ventures that show strong potential. Each startup benefits from shared resources such as product designers, software engineers, marketers, legal support, and growth specialists. Once a venture gains traction, it may be spun out as an independent company, with equity shared between the studio and the founding team.
In this podcast episode, listen to one man’s journey to build a digital venture studio in the Caribbean region.
Introducing our guest
Rodney Browne has over 20 years of experience in the digital and web media industries. He created a number of ground-breaking applications between 1999 and 2005, including Caribbean Greetings, the first comprehensive online greeting card service for the Caribbean, Caribbean Buffet, a restaurant and events directory, and Caribbean Massive, a social media website with such features as a forum, blog, friends list, group, photo management and much more.
In 2025, Rodney founded The Innovation Factory, a digital venture studio based in Saint Kitts and Nevis, which aims to develop scalable, high-impact solutions tailored for the Caribbean, Africa and other developing regions. The studio is currently incubating and supporting mission-driven platforms focused primarily on fintech, government services, creative, entrepreneurship, and social impact.
Rodney is also the Founder and Managing Director of eCaribbean Limited, which is also based in Saint Kitts and Nevis, and is one of the largest web firms in the Eastern Caribbean. He is passionate about entrepreneurship, innovation, education and art, and has contributed his time and resources towards the advancement of these areas in Saint Kitts and Nevis and regionally.
Insights into our conversation
Although the Innovation Factory was launched just over six months ago, the conceptualising and planning would have been months, if not years, in the making since Rodney is a man of ideas. At the time of writing, Rodney has been actively working on the four ventures following:
- Givvest, a purpose-driven platform designed to align diaspora contributions with meaningful local causes.
- Sircl, to coordinate and plan family reunions, and to help people stay close, share stories, preserve memories, and celebrate life’s moments.
- Handii, an app to help find local tradesmen and other service workers
- eCoconuts, a means of your online activity to real-world benefits by exchanging value in smarter ways.
Similar to Rodney, we all tend to have ideas about how an existing system or process can be improved, or how current gaps can be addressed. However, all too often, we are not prepared to move from thought to action, and talk ourselves out of making the effort – and sacrifice – to explore our idea, and potentially, build something wonderful.
Below are key questions posed to Rodney which drove our conversation.
- Rodney, why did you decide to set up the Innovation Factory?
- What is a ‘digital venture studio’?
- Share with us the ventures you are exploring or have launched under the Innovation Factory umbrella?
- You currently have ongoing businesses that pay the bills. How are you balancing your time between those commitments and the attention that the Innovation Factory requires?
- In the startup space, there tends to be an emphasis on building teams and on collaboration. Why have you chosen to continue to build these ventures on your own?
- How has the startup/entrepreneurship landscape in Saint Kitts and Nevis changed since you launched your first business?
- What are some of the lessons you have learned over the years that you are applying to the Innovation Factory?
- From what I recall, the Innovation Factory is an experiment to test out ideas. How long do you plan to continue it? And what have you learnt so far?
- Are there any of the ventures strong enough to continue beyond the Innovation Factory?
- If someone or an organisation wanted to implement something similar to the Innovation Factory, what advice would you give?
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Let’s make it happen!
Select links
Below are links to some of the organisations and resources that were mentioned during the episode, or might otherwise be useful:
Images credit: R Browne; Freepik; Steve Buissinne (Pixabay); Freepik; R Browne/Innovation Factory
Music credit: The Last Word (Oui Ma Chérie), by Andy Narrell
Podcast editing support: Mayra Bonilla Lopez
