INGRID Riley, a prominent Jamaican technology entrepreneur and commentator, has sparked controversy with comments she made on new business incubator JGX Labs and its founder, Google engineer JJ Geewax.

American tech expert Geewax recently launched the incubator that will invest in Jamaican start-ups and aspiring entrepreneurs interested in the global technology industry. Geewax said that the entity follows a standard venture capital model — he injects cash (roughly US$5,000 to US$15,000) and purchases shares in the start-ups — but with a lot more in handholding services, including free attorneys and commercial space.

JGX Labs is already working with four locally owned companies — Blaze Payment Ltd, EduFocal, HireForge and Checkpoint — with an aim to start exporting software by the end of summer.

Riley, CEO of local digital communications company ConnectiMass, and a leading voice in Jamaica’s small technology sector, welcomed JGX in a blog as both a “timely” investment and a “beacon” that will show up the local investment community who largely, in her estimation, have not bought into the potential of the industry here. She also stated that start-up businesses at the lab will benefit immensely from the experience of Geewax, a chief engineer at Invite Media, a New York City-based advertising display company that was acquired by Google for US$81 million ($8.2 billion) in 2010.

However, much to the chagrin of some persons, Riley also accused JGX of purporting to be something that it’s not — a pure incubator. Rather, according to her, it is in fact “a hybrid of an incubator and a nearshore development shop” for Geewax, who has equity in the companies.

“At the moment, with this first batch, outside of Edufocal, started almost two years ago by Gordon Swaby, and one other I believe, the ideas that developers and designers are working on at JGX Labs are JJ’s,” Riley said in her blog post, under the headline “What JJ Geewax and his JGX Labs is and is not in Jamaica”.

What’s more, in what was deemed as words of advice to Geewax, Riley said the American should “stop trying so hard to win friends and influence people here” and “stop walking around with the damn entourage, it’s not necessary”. The latter, she said, was not a personal jab at JGX directors Imani Duncan-Price and Ashley-Ann Robinson-Foster, who are both prominent local corporate executives.

But while Riley stressed that it was nothing personal, and just an honest assessment, some persons inside and outside the local technology fraternity have not taken too kindly to her words.

“This, JGX Labs, is one of the biggest things to ever happen to the tech industry in Jamaica. Why Ingrid felt the need to make these comments, I have no idea, but it sounds like ‘crab in a barrel’ to me,” said one industry insider, who asked not to be named.

Others have offered support, including commenters on her blog post.

“In my opinion, Ingrid was writing it very straightforward and passionate. We don’t complain when Dave McClure goes on a cussing spree in the middle of all of his talks, so why this reaction to Ingrid’s writing?” asked a Sajclarke in response to a critic. “We need more people to be willing to talk straightforward and passionately in the Caribbean tech sector especially to those who do nothing but talk.”

Despite the controversy, Riley stood by her comments in an interview with the Business Observer on Monday. In fact, she said that Geewax had long known of her opinion on JGX, because he asked her for it.

“JJ and I had a candid and open conversation. He asked, ‘Ingrid what do you think?’ I said, ‘Well, it sounds as if you are part incubator, part outsource development shop,” Riley told the newspaper.

“Because I have been in the industry for the past over 10 years, I have travelled, seen European, Silicon Valley, New York, Atlanta ecosystems, accelerators, etc; in my assessment, I said this is part incubator and part outsource development shop,” she continued. “Standard incubators do not have the entrepreneurs working on the ideas of the owners of those incubators, that’s not how it works. JJ needs to stop calling his lab a banana, when it is really a pear. It is not a 100 per cent incubator, based on what he told me.”

Riley noted that she made her opinion public because she was consistently pressed for it, given her role as one of the chief voices of the local tech industry. ConnectiMass, her digital marketing agency, promotes tech entrepreneurship and innovation throughout the Caribbean by producing media content and events for aspiring and current entrepreneurs, including the popular Kingston BETA and Caribbean BETA tech business network conferences. Riley, 44, last year was named as one of the PSOJ/Gleaner’s 50 under 50 business leaders shaping Jamaica’s future.

She acknowledged that controversy around her opinion started brewing even before the blog.

“My official position is that I welcome JJ’s initiatives. I hope these guys are learning a ton of things from JJ, given his background as one of the earlier employees in Invite Media. It’s timely, he has lots of experience, he showed up the local community, who hasn’t really put their money where their mouth is,” Riley said.

“I called it what it is, a highly developed incubator and a near-shore development shop, because based on how he is doing things now, that’s exactly what it is. It may change next year, but that’s what I understand it is now, based on all the facts presented to me,” she added, noting “From that now, I don’t know who told what to who, but my phone, my email, my What’s App started to blow up. Because all of this stuff was blowing up, I said, ‘let me just blog it’.”

Riley suggested that a lot of the issue has been around her reference of Duncan-Price and Robinson-Foster as “entourage”, but noted that she was not referring to them “individually or specifically”, but rather the “concept”.

“I gave a balanced report on what it is and what it is not, and it was also advice to JJ. So people are saying how dare I give advice to JJ and who am I,” Riley said.

“It is advice I already gave to JJ, and JJ knows this,” she added, noting that Geewax nor his directors have expressed to her that they have a problem with her assessment.

However, in a response to a Business Observer query, Duncan-Price and Geewax both countered Riley’s assessment.

Duncan-Price, who is also a senator, said, “For the purposes of ensuring clarity, let’s define an incubator objectively — with a definition used globally. An incubator is a facility designed to encourage entrepreneurship and minimise obstacles to new business formation and growth, particularly for high technology firms, by housing a number of fledgling enterprises that share an array of services, management expertise and intellectual capital,” she noted.

She added that these shared services may include meeting areas, accounting services, legal advice, management counselling and online facilities.

“The initial funding by incubators for start-ups or small companies is typically ‘seed funding’. In exchange for seed funding and business and technology mentoring, the incubator usually gets a small percentage equity stake of the start-up – the persons working in the start-up own the majority of shares in the company and within their individual company management structures pay their team members accordingly,” Duncan-Price said, adding “The definition above is exactly how JGX Labs works. Therefore, as the companies in our portfolio create products that fill a market need and hopefully become commercial successes, they will grow in profits.”

Geewax interjected, “This is exactly how other incubators do it and we are simply following their lead.”

He added that “YCombinator is an example of a world-class incubator we are trying to emulate in Jamaica who provides their own list of ideas they’d like to fund as well as accepting founders who don’t yet have an idea. The only person contracted is our in-house web designer for all of the companies to share — everyone else gets funding in the exact same way a start-up at Y-Combinator does – that is through seed funding in exchange for equity.”