2016 – 2026
VirtuSpace turns ten this year. To mark it, we're giving ten woman-led businesses in Trinidad and Tobago two things they don't have: a real website, and one AI tool set up to work for them.
Ten places. That's all there is.
What she gets
Most give-back projects hand over a website and disappear. Six months later it's out of date and nobody knows how to change it. So we're giving two things: the site itself, and a session on using AI in her business — built around her business, not a class of ten.
Sized to the business, not to a package. A baker taking orders needs something different to a consultant taking calls.
If customers book time with her, they'll be able to do it from the site, straight into her calendar.
Registered in her name. She owns it outright — not us, not anyone else.
We write the copy from one sit-down interview. No blank page, no homework you never get to.
Set up so that when someone searches her business by name, they find her — and can reach her.
90 minutes, one to one, built around her business. She leaves with one AI tool set up and working — not a handout she'll never open.
A walkthrough at handover so she knows what she has, where it lives, and who to call.
Who's behind this
VirtuSpace started ten years ago as one person and a laptop, and a belief that the unglamorous work behind a business deserves to be done brilliantly.
It was built one inbox, one calendar, one client at a time — and that taught me the thing everything since has been built on. Clients didn't just need work taken off their plate. They needed systems. They needed to stop being the bottleneck in their own business.
Ten years on, VirtuSpace is a Trinidad-based operations agency working with founders and executives across the Caribbean and North America. The scope has grown, but the instinct hasn't changed: do the invisible work so well that the people running the business are free to run it.
What's changed is what one person can now do alone. The systems I spent a decade building by hand, AI can now put in the hands of a woman running her business from her phone. That's the part I can't stay quiet about. It is the biggest shift in small business in my working life, and the women who could gain most from it are the ones least likely to be shown how.
Which is why this. Too many good businesses here are invisible in the one place people look first. She has the customers, the reviews, the reputation — and someone searching her name finds nothing. That's not a luxury problem. It's the difference between being recommended and being found.
So instead of a party for ten years, this. Ten businesses taken online properly, and taught to use the tools that change what they can do on their own. Each one gets $15,000 TT of work for $1,500 — a tenth, for our tenth year. Across the ten, that's $135,000 given back to women who wouldn't otherwise be able to buy it.
Kezia ThomasFounder, VirtuSpace
The cost, in full
This package is $15,000 TT. Selected businesses pay $1,500 — a tenth. We're not making it free, because a project nobody has invested in is the one that quietly gets abandoned. But nothing here grows after you've said yes.
Across ten businesses, that's $135,000 TT of work given back — our way of marking ten years. After the build, the only recurring cost is the domain renewal. Ongoing changes and support are optional and quoted separately, never assumed.
Who we're looking for
We're being straight about that last one. The businesses that finish are the ones that answer their messages. That matters more here than how long you've been going or how big you are.
How it runs
You don't apply for this. Someone puts your name forward — a customer, a friend, a supplier, anyone who thinks your business deserves to be found. You can nominate yourself, but it's better when someone else does.
About five minutes, and most of it is tapping. Tell us about the business and why it should be found.
Closes 31 AugustShortlisted businesses send three photos and two lines about what they sell, within 72 hours. It's a small thing, and it tells us a lot.
Week of 7 SeptemberAnnounced one a day, over ten days. Each business gets her own moment, not a line in a list.
14 – 25 SeptemberAll ten in one room. Domains registered, accounts set up, interviews done. Everyone leaves owning something.
Saturday 3 OctoberWe build. One round of changes. Then it's live, in her name, and hers to keep.
Live by 31 October90 minutes, just her, built around how her business actually runs. She picks the problem; we set up one AI tool that solves it and leaves with her.
Through NovemberNominations close 31 August
Put her name forward. It takes five minutes, and she never has to know it was you until we call her.
Nominate a business