Wanted: Strong startups
While Cebu has established its own startup community, it has yet to make its mark in the global startup scene.
“We’re still in the early activation phase. We need to be in a connected community and to increase global connectivity that can connect to Manila, to Asian regions and we need to connect to the world in general,” Ma. Elena Arbon, Department of Trade and Industry 7 assistant director, said.
Arbon said that over the last three years, the agency has conducted various activities that have opened up opportunities for startup founders.
But she admitted that they still have a lot to do. In their study of Cebu City’s startup ecosystem, it is still at the foundation level with all the building blocks in place.
“We are trying to have a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship. We have few startups compared to the numbers in a global scale. If Manila can produce 300 plus, in Cebu, we can hardly reach a hundred,” she said.
This is where the Startup Island mentoring program comes in.
“The niche is injecting entrepreneurship capability building in our startups and hopefully, there will also be some from the neighboring provinces like in Bohol, Negros and Siquijor. Our mentors will interview the founders if they are really serious and if their business model is viable or scalable because our mentors are investing a lot of time,” she said during the launch of the second batch.
Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) officer-in-charge Frederick Amores said that they have a target to produce 500 startups in the country.
He hopes that Cebu could contribute to a big chunk of this.
“You have to improve current innovation with viable ideas and be serious in the global scene, not just a niche. We would like to be recognized as global players in the startup community,” he said.
For one of the mentors, April Ong-Vaño of Singapore-based Quest Ventures, the country needs startups that can create impact and disrupt existing industries.
“At the end of the day, we don’t just want ideas and not build businesses. We would like to be able to say that when DTI presents the industry’s contribution to our local economy, we can say that X million or billion actually came from this tech startup. That’s the ambition there. The indicator we must look into is how much is its contribution to the local economy,” Vaño said.