The Pinoy Avengers

The avengers are in town. Those who watched the movie Avengers will be familiar with the characters of Captain America, The Hulk, Thor, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and of course Iron Man. They are known to fight the villains that threaten the peace. But aside from Thor, these superheroes are not gifted with natural superpowers. They rely on sophisticated equipment, which was crafted by the world’s most brilliant minds in the field of science and technology. Well, we Filipinos have our own version of The Avengers. But instead of fighting evil, they are fighting pessimism and poverty by sharing with us their experiences in the field of technology. Dado Banatao, Sheila Marcelo, Winston Damarillo, Paco Sandejas, and Eric Manlunas are just some of the very successful Filipinos from the Silicon Valley who are in Manila to mentor young and starting entrepreneurs under an organization called PhilDev. Their project, Silicon Valley Comes to the Philippines, brings together the best Filipino and American technopreneurs to share their insights and expertise on various issues concerning Filipino ingenuity that changed the landscape of entrepreneurship through technology here and abroad.

Shipping heiress Doris Ho hosted a dinner over the weekend for the visiting avengers and Filipinos in entrepreneurship and technology. The IT field’s who’s who were there, and we were fortunate to be invited due to our involvement in entrepreneurship through Go Negosyo. Recently, PhilDev held Hack2Hatch: From Hacker to Founder, where young entrepreneurs got to experience being mentored oneon-one by investors and inventors from Silicon Valley. And just last Monday, they had the PhilDev Economic Forum, which focused on fostering the capacity of a Filipino to innovate and promoting a science and technology-based entrepreneurship. The day was filled with discussions on idea generation to commercialization, global opportunities for software development and how the Philippines can take the lead, increasing the number and improving the quality of IT professionals to meet the local and global needs as systems continuously evolve. It was a dream convention for any Filipino technopreneur, as all of the top Fil-Am innovators who have greatly contributed to technology are there in one roof.

The story of Dado Banatao, who was responsible for several innovations in semiconductor technology, is not new to many. His story has been featured in Go Negosyo’s first book, and to date is still the most successful Filipino technopreneur in America. He was a son of a rice farmer, and his parents’ hard work and sacrifices inspired him to study so that he can do more in life. His dedication to learn was so great, that there were times when he would walk to school barefooted because his slippers gave up on him already. Dado’s natural interest in math guided him in his path towards success, and from his humble beginnings as a farm boy in Cagayan Valley, he is now regarded as one of Silicon Valley’s visionaries. He has taken over as head of PhilDev, which is formerly known as Ayala Foundation USA, an organization that served as a “bridge of hope across the seas” since 2000.

The developments in the Philippine economic and political environment prompted these Fil-Ams to go back to the country. Together with more innovators, PhilDev felt that now is the time to help the Philippines achieve success in the science and technology area — not just as engineers, but also as entrepreneurs. Together with Dado is Shiela Marcelo, the founder of Care.com in 2006, which is a one-stop website for service providers catering to children, senior citizens, and pets; Winston Damarillo, the Chairman and Co-Founder of Exist Global Inc., and Gluecode Software, a software company that offers low-end, open source alternative and was recently acquired by IBM; Paco Sandejas, a managing partner of NarraVC that invests in private high-technology companies that has the potential for growth; and Eric Manlunas, the founder and managing director of Frontera Group, a venture capital firm which is also focused in investing in early-stage companies. These avengers from Silicon Valley are optimistic, and they believe that the Filipino engineer can produce more quality work. They feel that the Philippines is in the best position to be the center of everything, including in the field of information technology. We have a lot of gifted and talented young people, and our country can definitely contribute to software development primarily because we have human resources. With the support from groups like PhilDev, we can definitely encourage more Filipinos to battle misery and poverty, just like how the Avengers helped mankind in their battle to uphold the good.

Go Negosyo is planning to work with PhilDev next year to reach more young people, especially in the grassroot areas. We will be holding the 2nd Techonegosyo Summit in January, where we plan to tap people who are naturally interested in technology that there are avenues to develop themselves. We will also start on our 9th book on technopreneurs (with the 8th one about entrepreneurs in the agriculture sector to be released early next year), which will be a mix of USbased and Philippine-based entrepreneurs in the field of IT. In my meeting with Winston, he brought up the challenge to encourage more technopreneurs by helping identify business models that will work for them, similar to the brick and mortal business models of franchising. In China, for example, the trend is on “gold farming”, where online gamers are encouraged to play for cash. He is planning to have a technohub where young people can go and try if their business ideas will work. This will provide a venue for young people to explore their interests in technology, from online games to e-commerce, and possibly help them to start their own business and profit from there.

*** We were at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Ortigas two weeks ago to attend the 7th SIPAG Awards, which was organized by the National Livelihood Development Corp.. Back in 2006, NLDC began to hold this event as a gesture of appreciation for the service of microfinance institutions, non-government organizations, and cooperatives, and to recognize their contribution to their poor but hardworking clients. Gone are the days when the poor are leaving their fate up to

*** Contact me at feedback@gonegosyo.net. chance. They are now proactive in looking for other avenues to give themselves and their families a better life. Go Negosyo has been helping Filipinos adopt an entrepreneurial mindset and learn the basics of putting up a business. And it is nice to know that aside from us, organizations like NLDC in partnership with these MFIs have been helping microentrepreneurs through financial assistance that keep their businesses growing.

Congratulations to this year’s national winners: People’s Bank of Caraga of Agusan del Sur (Most Outstanding Rural Financial Institution), Taytay sa Kauswagan, Inc of Iloilo (Most Outstanding Non-Government Organization), Baug CARP Beneficiaries Multi-Purpose Cooperative of Agusan del Norte (Most Outstanding Cooperative), and John F. Cabillon of Iloilo (Most Oustanding Microentrepreneur). Truly, the success of these small but invaluable contributors are proof that our country is starting to realize the vision of sustainable development that begins from the ground up.

*** Who will win as the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2012? The awards night will be on Oct. 18 at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel. I was asked to award the winner of the Small Entrepreneur Award category, where Go Negosyo has been focusing on for the past years. Good luck to the finalists!