Event Geek

Philippine Development Foundation (PhilDev) and Developers Connect Philippines (DevCon) to Host Entrepreneurship Camp at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Cebu City on October 5-7, 2012.


CEBU CITY, Philippines (September 5, 2012) – Philippine Development Foundation (PhilDev) and Developers Connect (DevCon) Philippines cordially invite local technopreneur groups in Cebu to submit applications for Hack2Hatch: from Hacker to Founder {h2H}. At h2H, local tech developers will receive one-on-one mentorship from the leading global entrepreneurs, learn how to present to top venture capitalists, and win seed money to fund and grow their business.

“Cebu has tremendous growth potential,” says Winston Damarillo, Chief Executive Officer  & Co-founder of Morphlabs and Chairman of the Board for Exist Software Labs, both companies either founded or holding office in Cebu. “The way it’s organized, the way the people are so entrepreneurial, the way the community is bringing up the level of skill and innovation. We’re so excited!”

Damarillo said that the Board members of PhilDev are “working on an Infrastructure for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, a Framework, so that Filipinos Can Be Great."

Aside from Damarillo, top Filipino American technopreneurs including PhilDev Chairman of the Board and Tallwood Managing Partner, Dado Banatao and Sheila Lirio-Marcelo Founder and CEO of Care.com will also be supervising and advising participating groups and showcase that the Philippines’ software industry is ready for leadership in the ASEAN and the global markets.

“The message we want to relay in Cebu is that we have all these opportunities…it is time to take advantage of it now,” said the 42-yr old serial technopreneur. “We have identified the cause of poverty, which we are addressing with education. Let’s keep moving forward and build. What we have to do is build high value products in the Philippines. “

“That’s my big thing: build products designed by Filipinos in the Philippines,” Damarillo added. “So for example, Exist is a company in the Philippines that won Red Herring Asia as one of the top software companies in Asia. Morphlabs is a forerunner in the industry of cloud computing in the world. So we need more of those. There are probably more of those we just need to show that in these events.”

One of those key events is Hack2Hatch, debuting on October 5 to 7 at Radisson Blu Hotel in Cebu City. Around 10 startup groups with a maximum of 5 members each will receive concrete steps and real tips from Filipino technopreneurs who have had success in Silicon Valley. Venture capitalists will also teach participants pitching and presenting tips to take their existing start-ups from the local scene to global sphere.

 Other mentors will be Art Tan, Chief Executive Officer and President of Integrated
 Microelectronics, Inc., a subsidiary of Ayala Corporation, and Eric Manlunas, co-Founder & Managing Partner of Siemer Ventures. They will be joined by some special guests: investors and experts from Oracle and Google in Silicon Valley.

Hack2Hatch is part of the “Silicon Valley Comes to the Philippines,” (SVC2PH) a special 4-day mentorship and speaker series which aims to take Filipino innovation and entrepreneurship towards collective empowerment and economic development.  The weekend entrepreneurship camp is a kickstarter to PhilDev’s 2012 Economic Forum, “PhilDev Economic Forum: Harnessing Filipino Innovation and Entrepreneurship,” to be held on Monday, October 8th, at Manila Peninsula in Makati.

A free application form for Hack2Hatch in Cebu is available for groups on PhilDev’s website www.phildev.org or on hack2hatch.com. Individuals may also attend as observers.  Hack2Hatch is a free event and is co-sponsored by Exist Global, Inc., and Morphlabs.

For more information on Hack2Hatch, please call Ida Ortiz at 0920-848-1553, emailmailbox@devcon.ph, visit hack2hatch.com, or follow us on Twitter @hack2hatch.

For more information on SVC2PH, please call Jo Anne Coruna at 0923-343-6183, emailjo@phildev.org, or visit www.phildev.org/svc2ph. You may also like www.facebook.com/philippinedevelopment or follow us on Twitter @phildevfdtn.