Rawle got into Techstars in 2022. They gave him $120,000 and told him to shut down his Trinidad company and reincorporate in Delaware. Then they encouraged him to apply for an O1 visa. He did it all — and then chose to come home anyway. In hindsight, maybe not the best choice, he says now. You need to be in a thriving community if you are to thrive. But that tension — between staying where the resources are and building where you’re from — is what shaped his work today.

He runs Founder Institute Caribbean now. Out of 93 applications in his first cohort, 38 enrolled. Only 17 graduated. The attrition isn’t about weak ideas. It’s about founders realizing this isn’t easy. And Rawle doesn’t soften that. He talks about the DNA assessment they use — not to evaluate the idea, but to see if the person has what it takes to carry the emotional load. Because ideas are easy. Endurance is rare.

When founders hit a wall, they go to family. That’s the instinct. But family doesn’t know what you’re going through, Rawle says. You need to first go to your peers. You need to build that founder community. The people who’ve cried in the same place you’re crying now. The ones who won’t tell you to just get a job. That’s the infrastructure that matters — not the pitch deck. The support system that keeps you coherent when uncertainty becomes your operating system.