According to a report by Florida International University, StartUp Cuba and FIU have teamed up to offer a summer program designed to foster and support entrepreneurs in Cuba. The six week program program, called InCubando@FIU, will begin in Miami on May 2016. The curriculum will consist of business classes, taught in Spanish, by instructors affiliated … Read more
The first Startup Weekend in Cuba ended last month with great enthusiasm for the startups teams’ success in organizing ideas and turning them into reality. The organizers for Startup Weekend Havana included: Ramphis Castro (no relation to Fidel), Medardo Rodriguez, Rodney Hernandez and Alex Medina. The event’s facilitator was Santiago Zavala, Venture Partner, at 500Startups. … Read more
The Cuba Journal caught up with Alex Medina today to discuss tomorrow’s kickoff of Startup Weekend’s first event in Cuba — to be held in Havana at the Panorama Hotel. Startup Weekend organizes high-impact, experiential events that foster entrepreneurship and community building in every corner of the world. As of last year, the organization hosted … Read more
By the Cuba Journal staff US mobile firm Sprint has signed a direct roaming agreement with the Telecommunications Company of Cuba. That makes the company the first US wireless carrier to sign such a deal with ETECSA, it said. “As the commercial relationship between the U.S. and Cuba continues to progress, it is expected that … Read more
By the Cuba Journal staff The average state salary in Cuba is somewhere around $20 a month, although many on the island live on far less than that, according to figures from Cuba’s national statistical office. And while Cuba’s economy is slowly beginning to change, one new player in the market is having a far … Read more
by Cuba Journal staff The Cuban government has launched a search engine for websites it has indexed on the .cu domain extension. (Two letter country codes are assigned by ICAAN to virtually every sovereign nation in the world). Called “Unified Contents for an Advanced Search” (“Contenidos Unificados para Búsqueda Avanzada, or “CUBA”), the search engine … Read more
by Cuba Journal staff In a recent visit to Cuba, Google executives probed the government’s willingness to allow the search engine giant to scale up island-wide WiFi broadband Internet access almost overnight. Such a service would allow Cubans with smart phones to enjoy open Internet access – and would propel Cuba’s extremely low Internet penetration … Read more
by Simons Chase According to economic development theory, technology transfer and deregulation hold great promise as a pathway for developing countries, like Cuba, to lift incomes, stimulate foreign direct investment and enhance quality of life. To date, the ligature between this type of neoclassical growth model and actual results has been government policy supported by … Read more
Above: an Airbnb unit in Havana By the Cuba Journal staff What’s it like to rent an Airbnb unit in Cuba? The Associated Press recently did just that, chronicling the various ways Airbnb listings in Cuba are “a little different.” “For one thing, most Cubans don’t have easy email access. So it can take days … Read more
Filling the vacuum left by the unmendable rift between Cuba’s iron ideology and its now tangible economic and political outcome is a group of dedicated US entrepreneurs with a mission to change the lives of millions of Cubans. Dabbling in the DNA of the island nation’s economy – and its culture – in its formative … Read more
