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“Hack2Hatch: from Hacker to Founder” Entrepreneurship Camp Hatches in Cebu

7:26 AM

Vernon Joseph Go

Kickstart Partners with U.S Embassy to Host Fil-Am Startup Founder Garrett Gee

7:13 AM

Vernon Joseph Go

ncubator-accelerator Kickstart Ventures, Inc. has partnered with the United States Embassy in Manila to host a startup founders’ meet-up with American technopreneur Garrett Gee, who is visiting the Philippines on a U.S. State Department sponsored speaker program.

Garrett Gee’s program in the Philippines is focused on startups in the information technology sector. Gee, who founded a web design and software company called Scan, Inc., is expected to meet with technopreneurs, IT professionals, bloggers, web designers, students, government officials, among others to share his knowledge and inspire young people with his experiences. As part of the speaker tour, Kickstart will host a Startup Mixer, creating a forum for Gee to meet with the local startup community, share experiences and insights and find common ground.

“We’re glad to support the U.S. Embassy to host Garrett Gee’s talk. We’re launching the Kickstart Startup Mixers for the local startup community to get together, and this meet-up with Garrett makes for a cool first Startup Mixer,” said Minette Navarrete, President of Kickstart.

Kickstart, Inc., is a fully-owned subsidiary of leading telecommunications company Globe Telecom, that works with startup founders to co-create a community where collaboration and mutual support are the natural instinct. “Each startup journey is unique, but there is still much common ground among technopreneurs and developers, that it makes sense to help each other out, and build bridges rather than walls.”

Gee may very well find quite a bit of that common ground here: he was born in the U.S. but his mother was born and raised in Manila. The young IT entrepreneur and software designer is founder and chief executive officer of Provo, Utah-based Scan, Inc., which received US$1.7 million in seed funding when it started in early 2011. Scan creates web and mobile tools to enable enterprises and individuals to benefit from mobile transaction technologies such as Quick Response (QR) Code, Near Field Communication (NFC), among others.

Since the release of the Scan app last year, it has received more than 10 million downloads in the App Store and Android Marketplace and is currently being used in more than 77 countries. Scan’s “disruptive apps” connect the real world with the digital universe in fun and innovative ways. By using QR code, NFC, and other technologies, Scan Inc. is able to bring social media, lead generation, and mobile commerce to life through real world "like," "follow," and even "buy" buttons.

“I was born with that unexplainable but very real ability to understand human tendencies, design, and trends. Similar to those whom I look up to and admire such as Steve Jobs (of Apple) and Jack Dorsey (of Twitter),” he said. Gee was the youngest-ever inductee in the list of Top 100 Utah Entrepreneurs in 2011. The year before, he was honored as one of the top 25 Utah Student-Owned Business Founders.

Gee’s arrival in the Philippines comes at an opportune time with the growing interest of technopreneurs to build their own startup businesses.

Kickstart has committed to help develop a dynamic community of technopreneurs in the country. Through its incubator-accelerator model, it supports selected startups who are building innovative businesses by providing funding, facilities, mentorship, and market access.

“We have a Php100Million fund for the first year of investments: funding is a great way to help startups move from talking about their ideas to actually making them happen,” said Navarrete. She is quick to add that funding is just one part of the Kickstart formula. “Funding is a start; and to follow through, we need to create a viable ecosystem for early-stage companies – putting our assets, business relationships and talent base to work supporting startups. It’s about helping startups get off to a faster start, and a better trajectory,” she concluded.

Navarrete said that Gee’s experience illustrates one path to success and that perhaps, with the current interest in the startup scene, some of the founders in the Kickstart Startup Mixer event will be telling their own success stories in the not-too distant future.

The U.S. Embassy’s Speaker Program brings American experts from a wide variety of professional backgrounds to countries around the world to engage public audiences through talks, workshops, and seminars, either in person or digitally. The program was designed to promote understanding of U.S. culture, society, policies and institutions, and the political, economic, social and cultural fabric context out of which they arise.

US-based tech council to help local technopreneurs: Techtalks

6:50 AM

Vernon Joseph Go

Science & Technology Advisory Council - Silicon Valley’s ON3 Program launched in 2011 is expected to help local technopreneurs realize their goals.

Tina Amper of Techtalks.ph said the involvement of the council, which recently announced a partnership with the Global Entrepreneurship Program (GEP) of the United States State Department, will provide “exciting opportunities to the Filipinos.”

“This partnership will provide Filipino entrepreneurs, not just the technopreneurs, access to a network of global resources. GEP Partners include international groups that can offer Filipino entrepreneurs mentoring which is experiencing increasing demand” said the Silicon Valley-based Amper.

Early this month, the Silicon Valley-based council, which has identified Techtalks as among its partners, has announced its partnership with the US State Department's GEP in promoting entrepreneurship around the world.

Christina R. Laskowski, STAC President, said the entry of her group in the Philippine technology community signifies its interest to work with local technopreneurs to help accelerate the growth of their companies and to provide access to the tools and resources to compete globally effectively and efficiently.

“We recognize the potentials of the country and we believe that with access to tools, resources and training, that there is so much that can be achieved by these technopreneurs. We are here to provide them with whatever assistance we can in order to increase the probability of their success,” Laskowski said.

Amper added that one additional incentive to Filipino entrepreneurs is that STAC SV is committed to provide them access to angel investors, many of them based in Silicon Valley.

Amper made the comment after the Silicon Valley-based council recognized the efforts of TeckTalks.ph (techtalks.ph) in promoting technopreneurship in the grassroots level in the country.

Techtalks.ph successfully held the "Startup Weekend Cebu" last May where the most successful Filipino Silicon Valley Entrepreneur and Venture Capitalist Diosdado Banatao served as one of the judges. A second Startup Weekend in Cebu is scheduled this October 2012.

Banatao is an entrepreneur and engineer who have made his mark in the technology industry being a veteran startup technopreneur. He is even considered a visionary Silicon Valley.

Startup Weekend, which is also held in other countries, is a 54-hour event that provides participants a venue for building Internet-based or mobile applications that can become viable enterprises. Startup Weekend is a registered 501 © (3) non profit charitable organization funded by Global & Regional Sponsors and Grants, first and foremost among those being The Kauffman Foundation.

Startup Weekend Cebu opens Friday

4:40 AM

Vernon Joseph Go

IT’S all systems go for the much-awaited first-ever Startup Weekend Cebu on May 11-13 at the Conference Room of the University of the Philippines – Cebu (UPC) along Gorordoave.in Lahug, this city.

Startup Weekend Cebu organizers, led by TechTalks.ph, have partnered with innovative organizations -- Globe Telecom, incubator Kickstart Ventures Inc.,Philippine Development Foundation (PhilDev), Developers Connect (devCon), Exist/Morphlabs, and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) -- to bring this much-anticipated event to Cebu.

In a demonstration of community collaboration, the Startup Weekend Cebu community also received enthusiastic support from the Startup Weekend Manila organizers – web engineering firms ProudCloud and Dynamic Objx, as well as incubator Kickstart Ventures – to build on the lessons learnt from the two previous Startup Weekend Manila events, weaving in specific grassroots Cebu community perspectives.

Startup Weekend -- a 54-hour competition where developers, designers, marketers, technopreneurs, and venture capitalists come together to share ideas, form teams, build products, and launch startup businesses – is designed for entrepreneurs interested in receiving feedback for an idea, looking for co-founders, or who want to learn a new skill, especially in the field of mobile and internet applications.

The concept, which started in the US, is now a global movement, taking digital start-up businesses from ideas to investment readiness through intensive mentoring from industry experts and access to markets and investors across Asia.

The Cebu community kicked off their startup momentum with a pre-Startup Weekend Cebu Bootcamp organized together with the Google Technology User Group (GTUG) on May 5, and an online campaign to invite aspiring and first-time technopreneurs, as well as the serial startup veterans, to join what promises to be an energetic and creative weekend at the University of the Philippines Cebu campus.

A total of 200 participants, or approximately 28 teams composed mostly of experienced developers are expected to converge at UPC starting 5:30 p.m. Friday, May 11, and start their high-energy, high-impact, and high-creativity weekend experience. Registrations are still open at http://cebu.startupweekend.org

Aside from the mentors and judges, also expected to attend the weekend gathering are some investors from Singapore, to whom the participants will be selling their best ideas for a viable product.

Tapped to assist the participants as mentors are Christian Besler, Dan Siazon and Minette Navarrete of Kickstart, Eugene Fabian and Alex Goh of Microsoft Singapore, Albert Padin of SpellDial, PpipCimafranca, Jay Fajardo of ProudCloud, Jonathan Lansangan of Dynamic Objx, finance professional Bryan Low, Chris C. Ducker of VBS, Eric Su of Twidl Inc., Paul Villacorta of Cebu Directories, Gwendolyn Regina Tan, Ruben Licera Jr. of RLComm International, Taylor Miles of webbROI, and Wilson Ng of Ng Khai Development Corp.

Named judges for Startup Weekend Cebu are Kickstart president Minette Navarrete, Alvin Gendrano of Microsoft, Winston Damarillo of Morphlabs, Jean-PatirckBisson of ClickingLabs.com, Harm Rietjens of CareSharing, Vinnie Lauria of Golden Gate Ventures, Jay Aldeguer of The Islands Group, and PhilDev COB DiosdadoBanatao.

Aside from Cebu, Startup Weekends in Naples, Italy and Burgos, Spain are also scheduled on May 11-13.

TechTalks community

Startup Weekend Cebu is made possible through the concerted efforts of TechTalks.ph’s TinaAmper and Mark Abellawith the able support of fellow organizers Dave Overton of Symph, Fleire Castro of Third Team Media, Mark Buenconsejo of CareSharing Inc., Ian Bert Tusil of NextSparks Studios Co., Paola Galan, Miguel Antonio Garcia, Bjorn Bernales of Bjorn iMedia, Vicki Saguin of CIT-U, Pauline Wade of UP, Ryan Hermocilla, and Patrick Villaruz.

TechTalks.ph is an IT grassroots community in Cebu founded by Amper in November 2010. It started with only a dozen people but eventually grew up to over 440 members, including businessmen, developers, and designers, among others.

After running into TechTalks member and Startup Weekend Manila 2011 organizer Jonathan Lansangan in January this year, Amper broached the idea to the online community of bringing Startup Weekend to Cebu. And, of course, the rest was history.

Startup Weekend Cebu is held in partnership with the Department of Science and Technology – ICT Office and is sponsored by Globe Telecom, Kickstart Ventures, devCon, PhilDev, Morphlabs, Exist Global, Microsoft BizSpark, UP Cebu, CeBuinIt, Gist by Blackberry, ThirdTeam Media, Startupr, Symph, CareSharing, TechTalks, Clicking Labs, Ripe Concepts, webbROI, The Islands Group, Epremium Solutions, Nokia Phils., Wavemaker Labs;

NextSparks, Cedf-it, MyCebu.ph, Cebu Directories, Cebu Institute of Technology -University, PinoyBorn, Ching Palace, Lenovo Mobile, Harolds Hotel, The Lean Entrepreneur, Red Carpet Catering Services, Chedz Cakes and Pastries, Chinese Ngohiong, Philippine Spring Water Resources Inc., Shobee Bakeshop, Maverick, AdSense Flippers, Cebu Bloggers Society Inc., Zero Three Two, Everything Cebu, Amazing Cebu Channel 54, Alcordo Advertising, Sun.Star Cebu, Cebu Daily News, The Freeman, and PRWorks.