British Virgin Islanders forge bond with Fort Collins

FORT COLLINS — Earlier this month, an international connection was formed at Fort Collins Startup Week, after a delegation of young entrepreneurs from the British Virgin Islands shared their stories of resilience and innovation in the aftermath of hurricanes Irma and Maria.

Sheynel Evans, Ron Evans, Akeem Lennard, Kristin Frazer, Lennette Lewis, Darryl Flanders, Ron Henry and Birch Lettsome are all business owners from the British Virgin Islands who opted to attend Fort Collins Startup Week. The group was invited to attend following a pitch competition in the BVI that was cut short because of the hurricanes’ destruction. The group was hosted by Charisse Bowen of Blue Ocean Enterprises. Blue Ocean Enterprises’ owners, Curt and Nancy Richardson, have a connection to the British Virgin Islands and created Forge, a venture group meant to attract investors to the area.

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All of the entrepreneurs who attended the Startup Week were impacted in major ways.

“We used to do solely retail six months before the hurricanes; we had just expanded our retail space,” said Sheynel Evans, owner of Retreat Gelato. “We were getting more customers into our cafe. But the hurricanes destroyed everything. It took up our deck I sold my car to put down and moved it onto the other side.”

But, Evans, like many of the other entrepreneurs who visited Fort Collins, had found the ability to joke about her situation.

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“I’m still trying to find my benches in the ocean somewhere,” she said.

The destruction has caused the Islanders to pivot in their businesses.

Evans, while waiting for tourist activity to come back to the Island, has started a mobile option for her gelato business and has looked to packaging and selling wholesale. After her time in Fort Collins, she’s looking to expand internationally, including to Colorado.

Another entrepreneur, Lenette Lewis, is the founder of SageRoots, a natural products company. Her startup had steadily been gaining momentum prior to the hurricanes, but after, her lab with all her products was destroyed. Instead of starting over, Lewis decided to go back to basics even more than her original product and is looking to start a farm. Fort Collins area companies, like Happy Heart Farms, are now looking to mentor her.

Yet another young businessperson, Kristin Frazer, who owns a fashion company called Trefle Designs, decided to start a new venture concurrent with her existing business. After the hurricanes, after school programs were mostly shut down, which meant there were no opportunities for young students to pursue the arts. Frazer decided to launch a charitable arm of her business, a nonprofit called the 284 Foundation, which would provide arts education in fields like dance, fashion design and drama.

“We’re not intending to bring new programs, but want to empower the programs that are there,” Lewis said. “We want to give the funding to get them back on their feet. And for those that need additional resources, we’ll provide that as well. For kids who can’t afford it, but need this to keep them focused, interested and out of trouble, we’ll provide funds for them. Our end goal is 10 years from now to provide scholarship opportunities to these kids as they go to college and study what they love.”

Just as the storms forced these business owners to pivot, attending Fort Collins Startup Week gave them even more new ideas to bring back to their community.

Birch Lettsome, who operates a radio station in the BVI, was able to get ideas by speaking to local radio producers at KRXC. Darryl Flanders, who started the music management group Progressive MInistries, was inspired to bring a space like Fort Collins’ music district back to the British Virgin Islands.

“For the British Virgin Islands, which is such a small country, having even 10 individuals able to have experienced what they experienced here is enough to shift the entire frame of mind down there,” said Charisse Bowen, who hosted the group. “Exposure is key and having this knowledge gained through the experiences they had means they can take it home and apply the same concepts.”

Bowen said having the group, which did their own presentation on business resiliency at Startup Week, is also a benefit for Fort Collins.

“I think it helped us gain perspective on our lives and what makes the community special,” she said.

Looking forward, Bowen said she expects the connection between Fort Collins and the British Virgin Islands to continue.

“I have a feeling this train has left the station,” she said. “They’re already talking about next year how many they can get to come at once. It’s like an exchange program in a lot of ways. The longer we do this, maybe it will be easier to find connection points to the BVI and further enrich the networking and connections, and the ability to be impactful.”