Geeks prepare for a photo opportunity at the beach of Movenpick Hotel in Lapu-Lapu City. (CDN PHOTO/ MARIAN Z. CODILLA)
There were a lot of valuable inputs given by resource speakers at the two-day Geeks on the Beach (GOAB) conference/summit/gathering held at the Movenpick Hotel and Resort in Lapu-Lapu City last Aug. 21 and 22, but there was one account given by Oliver Segovia, CEO of the e-commerce company Ava Online Group that stuck out like a high-watt blinking billboard.
Segovia recounted an interview done by a female journalist in which she asked him if, in the years since several startups have sprouted in the Philippines, there has been startups in the mold or has the potential of becoming the next Facebook (or words to that effect).
Segovia said he was taken aback and thought that the journalist must have equated or considered startups as successful only if they’ve achieved or are on the road to becoming the next global online social network.
“So how does one define success (in the startup field)?” Segovia said as he shows the ratio of successful startups vis-a-vis the number of startups operating in the country.
Segovia said he would rather have many startups in operation rather than only a few successful online businesses that would, presumably, employ a limited number of Filipinos.
Own success stories
The Geeks on the Beach 2 was a follow-up to last year’s event held at Boracay and as their website explains, it was a venue for both techpreneurs and investors— dubbed as “angel investors” by organizers —to do business, socialize and forge closer ties with each other; to set up a community where anyone with a zeal and interest to set up online businesses can meet up with like-minded persons or kindred spirits to become their own success stories.
I was introduced to the concept of the startup through a story in Yahoo!’s tech page, which told the story of a college student who quit school to build his own startup.
The Yahoo! article told of how this college dropout lived in the company’s premises, eating, showering and sleeping just to use their computers to set up his own online business.
He also recruited a number of his own employees who believed in his vision and dream even if he had next to nothing to pay their salaries. What was surprising, the article said, was that the Silicon Valley-based company knew about his moonlighting only after two months.
I was unable to remember the rest of the story, but suffice it to say that it described in detail how people in Silicon Valley are pushing themselves to the limit just to achieve the same kind of success achieved by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and pioneers like Google founders Larry Page and Sergei Brin, Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer and Paul Allen and Apple’s Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.
Work ethics, attitude
In fact, there were autobiographical films about these tech legends (“Pirates of Silicon Valley,” “The Social Network”) and whether there was as much truth about these movies as there was fiction, only those who watched them can decide.
Still, their legendary work ethic and gung-ho attitude has inspired countless young and aspiring programmers to follow their lead and it is these qualities that companies or investors want from startup founders /techpreneurs, said Minette Navarette, president of Kickstart Ventures, a subsidiary of Globe Telecom (I mistook the company name Kickstart with Kickstarter, an online fundraising platform that counts among its projects the still-to-be shown Veronica Mars movie).
Among the many useful advices given by Navarette is that 1) Techpreneurs should establish and earn the trust of investors who have developed radars that can detect BS 2) encourage a culture of innovation and embrace diversity 3) Be honest in assessing yourself and others.
As anyone who watched “Pirates of Silicon Valley” and “The Social Network” know by now, the road to startup success isn’t easy nor glamorous. In one of the GOAB sessions Paul Rivera, founder of Kalibrr which provides free skills assessments to people interested in finding work in the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, talks about his company’s birth pains including his struggles on how
to meet his employees payroll.
“You never know how it feels to become an entrepreneur until you miss your payroll. There were times when I spent many sleepless nights, contacting people, borrowing money just to meet the payroll. I even had to borrow money from my ex-girlfriend (in the middle of the night),” Rivera said, drawing laughter from the audience.
At any rate, how do these observations and stories tie in to the startup climate in the Philippines?
More specifically, how could startups contribute their share in building the country’s economy considering that, despite being tagged as the “text and selfie capital of the world,” Philippine Internet access, connectivity and speed are basement level low compared to our more prosperous Asian neighbors?
There were upbeat assessments from resource speakers like Hatchd Inc. founder Manny Ayala, who described a “digital storm” of investment opportunities in tech startups brewing in the Philippines due to, among other factors, the Pinoy’s rapid adoption of technology, but the key figures came from Mon Ibrahim, IT chief of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).
Ibrahim mentioned about Southeast Asia becoming the ninth largest economy in the world in 2025 with over 194 million online users estimated between 2010 and 2020. The challenge, he said, is for startups to use digital technology for disaster preparedness and other enterprises that can improve the lives of communities.
Like I said, there were lots of valuable inputs given during the event, some of which also found their way in the business section of Cebu Daily News but for now, suffice it to say that Cebu and the rest of the country’s startups have the potential to build their own success stories.
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