What do Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Dado Banatao have in common? They hacked their way into Silicon Valley —and succeeded.
Thanks to them, we now have Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook. And every computer in the world runs on the chip set that was developed by Banatao —the lone Filipino in the bunch.
Now, in an effort to give something back to the place of his roots, Banatao and fellow Filipino technopreneurs Winston Damarillo and Sheila Lirio-Marcelo are looking to boost the creativity of Filipino software developers.
Banatao is also the chairperson of PhilDev, a charity organization, and one of the managing partners of Tallwood Venture Capital, an investment firm focused on semiconductor technology and products. Apart from this, Banatao is also managing a number of other firms related to semiconductors.
Meanwhile, Damarillo is one of the founders of Morphlabs, a company providing cloud computing solutions, and Exist Software Labs. Marcelo, on the other hand, is the chief executive officer of Care.com, an online portal for caregiving and other domestic help services.
The trio recently formed Hack2Hatch, an entrepreneurship bootcamp for software developers all over the country. Damarillo, together with PhilDev and DevCon (Developers Connect), a non-profit organization dealing with information technology (IT), launched the bootcamp in a party held in a restaurant in Makati City on Sept. 5. (See site here: http://hack2hatch.com/)
“We can only do so much by being on the podium, per forum, talking about the big idea. We really want to make sure that we roll our sleeves and get down the business,” said Damarillo.
Hack2Hatch boot camp will be held on Oct. 5 to 7 in Cebu City. Damarillo said that while they wanted to set up the program for the entire country, they wanted to start in the middle, which is Cebu City.
The boot camp is composed of three phases, said Damarillo.
First thing the participants would do is to pitch an idea. A mentor—Banatao, Damarillo, Marcelo, and other Filipino technopreneurs—will adopt the idea and coach the participants. After the coaching, the participant is expected to pitch a prototype product again. From that pitch, the organizers will pick at least ten participants who will be awarded a seed fund of P100,000.
The boot camp is open to software developers of all ages. In fact, Damarillo said, “We are expecting (some) participants (to be) between 14 to 15 years old.”
Focus on software industry
According to international IT data and review provider Sourcing Line, the Philippines is an “emerging player in the IT services market.”
International outsourcing firms don't come to the country for call centers, but rather for animators, web designers, and engineering-related services. (See related report here.)
Damarillo sees this as an opportunity.
“Apparently we have 50,000 employed (in IT) with retained revenue of $16,000 (P670,000). It should be 200,000 employees with $30 to $40,000 (or up to P1.7 million) retained revenue,” Damarillo said.
Retained revenue refers to the portion of net income that stays with the company rather than distributed to its owners or stockholders.
“We should be if we’re not already number one in ASEAN,” he added.
Damarillo also said that the IT industry has a potential to contribute a huge chunk to the country’s GDP.
“It’s basically for us to use,” the entrepreneur added.
'From hacker to founder'
Damarillo believes that while the Filipino IT professionals have the talent, they have low exposure to opportunities.
“It (Hack2Hatch) is a wake-up call for us to stop being (just) sub-contractors… We want Pinoys to realize that we should build our own companies,” Damarillo said.
“At Hack2Hatch, we teach people how to build products, how to protect them, how to patent them, how to strategically differentiate (and) how to adapt certain market. That’s what’s missing,” he added.
He also said that the Philippines has everything it takes to be the top software development country in the ASEAN region in terms of the availability of skilled workers, likelihood of the potential start-ups, and growth ratio stand point.
However, he thinks that encouraging developers to start is just the beginning. He said he would be willing to support the start-up until “day 455” or whenever he thinks his job is done.
“Entrepreneurship doesn’t mean you’re CEO or owner. It means that you’ve taken risk, you’ve done something that nobody has ever done before but has the potential to become one.”
Silicon Valley stars in PHL
In a related program, PhilDev will also host a forum titled "Harnessing Filipino Innovation and Entrepreneurship" on Oct. 8 at the Manila Peninsula, Makati City.
Google Vice President for Technology, together with executives from Facebook, Oracle and Dell shall be speaking in the said event.
source: gmanetwork.com
