Hot on the heels of the government’s positioning yesterday as a digital-currency-friendly country, the Isle of Man’s private sector followed suit today with announcement of the launch of an incubator programme. It is designed to enhance the attraction of the island and position it at the epicenter of the emerging digital economy.
 
Several leading island businesses have pooled their resources to offer an unbeatable package of pricing, competencies and support. Many services are offered free of charge. In alphabetical order:
 
Counting House, the world’s leading payments consultancy, is offering unlimited free consultancy on payment systems and a fixed-price quotation for establishing banking facilities.
 
Dixcart, a leading CSP and serviced office provider, is offering set-up office space with significant discounts. Short term spaces will be offered with only two months’ minimum commitment and 30 days’ notice to terminate. Offices are fully furnished, ready to occupy within 24 hours of contract, and include reception service, 24/7 access, and massive internet bandwidth (see Wi-Manx offering below). Dixcart has in-house accounting and legal services, and further offer two hours’ free consultancy, legal advice or tax and corporate structuring work.
 
KPMG, a leading local and global accounting firm, whose profile in the eCommerce space is showcased at their annual Isle of Man eGaming Summit, offer two hours of free consultancy advice regarding the taxation and registration aspects of setting up a digital currency business on the Isle of Man.
 
Hamblin Employment Group, the island’s top recruiting agency, has office space available FREE for two months and discounted rents thereafter, plus a fixed ?500 fee for recruitment into junior and mid-level positions (in contrast to the usual agency fee of 10-15 percent of salary).
 
Isle of Man Post, the national post office with significant ancillary services in the marketing and digital sectors, offers FREE postal and direct mail consultancy, discounts on international mail campaigns or over a 3-12 month period, and complimentary guidance in the account opening process.
 
Wi-Manx, one of the leading island telcom and internet service providers, has designed a package to align with the other offerings. The executive management of Wi-Manx has extraordinary levels of experience in incubator development and has designed its offer in light of the results of other ventures.  Wi-Manx is offering commitment and notice periods to line up with other offers (e.g. those of Dixcart, above), joint marketing initiatives, complimentary pre-deployment advice and a complimentary half day of engineering time to assist with any aspect of set-up, migration or consultancy. In addition, short-term discounted contracts are available on cloud hosting, datacentre colocation, telephony and voice solutions, enterprise email and direct connectivity into their datacentre. All Wi-Manx services can be paid for in BitCoin.
 
Wi-Manx will be delivering 1Gbps of network connectivity into Britannia House, the Dixcart business centre, which can then be used for internet access. The principals of the incubator believe that high-speed access today is a basic necessity for business, not simply an extravagant expense. The 1Gbps service will be inherently resilient, with connectivity back to both the Heywood House datacentre and to the Manx-Telecom Webpark. There is then direct connection to offshore sites in Manchester and London.
 
While the incubator build has already significantly reduced the expense of moving to, and operating on, the Isle of Man, the government’s own programmes add significant value. Up to 40% of moving, rental, training, marketing and equipment costs are available as government grants to inward investors and expanding Manx companies.
 
For further details or to co-ordinate detailed proposals for participation at the very epicenter of digital development, contact Paul Davis, paul@countinghouseltd.com.
 
 
Photo - Paul Davis