“We fell, we got up, we persevered,” – Team Pixels commissions LED screens along East Bank
Pixel Guyana Inc. on Saturday commissioned four 18ft x 10ft LED screens strategically along the East Bank corridor, and according to Managing Director Leonard Gildarie, this is a testimony that you can make anything happen once you believe, dream and take “baby steps.”
This is Gildarie’s advice as he spoke about the mountainous challenges he and his team faced before arriving at this juncture in their business venture.
“When everybody said I was a mad man, including my own family and friends, we dug deep and came out shining,” Gildarie, who is a former Journalist said. He added, “we failed, we fell down, we got up, we persevered.”
Despite throwing in the towel on his full-time job last year due to several reasons, the now businessman revealed that he was always mesmerised by technology and its evolution.
“I was looking at opportunities and realised early that the East Bank corridor will, at least in the decade and a half to come, remain one of the busiest parts of the country,” Gildarie recounted.
He continued, “ I have been to Times Square, New York. The screens and bright lights, and crowds are sights to behold. I thought […]. Could we dare to dream to start replication in Guyana?”
He then sprang into action and made an application to the Ministry of Public Works, seeking permission to use the overhead walkways to install and operate the digital screens.
“I received permission, and ladies and gentlemen, it was not easy,” the former Journalist said as he referenced challenges with securing start-up capital, among others.
Notwithstanding, he secured start-up capital from an overseas-based Guyanese, and before he knew it, he was then greeted with the screens being delayed for months in Jamaica.
“When they arrived, there was no one to put it together in the timeline we had set ourselves,” another challenge the businessman listed.
Despite those bumpy roads, Gildarie and Team Pixels Guyana now boasts of screens at the overhead walkways at Diamond, the Demerara Harbour Bridge, and Huston.
Also, the company has introduced, for the first time in Guyana and perhaps in this region, free traffic cams.
“We were intending to have the cams on the overpasses to display from time to time on our screens. We decided to test it on Facebook, and the people demanded we leave it right there.”
The company is offering advertising spots to small and medium scale businesses and they would get double the spots paid for.
Meanwhile, the Minister within the Ministry of Public Works, Deodat Indar, who was also at the commission ceremony, said the initiative shows an “entrepreneurial spirit that can be replicated in Guyana.”
Recognsing that the initiative is largely owned by Guyanese, Vice President of the Private Sector Commission (PSC) Ryan Alexander said that the project would help transform Guyana.
Chairwoman of the Grove/ Diamond Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC), Geeta Ramnarine, said the project is "remarkable," while noting that she relies heavily on the traffic cams to get to and from work.
Comments