TeamUp Global bringing employment opportunities to SVG

Founder and chief executive officer of TeamUp Global, Harry DeBari, believes “the time is right” for the expansion of the nearshore sector in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG).

TeamUp Global is an international business process outsourcing company that will be operating out of SVG, scheduled to be up and running by June 1, 2024 and projected to hire up to 100 employees by its first anniversary, and 500 by year five. The company will be offering a range of services to US businesses including legal support, virtual assistance, social media management as well as graphic design.

The New York businessman told SEARCHLIGHT that the present economic and employment circumstances in the United States place TeamUp Global in a prime position to flourish in the sector.

“There’s a perfect storm right now, that I believe is creating a tremendous opportunity for us to be able to get to that 500 to 1000 people… unemployment rates in the United States are extremely low, very high labour costs, the acceptance of remote work since the pandemic, the fact that we are English native speaking people here in the Caribbean, working in the same time zone and the fact that St Vincent has a growing educated population to be able to take on these positions.”

Although a new business venture, DeBari is no stranger to operating in the offshore sector or in SVG. An entrepreneur for close to four decades and head of the defunct DiscoveryWorks Legal, a litigation support company which operated out of New York, Philadelphia and SVG, DeBari was forced to close down operations in SVG when the business became a victim of the 2007- 2008 global financial recession.

DeBari described the decline and subsequent closure of DiscoveryWorks Legal as a “difficult time” not only for the company but also for the affected workers who were laid off. He noted that the company made a big impact during its lifetime, providing over EC$50 million in salaries as well as over EC$10 million in infrastructural and computer hardware investments.

DeBari said the experience has provided the team with necessary lessons which will prove useful this time around.

“We’re back here today, in a similar vein serving different types of businesses. We’re a nearshoring company…we’re close to the United States and we’re going to be supporting a variety of different business functions with our company with staff here.”

“One of the hardest lessons that we had to deal with DiscoveryWorks was that we were focused on one area: legal support services. When that particular business went through some wrenching, very serious price pressures, we had no other way to turn, and couldn’t pivot easily. We were so focused on one area, but this time around, we’re not doing that.”

Another lesson DeBari highlighted was the intention to spread their portfolio across “hundreds of clients” with no one client bringing in more than two to five per cent of revenue.

“In the past we had a few very large clients…those large clients exposed us to some risks when they went away, when the projects ended.”

DeBari said TeamUp Global will have the benefit of a more skilled workforce which was evident in the preliminary round of interviews conducted for the first cohort of employees to start in a month’s time.

“The fact that in 1994 when I first came to SVG, and then again with our major expansion in 2004, there were far fewer people coming out of the community college…I really believe that the education revolution has had an impact. I see it now, you’ve got 1,000 people coming out of the community college, many of whom have the kinds of skills and background we need, or having been at least exposed to these things.”

DeBari also said while the company will be providing jobs, he believes it is part of a greater movement to improve the skillset and business operation practices of Vincentians.

“TeamUp is just one part that I think that can help bring some successes and hopefully from that, I think we could spur on some things. I’m hopeful that other businesses could expand here, whether that be other outsourcing companies or even internally here.”