According to one of Malta’s budding entrepreneurs in the ICT industry, Malta is an “amazing” place to launch a product or service as it is well served by the infrastructure, a good business climate and does not offer unique and insurmountable challenges.
However, 29-year-old Stefan Debattista feels that Malta’s market size is a limit-ation, local ICT developers are very good but lack communication skills, and there are still hints of insularity despite Malta’s high-tech links to the rest of the world.
“Of course, there are general business challenges, but I don’t really think that there are many challenges specific to Malta and ICT,” he explained to i-Tech while charting the rise of his two ICT enterprises: the 8am.com.mt social network for job seekers and employers; and the shows-happening.com online ticketing service.
“You need to have the right idea and execute it well with the right team. But from then on I think that Malta is an amazing place to launch. Maybe the only problem is our market size – you can’t expect hundreds of thousands of visitors or the revenue to go with it.”
Mr Debattista, who studied at MCAST, the University of Malta and Leeds Metropolitan University, believes Malta provides a lot of opportunities for ICT entrepreneurship which include the use of the English language; the low cost of marketing on social media; having customers who are also acquaintances and thus give you immediate genuine feedback; and all the sectors of the population can be easily reached because of the market’s small size.
As an example he mentioned the Hi5 social network in its heyday which used to roll out features in Malta first to test them out, and international companies with representation in Malta doing the same with their products and services.
“All in all I think that Malta is a perfect test-bed for your product! Do well in Malta, prove the concept, generate revenue and then launch abroad possibly with venture capital investment. I think it’s a recipe for success and this is the recipe we are following.”
However, the situation is not Utopic and there are areas where Malta proves to be more challenging than other countries. The Maltese are still too secretive in terms of sharing ideas and Maltese developers need to brush up on their communication skills. “I find that in Malta so many people will not tell anyone their idea. Even when people ask me for advice I either get a half-baked story or none at all. Living in London completely eradicated this idea from my mind.
“To find any developer that can lead is always a mammoth task. Indeed I think that communication skills in Malta are lacking. I do think that we have some real quality developers here. In fact my former partner and CTO was a foreigner, with whom I fell out because of the quality and speed of work. My new partner is Maltese – and I really couldn’t be happier and wouldn’t change partners for the world!”
The two online services offered by Mr Debattista’s endeavours make the most of this environment. 8AM adds a social layer to the traditional job board. It doesn’t just process an application but gives users the tools to showcase themselves and efficiently connect to one another. It is different from LinkedIn because it focuses solely on connecting employers and candidates.
Though showshappening.com is one of many online ticket sale websites, its popularity is increasing as it strives to provide all the facilities needed by both event organisers and patrons.
The plans for the future include the launch of 8AM abroad and providing more facilities like seating plans on ShowsHappening.