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ResortsGuide joins YE! Community in Stockholm, Sweden
I prayed for it, but I did not expect winning YES Philippines’ Startup Summit 2016 pitch competition. It is the first time I competed for our startup ResortsGuide, and with this win, we just got our first international recognition.
Fast-forward to our prize, together with Acudeen CEO & Co-Founder Magellan Fetalino, I joined the YE! Entrepreneurship and Leadership Workshops in Stockholm, Sweden last November 28 and 29 and was also invited to the 2016 Global Inclusion Awards by The Child and Youth Finance International (CYFI).
It was an honor to be joining other young entrepreneurs from India, Kenya, Kosovo, Jordan, Uganda, Ukraine, and other countries. It was like a physical welcome to the global initiative of CYFI – the YE! Community, which aims to “connect young entrepreneurs around the world and link them to various tools, resources and opportunities to support the growth of their startups.”
Growth and Leadership
Indeed, our trip to Stockholm was full of fun experiences and life-long learning. The two-day workshops were organized by McKinsey & Company, the most trusted management consulting firm, which helps grow the world’s largest companies and institutions. The themes of the workshops were Business Model, Growth Strategy, and Centered Leadership.
Through interactive and simulative group activities, we were trained to systematically make business decisions and address critical business problems. McKinsey’s structured approach to problem-solving personally equipped me with the skillset I can use not just in growing my company but also in developing myself as the center and leader of my own endeavors.One key takeaway that’s really valuable for me is the lesson on “energizing”. We learned that for us to be capable
One key takeaway that’s really valuable for me is the lesson on “energizing”. We learned that for us to be capable of effecting change in our organization, we must be able to optimize our personal productivity by balancing our personal energy levels through streamlining the activities we do on a daily basis. I realized that a person’s 24 hours in one day is actually enough to make things happen day by day.
The Global Inclusion Awards Ceremony at The Golden Hall of Stockholm City Hall on November 28, 2016, was a wonderful night of recognizing and honoring countries, institutions, civil society organizations, and individuals who have made significant impact and innovation in empowering children and youth across the world.
As the founders and leaders of our respective companies and organizations and now being part of the YE! Community and CYFI, we are one in this global movement to ultimately break the poverty cycle by promoting youth financial and economic inclusion and youth entrepreneurship worldwide.Barsh & Cranston (2009) says, “engaging is where it all comes together – when you choose to cross an invisible line from being a person to whom things happen to
Barsh & Cranston (2009) says, “engaging is where it all comes together – when you choose to cross an invisible line from being a person to whom things happen to become a person who makes things happen.”
We have crossed this invisible line when we engaged ourselves in the entrepreneurship path. When I decided to build my own startups, one of which is ResortsGuide, I knew there’s no turning back. I knew that it’s a commitment to build something far beyond my lifetime.With this, it is in my deepest thanks and appreciation to YES Philippines to have been granted the opportunity to represent our country in this global movement. YES! It is a great time to be an entrepreneur and make things happen.
With this, it is in my deepest thanks and appreciation to YES Philippines to have been granted the opportunity to represent our country in this global movement. YES! It is a great time to be an entrepreneur and make things happen.
Ariatté competes in Creative Business Cup 2016
Nitro Breweries & Beverages Inc. is a startup founded by five Ateneo de Manila University students. We are developing Ariatté Nitro Coffee to help millennial coffee drinkers have a unique and premium quality coffee experience through our key technologies of cold brewing and nitro infusion.
Last October 8, 2016, we participated in YES Philippines’s Startup Summit. Little did we expect to be chosen as the national winner that will continue on into the Creative Business Cup.
The team, L-R: Andrew Uytengsu, Alyssa Ramos, Kirsten Chua, Abigail Palma, Justin Yturzaeta
Last November 20-21, we were able to go to Denmark to represent the Philippines in the Creative Business Cup (CBC). Held at the Copenhagen Business School, the Creative Business Cup is an international competition where the most creative startups from different parts of the world can showcase their products and be awarded the title of “the world’s most creative entrepreneur.”
The competition was a great venue for us to showcase Ariatté, a nitrogen gas infused, cold brew coffee beverage that aims to help millennials appreciate Philippine coffee and get the benefits of a smoother, creamier, and premium-quality coffee.
There, we found out that ideas for creative businesses are everywhere. Standing alongside engineers, graphic designers, and programmers who have been able to develop products that can alleviate environmental problems, measure things accurately, and teach people how to play guitar, made us realize that there are endless opportunities to improve our product, branding, and business model.
Gribskov-Asia Boot Camp
As part of the sponsorship from Scan Shipping, we attended the Gribskov-Asia Boot Camp from Nov 17-18. It was a rigorous program with talks from well-established mentors, networking, and pitching sessions. There were so many lessons and insights gained from the boot camp which helped us prepare for the competition itself.
Creative Business Cup
During CBC, app developers were able to talk to investors from Silicon Valley to ask for funding, feedback, and mentorship. Some national winners who had contacts in the beverage industry shared about their country’s coffee culture and expressed their interest in trying the RTD version of our product. Joining an international competition made us realize that in order to grow our business, it is important to reach out to people from the industry. Learning how to deal with investors and fellow entrepreneurs in a professional setting is a skill that needs to be honed and developed. Events like contests and pitches can be an avenue to meet and interact with people who have more experience in the industry and are willing to connect you to potential investors and partners.
The Creative Business Cup was a good learning experience for all of us. We were immersed in a competitive environment with people who were interested in taking advantage of opportunities in their respective industries through creative business solutions. Aside from gaining publicity and contacts, we were able to get positive feedback from the jury and the audience. This experience gave us a clearer view of the business and the industry that we’re in, as well as how Ariatté can make a difference in the local industry by highlighting the taste and quality of homegrown coffee as well as raising the standards for RTD coffee. For now, our team must focus on rapid and sustainable growth and expansion. Our product, Ariatté, has a lot of potentials. We will continue to find ways to expand our distribution and join events that could be a good opportunity to showcase our brand.
Discover Nitro! Like us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ariattecoffee/ or email us at ariattecoffee@gmail.com to know more about our brand.
YES Forum June: Behind The Scene Of A Startup
PenBrothers, Makati City – Funbuddies founder and CEO Benj Tupas shared the behind the scene experience in building a start up in front of the YES Philippines members last June 21. Funbuddies is a mobile application where users can enjoy doing their hobbies along with like-minded people. Users can organize trips and activities and get to meet new people based on interests.
Mr. Benj Tupas started his talk with a free back massage participated by everyone to loosen up the atmosphere.
The highlight of his talk is the 6Ps in starting a startup, (1) Passion “idea”, (2) Penetration “Users”, (3) People “Team”, (4) Product, (5) Process “Innovate” and (6) Profitability “Growth”. Benj emphasized the importance of passion than profit and that users should be the center of a startup universe. He also shared that in managing a startup team, it is essential to grow vertically as an individual but grow horizontally as a team.
The forum ended with Benj entertaining queries from the audience about their own startup experience which made the session more informative. Soon after, the participants gathered for a group photo and did the official hand sign of Funbuddies, a fist bump.
YES Philippines would like to thank everyone who made this event possible especially to our venue partner, Penbrothers. Catch the next YES forum on July 19! See you there!
Managing Business Financials
The participants learned the technicalities in handling the financial side of their businesses in this month’s YES forum with Mark Ong of Taxumo.
Mark is the Co-Founder and CFO of Taxumo with ten years of public accounting experience. Taxumo is an end-to-end online tax assistance platform that helps SMEs and Startups with computing incomes and expenses as well paying taxes. As the CFO, he develops financial and tax strategies of the company and oversees the accounting and treasury activities. Having previous experience in working with the “Big 4” firms, he also advise individuals and SMEs as they navigate through their finance and tax challenges as well as identifying areas for efficiency and process improvement.
The speaker talked about proper management of business financials and dealing with government policies. He also shared the best ways on managing cash flows and keeping track expenditures. In allocating limited resources, he mentioned to keep a simple budget but focus on what is critical. On the other hand, setting a “Tax Calendar” will help business owners keep track their tax deadlines and avoid penalties.
The forum was wrapped up soon after with a group photo and final questions with the speaker.
YES Philippines would like to thank everyone who made this event possible especially to our venue partner, Penbrothers. See you at our next forum on June 21!
Acudeen CEO featured at YES Networking Forum
Acudeen CEO, Magellan Fetalino shared valuable insights to YES Members in managing their startups and businesses last April 20, at Penbrothers Makati.
Magellan Fetalino III is the Founder and CEO of Acudeen Technologies Inc., the first online peer to peer marketplace for discounted receivables in the Philippines. He handled International Business Development for the Illustrados Business Consultancy Group in Hong Kong and also used to serve as the Chairman of the Board of The Global Filipino Investors. His Startup won Seedstars Philippines 2016 and bagged first place at the Tech in Asia Tokyo 2016 as well as one of the winners of YES Philippine’s Startup Summit 2016. Just this month, Acudeen became the overall winner of Seedstars world 2017 in Switzerland.
For this month’s forum, Magellan talked about managing a Tech Startup and dealing with its stakeholders. He shared his ways on the handling of different kinds of people that keep a startup running namely Customers, Employees, and Investors. Magellan also emphasized the ones that he mentioned requires different treatments and approach. All throughout the talk, eager participants exchanged their questions and experiences which made the forum enlightening to many.
The forum was finished soon after with a group photo and further questions with the speaker. One of the thoughts he shared with everyone was, “Do not sell your features. Try to solve their [customers] problem and you can sell them anything after.”
YES Philippines would like to thank everyone who made this event possible especially to our venue partner, Penbrothers. See you at our next forum on May 18!
YES Forum April: Business Modeling Workshop
YES Members learned the best-suited business model for their startups and businesses after they attended YES Philippines’ Business Modeling workshop last April 6 at YES HQ in Pasig City.
This workshop featured Jean-Luc, a startup coach at multiple incubators and accelerators in UAE. He recently founded Innoopolis, A Digital Innovation Factory, with the ambition to help enterprises and startups to get more out of their innovation initiatives. He is also regularly featured in Innovation and Tech Magazine has been a part of multiple innovation juries and is also an active member of the UAE startup eco-system.
Jean-Luc guided the participants in choosing the right kind of business models from successful businesses in the industry.
In the latter part of the workshop, the participants worked on doing a business plan for a certain business in order to test their knowledge in modeling. YES Members presented their ideas and shared their knowledge to everyone right after. The event ended as the participants approached the speaker to ask their further questions about their business.
This event is free for YES Members only. Interested in becoming a member? You may send an email to info@yesphilippines.org. See you at our next forum on April 20!
YES Forum March: Starting a Hardware Startup
Another YES monthly networking forum was successfully conducted last March 23 at the Penbrothers, Makati City.
This forum featured Aisa Mijeno, the co-founder and CEO of Sustainable Alternative Lighting (SALt) along with her brother Raphael Mijeno, the co-founder and CFO. Their product, SALt Lamp, is an alternative lighting source that runs on salt water. SALt became the official Philippine representative by Young Entrepreneur Society (YES) to the Startup Nation Summit 2014 in Seoul, South Korea. They won the People’s Choice Award and Kotra Prize. Aisa also had a chance to sit in a panel discussion with the previous US President Barrack Obama and Jack Ma, an e-commerce billionaire for the 2015 APEC Summit.
Aisa and Raphael shared their knowledge in starting a hardware startup and discussed how to deal with its hardships, who to approach and how to survive in the industry itself. The second half of the event was allotted for the Q&A and the questions of the eager participants made the session very informative. Soon after, the forum was wrapped up with a group photo and a final thought from the Mijeno siblings,
“You cannot sustain a hardware startup if you only do it for money.”-Aisa Mijeno
“[To run a hardware startup] you must have this delusional dream and passion that doesn’t involve cash.”-Raphael Mijeno
YES Philippines would like to thank everyone who made this event possible especially to our venue partner, Penbrothers. See you at our next forum on April 6!
YES PH launches first forum for the year 2017
The Young Entrepreneurs Society Philippines is back on holding monthly forums after recently conducting its first one for this year at Penbrothers, Makati City.
The February monthly forum featured Hershey Hilado a Filipina born, Australian based Entrepreneur. Named as one of the Most Influential Millennial Entrepreneur that exists today, she has built three international businesses namely 8TASKS a high-level offshore outsourcing company base in the Philippines, CREATIVEVORTEX.COM.AU a creative and branding agency and OHMAGOSH.COM a women’s fashion e-commerce business she founded 4 years ago. She is also recently nominated as one of the Top 50 Most Innovative and Exciting e-Commerce Stores in Australia for 2016.
YES Members learned how to grow their business in today’s digital age from the inspiring insights of Hershey when it comes to allocating budget and establishing the right company culture. She encouraged the entrepreneurs to never be ashamed of sharing their story to the world as she is never afraid of voice out her own story. The forum was wrapped up with a group photo after the attendees asked questions and recommendations from the speaker.
YES Philippines would like to thank everyone who made this event possible especially to our venue partner, Penbrothers.
Join us at our next forum on March 23!
Failing Forward Conference 2016 finished with a jam-packed crowd
As the Philippines celebrated the Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) with 160 countries around the world, the Young Entrepreneurs Society of the Philippines in collaboration with Miriam College hosted this year’s Failing Forward Conference at the Marian Auditorium, Loyola Heights Quezon City last November 19, 2016.
The Failing Forward Conference 2016 is the highlight event of GEW in the Philippines. Supported by renowned government officials, business tycoons and leading entrepreneurs the event is an inspirational keynote conference that aims to inspire and motivate attendees through the epic experiences and success stories of the roster of influential and excellent speakers.
This year’s Failing Forward Conference was attended by over a thousand enthusiastic students from different universities throughout the Philippines, entrepreneurs and startup owners who learned from successful startup founders and entrepreneurs both young and seasoned.
The speakers namely, Euclid Cezar, Founder of the Famous Belgian Waffle; Doy Roque, CEO of M2.0 Communications; Luis Arcangel, CEO of Montgomery Fitch and Associates; Riccardo Corsini, CEO of Skyrocket Studios and Diego Ramos, Co-Founder of Horsepower imparted their insightful, inspiring and tipping point lessons from the challenges and adversities in dealing with the realities of ventures as startup owners. The participants truly had an inspirational and enjoyable experience from the quotable quotes of speakers as they learned how to rise from failures.
Here are some of the lines from their talks:
1. Euclid Cezar
“One of the few things that is still free in this world: DREAMING”
– Euclid Cezar, Founder of Famous Belgian Waffle
2. Doy Roque
“You always have to get the right people.”
-Doy Roque, CEO of M2.0 Communications
3. Luis Arcangel
“Take ownership not just from your success but also from your mistakes.”
-Luis Arcangel, CEO of Montgomery Fitch and Associates
4. Riccardo Corsini
“Don’t think about what you want to excel at, but what you are willing to give up along the way.”
-Riccardo Corsini, CEO of Skyrocket Studios
5. Diego Ramos
“When you remove failure, you remove creativity, innovation, and purpose.”
-Diego Ramos, Co-founder of Horsepower
A total of 19 schools, half from YES Student Chapters, were awarded with a certificate of recognition and before the conference ended, everyone participated in greeting the other countries with the statement, “Happy Global Entrepreneurship Week from the Philippines, Mabuhay!”
Here are some of the schools who participated:
This event is made possible through YES Philippines’ partnership with Global Entrepreneurship Network, Kauffman Foundation, and Startup Nations Philippines.
WheninManila.com, Light Network TV, and Negosentro is the official media partner of YES Philippines for this event.
Lessons from Global Entrepreneurship Week
It was almost a year ago when I got a call from one of my dear friends in the Young Entrepreneur Society (YES), asking if I was willing to go to Mexico to represent the Philippines. Of course, it was “yes,” because it was a rare opportunity to attend an important global event.
The destination: Mexico, where the 2015 Startup Nations Summit was to be held as part of the Global Entrepreneurship Week; where entrepreneurs and start-ups from around the world would converge to learn from each other and forge partnerships. It was a 19-hour flight: Manila to Tokyo, Tokyo to Atlanta, then Atlanta to Mexico. There was a 14-hour time difference between the Philippines and Mexico.
I got to see the bigger world of entrepreneurship. It’s a thriving community of different people from different countries and cultures. I made friends from Indonesia, Greece, Estonia, Belgium, Spain, US and Taiwan as we talked about the struggles, pain and the ultimate reward of being an entrepreneur. I saw how other countries encouraged entrepreneurship through government-sponsored programs.
Honestly, I was very impressed by the ideas of the start-up entrepreneurs. From robotics, financial technology, education and IT, the innovation was staggering. To make the event more exciting, the organizers held a competition in which entrepreneurs pitched their ideas or services to a panel of experts, and the winner went home with cash funding!
In the competition called “The Pitch,” the grand winner came from Europe. The winning start-up was about making a water turbine the size of a small car, which can be placed at the side of a river to generate enough electricity to power an average home. Instead of a dam that can have a severe ecological impact, they proposed a turbine that integrates well into nature and has minimal environmental impact. Another winner was a set of toy blocks that integrates with an iPad app, monitoring the learning progress of a child.
Perhaps one of the biggest revelations in the conference was the Waze app. It began as an idea, a start-up. The founder, Uri Levine, said that in the beginning, nobody bought his idea. But he held onto it, believed in it, and, over time, became a world-wide phenomenal success.
It was also the same thing that he advised to entrepreneurs in the process of forming their own start-ups: the struggle would be real, and some people would even shoot down the idea. But perseverance and firm belief in your idea—even if nobody else does—is what will keep the entrepreneur through.
Interestingly, the entrepreneurial environment in other countries is more robust, with full government support as well as various “incubators” where start-ups are housed and where they can meet potential investors. That is one reality of start-ups and entrepreneurs: funding. They may have great ideas but not the needed funds to see these through.
Here in the Philippines, there is one organization called the Young Entrepreneur Society or YES that spearheads the cultivation of the entrepreneurial spirit among the youth. It fosters the development of aspiring young entrepreneurs through a series of seminars, programs, and bootcamps aimed at promoting collaboration and networking among young entrepreneurs. Every year, it joins the international community in celebrating Global Entrepreneurship Week to further advance entrepreneurial growth in the country. It will culminate on November 19, bringing together the largest gathering of idealistic entrepreneurs to learn about the successes—and failures—in forming their own start-ups.
More than that, YES Philippines also brings in the business sector to mentor students hungry for knowledge, as well as potential funding for promising ideas.
Indeed, promoting an entrepreneurial mindset, especially among the young, is very critical in ensuring their financial future and a vibrant economy. It creates knowledge, innovation and eventually, jobs for more people.
YES Philippines’s Global Entrepreneurship Week pushes the envelope even further by being at the forefront of the entrepreneurial community in the Philippines.
Who knows, the next Waze might come from our own country.
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Rienzie Biolena is a Registered Financial Planner of RFP Philippines
