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.
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Vernon Joseph Go
