When Learie Hercules was a young boy he loved to tinker with electronics at his humble La Horquetta home.

Little did he know then, his innocent hobby would decades later enable him to creatively cultivate over ten tech start-ups and catapult him to the position of chief technology officer at the helm of Smart Warehousing, a multi-million-dollar fulfilment and logistics company.

Hercules revealed Smart Warehousing is currently valued at about US$300 million and its logistical services span from ordering and warehousing to fulfilment and transportation.

“We empower brands to have brand presence and we do ordering and the fulfilment direct to consumer as well as retail.”

In 2012, the company integrated with all the major e-commerce platforms including Amazon and Shopify. The 49-year-old oversees all things concerning technology at the company’s 34 locations across the US.

“We generate over US$100 million in revenue per year. I’m in charge of everything that touches technology.”

In the next five years, Hercules said Smart Warehousing has the ambitious goal to generate US$1 billion in annual revenue.

“To do that, it requires investment in people, equipment and processes.

“There are a lot of technological advances within the supply chain industry. All the way from IoT, streaming data volumes, lots of platforms being built on the cloud, machine learning and also leveraging in the near future blockchain technologies.”

Hillview old boy’s journey in tech

Hercules said his mother hugely influenced his decision to pursue a career in technology.

“Through my mom working at bmobile, I was exposed to tech. I just gravitated towards it and learnt a lot in tech. If my mother was a lawyer, I’d probably be a lawyer or a judge.”

With his mentor mom’s support, the Hillview College old boy enrolled at the John Donaldson Technical Institute and eventually went on to study at UWI, St Augustine where he earned his bachelor's degree in computer science and management. Shortly after, Hercules was recruited to work at TSTT by Professor Dr Stephen Gift, who at that time was the head of research and development at the company.

Hercules fondly recalled meeting Gift as a 14-year-old, saying he inspired him to think globally about how he could impact the world on a larger scale.

“This is the man who really sparked and raised my expectation level for myself.”

Hercules thrived working on a number of company projects but the excitement eventually ebbed away as he felt he was no longer being creatively challenged.

“I knew when I was working at bmobile that it was not the peak or the level that I was aiming to achieve. I knew it was just a step.

“I had worked in telecom design, 2G and 3G networks…but at the age of 26 I literally ran out of technical things to do that would challenge me.”

It wasn’t long after, Hercules then 29, armed with his unwavering drive to succeed, decided to take a leap of faith a