It will take 1 successful start-up to change PH

Sunday, November 11, 2012
Albert Padin
Contributor
A YEAR ago, I met a man named Jojo Flores. He is the co-founder of Plug & Play Tech Center - a startup accelerator in Silicon Valley that helped over 500 startups, including PayPal and Dropbox. As a Filipino, Jojo was disappointed to know that of all the startups they’ve helped, none of them was Filipino. That’s the reason why he went around the Philippines to find startups that he can bring to Silicon Valley so he can help our country.
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When we met, Flores told me a story that I would never forget. These were his words from what I recall:
One day, I had the chance to talk with the president of Estonia. Yes, the country, Estonia. He came over to Plug & Play to cut the ribbon for the opening of our new Estonia Pavilion. I asked him, “Mr. President, I’m just curious. You see, when we open our new pavilions, most countries usually just send their consul, ambassador, or trade attache. But not you. Why did you come here all the way yourself?” The president replied, “Jojo, do you know the software company Skype? Well, Skype provides over 2,000 jobs in Estonia. Simply put, I want more Skypes to come out of Estonia.”
The business playing field has drastically changed. Google, started by 2 students, is now worth over $200 billion in just 14 years. Facebook, started by some students, is now worth around $50 billion in just 8 years. In the tech startup world, it’s taking less time and less money to make a huge impact.
I believe that it only takes one successful tech startup from the Philippines to kickstart our tech entrepreneurship revolution. It can be you. It can be me. It doesn’t really matter who it is. What matters is that it only takes one.
We invite you to join Startup Weekend Cebu with other software developers, designers, and business-minded people to share your ideas, form teams, and work together to build ideas into realities. Who knows? Perhaps, you could be that one.
The next Startup Weekend Cebu will be held at the University of San Jose-Recoletos, Basak Campus on Nov. 16-18, 2012. SWC sponsors include Kickstart, Globe, USJ-R, CareSharing, Sym.ph, PRWorks, Third Team Media, Clicking Labs, Chromedia, Amazon Web Services, UP Cebu, CEDF-IT, PSIA, NCIP, CeBuinIT, RAFI.org, Sun.Star Cebu and other partners. SWCebu is organized by volunteers from www.TechTalks.ph. For more information, visit cebu.startupweekend.org, like us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/StartupWeekendCebu or follow us on Twitter @swcebu with hashtag #SWCEBU.