IN APRIL 1996 the company F1 Connect started its operations in one bedroom of a two-bedroom Woodbrook apartment. The company had no working capital; total assets included one desk and one computer and the only available credit line was a VISA card with a US$1,000 limit, owned by a Noel Hector who had expressed interest in the venture.

F1 Connect came out of the desire to create employment at a time when its directors Ricardo Sandy, Noel Hector and Roger Armoogan faced job redundancy with the downsizing plans at the former Complete Computer Systems (CCS). Back in 1994 these three men and some more of their friends/co-workers got together to discuss their future. At that time Ricardo Sandy, now Managing Director of F1 Connect, was employed at the CCS Apple Centre working with hardware, software, systems and networking. Sandy had a total of eight year’s experience when talk surfaced about the closing of the Apple Centre, which would have seen everyone being sent back to the Personal Computer (Windows) department. He did not want to leave the Apple department because he found the work quite fulfilling.

Sandy eventually resigned from CCS in 1995 with the intention of starting his company immediately. Just then the Internet made its entrance into Trinidad and Tobago and he joined the Internet company WOW.net where he stayed for three months prior to the start-up of F1 Connect.

It was during his tenure at CCS that he met Noel Hector, now Director, Service and Support, F1 Connect, and the two became good friends teaching each other everything they knew.

Roger Armoogan (now no longer employed with F1 Connect) was also employed at the CCS Rework Centre where there also was talk of scaling down the department. He had been part of the initial talks to establish the company, which he had contributed to naming in a 1994 meeting. Armoogan and Sandy had a long-standing relationship since they met training at John Donaldson Technical Institute many years before. In January 1998 Armoogan identified the location of new office space on Edward Street and joined Ricardo Sandy in the fast-growing F1 Connect. Noel Hector came on board in August of that same year. The company has since relocated to 33 Mucurapo Road with assets that have substantially grown over the years.