Pinoy Business Coach

MANILA, Philippines --- Local start-ups need the support of both public and private sectors to achieve global success.

For the first time, top venture capital firms – Ideaspace, Kickstart Ventures, and Wireless Wings – called for incentives to cultivate a local Information Communications Technology (ICT) culture to create the Philippines’ own Silicon Valley during the recent Information Technology Journalists Association of the Philippines (ITJAP) forum on “Start-ups and Technopreneurs.”

“It’s not just money, but other forms of support that we need to make sure start-ups become successful,” stressed Earl Martin Valencia, co-founder of Ideaspace Foundation.

The Ideaspace Foundation, a non-profit start-up incubator company, was funded by the Manuel V. Pangilinan group of companies --- Smart Communications, Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), Maynilad Water and Metro Pacific Investments Corp.

The Philippines could very well produce the next billion dollar company like Google, Facebook and Apple, Valencia added.

The key is to create an ecosystem that would encourage people interested in technology to pursue ideas and create innovations that have never been seen anywhere else in the world, suggested Marthyn Cuan, Meralco’s chief information officer (CIO) and Ideaspace co-founder.

Part of this ecosystem would be improving the education system especially in the area of science and technology, and making it easier to do business in the country.

Making the country’s business environment friendlier to start-ups would provide people, particularly students, alternative paths to success.

“You don’t have to work in multi-national corporations to be successful and add value to the country. We want to give Filipinos an alternative, and this should not be exclusive to those that come from landed families and can afford expensive educations,” Cuan explained.

The goal should be to build the “infrastructure” of venture capitalists, mentors, and facilities that can ensure that ideas are turned into commercially viable products in the shortest amount of time, Minette Navarette, president of angel capital firm Kickstart Ventures pointed out.

“Start-ups should be given a chance to talk to people that have been on that road before. People that have succeeded in this area. They can help expose a start-up founder to the way a big company thinks. And we should also get big companies to start vouching for entrepreneurs so that they can get bank loans,” she elaborated.

Start-up founders should stop being afraid of failing. “In Asia, failing is often seen as a shameful thing. But in the world of start-ups, if you haven’t failed yet, it means you haven’t done enough,” she said.

"I think Manny Pangilinan is headed in the right direction for supporting this sector of the start-up industry.