In 2014, Ron Hose co-founded Coins.ph with Runar Petursson. Coins.ph began as a cryptocurrency marketplace, although the co-founders knew that they wanted to pursue the larger opportunity in creating a digital wallet of choice in the Philippines. Hose had the necessary expertise to build this product, having graduated from Cornell University with a master鈥檚 degree in computer science and serving as the co-founder and CTO of TokBox, which was acquired by Telefonica Digital in 2012.

Once Coins.ph focused on its digital wallet, its user base grew exponentially, eventually reaching five million customers by 2018. In 2019, ride-hailing platform and super-app Gojek, which had been thwarted from entering the Philippines by government regulators, bought Coins.ph in a deal valued at US$95 million.

Ezra Ferraz: After experiencing success as an entrepreneur in the United States, what beckoned you to the Philippines rather than building another business there or choosing to go somewhere else?

Ron Hose: I鈥檝e always been purpose driven. One reason I decided to come here is because I wanted to create something big that can tackle bigger problems and that has a significant impact on people鈥檚 lives.

Each country has its own strengths and opportunity profiles. I felt that, across the board, the Philippines is good in all sectors. It has a large enough market domestically, but it is also a good base for a company in that region. It has a fast-growing economy, and GDP has steadily grown for the last couple of years.

In general, despite a lot of infrastructure design-wise, we had a lot of challenges, such as low Internet penetration. I think there鈥檚 still a lot of value to unlock in this market. For me, this lack of irregular infrastructure is a sign of opportunity. People here are tech savvy, but at the same time, there are a lot of improvements that can be made for everyday life with technology. There鈥檚 still a lack of access to basic necessities like healthcare, education, financial services, and commerce. And technology, in my experience, can help connect Filipinos to these services. I felt that if I were to spend five to ten years of my life building a business, I wanted to do it somewhere that I really felt at home. The culture and people of the Philippines made me feel at home from day one. This made me want to stay.

Ferraz: Can you take us into the earlier days of Coins? What was it like when you finally decided to found the company? How did you find your co- founders, and how did you build the product?

Hose: I came into the market with a very high-level idea about the problem I wanted to solve. Emerging markets were experiencing fast economic growth, but most people were still left behind when it came to access to very basic services.

What I saw was that mobile penetration was going to create a bridge, so that you could now offer direct access to these services. I actually met my co-founder, Runar, when I was already in Manila, and then we spent almost a year looking at various business models and trying to figure out where we could do something that creates value. This was in 2013. I figured the research I conducted would help other investors and entrepreneurs looking at the Philippines, so that was also when we wrote a Philippines startup report.

We spent a long time researching different business models. As we were doing this, the thing that kept coming up was that in almost every aspect of business, banking was a friction point, and this had an impact on everyone from consumers to SMBs, and all the way up to big businesses. To send money home, Filipinos had to pay six to seven percent extra. When they wanted to pay bills, they had to get on a jeepney in scorching heat or torrential rain, and then stand in line for an hour at the payment center. With no bank account, consumers and small business owners had no credit history, and so relied on informal 鈥渇ive six鈥� lending, where they had to pay twenty percent monthly interest for a loan to grow their business.

Additionally, businesses here are fundamentally based on cash, and there is not a lot they can sell in a short time. So the two to three days for the money to come up are two to three days wherein funds are audited, as that is the economic cycle. This slows the GDP process, and businesses like sari-sari stores, because they鈥檙e not with a bank, cannot earn a lot of money or grow beyond that initial scale. Upward mobility is difficult for them, and they have a hard time developing. Basically, everywhere we looked there was a pain point with money, and that鈥檚 what made for the interest in the opportunity.

Ferraz: At what point did you decide to take on the movement to relieve the financial institution problem in the Philippines?

Hose: This was really baked into our vision from day one. Every so often, I go back and look at our early fundraising decks because I like to see how we are doing compared to what we promised investors and how on track I am with my mission and vision. If you look at our seed round fundraising decks from the very beginning, the mission always revolved around financial inclusion.

Ferraz: What were the challenges of building a cryptocurrency platform in the Philippines, and how did you go about addressing them?

Hose: One of the biggest challenges was that we were early in the crypto space. I think we were one of the very first ones who got into providing services on top of blockchain. We had a lot of firsts, which took a lot of trial and error. From a technology perspective, we had to figure out how to build it, what the product should look like, and how to make it consumer-friendly.

The second challenge was regulatory compliance. We needed to understand how the business would be regulated because at the time we started, there wasn鈥檛 any regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies. There was a lot of work and education. It involved learning about how to fit what we were doing into the right framework to make sure that consumers are protected and the risks were mitigated, and subsequently, with that to be at reach with other industry players. We鈥檝e invested heavily in measures to assure that every aspect of the business is protected and following the rules.

Ferraz: Around the time that Coins.ph was rising, there were also several other cryptocurrency companies in the Philippines. When did you realize that there was a much bigger opportunity in mobile money compared to cryptocurrency? How did you set about pursuing this business direction?

Hose: It was from day one. That鈥檚 the difference between us and the others. We are looked at as a blockchain company, but for me, blockchain was always the means but not the end. We are focused on providing financial access to our customers.

Our customers need to be able to send money to their families, to get a loan if they don鈥檛 have credit history, to top-up their phones without having to find a sari-sari store, and to pay their bills without the pain of traveling far. So it is always going to be about alleviating pain.

Ferraz: Once you went into mobile money, you faced competition that had much larger war chests. How did you compete鈥攁nd eventually beat鈥攖hese companies as an agile startup?

Hose: The interesting thing is that it takes an understanding of how the emerging market functioned. The strength of this organization is not just the depth of our balance sheet but that of our relationships. There are two other groups in the market that have wallets and are backed by the largest conglomerates here, wherein their market power is much greater than their capital. To be honest, that definitely kept us up a lot of the time. At the same time, what helped is a lesson learned from Silicon Valley: when it comes to business, it doesn鈥檛 matter how big or small you are, it matters how fast you run. Building a startup takes risk-taking, agility, and speed. Big companies struggle with this. I guess we were also naive in that way and thought, 鈥淥kay, they鈥檙e big, formidable, and have a lot of resources, but I鈥檓 not going to compare myself to them. I鈥檓 just going to do my own thing.鈥�

We did not carve five million customers away from any of those companies. I would not say we outsmarted them, but that we were able to grow faster because we were small and worked really hard.

I recently heard that one of our competitors had $16 million worth of budget for 2018. We used about $10 million of our capital in five years, which meant that we always had to be focused, strategic, and diligent in our efforts. The team knows that this is the culture our company revolves around. Not all wars are won with money. What cannot be replaced is team culture. We were able to hire young and ambitious talent that really cares about what we do. They have worked hard for us and learned a lot. If you ask me, that is one of the things that made us successful.

Ferraz: Why did you choose to raise money from Naspers Ventures rather than other VC firms?

Hose: Actually, the leads of the series were Maximum Accelerate, Kickstart, and Wavemaker. I was looking for the investors that would really help us. I found it challenging because many US-based investors might not understand the nuances of the Filipino. They know the nuances of executing the American market.

Each of three investor leads brought something different to the table based on their area of expertise. Kickstart, being a corporate group, brought us local connections. Maximum Accelerate, which was a global fund, brought us direct industry expertise. Wavemaker is based in Singapore but has strong ties in the Philippines and understands the evolution of the business. So each one of them had local growth and technical expertise. That was our triangle for series A.

Naspers actually came in right after that. Every investor you bring in must be strategic. Basically, it is like hiring another person to the team. So, I really took the time to choose the best fit. Every investor brings value.

Ferraz: That鈥檚 really interesting because I think a lot of young entrepreneurs pitch to whoever is willing to give money, but you were really strategic on how you chose your investors, which I think is awesome advice.

Hose: Yes, that is why I advise you to raise money as early as you can. However, I usually raise a little late. Every time we raise, it is further than our actual break-even. I like going a little late because rather than focus on trying to get the highest possible valuation, we focus on getting the investors that are able to help us.

Ferraz: So in 2018, you reached five million users. I鈥檓 sure you used numerous strategies to reach this milestone. Which of these channels surprised you the most and why?

Hose: The people at the bottom of the pyramid spend their earnings on a day-to-day basis, and we thought that the market is not only sensitive to costs. While cost is important, and we work really hard to improve that, what is even more important is service and convenience.

Even the people at the very bottom of the pyramid value their time and con- venience. It matters a lot. So we realized our value proposition to people is not in saving money. If you go on our website today, you will see the main page of the website is about how much time we save people.

Ferraz: If focusing on the value proposition of time in your messaging helped you onboard more customers, which strategy didn鈥檛 work?

Hose: A lot [laughs]. Ninety percent of what we do. The key lesson is to try many things quickly. Test, learn, and improve. My decision needs to be fifty-one percent accurate. I need to make a lot of decisions. That鈥檚 how you improve.

We tried a lot of on-the-ground marketing. We are much better at digital. I think we are good at things we can measure and quantify. It is because we can justify exactly what is happening and how consumers are reacting. But even there, we do stuff that fails all the time. The biggest lesson is that in this part of business, you have to roll out ten products to be successful with one.

Ferraz: What鈥檚 your attitude toward failure?

Hose: I always say that success is about being able to deal with failure. How you work your way out of failure is what makes you successful.

There are so many things that I messed up when I was building this business. So many setbacks. So many times that I said, 鈥淥kay, this is it. We鈥檙e not making it another day.鈥� Success is definitely your tolerance for failure and willingness to get up and keep running. That鈥檚 it. There is no entrepreneur that did not fail a lot of times. We live in this social media world now, where we only see the positive outcomes. All the people are going to hear about is how entrepreneurs and startups exited. They do not know all the blood we shed on the way. There were a lot of nights we did not sleep.

Ferraz: Can you share the story of the Gojek acquisition? How did the idea come up, and why did the deal make sense?

Hose: Last year, we were at a point in which the business was moving very quickly. We were looking at fundraising, and then in the process, we met some Gojek guys.

As the conversation was going, we learned that our ambitions and our values are very similar. We figured that we could do more together. We built up a market here for tech, and we built a really strong team. We think that Gojek has complementary products and complementary technology that can help us scale up a pretty sizeable balance sheet. I guess the math was actually very simple. This is our decision for a business to help us grow and to create a sustainable business. I look at this acquisition as a large fundraiser with a better path and better growth for business鈥攆rom a CEO execution point of view. My true north is the growth of the business. This is the best possible path.

Ferraz: What is your vision now for Coins.ph?

Hose: It is still the same. There are 100 million people that need to have access to financial resources. The banks are the traditional financial providers, and we help connect the banks to consumers and segments of the market they are not able to reach.

Ferraz: What unconventional advice would you give founders in Asia who want to build a company as successful as Coins.ph?

Hose: If you want to build a business in this market, you really have to understand it in depth. You have to feel the same pain your customers feel every day. As an example, I鈥檓 still using a prepaid phone line. I鈥檝e been living here for almost six years, but I鈥檓 still on a prepaid phone line. Why? Because most of our customers are using prepaid phones.

Ferraz: So you鈥檙e experiencing the same things as them?

Hose: Exactly. I鈥檒l never be able to experience every last thing, obviously, but I want to be immersed because it helps me learn what I can do to make my customers鈥� lives and experiences better. In emerging markets, it is really important for you to live in the context of the consumer to really understand and relate to their experience.

Ferraz: What else besides the prepaid phone?

Hose: I minimize my use of banks in general. I do have US bank accounts, and a plastic card, but as much as possible, I try to reduce my reliance on financial services outside of Coins. I use Coins to pay my bills, rent, everything. It鈥檚 great! And when it鈥檚 not working great, then that鈥檚 good too, because I learn about the limitations of our product. And then we figure out what we can do better to address it for our customers.

Ferraz: You told other entrepreneurs to come here. What do you think they would feel when they actually see for themselves that more than 100 million people don鈥檛 have access to financial services.

Hose: I think the opportunity for using technology to improve people鈥檚 lives goes beyond financial services. There are opportunities for growth in agriculture, healthcare, commerce, and transportation. The important thing is that you need to experience them. For example, if you鈥檙e going to build technology for farmers, you need to spend time on the farm. You need to be in the countryside to understand what is driving them.

Living here, I get to know what a tingi-tingi [sachet culture] economy is. It is not just about getting a loan from the bank. It鈥檚 about thinking, 鈥淗ey, I need to buy butter. I鈥檓 going to buy a quarter of a bar.鈥� And someone is actually splitting it. That鈥檚 a fact. That鈥檚 a financial product, right? That person is splitting the butter into four. He鈥檚 basically providing a financial service. Sounds like a food vendor, right? It鈥檚 not. Every sari-sari store in this country is a financial services provider. So the truth is that everybody has access to financial services. They are just informal or not optimal.

We have to spend some more time to understand all the social economics of their life. 鈥淗ow do I save money? Is there going to be money there when my turn comes?鈥� Those are pains people experience here.

Ferraz: Can you share an example where failure to be field-oriented or user- centric has resulted in products that have failed?

Hose: I鈥檒l give an example from Google, my favorite company. About six years ago, Google tried to build a mobile wallet.

They had a lot of capital to do it, but they were not successful. I suspect that one of the reasons is that it is much more difficult to launch a product that is what you think your customers need.

We want them to use our wallet because it solves a problem for them. To understand people鈥檚 pains, you have to live it. That is the answer. I was lucky enough to stay a whole year in the Philippines before I even started my business. I spent a lot of time in the province. I didn鈥檛 live a very luxurious life. I鈥檝e been on top of jeepneys.

Ferraz: No way! On top of jeepneys?

Hose: Yeah, and I鈥檝e slept in the barangay halls. Those experiences shape how we build our product. And the experiences with my team shape it, too, because when we launch something, we always think, 鈥淒oes this make sense? Does it actually help?鈥�

鈥�

This story has been excerpted by courtesy of the publisher from by Ezra Ferraz and Gracy Fernandez (Apress, 2020).

To purchase the book, please visit .

Editor鈥檚 Note: We spoke with Kickstart Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Globe Telecom, on how they鈥檙e tackling the new productivity challenges of Covid-19.

Joan Cybil Yao, Kickstart Ventures鈥� Vice-President of Investments

For the Investment Team at Kickstart, the work goes on: We continue to receive pitches from startups all over the world, and are constantly scheduling calls with founders to learn more about their businesses. We rely heavily on cloud communications platforms to keep us connected to each other, and to the companies that we study.

Because of the lockdown, we are doing our best to gather as much information about potential investees through discussions with management, reference calls, product demos, and desktop research and analysis. There鈥檚 no substitute for in-person meetings, but the team is doing everything possible to move our diligence processes forward despite current limitations. Due diligence trips will resume once travel restrictions are lifted; in the meantime, we encourage everyone to keep safe.

In terms of tips: It鈥檚 useful to have shared and unified sources of truth鈥攄ocuments, platforms, and tools that team members can refer to in real-time for information and status updates on our shared work and tasks. We are on calls a lot together, and don鈥檛 hesitate to reach out if we have questions to ask or random stories to share.

It鈥檚 important not to lose that sense of normalcy and camaraderie; in these extraordinary times, humor and compassion are the most valuable commodities.

鈥�

Joan is Vice-President of Kickstart Ventures. She is a member of the Kickstart Deal Team. Prior to Kickstart, Joan was Investment Manager for Southeast Asia at LGT Venture Philanthropy, a global impact investing firm headquartered in Europe.

鈥淲e鈥檙e not here to play the game. We鈥檙e here to reinvent the game.鈥�

The underlying operating principle of the business model of a conventional banking solutions provider, even at the advent of cloud computing, is still practically the same. They develop a software product and charge the customers with a hefty license fee to recover their cost of software development, maintenance, and eventually to gain a profit. Take, for example, the Core Banking System/Solutions provider business model in the Philippines, and Indonesia.

• One-time license fee
• a monthly fee for each account
• a monthly fee for each branch
• Monthly subscription fee
• Some providers charge a certain percentage on the bank鈥檚 loan portfolio

Figure 1鈥�1 Sample Monthly Cost: Other Core Banking Providers and PearlPay CBS

Figure 1鈥�1 shows a sample monthly cost computation of other core banking providers where it charges a monthly fee for each account (approx $0.12/account). As the bank grow its customer base, its monthly cost for the core banking also grows. Please note that we excluded other monthly recurring fees like per branch from the other core banking providers in this sample computation, which means the costs will be much even higher. As for the case of CBS (Core听Banking听Solutions), as the banks grow its customer base, its monthly cost remained flat at US$ 99.

What set PearlPay apart? Like other core banking providers, we host our core banking solutions in the cloud (AWS). But unlike the other core banking providers, we don鈥檛 charge a monthly recurring fee for each account, per branch, or one-time license fee. For PearlPay CBS, we only charge for a monthly subscription fee that starts at US$99. Based on the last load testing result of our default CBS instance configuration, at US$99, it can handle 50 concurrent users (i.e., bank employees) and up to 1 million accounts. If there were a surge in the number of transactions, for example, an increase in the concurrent users, PearlPay CBS is designed to auto-scale to increase the server capacity to handle the surge accordingly. That is why we said it starts at US$99 per month. In other words, we鈥檙e passing on the cost of the cloud hosting services to our bank customers and allow them to reap the full benefits of cloud technologies in terms of cost reduction.

As shown in Figure 1鈥�1, we ultimately altered the cost curves to shift downward. In economic terms, when the cost curves shift downward on a primary factor of production in an industry, big-time change is in store for that industry鲁. One great example is the mobile phone industry, where a majority of first-time internet users leapfrogged the more expensive PC (Personal Computer), and laptop and gained access to the internet through a more affordable smartphone. As a result, we have seen a boom in mobile commerce sites like Amazon, Lazada, Shopee, and Rakuten.

According to Peter Drucker, 鈥淭here is only one valid definition of a business purpose: To create a customer鈥� The customer is the foundation of a business and keeps it in existence.鈥�

Today we have a total of听452 rural bank signups, 200 out of 450 in the Philippines and the entire 252 members of the Association of Rural Banks in Central Java, Indonesia out of 1,630鈦�, with approximately听5.2 million existing bank customers(i.e., 3.7 million bank customers in the Philippines鈦� and around 1.5 million bank customers in Indonesia听(Yoni Depari, CEO PearlPay Indonesia, former Deputy Director Central Bank Indonesia, Personal Communication, Feb 25, 2020)). We have lowered or even eliminated the barriers to entry for a world-class core banking application and making the entire rural banking industry ripe for change.

鈥淔rom passbook banking to digital banking.鈥�

Every time you use your credit/debit/prepaid MasterCard, Visa, UnionPay, and JCB, your issuing bank earns an interchange revenue鈦�, which is an average of 1.14% of your card transaction amount. Almost all rural banks in the Philippines and Indonesia, together with their听18.7 million existing bank customers听(i.e., 8.7 million in the Philippines and 10 million in Indonesia), were trapped using the passbooks, which is a paper-based technology. Almost all rural banks do not issue ATM cards, credit/debit/prepaid cards, and let alone mobile banking/wallets, primarily because of the high-cost of digital/electronic payment systems. As a result, rural banks and their millions of customers are not participating in the digital or electronic payments economy. That is why we created听PearlPay mobile banking/wallet white-label solution, which is a separate backend application but seamlessly integrated with听PearlPay CBS.

Figure 1鈥�2 PearlPay CBS and PearlPay Mobile Banking/Wallet

Figure 1鈥�2 shows how鈥檚 the PearlPay Mobile Wallet backend application is integrated with the PearlPay CBS backend application. If we鈥檙e going to follow the footsteps of the rest of the mobile banking/wallet solutions providers, then we should be charging a one-time license fee, a monthly recurring fee for each prepaid account, and a maintenance fee. Following their footsteps is like the equivalent of Grab or Gojek charging their drivers a monthly subscription fee, it will only inhibit rural banks鈥� mass adoption of mobile banking/wallet technology. Like Grab and Gojek, we don鈥檛 charge any monthly subscription fee for the PearlPay Mobile Banking/Wallet white-label solutions, we generate our revenues through transactions. Remember that a MasterCard/Visa/JCB/ UnionPay issuing bank earns on an average of 1.14% through interchange revenue? We share this interchange revenue 75/25 in favor of the rural banks. As Bill Gates said,听鈥渁听platform听is when the economic value of everybody that uses it, exceeds the value of the company that creates it.鈥澨�To enable global acceptance on the rural bank鈥檚 mobile wallet, PearlPay partnered with UnionPay (agreed in principle), which allows PearlPay to issue UnionPay Virtual Prepaid Cards and Co-brand it with its partner rural banks.

Rural bank branches in Indonesia are 4,800鈦�, while rural bank branches in the Philippines are 2,745. To put that into perspective, the combined-branches of the top three (3) banks in the Philippines (i.e., BDO, Metrobank and BPI) are 2,505鈦�. Needless to say that rural banks have more coverage in the countryside. The problem (also an opportunity) is that almost all rural banks are not participating in the remittance economy (domestic and foreign). Considering the size of the foreign remittance inflows of the Philippines (US$35.1 billion鈦�) and Indonesia (US$ 11.7 billion鹿鈦�), we set up PearlPay Hong Kong, PearlPay Singapore, and now setting up PearlPay Japan to facilitate 1st-mile remittance for OFW (Overseas听Filipino听Workers) and Indonesian Migrant Workers. We fully utilize the existing infrastructure of the branch network of our partner rural banks in the Philippines and Indonesia to become the last-mile remittance facility for over-the-counter remittance transactions and eventually direct crediting to the rural bank鈥檚 customer鈥檚 mobile wallet.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, an army of rural banks in the Philippines has taken a position to offer an alternative way of disbursing the government鈥檚 more than PHP 200 billion (US$ 3.9 billion) in emergency cash subsidy to 18 million of the country鈥檚 poorest households鹿鹿. Never have been their importance more pronounced, they could do even more and reach even farther, once we have helped them with their digital transformation.

Focusing on protecting people from COVID-19, the local and national government declared lockdowns and community quarantines in many cities and municipalities across the nation. This severely curtailed movement and public gatherings that made the operations of microfinance institutions untenable. In response, microfinance institutions declared a suspension of operations in their covered areas, including moratorium on loan payments while the community quarantine is in effect. Many of these institutions are members of APPEND and MCPI whose combined outreach is nine million poor and low-income families served by more than 50,000 staff and an estimated P70-B loan portfolio.

With the expected decrease in business activities, the reprieve will allow clients to channel their budget to basic needs. Even so, an unsettling voice still lingers: is the delay in the collection of loan payments ever enough to sustain their needs after all of this is over?

The bigger picture

With significant experience in community development, microfinance institutions (MFIs) have seen poverty-stricken families rise above poverty through access to and ownership of financial and non-financial services. Because of the COVID-19 outbreak, all of this could potentially go down the drain. The low-income sector, who are mostly clients of MFIs, are greatly distressed by the effects of the pandemic and the necessary measures imposed by the government.

Since main bank branches of CARD Mutually Reinforcing Institutions (CARD MRI) nationwide are still open for services like withdrawals and remittances, our skeleton workforce still has interactions with our clients. Field staff have also remained connected with clients through cell phones and/or social media that enabled them to communicate to management what was happening to their communities. Our Regional Directors have reported that many of the clients are experiencing devastating effects on their livelihoods. Most of them have products to sell but are restricted by the physical barriers of community quarantine, severely affecting their income to support their own families. For example, in the National Capital Region and elsewhere, in order to implement social distancing, marketing hours were imposed, compelling many small eateries and stalls in the public markets to close.

Microentrepreneurs in the agriculture sector also have a crucial role in society. Most of our farmer-clients in Luzon end up selling their produce at bargain prices, or giving them away to neighbors, or worse, leaving them to rot because they could not travel to the market due to strict rules on movement being implemented. In Masbate and Marinduque, our clients can neither send their seafood products to key cities nor let their wholesale buyers come because seagoing vessels are no longer allowed to leave or enter their ports.

Come post-quarantine, enough capital would be needed by these farmers to buy inputs such as seeds and fertilizers. But given the situation we have today, transporting and selling their produce becomes a challenge. If they cannot sell their products, then they would not be able to farm again. Ultimately, it is not only the farmers who would face the consequences. We might be dealing with a possible food shortage if our supply is not enough to meet our country鈥檚 demands.

Some of these microentrepreneurs also employ other members of the community, therefore contributing to the enrichment of the local economy. While the success of one microentrepreneur has proven to affect a community positively, its downfall can also ripple to many families and eventually, to the whole community.

Post-quarantine dilemma

With all these challenges faced by microentrepreneurs, the microfinance industry anticipates reduced capacity of clients to pay after the outbreak. Even with the high risk of low repayment, MFIs continue to provide financial and non-financial services to the low-income sector during the period of quarantine. In fact, industry leaders continuously think of ways that could still support the economic activity of these microentrepreneurs.

However, we recognize that we could not do it alone. Expecting negative effects on liquidity, MFIs are seeking for potential interventions to continue its business of eradicating poverty in the country.

MFIs are looking for support from organizations and institutions who can provide additional credit facilities and funding to support its cause in helping people improve their lives while facing this global health emergency. We are also convening partners and industry leaders to discuss this pressing issue to mitigate the effect of the pandemic in the industry.

Most importantly, the support from the government is most crucial at this time. The Philippines has proven to be a conducive environment to implement microfinance. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has repeatedly recognized MFIs as champions for financial inclusion. Further, laws such as RA 10693 or the Microfinance NGOs Act, which was signed in November 2015, enables Microfinance NGOs to expand outreach to a greater number of poor people especially in the hard-to-reach areas and implement community development programs funded by tax incentives. These programs include medical missions, scholarships, and livelihood training, among others.

We encourage you to think about the low-income sector; the landless farm workers, the small farmers, the fisherfolks, the听maglalako, the听sari-sari听store owners, and other microentrepreneurs. The lockdown and community quarantine may end soon but if we do not act now, their sufferings will worsen even after the outbreak. Because health protection and financial inclusion goes hand in hand, may we not forget to balance the scale in favor of one over the other. Let鈥檚 ensure no one gets left behind.

As a Consultative Group to Assist the Poorest blog concludes: 鈥淚t seems likely that without significant support and concerted action, many MFIs are at risk in the coming storm. The question is: what steps can we take now to ensure the industry survives and can contribute to the eventual economic recovery? Without taking on hard questions and beginning to put plans in place for COVID-19, it won鈥檛 be poverty that is in a museum, but potentially the modern microfinance movement.鈥�
__________

Dr. Jaime Aristotle B. Alip is the founder and chairman emeritus of CARD Mutually Reinforcing Institutions, a group of 23 institutions that envisions to eradicate poverty in the Philippines. He is the recipient of the 2019 Ramon V. del Rosario Award for Nation Building.

Let me preface my tips with the following disclaimer: work from home (WFH) is not for everyone. It requires self-discipline, self-motivation, it can get lonely (if done wrong), and not everyone has the ability to be as productive at home. But in times like this, during a lockdown that leaves us no other choice, there are certain things that can be done to mitigate those drawbacks.

Set boundaries and expectations

It’s important to be clear with the team that even when working from home, as much as possible they are to behave as if they’re in the office: maintain professionalism. For example, don’t work from your bed. Ideally, use a desk. Even better is a home-office with a door that separates you from the rest of your home. Wear appropriate clothing (for video meetings). Try to adhere to agreed-upon working hours, or at least communicate when you are having to step out for errands or other things. Which leads to the next point.

Overcommunication and transparency

WFH requires communication to be turned up to 11. We never use email to communicate internally. We instead use chat software that allows for topical communication such as. Our team uses. Other chat apps like WhatsApp and Messenger work, but are less ideal since a lot of things tend to get lost. Avoid direct-messaging as much as possible, and instead post to public chat-rooms/channels for transparency and for everyone to be aligned. Default to public over private comms.

When it comes to the work we do, transparency is everything. Everything is treated as a draft. This means that the moment you start a new document or spreadsheet, it should already be accessible to everyone. This allows for a much quicker feedback loop from teammates. For instance, we use听for docs/spreadsheets, 听for our designs, 听for pair-programming, and other real-time collaboration tools.

Video conferences are king. We have daily 10-min sync up meetings (standups) every morning. Furthermore, each of our team members meet via video conferencing (using) several times a day. If you can’t do real-time videos, consider using tools like听where you can quickly record and send video messages. And on that note, show your face! It can be tempting to keep your webcam off during video meetings, but showing your face helps tremendously with getting messages across (they say 97% of communication is non-verbal). Furthermore, it helps with establishing and maintaining culture.

Culture and sense of belonging

It’s very easy to feel isolated and alone when working remotely, but there are things that can be done to alleviate this. Currently, we use a virtual office service called . Beyond looking cute, it allows us to simulate being in a real office, where we can spontaneously enter virtual office rooms, start audio/video conversations with colleagues (no need to schedule meetings), thus improving communication. There’s also a big psychological benefit: you never feel like you’re alone. And this matters a lot with motivation and productivity.

Organize online “events” for everyone to participate in. Just the other day, our team capped the day off with a game of听(multiplayer drawing & guessing game). For larger companies, consider assigning someone to organize remote team events.

Lastly, we still meet in-person a few times a month (prior to the COVID lockdown). In-person meetings are still great for building and maintaining company culture.

The costs of remote work

If you can really optimize your company’s remote-working setup, I believe that it can completely erase the need for a physical office and thus save your company a lot of money. Running the numbers, if we were to get a dedicated physical space for our team, we are looking at a monthly cost of Php 5,000 to Php 9,000 /person/month. This doesn’t include other costs and pitfalls of having an office such as maintenance, minimum lease agreements, etc.

With remote work however, we’re looking at around PHP 3,500 /person/month. This includes the costs of remote work tools, an internet allowance, and in-person gatherings twice a month with catered food.

Final words

Admittedly, not all companies can do remote work just yet. But as companies evolve to become more digital, there are several tools out there that can help. In fact, our company听is building one such tool: a way for small businesses and entrepreneurs to easily pay their employees, contractors, and suppliers, in any bank听or e-wallet. In light of the COVID situation, several businesses have recently sought out our disbursement service as an alternative to their go-to methods of cash/cheque deposits, or the severely-limited individual bank-transfers.

]]> /sparkfluencers/2020/03/23/284915/sparkup-sparkfluencers-tips-on-managing-a-thriving-remote-workforce-from-kalibrrs-ceo/ Mon, 23 Mar 2020 07:59:57 +0000 /?p=284915 Working from home has turned from a simple working option for some to a necessity for most as a result of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and government-mandated quarantine.

To help companies with this setup, Paul Rivera, ex-Googler and Kalibrr co-founder, recommends these easy-to-implement tips to ensure employee well-being, accountability, and productivity as they work remotely.

Access to tools and technology

Everyone should have access to the same set of tools – in our case, laptops, company email addresses, phones/SIM cards for our sales team, access to cloud storage (Google Drive / Dropbox), access to the company-wide project management tool (like Trello), and in some cases, subsidized access to the internet.

Align on what communication channels to use

Communication is a critical piece to make sure that working remotely goes as smoothly as possible. Are you going to use Skype, Slack, Viber, or Telegram? Whatever you choose, make sure that you clearly and deliberately assign specific channels that you鈥檒l be using to talk to your employees.

Create concrete communication and operational guidelines

Once you鈥檝e identified the right channels, you鈥檒l need to establish guidelines. This can include how much time is allotted to respond to messages and emails together with set break times for when slowed down responses should be anticipated. Objectives and their milestones should be communicated using the channels and methods above. It’s also easy to overdo work from home – work from home shouldn鈥檛 mean that your team is always working.

Set processes for 鈥渞eporting to work鈥�

The whole company should treat this as if they are going to work – showering, dressing and all of the pre-work rituals should continue to be observed. Regular work hours should be followed so you shouldn鈥檛 have to ask employees to 鈥渃heck-in.鈥� However, if you鈥檙e new to this, asking your employees to send in an email message or message to your group that they鈥檙e already online and working can quickly ease this administrative burden.

Assign a skeletal workforce

Not all companies will be able to completely implement a work-from-home setup. Having a skeletal workforce responsible for continuing day-to-day business operations will be helpful to minimize both health risks and business losses.

Communicate your work arrangement to your clients

Make sure to set expectations with your clients and partners in line with the work arrangement you鈥檒l be implementing. Sending an email signed by management to these stakeholders can be greatly appreciated.

End-of-day / End-of-week check-in

Working remotely should not reduce your overall business productivity. Asking your team to send in an end-of-day report that outlines what they鈥檝e accomplished for the day helps you keep track of company goals but at the same time helps employees manage their own responsibilities better. Better yet, if you use a project management tool like Trello, the reports should happen within the system you鈥檝e already established while you were all working in the office.

Create a remote culture

Invest in building a shared remote culture, with norms, values and ceremonies as if you were all together in the office. If it is someone鈥檚 birthday, it should still be celebrated, albeit on a video chat with a virtual birthday cake. In addition, create an accountability culture where team members collaborate, are transparent and invest in each other鈥檚 success.

Trust and Empathy

Trust that people will get their work done and understand if they need help. This is probably going to be the hardest part for many companies but engendering trust can go a long way to making this work for your company. Make sure your employees feel empowered to speak up if something isn鈥檛 working for them and you should also speak up if it isn鈥檛 working for you.

Recommended Free Tools:

• Video conferencing: Zoom / Google Hangouts / Skype / Discord
• Project management: Trello / Notion
• Communication: Viber / WhatsApp / Telegram / Messenger / Google Hangouts Chat
• Whiteboard: Jamboard, Miro, Whimsical

Pandemic or not, being open and trusting of employees will also encourage them to be more accountable for their business contributions as they work from home.

鈥淲ith the amount of technology available, the future of work isn鈥檛 necessarily everyone in one office from 9PM to 6PM, watching the clock,” Paul says. “The future of work is an empowered team, who you trust and who hold each other accountable, with the right tools to be productive, regardless of where they may be.鈥�

____________________________________________________

Kalibrr is a technology company that aims to transform how candidates find jobs and how companies hire talent. Placing the candidate experience at the center of everything it does, the company continues to attract the best talent from all over, with almost three million professionals and counting. Kalibrr ultimately connects these talents to companies in search of their next generation of leaders.

You can here. For more business and recruiter advice, follow Kalibrr on , , , and .

]]> /sparkfluencers/2020/03/12/283337/spark-sparkfluencers-dennis-uy-on-the-lookout-for-the-first-philippine-unicorn/ Thu, 12 Mar 2020 08:49:39 +0000 /?p=283337 Tech startups looking to close their next round of funding might want to add Dennis Uy on their list of potential investors. The billionaire tycoon recently announced his interest in supporting tech firms positioned to grow into the nation鈥檚 first unicorns鈥攕tartups with at least a billion dollars in valuation.

Some of the more popular U.S.-based unicorns include home-sharing giant Airbnb and technology-driven brokerage firm Robinhood. To date, no company has achieved unicorn status in the Philippines.

, Uy has a track record of building businesses to profit and growth. industries such as oil, gas, and retail; shipping and logistics; education; food; gaming and tourism; property development and management; and infrastructure development. 鈥淲e will always look for opportunities to grow,鈥� .

, Uy is ranked 22nd inon the Forbes’ list of the 50 richest Filipinos.

in The Manila Times business forum last March 3. He said that while the future is in tech, startups encounter fundraising problems that make it hard for them to reach their full potential.

“The biggest hurdle is access to capital,鈥� Uy said. 鈥淵ou may have the best ideas, brilliant, but if you don’t have access to capital, up to a certain level, then you won’t be able to grow the business. I dream of a time when brilliant entrepreneurs have better access to funding and are not forced to sell. Those companies can land in the in the country.鈥�

Although he mentioned the possibility of financing promising startups “maybe in the next decade” or when he retires, he also clarified that he is not faulting creditors, as the system of requiring a borrower to pledge a property to secure a loan has been “that way for the longest time.”

“I hope our capital coming from fellow business people will be [braver], so they can face more risk and invest in the young entrepreneurs who have good ideas and scale up,”

]]> /sparkfluencers/2020/02/26/280615/sparkup-sparkfluencers-on-hiring-how-to-win-software-engineers-and-influence-people/ Wed, 26 Feb 2020 09:00:19 +0000 /?p=280615 Hiring is aggravating, tedious, hard. We startups, against everyone in the market out there, know this too well. But it is gratifying when the result of our efforts yields a positive impact with your colleagues and to the enterprise.

I took on hiring key engineers when PearlPay and Unosoft started up. I had recruited software engineers for projects I led in the UK and past ventures here in the Philippines. I embraced the task while my colleagues focused on their immediate objectives at the time.

PearlPay is now scaling up to double its current headcount of around 35 people in its Ecosystem team by summer. We aim to triple that by the end of the year. Unosoft is to scale up with more engineers later too.

We are thankful that driven, thoughtful, talented people have joined us last year. Our hiring methodology has paid off so far. And we’re to sharpen this up further with upcoming campaigns.

We focused on hiring key people from the start not only with the skills we require but would also build-up the foundation of our ethos.

Now, all my colleagues are involved in the process with a better idea of what traits in people we should be after and how to go about it.

What makes a great software engineer?

Technology in our age is like white sand forever shifting under our feet. We stand still at our peril.

Great engineers know this well. They know a lot already but may not yet be working on things we鈥檇 need them for. So they are teachable. They are great at learning new skills as needed. Some even become experts on the next big thing by their own volition.

We startups pay close attention to candidates with such dexterity. We give them every opportunity to grow and be influential to the team once we on-board them.

And so the best candidates, regardless of their technical level, evidently possess and express their passion to learn and work, their aptitude to do all these things and the humility to learn from anyone and collaborate with everyone effectively.

They work well in isolation yet thrive in a team environment too. They know how to work in a team well and what makes great teams work. They communicate their ideas and teach others well. Perfection is their North Star yet they make decisions with practical clarity.

The great ones have skills in both technology and people. Not all possess both in equal measure. So the equilibrium is key by striking the balance – complimenting different levels of capabilities to each other. This balancing act occurs naturally by some who possess stronger people skills.

The chances of great engineers turning up on one鈥檚 shortlist for interviews are slim at times. But if one can properly assess the potential of a promising candidate, they could very well not only be a great engineer, but a thriving team leader.

Culture matters to them too

The right culture in a team would be the spirit that cultivates tenacity, agility, diversity, compassion, and camaraderie. It inspires excellence and respect in one鈥檚 self and of each other. It has a major influence on the success of an enterprise.

PearlPay鈥檚 mission is to make financial services universally accessible. Its reach is vast. Its scope is ambitious. Its rate to scale is to be exponential.

Micromanagement won鈥檛 cut it. The right culture shapes a team that everyone thinks for themselves yet takes care of each other, does the right thing, doesn鈥檛 sit on the bench and doesn鈥檛 quit.

Of course, one should hire people that match the criteria that are to deliver the objectives of the enterprise.

But it also pays to holistically look for attributes in candidates that will contribute, nurture the culture and performance of the team – qualities beyond the job description and technical criteria.

Otherwise, such oversight may short-change the enterprise later — even hurt its prospect in the long run.

Also, they are to be ambassadors of your team, of your company to everyone out there. Such traits from candidates are also worth consideration.

And the right people with the right mindset will get involved in the hiring process later too — to screen, interview and evaluate.

Birds of a feather flock together, as the saying goes. And hiring people for the engineering team is no different.

Pair-coding with candidates is the most effective test

Technical questionnaires and brainteasers were a waste of time for me in the past. These would tell me what applicants might already know about stuff anyone can look up on the internet or Stackoverflow. These don鈥檛 predict or expose anything else about them.

Applicants stop getting back to me after an email invite for a pair-coding session. The invite already does its job by saving me from wasting time. The applicants we should care about are the ones up for the challenge, especially those who fear it but go for it anyway.

I ask them to bring their own laptops if they have one. A dedicated coder usually would have their own machine rigged with their own software, IDEs, etc configured to their preference.

The pair coding session proceeds after the verbal interview. I give them instructions on what to code. Either I start the build for the candidate to complete or they start by themselves from scratch. Then I leave them to complete their build; check on them after about 20 minutes.

If they complete it without problems, I ask them to extend their build with more complex tasks like how they would write tests with it or how they would design a business rule enforcement with tests bolted to it, for instance. The level of complexity of what they’re to complete next depends on the level of confidence and knowledge they have displayed so far.

If they haven鈥檛 completed their work, I would sit with them and complete it in front of them. If the technology stack we鈥檙e after isn鈥檛 my forte, I either delegate the session to someone in the team who knows it or ask the candidate to build one from scratch by themselves and guide me through the stack and their coding work.

I then give a critique as I go through their work; write code with them if need be. Our interaction for me to evaluate them starts here.

Half the skill of a great candidate is how well they comprehend what they need to know, what they have to do to deliver their work (e.g. skills, knowledge).

The other half is how well they diagnose problems and how their aptitude aided them to solve issues on their work — like a detective solving a crime.

They don’t necessarily have to complete the work to pass.

But how much did they care about how they did at the session? Did they care when they didn鈥檛 complete their task? How well did they use resources like the internet to solve their issues? Their interaction with me at these sessions tells me enough about their level of capability, their capacity to learn (or how well they tolerate it), their communication skills, intuition, etc.

Great interns make the difference too

We evaluate internship candidates with exacting criteria on aptitude, passion, and humility just like with job applicants. And they get valuable experience should they come through for their internship with us.

We had an intern who flew in from Switzerland. He learned about PearlPay; how our program for financial inclusion is developed for the rural community.

A documented business case by another intern attracted attention from potential investors from Japan — one among other assets produced by them at PearlPay.

With the right culture in the team, they too become ambassadors of the mission to their campuses and to their peers.

Making valuable time and due care for young minds — our future leaders, future entrepreneurs — makes the difference to any enterprise. It certainly has for us.

Evangelize the mission

We startups have our mission to accomplish. We evangelize about it to investors and potential partners with great aplomb.

I pitch the mission to candidates as if I鈥檓 talking to an investor; attempting to raise capital for the team. I use a visual aid on my iPad — either a pitch deck about PearlPay from the team or a journal in PDF written by our CEO, Spark Perreras.

I attempt to impress them with our mission; make them understand this is an opportunity of a lifetime for them to be part of. What I share is valuable to us so we don鈥檛 just hire anyone. So they have to impress me too.

One candidate was rather taken at her interview that she recommended her colleagues to apply too. 鈥淚 fell in love with PearlPay鈥�, she said to her ex-colleague who later applied and became a key member of ours. He is now a Senior Engineer at our Ecosystem team.

Another great candidate, a Project Manager, jumped ship to us — a startup with a humble working capital and workplace in Makati — from a competitor who had been in business a lot longer than us with a plush office floor at an exclusive location in Taguig.

Great people want their work to mean something; what value they will be contributing to.

To cite Mr. Nestor Tan, CEO of BDO Unibank Inc, from whom Spark learned this nugget of wisdom from his time at the bank and shared to us:

Excite them. Keep them interested. Tell them it鈥檚 doable.

_______________________________

Napoleon Catilo is Chief Innovation and Information Security Officer at PearlPay Inc.; a solution architect, software engineer and team leader for over twenty years.

He has provided various solutions to clients in Europe and the Philippines such as Ford Motors Europe, Microsoft Corp USA, The Guardian, Royal Bank of Scotland and NATO among others.

You can get in touch with him at nap@pearlpay.com.

]]> /sparkfluencers/2020/02/07/277389/sparkup-sparkfluencers-garuda-digital-alliance-beyond-startups-partnership-a-story-of-friendship/ Fri, 07 Feb 2020 05:06:33 +0000 /?p=277389 Photo: A village in West Java (captured from a train in Jakarta to Bandung, Indonesia)

Any technology that becomes Digitized (our first 鈥淒鈥�) enters a period of Deceptive growth. During the early period of exponentials, the doubling of small numbers (0.01, 0.02, 0.04, 0.08) all basically look like zero. But once it hits the knee of the curve, you are only ten doublings away from 1,000x, twenty doublings get you to 1,000,000x, and thirty doublings get you a 1,000,000,000x鹿. Let us focus on the first 鈥淒鈥� because Digitization serves as the solid rock foundation of all exponential growth.

Figure 1鈥�6D鈥檚 of Exponential Growth

Before an industry can harness the benefits of The Fourth Industrial Revolution鈥檚 technologies, such as artificial intelligence, augmented reality, robotics, and 3-D printing, etc., data must be digitized, which is the result of the Third Industrial or Digital Revolution fueled by the cloud technologies. Exponential growth is in developing countries like the Philippines and Indonesia, where industries such as rural banks, schools, and socialized housing, in which almost all of its data are still not digitized. Take, for example, the problems that 听听and听 are solving.

Figure 2鈥揟he Four (4) Industrial Revolutions虏

鈥淔rom passbook banking to digital banking.鈥�

The bigger the problem, the bigger the opportunity. Let鈥檚 examine what problem is solving. There are more than 1,600 BPR (Bank Perkreditan Rakyat or rural banks) in Indonesia, with more than 4,500 branches and more than 10 million existing bank customers. Almost all rural banks were trapped using the passbooks, which is a paper-based technology. As aforementioned, digitization is the solid rock foundation of exponential growth, and what an impeccable timing would be to digitize the rural banks today in conjunction with the high mobile internet penetration rates.

鈥淚f PearlPay were for the rural banks, then JetSchool will be for the schools.鈥�

is a school management app that manages online tests, attendance, finance, scores, library, etc.

Jetschool was elected as Top 10 Tech Startup to Watch in Indonesia by Tech In Asia in 2017.

鈥淕reat industries are never made from single companies. There is room in space for a lot of winners.鈥� Jeff Bezos
Garuda Digital Alliance Ceremonial Signing (Jan 20, 2020) at Bandung City, Indonesia 鈥� Photo (from left to right): Najib Yusuf (Founder and CEO, JetSchool), Hafizh Mulia (1001Teras), Kenny Dewi Kaniasari (Head of Culture and Tourism Office, City Government of Bandung, Indonesia), Spark Perreras (Group CEO, PearlPay), Atty. Jay Masangcay (Director and Chief Legal Counsel, Pil-Chi Telecoms Inc.), and Shadman Sadab (CEO, Future City Summit)

Life as a startup, especially those with less than three (3) years, is about survival. One of the keys to surviving is to ally and to help each other through stormy weather. But life itself is not all about survival, but having a sense of purpose and develop a friendship with the people that we can grow with, people that will help us become a better version of ourselves.

I am pleased to share some of the initiatives of the Garuda Digital Alliance.

1. 1. PearlPay shall be the payment technology engine and provider to the digital payment service and product of JetSchool (JetPay).
   2. Future City Summit (in partnership with the City Government of Bandung, Indonesia 鈥淯rban Data Lab鈥�) will be providing a FREE co-working space for two (2) years for the members of the Garuda Digital Alliance.

Future City Summit Stakeholders at the Musem of Bandung, Indonesia

The Garuda Digital Alliance sees a world of digital inclusivity, where all communities are participating and thriving in the digital economy. The challenge of digital inclusion is enormous, but it is also a blessing to have this rare opportunity.

]]> /sparkfluencers/2019/11/29/267028/sparkup-sparkfluencers-insurtech-is-key-to-fintechs-evolutionary-timeline/ Fri, 29 Nov 2019 08:24:20 +0000 /?p=267028 Tech categories are timelines, not maps. Every visualisation that maps out a particular tech category in Asia does so in the common cluster style. That is, it鈥檒l list the main category on top, such as fin-tech. Then it鈥檒l list all the various sub-categories, such as digital finance, crypto, mobile money, and so on, and include the logos of the relevant companies within each grouping.

While these infographics are an interesting starting point in discussing how a tech category is growing (or not growing!), it is a bit misrepresentative. Visually, it seems to suggest that all the categories are equal, but that is not true. For many tech fields, some sub-categories will need to come before others as a kind of precursor. There is, in short, very much a tech category life cycle just as much as there is a product life cycle.

This thesis can perhaps be most clearly seen in fin-tech. Arguably the most important category is mobile money. You need to give people a means to transact with money before they can participate in other fin-tech applications. Most people erroneously assume that mobile money is the only necessary precursor, which opens all other categories – Pandora-box style – for the taking of founders and startups.

In truth, there is another major category that comes next鈥攐r at least should鈥攐n the evolutionary timeline of fin-tech: Insurtech. After giving people a means to store money digitally, they also need to be given means to protect their finances, property, and livelihood as they go about their day-to-day. Digital can similarly allow people to obtain this insurance easily, instantly, urgently.

Insurtech as an evolutionary milestone

The significance of insurtech as the second major milestone in fintech is most clearly seen when you analyze a major player in the space. In the Philippines, one need to look no further than the recently relaunched InsureShop, which is backed by leading insurance firm Pioneer, to see just how crucial insurtech is.

Led by Pioneer Chief Executive Officer Lorenzo Chan Jr., InsureShop offers three key products, including medical insurance (MediCash), travel insurance (SafeTrip), and motorcycle insurance (RideSure). Each of these products is essential to protecting value for upwardly mobile and digitally-savvy Filipino people. Let鈥檚 take the case of MediCash for example.

In the Philippine context, medical emergencies can bankrupt people, or worse, leave them stuck with years and years of debt. Because of the tropical climate, two common issues are Dengue or Leptospirosis. Dengue is a mosquito-borne affliction that can often be fatal, while Leptospirosis is a disease transmitted by rodents, often brought on by exposure to contaminated floodwaters during excessive rains or typhoons.

In the event that a person gets either of these, MediCash disburses P10,000 in cash to help with medical bills or other expenses as the person chooses. Such protection prevents the occurrence of Dengue or Leptospirosis from not only being a life-threatening affliction, but one that ruins a person financially.

Through InsureShop, Filipinos can enroll, buy, and receive instant policy delivery for MediCash as well as SafeTrip and RideSure. The advent of InsureShop is actually not surprising given the rise of ecommerce in the Philippines led by online shopping and ride-hailing — evidence of the new Filipinos predilection for turning to digital for many of their needs. If Filipinos are already buying their clothes and gadgets online, the thesis goes, why not add insurance to the mix?

Innovative insurtech products like Pioneer鈥檚 InsureShop, in short, protect the value that the new digital economy offers Filipinos and that they store in and transact with via mobile money apps. Once the double layer of bedrock is established in mobile money and insurtech, the fintech space can move onto more advanced use cases, such as everything from alternative finance and reg-tech to robo advisories and comparison sites.

As a founder, it鈥檚 tempting to ignore the idea that there may be necessary precursors to the space you want to operate in. Many founders, after all, may think that having vision is enough and everything else can follow. But the truth is that most tech categories have a natural evolution that may not necessarily be linear, but still has dependencies and co-dependencies.

Founders would be wise to break-down their respective spaces into a timeline, not a map. What types of businesses must come before theirs in order for their own startup to succeed? If there are quite a few sub-categories that you determine should precede yours鈥攂ut those are still not built or have reached maturity鈥攊t may clue you in to the fact that your company is too early. It would be smart to move further back into your industry鈥檚 evolutionary timeline toward what people need now.

鈥斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌斺赌�

Javi Medina is a chartered market technician and the current Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer at Deeptech Investment Management.

]]> /sparkfluencers/2019/11/06/262816/sparkup-sparkfluencers-how-to-find-the-right-talent-for-your-tech-startup/ Wed, 06 Nov 2019 07:36:35 +0000 /?p=262816 This may strike a nerve with the general TV-watching Filipino population, but a talent show is really only as good as its judges. It doesn鈥檛 actually matter how unique or talented a hopeful artist is. To a judge that already has a notion of an ideal candidate, only the ones who have all of the tick boxes checked will survive till the last round.

If it works, why change it?

You can ask the same thing about finding talent for businesses. The usual path is employing an experienced HR practitioner who will carry out tried-and-tested methods of finding, evaluating, and eventually recruiting candidates. Does it work? Of course, it does. Recruitment practices have been in circulation within established companies for many years now.

However, it is quite a different case for tech startups who may not have as of yet specialized services, like recruitment and training. In its genesis, a startup would only have a few people in the team. Almost all of them are founders who are likely to be more knowledgeable in tech and product development than in human resources. The train of thought often goes like this: software/hardware idea鈥撯�揻inding people to execute the idea鈥撯�揷reating a minimum viable product鈥撯�揵eta-testing the prototype鈥撯�搃mproving on the product鈥撯�搇aunching鈥撯�揳nd, eventually, sustained marketing of the product.

One of the first few problems these founders may encounter is finding the right people whom they can count on to bring their ideas to fruition. After all, these founders, as mentioned, may have more expertise in tech than in recruitment.

What should founders try to find in a talent?

Talent is literally everywhere. Founders just need to revisit their product idea and think of relevant competencies that would make it work.

With the disruptive nature of tech startups, traditional knowledge and skillsets are almost irrelevant in the playing field. Startups always aim for something new, something yet to be discovered or repurposed鈥撯�揾ence, adaptability is a more important quality than, say, proficiency in a particular word processor or spreadsheet software. Relying on industry standards is not recommended as these often look for graduates of particular universities and degree programs, with a highly-specific knowledge base.

And so to the startup nowadays, Generalist talent who are able to multitask may be preferred to specialists. To get to the market faster before anyone else executes on the same idea, startups need people who can wear several hats and accomplish tasks across disciplines. Modern skill sets such as tech-savviness coupled with amazing project management capabilities are what founders should try to find in a candidate.

Where should founders look for talent?

There are a number of recruitment platforms that have sprung in recent years. LinkedIn is the virtual directory for professionals and potential critical hires. SaaS platforms such as Kalibrr and Recruitday allow employers to tap potential candidates referred via their more popular social networks. Rewards are even available in the new and socialized headhunting endeavors. Employer branding events, conferences, and job fairs are also a great way to meet prospects in person, as well as to evaluate them partially based on the first encounter.

Looking for talents has significantly been made easier with technology, so this now leads us to the question: How can a startup retain valuable talents?

Admittedly, a tech startup would possess considerably less prestige compared to an established conglomerate. It also goes head-to-head with the longstanding belief that climbing the corporate ladder is the sole career path to consider. To break these barriers, a tech startup must present a very clear vision and mission. It must truly believe in what it is offering the world. Ideal as it sounds, this actually makes a company appealing to a young, vibrant, and creative crowd 鈥撯�� exactly what a startup would need to push forward a product of the future.

In order to retain talent, a startup must be competitive in presenting career growth opportunities to its employees. While competitive compensation and benefits still matter, the new generation of professionals prefer companies that present them constant challenges鈥撯�� and with them, a lot more opportunities to improve and learn new skills. Stagnation is not a choice, lest one becomes prey to complacency in a fast-paced digital era.

What kind of perks should founders be offering?

Unconventional perks are also known to boost employee morale and energy. In our office at FullSuite, for example, employees regularly get a breath of fresh air, with our workplace strategically perched on a hill that overlooks an enchanting Baguio skyline. We have free lunches daily prepared by our in-house cook. Employees enjoy discounted meals at any other time of the day, as well as a 50 percent discount in Tau Ceti, a third-wave coffee shop located within the office building. More importantly, leadership and teambuilding opportunities are available to our employees that condition them for growth opportunities in areas of tech, finance, and leadership. Monthly meet-and-greets also foster camaraderie among employees from different teams.

In conclusion, a tech startup鈥檚 journey in attracting talent is indeed not far from a talent search reality show: it can only be as good as its judges, or in a startup鈥檚 case, its founders who will be doing most of the screening and evaluation, and mentoring. Startups must consider deviating from recruitment strategies that other companies have been using for years, and become creative not only in product development but also in attracting, retaining and motivating the best available talent who will commit to work and spend their waking hours at your startup. In the end, current problems like startup recruitment require relevant solutions, like take-your-pet-to-work days.

________________________________________________

Maggie Po is the chief strategist for Full Suite, a finance concierge for Singapore鈥檚 top companies catering to their fundraising, runway management, and mergers and acquisitions needs.

]]> /sparkfluencers/2019/11/06/262799/sparkup-sparkfluencers-breaking-the-contractual-work-cycle-and-empowering-partners-in-the-sharing-economy/ Wed, 06 Nov 2019 03:59:05 +0000 /?p=262799 In May, the world鈥檚 biggest Internet company, Amazon, announced a surprising proposition to its employees: Quit and be handed $10,000 to start a delivery company. The announcement came at the heels of the e-commerce giant鈥檚 promise to its VIP or 鈥淧rime鈥� customers of a guaranteed shipment of their orders within two days.

This bold promise required that Amazon tap as many delivery partners as possible on top of its already growing list of established logistics players, including UPS, FedEx and the U.S. Postal Service. The giant knew that to fulfill its promise and live out its vision of being the world鈥檚 biggest Internet company, it needed reliable partners鈥攁nd who better than the very same people who helped build its success story from the start.

As a founder of a logistics company, I couldn鈥檛 help but admire Amazon鈥檚 bravado to venture with individuals who may not have had the same experience, much less track record as established players in the industry. Instead of looking out, Amazon looked into what they had access to. It reached out to people who knew their business, subscribed to their values, business acumen and practices鈥攁nd empowered them not as employees, but as independent entrepreneurs.

When my on-demand logistics startup Mober, experienced a slump in fulfillment performance among our drivers, I realized we had a bigger problem than just unmotivated workforce. Like most ride-hailing and delivery startups, we had built a venture for independent solo entrepreneurs. But somehow, it had turned into yet another platform for operators managing fleets, simply tapping drivers on a contractual basis.

Not that there鈥檚 anything wrong with that. Our partners are principled entrepreneurs and Mober has helped fulfill noble goals of their own too. But the goal has always been to empower these drivers, not as employees, but as independent entrepreneurs.

Like Amazon, Mober had to make a bold move.

Driverpreneurship at Mober

I earlier envisioned a company that was going to be an enabler for the aspiring entrepreneur, to be a partner of that driver-entrepreneur who has long dreamt of making it on his own. After all, this was the initial promise of the sharing economy鈥攖o democratize opportunities for everyone.

Anyone who owned an asset could share them systematically, matched with those who need the particular service at a specific time.

And so, I developed a Driverpreneur program, which allowed our partner drivers to take a brand new van or truck on the road that they may eventually own. Think of a rent-to-own scheme but for vehicles that are at the same time assets. I鈥檓 proud to say the program has already driven the productivity levels of our partner drivers and encouraged them to accomplish more deliveries to meet demands of clients and customers.

The project brings me back to the origin of the sharing economy鈥攇iving everyone a chance to become an entrepreneur driven to maximize their own assets, but also operating at their own pace and time. This way, it鈥檚 not just Mober鈥檚 vision that is fulfilled but every driver that is part of our program too.

Hustling back to the sharing economy

I don鈥檛 mean to make it all sound very easy. Mober鈥檚 Driverpreneurship Program is quite challenging, requiring partners to go through rigorous training and fulfill deliveries at an optimum level; which is to say that the program isn鈥檛 for every type of driver on the road. It demands focus and endurance, and a hustle mentality to keep up with the growing demands of the economy.

The reward on the other side though is the fulfillment that majority of the pesos earned goes back to the driver-partner. It鈥檚 a program that thrives on win-win benefits between all parties, customers, asset owners, and tech-based systems鈥攖he very promise of the sharing economy Mober was built upon.

It鈥檚 true that for now, the sharing economy as a whole may not be working to the advantage of small partners. But it doesn鈥檛 mean companies tapping the labor of these people cannot trust them with an enterprise opportunity that can have profound multiplier effects for the economy and for society.

It鈥檚 not just Mober heeding the call for a mutually beneficial business relationship with partners.

Homegrown ride-hailing app OWTO has a similar driver-partner service, which likewise gives people a chance to own the vehicles they drive for business. And I鈥檓 sure there are other lesser known businesses doing the same for their employees, and their partners鈥攇iving them a chance to be asset-owners and entrepreneurs themselves.

All of these convince me it鈥檚 a very doable, viable and most sustainable business model. If anything, it鈥檚 a call for entrepreneurs everywhere to apply the same principles, and if they already are, be more vocal about them. There鈥檚 a good chance that one more entrepreneur will be swayed to do the same, and in that process, their entire workforce benefits too. Filipinos have long lived by this certain bayanihan spirit, traditionally depicted by neighbors carrying whole houses on their shoulders as folk move homes. At Mober it is that same bayanihan spirit once more, only this time helping our people move up in life, as we help literally move economy and society.

]]> /sparkfluencers/2019/10/16/259236/sparkup-sparkfluencers-creative-and-social-enterprises-called-to-apply-to-yseali-sparkability-level-up-program/ Wed, 16 Oct 2019 05:36:08 +0000 /?p=259236 The Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) and crowdfunding enabler The Spark Project have joined forces to come up with YSEALI SparkAbility, a level up program to support local entrepreneurs looking to scale both their businesses and the impact they have on the communities they serve.

YSEALI SparkAbility is a three-month long program designed to help address a young scaling entrepreneur鈥檚 key needs through learning and one-on-one mentoring sessions that鈥檒l enable them to implement an existing project or program they have in a greater scale. Selected participants will be provided funding support and the opportunity to crowdfund the additional funds they need, free of additional charges.

The program will kick off with a three day, all-expenses-paid bootcamp on Nov. 21 to 23.

According to Patch Dulay, founder and CEO of The Spark Project, 鈥渢he program will utilize the expertise of some of the most successful YSEALI alumni and impart knowledge on branding and marketing; project management, impact measurement, and community building.鈥�

Interested groups can apply to the , until October 19.

]]> /sparkfluencers/2019/09/02/251219/sparkup-sparkfluencers-running-your-business-the-alibaba-way-panel-qa/ Mon, 02 Sep 2019 08:00:54 +0000 /?p=251219

1. Take the essence of 9-9-6. (1:52-2:05, 2:16-2:40,1:05-1:11, 1:34-1:47)
Since 9-9-6 is very much influenced by Chinese culture, it might be difficult to incorporate it here since we鈥檙e used to a different system. However, it doesn鈥檛 mean that you can鈥檛 use it. Take what 9-9-6 is really built on, which is drive for and dedication to the company鈥檚 mission.

鈥淢ake sure that everyone in your team knows how important the mission of the company is. Because if it鈥檚 just, 鈥楬ey, we鈥檙e going to do this thing so that we can make one million, 鈥檛hey won鈥檛 care,鈥� said Bisnar. 鈥淵ou really need to find that deeper purpose鈥� And that will create a better mentality than 9-9-6, I think.鈥�

Reinforcing the company vision therefore allows you to make adjustments to your system. For instance, Bisnar, instead of 996, employs 183: employees are required to show up at the office for 3 days only, holding office hours from 1:00 PM to 8:00 PM.

鈥淭ake all the traffic hours, you get happier people, but you also stretch efficiency,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou can incorporate that same mentality with the 9-9-6, giving them freedom and integrating responsibility. So what we do [is] we don鈥檛 count the hours, we look at the output of the people.鈥�

2. A well-oiled team requires knowing your employees. (3:36-3:47, 3:51-4:07)
It鈥檚 been established that communication is important to your functions as a team. However, you may be limiting this within the professional space. Make sure that you ask your employees about their personal lives as well.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not all about work for me. I make sure that I ask about their families, how their day is, or what their challenges are,鈥� said Chua-Magleo. 鈥淚f one person鈥檚 a great employee and suddenly his performance is not leveling up, that means he might be facing some challenges, whether personal or at work.鈥�

3. Utilize the benefits of a developing VC market. (5:33-5:54, 6:25-6:44)
At first glance, an immature VC market may be disadvantageous to startups. On the contrary, it actually allows small companies to grow at a healthy pace.

鈥淚 look at it as an opportunity, thinking鈥� 鈥業 have the opportunity to grow my business to a size that [doesn鈥檛] need to compete. Because鈥� if there鈥檚 just one company that has so much money, they鈥檒l just burn cash and you cannot compete,鈥� said Sy.

By building a solid foundation at a steady speed, you gain a bargaining chip against VCs that may want to invest in the future.

鈥淚f you build your business right, you will have it in a position of strength so that you won鈥檛 be bullied by VCs. It鈥檚 like, 鈥榃e鈥檙e giving [you] the opportunity that we鈥檙e growing so you have to invest in us now, or you鈥檒l be left behind.鈥�

4. Strengthen your revenue sustainability. (9:43-10:25)
Getting funding is arguably one of the biggest challenges for all startup founders. Aside from balancing the books to remain operational, there鈥檚 also the added tasks of courting possible investors.

To help ease the pressure of these endeavors, there are a couple of ways to squeeze out some extra revenue.

For example, Bisnar and his co-founders initially didn鈥檛 take salary as founders. He also recommends taking on sideline jobs such as business coaching. These steps may not bear profits by the millions, but it could be enough to make your sheets presentable to investors.

鈥淎t least when you talk to the VCs, you鈥檙e not in a negative position. Because if I were a VC and you鈥檙e bleeding one million per month, he鈥檚 just going to eat you up. He鈥檚 just going to say, 鈥榊ou鈥檙e going to die in six months, then I鈥檓 going to buy 50 percent of your company for just a few millions.鈥欌��

5. Explore alternative ways to get funding (12:02-12:19, 11:32-11:58)
If you feel that the traditional ways of getting funding aren鈥檛 quite working out, there are other ways that you can try out. The recently-passed offers great opportunities for crowdfunding. You can even try approaching institutions who aren鈥檛 investing professionally but have the resources to do so.

鈥淔ind high net-worth individuals that can be moved by your cause, and they can have more negotiable terms. Because they care, they鈥檙e not doing it professionally,鈥� said Bisnar. 鈥淎nd if he or she likes your mission, then that鈥檚 a potential opportunity.鈥�

Those interested in applying for the Alibaba eFounders Program can find more information at this link. The upcoming program class will take place from Dec 2 to 12. The deadline for applications is on Oct 7.

]]> /sparkfluencers/2019/09/02/251215/sparkup-sparkfluencers-running-your-business-the-alibaba-way-with-mylene-chua-magleo/ Mon, 02 Sep 2019 05:15:14 +0000 /?p=251215

1. 鈥淕ood is the enemy of great.鈥� (7:30 7:38, 8:50-9:13)
In an industry that can get so demanding, it鈥檚 often easier to just stop at what鈥檚 expected of you. This is well and good for your convenience, but it will set you up for mediocrity in the long run.

Instead of stopping at your current industry, see where else your company can expand to. 鈥淭he thing that I admire most with Alibaba is that they keep on innovating. They are not afraid to experiment,鈥� said Chua-Magleo.

鈥淸They didn鈥檛] stop with e-commerce or retail. After that, they started venturing to different aspects of the digital economy, like payments, so they have Alipay. They even have Alibaba Cloud. They have movies. So they鈥檙e not really afraid of experimenting.鈥�

2. Embrace change. (9:47-9:53, 10:12 10:29)
When you start exploring unfamiliar industries, the usual mindset would be to make solid plans checked ten times over. Planning will always be standard for any kind of business, it鈥檚 just as important to complement it with flexibility.

鈥淣ot all as planned will happen. You don鈥檛 know the market conditions or the external factors that might happen,鈥� said Chua-Magleo.

鈥淪o it鈥檚 not like, 鈥楾his is the business model that I want.鈥� If it鈥檚 not progressing鈥� you should look for other ways on how to earn.鈥�

3. Carpe diem — but do so thoughtfully. (6:28-6:45)

Another danger of riding along with change is the desire to be first; after all, your competitors are all probably racing you to release the same product. Feel free to move swiftly to beat your competition, but make sure it鈥檚 not at the cost of quality or integrity.

鈥淭iming is really crucial for you to execute everything,鈥� said Chua-Magleo. 鈥淵ou need to execute it fast, but of course, you don鈥檛 want a messy start. So you have to execute in a way that it鈥檚 well-planned as well.鈥�

4. Hire the right people. (3:03-3:11, 3:37-3:54, 4:11-4:23)
Since you won鈥檛 be doing the majority of this work, it鈥檚 absolutely important to hire the right people. This doesn鈥檛 just mean acquiring employees who are highly skilled. It may actually be more vital to hire employees who actually believe in what your startup is trying to do.

鈥淭hey hire people who are committed – committed to their jobs, to their responsibilities,鈥� said Chua-Magleo.

鈥淸The] people there, they feel that they are part of the stakeholders [even if] they are not鈥� they feel that they are one with the company in achieving its mission and vision.鈥�

Since these kinds of people are reliable, you鈥檒l also find that you鈥檒l run smoother on the operational side. 鈥淗iring reliable people will help you grow faster because you don鈥檛 have to micromanage them, so they can work on their own, with less supervision.鈥�

5. In any relationship, communication is important. (5:23-5:33)
To further strengthen your internal relationships, make it a point to constantly communicate with your employees. Talk about their strong suits but include their points for improvement as well.

鈥淚t gives the employee an idea that, 鈥極h, there鈥檚 room for improvement for me based on the assessment of my coworkers or managers, that there鈥檚 something in me that needs to be improved.鈥欌�� said Magleo-Chua.

This desire for communication should extend to your customers. She noticed that Alibaba employees loved reaching out to them as much as they did among themselves. Genuinely listening to your customers can help you in different , including giving you a unique selling point.

Those interested in applying for the Alibaba eFounders Program can find more information at this link. The upcoming program class will take place from Dec 2 to 12. The deadline for applications is on Oct 7.

]]> /sparkfluencers/2019/08/30/250902/sparkup-sparkfluencers-running-your-business-the-alibaba-way-with-joshua-aragon/ Fri, 30 Aug 2019 06:56:20 +0000 /?p=250902

1. Retail isn鈥檛 an online or offline experience — it鈥檚 both. (3:06-3:40)
Since the advent of e-commerce, there鈥檚 been a lot of debate on whether retail should remain brick-and-mortar or fully migrate online. For several experts, it鈥檚 not an either-or situation. It can exist on both domains as a holistic and effective experience, creating what we call 鈥渘ew retail鈥�.

鈥淸It鈥檚] about bridging the gap鈥� and using user data [from] both online and offline to create an omnichannel that would meet customers鈥� expectations,鈥� said Aragon.

鈥淚t basically lets the business understand what the customer behavior is, their buying patterns, their customer portraits, and making sure that when [they] arrive at that store, they already know what [they鈥檙e] going to buy.鈥�

2. Keep track of the best kinds of toys鈥� (4:24-4:43)
This ability to anticipate customers鈥� needs relies on relevant information from several key factors:

a. Consumer: Knowing your customers locations and habits can tell you a lot about what they need and want. ADD

b. Environment: It鈥檚 also important to know the the environment can influence your customers. Knowledge in this area can also get you a step ahead in certain aspects of your business, such as logistics.

c. Business: 鈥淏usiness always keeps on changing, that鈥檚 why you always have to adapt [to] the patterns,鈥� said Aragon. 鈥淚n the US or in China, retail shops are closing. And that鈥檚 because the businesses weren鈥檛 able to translate what the people really want.鈥�

d. Technology: Invest in technology that can help make your processes easier and more efficient. Also, keep track of the latest apps and tech that customers are using: it can be as simple as joining a platform marketplace to increase sales.

3. 鈥� and the marketplace can become your playground. (5:56-6:27, 9:21-9:38)
With both offline and online platforms and tons of information at your fingertips, the possibilities are truly endless. Get creative with the ways that you can integrate these aspects so that you can offer the best experience to your customers.

Consider Alibaba鈥檚 TMall. Aside from being able to purchase from its online platform, you can also go to their physical malls and purchase items through a vendo machine using QR codes.

罢惭补濒濒鈥檚 is a great example of using data to lessen friction. Its LST system can recommend products to be stocked in a store based on demographics and purchasing behavior of customers around its area.

4. Invest in maximizing the customer journey鈥� (10:28-10:38, 11:51-12:13)
A customer鈥檚 purchase journey can be a treasure trove of information, but only if you know where to look. Evaluate the process from start to finish, and you鈥檒l identify key points from which you can unlock great insights.

For instance, Alibaba utilizes machine vision technology while customers consider products to analyze their facial expressions. They also use movement tracking and heat maps to identify which areas in their malls the customers are flocking to.

If these examples seem to advanced, try to revisit available services that you may be taking for granted. While utilizing chatbots and reading customer reviews may seem so simple in theory, they can effectively glean ways to improve your products.

5. 鈥� and challenge your network while you鈥檙e at it. (11:34-11:44)
Customer experience isn鈥檛 the only thing that you can help improve on during the purchase journey. Identify where your network gets involved in the process and think of ways that can help them exceed their current performance.

Part of the data that the Cainiao Network track is the delivery performance of their delivery providers. At the end of the year, they display their rankings to customers while assessing with the bottom-placers how they can improve.

鈥淏usiness owners have egos; they will say, 鈥榃hy am I ranked 10?鈥欌�� said Aragon. 鈥淪o they will try to work better and better everywhere to make sure that all deliveries are properly managed.鈥�

Those interested in applying for the Alibaba eFounders Program can find more information at this link. The upcoming program class will take place from Dec 2 to 12. The deadline for applications is on Oct 7.

]]> /sparkfluencers/2019/08/30/250894/sparkup-sparkfluencers-running-your-business-the-alibaba-way-with-jc-bisnar/ Fri, 30 Aug 2019 05:53:54 +0000 /?p=250894  

1. Being a leader isn鈥檛 about you. (1:18-1:47, 14:15-14:24, 15:25-15:36)
JC Bisnar used to believe that being a founder or CEO was all about the fame and fortune. Eventually, he realized that it entailed a more meaningful responsibility.

鈥淎s you grow your company, and you realize that you鈥檙e taking care of more people and customers or making an impact on the community, you鈥檙e going to realize that it鈥檚 not about your own success,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about enabling your people.鈥�

Consider the two paths to success: The diva and the mama-san. You could be the former, hogging all of the attention and profits. Or you could be the latter, staying quietly at the side, pulling strings among various networks for widespread benefit.

鈥淭he mama-san takes care of everyone. That鈥檚 leadership. The mama-san gets a cut from everyone. That鈥檚 a platform business,鈥� he said. 鈥淸Investors] don鈥檛 see the network effects, the ability to scale, the power that you have when you reach out to all the users and you鈥檙e the top mama-san.鈥�

2. Think big from the start. (18:02-18:19, 18:33-19:01)
With this kind of leadership, your startup has the opportunity to touch lives on a grand scale. This is only possible if you dream big about your impact from the get-go.

鈥淭he top businesses in the world鈥� they have the ability to think long-term and focus on impact-building. And that鈥檚 why in the region, they forego the initial profits or the initial temptation, they stick to their long-term vision, and that鈥檚 where they scale.鈥�

One way to support this is through your mode of funding. 鈥淭alk to all of the VCs here, that鈥檚 cool, but then talk to the regional VCs. Because in the region, they have higher valuations,鈥� said Bisnar. 鈥淪o it would be better if Filipino startups can peg themselves as a global company rather than just having a presence in the Philippines. Because [investors] would look down on us, that鈥檚 the reality.鈥�

3. Remember the value of 9-9-6. (5:26-5:56)
While trying to reach such lofty goals may at times feel overwhelming for you and your team, the focus should be on the positive impact that your startup can create once they鈥檙e achieved. Once your team is able to take your mission into heart, the motivation to work even harder will just come naturally.

Take the principle of 9-9-6, which describes how the Alibaba staff often work from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM for 6 days a week. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not forced鈥� but with the gravity of their goals, that鈥檚 the reason why they鈥檝e gotten into this scale,鈥� said Bisnar. 鈥淭hey put that extraordinary effort to reach that extraordinary goal. 鈥淪o us Filipino founders, you can see the operational excellence in there. Do we just want to confirm to the ordinary corporate rules? Or do we want to put our hearts into it, the extra effort?鈥�

4. Suffer optimistically — and grow stronger — together. (2:58-3:14)
Unfortunately, such noble pursuits can鈥檛 stop challenges from being thrown at your startup everyday. While it鈥檚 important to keep your team鈥檚 morale afloat, it鈥檚 just as vital to remain grounded by the reality of your problems.

During this time, train your team members to remain tenacious through difficult times.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not just about the founders being strong, it鈥檚 about the founders developing a strong team,鈥� said Bisnar.

鈥淲hile you have to be optimistic, leading them to the vision, you also have to pull them down with, 鈥楬ey, this is the reality. If we want to make this happen, then we better toughen up.鈥�

5. 鈥淔eedback is a gift.鈥� (8:37-8:55, 10:18-10:32, 11:08-11:20)
Speaking of being tough, this trait is just as crucial when it comes to giving feedback.

Filipinos are notorious for beating around the bush, crafting long-winded criticism to avoid hurting a colleague.
To turn this around, startups can try the 3-6-1 practice of feedback.

鈼� Round 1: 10 team members will give feedback to each other. The leader will simply facilitate the process.

鈼� Round 2: Each team member gives their feedback of their teammates to the leader.

鈼� Round 3: The team leader gives feedback to each member. During this time, they will also give out scores transparently: Three will receive a 3.75 (鈥渁bove expectations鈥�), Six will receive a 3.5 (鈥渕eets expectations鈥�), and one will receive a 3.25 (鈥渂elow expectations鈥�).

鈥淭he way that you have to explain it to your people is that, 鈥楬ey, feedback is a gift.鈥欌�� said Bisnar. 鈥淏ecause oftentimes, the ones who are on the lowest scores, they transform that feedback and become the best versions of themselves.鈥�

Living proof is Brian Wong, whose 3.25 score inspired him to work even harder. Eventually, this drive propelled him to the vice president position at the Alibaba Group.

鈥淎ppreciate the feedback because it鈥檚 rare where people will care enough to give you real talk that isn鈥檛 offensive, but is built enough to help you grow as a person,鈥� said Bisnar.

Those interested in applying for the Alibaba eFounders Program can find more information at this link. The upcoming program class will take place from Dec 2 to 12. The deadline for applications is on Oct 7.

]]> /sparkfluencers/2019/08/29/250638/sparkup-sparkfluencers-running-your-business-the-alibaba-way-with-steve-sy/ Thu, 29 Aug 2019 05:37:20 +0000 /?p=250638  

1. Capitalize on the digital economy. (1:57-2:46)
E-commerce, finance, logistics, and big data: These are the pillars of the digital economy. Companies with a presence in each pillar have a special advantage, which can be said for Alibaba. Their journey to this stage was gradual and organic.

鈥淲hen Jack Ma started, he started with the platform of Alibaba, Taobao, then T-mall. That鈥檚 the e-commerce [part],鈥� said Sy. 鈥淭hen because of that, they need to have [a] good payments [system], so he was building his digital ecosystem鈥� then they have a smart logistics network鈥� and last but not the least, they have cloud computing, which is big data.鈥�

Sy recommends starting a business on these services given that it鈥檚 still largely untapped in the country.

鈥淩ight now, we鈥檙e just starting to digitize here in the Philippines. For most of us business owners, these are the industries that you can be a part of because it鈥檚 going to grow, and grow fast,鈥� he said.

2. Don鈥檛 create a network, build one… (3:55-4:40)
When expanding across different industries, it can get tempting to create your own brand in order to monopolize the profit. Instead, make partnerships to add value to your services.

Consider Cainiao, Alibaba鈥檚 logistics network that comprises 70 percent of China鈥檚 market share. 鈥淩ather than competing with different logistics companies鈥� they have an AI platform wherein if you鈥檙e part of that network, your truck can pick something up on the way back from a delivery. And they were able to reduce their [shipping] cost to P15 anywhere in China,鈥� said Sy.

Making your business model more inclusive improves not only your business but the ecosystem around you.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 the beauty of Jack Ma鈥檚 inclusivity mindset. He wants to make business easier for each and every individual.鈥�

3. 鈥� and see your revenues increase. (7:33-8:01)
While strong services are surely the goal of every startup, you may be worried about the investment you鈥檒l have to put in for it. If we are to base it on how Alibaba organized their network, it鈥檚 actually more profitable in the long run, creating what they call the network externality effect.

When a company increases its number of business units, it creates an increase in connections. Building such a support system lessens cost the more areas are covered, generating higher revenue.

鈥淸Alibaba] has Ant Financial that supports their Taobao and TMall. They have Cainiao Network that supports Taobao, TMall, and Ant Financial,鈥� said Sy. 鈥淎nd [Alibaba has] more than a thousand business units. So they keep on growing. That鈥檚 why they鈥檙e one of the biggest companies.鈥�

4. A startup is only as strong as its people. (11:53-12:28)
This kind of support is just as important within a business. The core of a startup may be its strategy, and it may be led by its mission, vision, and values, but organization capability and performance management are necessary to implement them.

Sy uses the Bible story of as an example. 鈥淪ometimes we think, 鈥榃e鈥檝e been grinding our startup for so long, I won鈥檛 get any more fish.鈥� But remember: you need to have a bigger net and a stronger, bigger boat. Meaning we need to have bigger capabilities and performance or better systems. So that when you scale, [you鈥檒l] be able to catch all the fish.鈥�

5. Always remember why you exist. (8:47-9:01)
To further motivate one鈥檚 employees, it鈥檚 crucial to remind them why your company exists in the first place. This gives them tao, a Chinese concept that translates to path or guide.

鈥淗ow does it motivate you, your employees, and your partners? So it鈥檚 a very key ingredient knowing your mission,鈥� said Sy. 鈥淲hen you know your mission, you won鈥檛 be so quickly discouraged. Because you know why you exist.鈥�

Those interested in applying for the Alibaba eFounders Program can find more information at this link. The upcoming program class will take place from Dec 2 to 12. The deadline for applications is on Oct 7.

]]> /sparkfluencers/2018/06/19/166300/sparkup-sparkfluencer-invested-carmina-bayombong/ Tue, 19 Jun 2018 06:42:16 +0000 http://www.bworldonline.com/?p=166300 It was in Africa that Carmina Bayombong, child of non-government organization workers, first caught glimpse of poverty. This was cemented around a decade later at the University of the Philippines Diliman where while finishing her degree in industrial engineering, she met other students who were forced to drop out due to lack of resources.

This led Bayombong, now 24, to establish InvestEd: a Filipino startup engaged in matching student borrowers with lenders via an online platform.

Launched in December 2016, InvestEd offers student loans amounting from P10,000 to P80,000. Students need only to create a borrower account invested.ph online, get notified of qualification within seven business days, be interviewed for a final assessment, and sign a loan agreement that they will pay their loan after finishing their degree.

InvestEd gets investors鈥攍enders鈥攚ho are promised that they can grow their money for 7%-11% per annum with a minimum amount of P100,000, deposited in tranches.

To secure their investment, a six-point approach to repayment is enforced. This includes multiple matching, where a lender is matched with at least three borrowers to reduce risk, as well as a credit investigation technology using a credit scoring and profiling algorithm powered by artificial intelligence. Lenders are repaid bi-monthly over 12 to 36 months, depending on the student鈥檚 loan amount and starting salary. An amortization schedule is provided after depositing their pledge.

Invested was recently awarded a $100,000 grant from the government of Dubai last week to grow its number of loaners from 70 to 3,500. The company is also currently developing a scoring system to conduct the applicants鈥� background check using social media data, as well as a technology that will shorten the application process to 10 minutes.

鈥淚n 2017, we had a different business model,鈥� Bayombong shared. 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 have service fee, and we only had a very low interest rate. It couldn鈥檛 even cover 20% of our costs. We could鈥檝e kept our previous business model and just rely on donations and lenders. With that model we would probably help a thousand students in 10 years.鈥�

But with the revamped and 鈥渕ore sustainable鈥� model, she says, 鈥渨e could help 10,000 students in just three years.鈥�

---

INCIDENTAL INTELLIGENCE
Visit

]]> /sparkfluencers/2018/06/08/164034/sparkup-sparkfluencer-joshua-aragon-pushkartph-e-commerce/ Fri, 08 Jun 2018 08:49:02 +0000 http://www.bworldonline.com/?p=164034 Like many Filipino-Chinese boys, 29-year-old Joshua Aragon, CEO and co-founder of online grocery platform Pushkart.ph, grew up as if he was destined to become a businessman.

Hailing from the Go family of mall and supermarket chain Ever Gotesco, Aragon was exposed to operations at an early age, allowing him to learn the fundamentals of running a business.

But his dad always told him: “When you turn 30, make sure you鈥檙e starting your own business. You should be able to start something by yourself because after 30 it will be riskier for you because you already have your family and kids. Whatever you want to do, start before you鈥檙e 30.鈥�

And so Aragon left the family business in 2015.

He tapped former De La Salle University-Manila schoolmate Bryan Reyes, whose background is in information technology. After several discussions on possible ways to 鈥渋nnovate鈥� and 鈥渋mprove Filipinos鈥� lives,鈥� the two came up with the idea of creating a digital grocery platform that will allow users to buy grocery items in as fast as 15 minutes.

鈥淥ne of the low-hanging fruits was online groceries because my family runs a supermarket chain,鈥� he admitted. Launched in April 2017, Pushkart.ph has two partners: Fisher Supermarket and of course, Ever Supermarket. The company charges users P199 for every purchase below P2,000. Delivery of products worth above P5,000 is free.

In a year, the platform has already amassed an estimated 100,000 users and keeps growing by 30% per month in terms of revenues and basket size.

This year, the company eyes expansion in provinces outside Luzon, specifically in Cebu, Davao, and Bacolod.

For Aragon, it鈥檚 the timing that really brought the company to its early success.

Philippine e-commerce has witnessed an unprecedented growth in the past three years, as many Filipinos shift from traditional brick-and-mortar shops to their online counterparts to buy goods and services. From fashion items and electronic gadgets, consumers can now also use the internet to fill their pantries.

鈥淚 see that there鈥檚 a lot of people who are afraid of the inconvenience of traditional groceries, so this is the right time right wave to get into the market,鈥� he said. “From our point of view it鈥檚 convenience. An average Filipino spends two to four hours shopping in a day, so that鈥檚 the pain point we鈥檙e trying to solve.”

---

INCIDENTAL INTELLIGENCE
Go to

]]> /sparkfluencers/2018/06/07/163783/sparkup-sparkfluencer-shahab-shabibi-machine-ventures/ Thu, 07 Jun 2018 09:54:27 +0000 http://www.bworldonline.com/?p=163783 As far as the internet is concerned, everyone who enters its realm is 鈥渁t least 18 years old.鈥� That includes the 13-year-old self of Iran-born Forbes 30 under 30 lister Shahab Shabibi, back when he was lurking at 3 a.m. on Yahoo! Messenger (鈥淢y parents didn鈥檛 mind; I had high grades.鈥�) to chat with a programmer he was building a company with.

Today, at 22 and finally legal, Shabibi is still a builder of things. After the success of rapsong.ir鈥攖hat company he started in his teens which became Iran鈥檚 first underground music portal鈥攁s well as a Tarafdari, Iran鈥檚 leading sports social media network with more than five million visitors every month, he moved to the Philippines in 2010 and realized he could use his knack for innovation for a deeper social purpose.

鈥淲hen I came to the Philippines, it was a very eye-opening moment for me,鈥� he told SparkUp. 鈥淲hen I began studying, that was the time that I started getting a better understanding of what is really happening here,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd then I remember, I had this moment where I realized that what I鈥檝e been doing in Iran is not so amazing. To make another entertainment website, to make another sports website, is not something that truly changes people鈥檚 lives. I found myself looking at more fundamental problems that I haven鈥檛 seen before.鈥�

That idea came to him while he was working at Rocket Internet in 2014, where he was tasked to setup carpooling platform Tripda. 鈥淧eople started emailing me 鈥榃ow, this is amazing!鈥�, 鈥業鈥檓 saving two hours a day!鈥�, 鈥業 don鈥檛 need to commute anymore!鈥� I realized that I had never heard this from any of my users back in my previous platforms,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 when I thought to myself that technology can really change people鈥檚 lives. And that鈥檚 the time I decided that I want to be here and I want to build a company here.鈥�

That company turned out to be Machine Ventures, of which he is the CEO and co-founder together with Harvard-educated health tech guy Farouk Meralli. 鈥淏ack in our home countries, these problems didn鈥檛 exist and that there was a big calling for us that we should do something here,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e setup Machine Ventures with the idea of solving real world problems using technology as means to make it very big and scalable. We started looking at what is happening in the Philippines and identified a few key issues: lack of infrastructure, poverty, and lack of mainstream quality education.鈥�

The first product the company hatched is HeyKuya, an SMS-based personal assistant service, that gave job opportunities to men, through food delivery and travel booking, among others, to over 15,000 users. In only five months, HeyKuya was acquired by a similar Indonesian personal assistant service called YesBoss.

LESSONS

The acquisition served as a validation, but it also taught Shabibi new lessons.

鈥淎s much as we wanted to be about impact, about solving problems, there is this unavoidable discussion about the financial side of things,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat really helped us to understand that, we don鈥檛 want to just build solutions, we want to build sustainable solutions, we want to build solutions that economically make sense in the way every stakeholder would be willing to continue what they are doing because it is also financially reasonable.鈥�

He reflected: 鈥淎nother realization that I had afterwards is that it is really sad that you cannot control your company after you sell it.鈥�

With Machine Ventures, however, with him at the helm, the journey was just as tough鈥攑erhaps even tougher.

鈥淭he Philippines is probably one of the hardest countries to setup a company in,鈥� he observed. 鈥淕enerally, entrepreneurship is very tough but I would say in the Philippines it is much more magnified in terms of all the other inefficiencies that are out there, like supplier deliveries most likely won鈥檛 happen on schedule. Likewise, you definitely can鈥檛 pay suppliers easily because you go to the bank and all these processes are very lengthy and very tedious.鈥�

But this reality only toughens him up. Machine Ventures is now composed of 24 people who 鈥渢he resilience and the ability to not take 鈥榥o鈥� for an answer.鈥� He says: 鈥淲e believe in that idea of learning entrepreneurship by doing, and learning by mastery, not just taking a course and passing an exam but literally going through the journey with someone who has done it before, and as you do that more and more, you learn.鈥�

Right now, what keeps him busy is the launch of another new venture, MyKuya, a service similar to HeyKuya, whose mission is to create one million job opportunities over the next three years.

鈥淲e are building it as a platform where people can get things done, but on the other hand, it also opens a lot of people to job opportunities, the ability work whenever they want, to be their own boss, to have self-respect and self-dignity in what they do in day-to-day basis,鈥� he said.

With all these plans, does he consider himself a social entrepreneur? 鈥淚 mean, that鈥檚 a buzzword right? If I say 鈥榶es, I鈥檓 a social entrepreneur,鈥� it would probably get more clicks,鈥� he laughs. 鈥淏ut I would say that as an entrepreneur, I have the responsibility and I鈥檓 on a mission to solve problems, and the biggest problems are often social problems,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd the same way that I鈥檝e tried to solve smaller problems in my own little way before, now we are focused on solving bigger problems, and they happen to be social.鈥�

---

INCIDENTAL INTELLIGENCE
Take a look at

]]> /sparkfluencers/2018/06/06/163432/sparkup-sparkfluencers-katrina-chan-qbo-startup/ Wed, 06 Jun 2018 03:02:23 +0000 http://www.bworldonline.com/?p=163432 When 28-year-old Katrina Chan returned to the Philippines in 2012 after finishing her studies in the U.S., the local tech startup community was just in the 鈥渁wareness and capacity building鈥� stage, a stark contrast to where she came from.

鈥淓veryone in the U.S. was working or was aspiring to work in Silicon Valley,鈥� she recounted. 鈥淲hen I came to the Philippines, I wondered where the tech scene was, who the startup guys were, and I quickly found out that there was almost no scene.鈥�

Chan, who graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a degree in materials science and engineering, with additional major in business administration, said she even struggled to find events organized for startups.

But a lot has changed since then. Fast forward to 2014, the country has witnessed the unprecedented rise in the number of new and innovative b u s i n e s s e s , mostly led by ambitious young entrepreneurs. The current count, according to a study by PwC Isla Lipana and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), is at around 300.

Along with this is the growing interest of the private sector to support or invest in these startups, paving the way for the establishment of organizations that support through mentorship and seed funding, among others.

Chan, for instance, began volunteering before heading the growth division of business incubator IdeaSpace, where she mentored early-stage startups. From there, she founded and now directs QBO Philippines, a partnership between government agencies such as the DTI and Department of Science and Technology and J.P. Morgan Philippines. Launched in 2016, QBO aims to support and grow the country鈥檚 startup ecosystem by providing forums, seminars, and even business incubation to local startups.

鈥淲e鈥檙e seeing a lot of growth across Southeast Asia,鈥� she said. 鈥淢ore people being bullish that startups can actually compete in the global stage.鈥�

But while Filipino startup founders already have ideas bright enough to conquer the global market, Chan observed they lack one more thing鈥攁ngst.

鈥淲hat I see missing a lot here is ambition and confidence in their idea,鈥� she said. Relative to foreign founders whose startups command the level of funding, development and traction, Filipino founders, she observed, are 鈥渟hy.鈥� Instead, she says, founders should have 鈥渢he grit to go through the initial pains.鈥�

鈥淲hat matters is who does it faster, who executes it better, and a lot of that is driven by the team or the founders,鈥� she added.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not about the solution, it鈥檚 about the problem you鈥檙e solving,鈥� she concluded. 鈥淚f the problem exists, then your product will make sense.鈥�

---

INCIDENTAL INTELLIGENCE

QBO Innovation Hub is located at DTI International Building
375 Senator Gil J. Puyat Avenue Makati City, Metro Manila.

Drop by the website at .

听

]]> /sparkfluencers/2018/05/31/162120/sparkup-sparkfluencer-taxumo-ginger-arboleda/ Thu, 31 May 2018 08:43:08 +0000 http://www.bworldonline.com/?p=162120 Founders who were formerly employees have that one moment where they realized they had to give up their corporate careers. For Ginger Arboleda, the 33-year-old chief operating officer and co-founder of Taxumo, that moment came in 2012 when she was due to a promotion that would catapult her into an executive position at a banking giant she had been working at for more than six years.

鈥淚 was happy but I wanted to do so much more,鈥� she said in a forum organized by SparkUp in April. 鈥淚 wanted to see the direct impact that I could have to people.鈥�

That same year, she became pregnant again, following a miscarriage in 2010.

Arboleda recalled, 鈥淚 couldn鈥檛 see myself as one of the executives of the bank. When I found out that I was pregnant again, I realized that [maybe it鈥檚 time] to focus on living my life again.鈥�

So in January 2013, a few months after she left the corporate world, Arboleda began organizing Manila Workshops鈥攁 series of 101 sessions for aspiring entrepreneurs and freelancers. 鈥淎fter a few work shops, I realized that it was what I want to do,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 want to see that our attendees indeed follow their dreams.鈥�

And in that process, Arboleda stumbled upon another idea. 鈥淭hings started when I was doing my taxes,鈥� she recounted. 鈥淚 found it frustrating. It was so tedious. I had to line up at the BIR and renew a lot of business papers, and numbers aren鈥檛 my forte.鈥�

In 2015, Arboleda with her husband EJ, who has a 15-year background in IT, came up with the idea of creating a platform that would automate the rigorous process of filling taxes for local entrepreneurs and freelancers: an app which they christened Taxumo.

The two began presenting the idea in pitching competitions and later on became part of Echelon Asia Summit鈥檚 top 100 startups and IdeaSpace鈥檚 incubation program, both giving the company seed funding and听mentorship opportunities, among other benefits. Last year, the company also received the four-year tax holiday grant from DTI鈥檚 Board of Investments.

Taxumo is now valued at $1.5 million, following a funding round.

But for Arboleda, valuations are just 鈥渁ll about $1 billion,鈥� harking to the number required to call a startup a unicorn. More important to her, she says, is 鈥渉elping 100 million Filipinos. For us, that matters more than the valuation.鈥�

---

INCIDENTAL INTELLIGENCE
Check out
 

]]> /sparkfluencers/2018/05/30/161815/sparkup-sparkfluencer-francis-reyes-caravan-food-group-elait/ Wed, 30 May 2018 10:17:19 +0000 http://www.bworldonline.com/?p=161815 I don鈥檛 want to start a food business that solely sells food,鈥� said Francis Reyes, the 25-year-old CEO of Caravan Food Group, Inc., parent company of rolled ice cream store Elait and donut shop OverDoughs. 鈥淚 want to send a message through food,鈥� he added. 鈥淚 want to hire people who the usual food entrepreneurs wouldn鈥檛 hire.鈥�

Graduates from College of Saint Benilde鈥檚 School for the Deaf currently staff Elait鈥檚 branches in three malls. The company is also in the process of employing more people with autism or down syndrome for OverDough鈥檚 current stalls.

This ambitious idea, Reyes admitted, was risky for a service-oriented business, especially in this age of social media when one鈥檚 dissatisfaction can easily taint a brand鈥檚 reputation.

鈥淚 didn鈥檛 know how the public would react so, at first, we paired up deaf employees with those who can hear, then eventually we saw that they can handle things by themselves,鈥� he recalled. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 when we decided that everyone would be deaf in the whole team.鈥�

Reyes, who holds a degree in hotel, restaurant and institution management from the University of the Philippines, hails from the family behind clinic chain SkinStation. And while that kind of background might attest to his business potential, it also posed a challenge: some mall operators would press him about building his own brand when he could capitalize on their already established family business. After all, the playing field for dessert concepts was already dominated by big, mostly foreign, players like, say, Dunkin鈥� Donuts or Dairy Queen.

鈥淲hen I was trying to pitch our concept to mall owners, I really had to push the idea that what we鈥檙e different, that what we鈥檙e doing is something else,鈥� he said.

The persistence, however, did pay off. The company has earned enough profits to sustain operations and even fund expansion plans.

Yet more than the money, Reyes considers the fulfillment of his deaf employees as his biggest achievement in business to date.

鈥淲hen I was interviewing them at the start, their goal was just to survive and support their families,鈥� he said. 鈥淣ow, they really appreciate the business more. They really take care of it, and they treat the branch as their home. They have a place to belong to.鈥�

---

INCIDENTAL INTELLIGENCE
Get your sweet fix at 2/F Century City Mall, Kalayaan Avenue, Makati City, and 3/F Santolan Town Plaza, San Juan City

]]> /sparkfluencers/2018/05/23/160180/sparkup-sparkfluencer-miko-aspiras-madrid-fusion-manila/ Wed, 23 May 2018 12:21:11 +0000 http://www.bworldonline.com/?p=160180 Young chef Miko Aspiras channeled memories of childhood playgrounds in the Philippines to create a special dessert for his presentation during Madrid Fusion Manila 2016.

For many Filipinos, playtime would consist of playing in the hot sun on a swing set. Aspiras gathers these elements together, creating a story from sensory memory: the taste of sweat, rust, and santan flowers. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a memory of when I was a child, through flavors that I didn鈥檛 really intend to taste, but I鈥檝e tasted… it鈥檚 part curiosity in my head.鈥�

Parks and gardens around the country have santan bushes growing in them, filled with bunches of its tiny flowers. Many people鈥檚 childhood memories include plucking out a tiny flower and sucking out the sweet tiny drop of nectar from within its long hollow stem. Aspiras gathered a humungous bunch of these flowers and extracted the nectar to use in his dessert.

As for sweat and rust, the chef relied on the help of an 鈥渆xtraction system,鈥� a machine which enables one to get the approximation of a flavor of something. Aspiras placed in a sample of his own sweat, and a sample of rust in the machine. 鈥淚t鈥檚… something that I can remember all the time,鈥� he said, talking about the sensory memory of childhood sweat, which he says tastes like alkaline and salt. With this in mind, he added this to salted caramel, which he then distilled, leading to a clearer consistency. 鈥淚t鈥檚 perfect for my dish, because it looks like sweat,鈥� he said.

Aspiras is currently involved in restaurants under the Tasteless Food Group, which includes the French-Japanese bistro Le Petit Souffle.

He started out learning about bread and pastries under chef Sau del Rosario in 2007, going on to refine his skills while working in the pastry sections of top hotels including Fairmont, Raffles, Edsa Shangri-La, and Resorts World Manila where he worked with Cyrilly Soenen.

The young chef has received a slew of awards in his short career, including awards and citations from the Philippine Culinary Cup, World Association of Chefs Societies Congress, and the Hong Kong Culinary Classics.

According to the souvenir book for Madrid Fusion 2016, Mr. Aspiras has used, or has tried to use, ingredients such as pig鈥檚 blood and rotten milk to achieve his sensory goals.

At a press conference after his presentation, he was asked whether he knew that the odd ingredients and the odd techniques he likes to use would become hits, especially in the Philippines, where slices of cake can be more than enough to satisfy most people鈥檚 sweet tooth.

鈥淚 didn鈥檛 know. I really didn鈥檛 know. It鈥檚 just that I鈥檓 pursuing my dreams… I鈥檓 really happy that a lot of people are appreciating it.鈥�

---

First published in 大象传媒 on April 14, 2016.

]]> /sparkfluencers/2018/05/23/159992/sparkup-sparkfluencers-jess-and-pats-alexx-kloyd-maginhawa/ Wed, 23 May 2018 07:00:17 +0000 http://www.bworldonline.com/?p=159992 Maginhawa Street: multicolored tricycles ripping down the residential neighborhood. University students moving restlessly with the passage of time. Rows upon rows of eateries across the two鈥慿ilometer main thoroughfare. For food entrepreneurs opting to tap the young, middle鈥慶lass market, this street in Quezon City is the place to be. But for small business owners who have set up shop in this formerly quiet community, with the higher foot traffic comes a hurdle: rent.

Rates for commercial establishments have skyrocketed over the years, with current fees going as high as P60,000 per month.

Despite this, 23鈥憏ear鈥憃ld Alexx Esponga and 21鈥憏ear鈥憃ld Kloyd Majam, who were students when they put up rooftop caf茅 Jess & Pat鈥檚 in other up鈥慳nd鈥慶oming food hub Lilac, Marikina, decided to transfer operations to Maginhawa. In here, rent for their 110-square-meter space costs over P50,000 per month: a jump of 714.29% from their previous rental fee of P7,000 in Marikina.

鈥淏ased on our market research, most of our patrons are from Quezon City. So that鈥檚 one factor why we were not afraid to move here,鈥� she said. But with Maginhawa鈥檚 stature as a popular food destination, 鈥渨e realized that we have to be really competitive because we鈥檙e in the 鈥榬eal world鈥� already,鈥� she said.

The two owners who are avid followers of the local indie scene also see their move to Maginhawa as an opportunity to help more Filipino artists. To compensate for the bigger rental, Majam said they plan to increase their sales and stage more local acts.

鈥淚n Marikina, we had to pay an additional P5,000 for every event we mounted,鈥� Majam said. 鈥淗ere, since the rental fee is already fixed, we can stage events as much as we want.鈥�

While the two are bullish on the business, they admit that it will take a long time for them to reap the reward of taking the risk.

鈥淚 believe that if you do something for a good purpose or if you are helping others, people will continue to support you,鈥� Esponga said. 鈥淭he success will just follow.鈥�

---

The first version of this story was first published on March 20, 2018.

INCIDENTAL INTELLIGENCE
Find Jess & Pat鈥檚 at 2/F 63 Maginhawa, Diliman, Quezon City

]]> /sparkfluencers/2018/05/23/159980/sparkup-sparkfluencers-sean-bautista-skateboard-chicken-tetsuo/ Wed, 23 May 2018 05:37:27 +0000 http://www.bworldonline.com/?p=159980 From mere slacker uniform, skateboard attire has seeped into the runways of the world鈥檚 fashion capitals.

For trans-disciplinary designer Sean Bautista, the skateboard culture is more than just a fashion thing: it is also a vehicle to purvey chicken.

The Comme des Gar莽ons-wearing Ateneo graduate who looks up to David Chang took workshops in design management at Parsons School of Design in New York City before building two original concepts: Tetsuo, an East-Asian casual dining restaurant, and Transit, a retail design concept.

鈥淚鈥檓 a fine arts student,鈥� he insists when asked if he ever considered taking a business course. Tetsuo, after all, began as a chicken stall at Ateneo competing for space in the cafeteria. In a week, they met their ROI. After that, they began selling merchandise (imagine, a chicken stall with its own merch), before branching out to events.

鈥淥rganically鈥� is how he describes the ideation process. 鈥淚 and a few friends came together,鈥� he recounted. 鈥淚 mean we just hung out, we were into skateboarding, music, hiphop鈥� but then we also liked cooking.鈥�

鈥淪o from that idea and just trying to be authentic to ourselves, we鈥檝e created a brand that suits or embodies what we thought. Like, embodies our relationship as friends. It starts with the chicken concept because, yeah, we wanted to create something that was palatable to our audience and that everyone would enjoy, but then we tried to elevate the concept and create a bigger personality around it by injecting things that were authentic to us,鈥� he said. 鈥淭o simplify that idea, we just came from a unique standpoint of dudes just hanging out, cooking together, and being interested in different facets of subculture, and then translating that into a product.鈥�

From its formerly five-square-meter space inside Ateneo, it has expanded into a 50-square-meter restaurant along Katipunan, housing 31 seats. And it is, in fact, things like the playlist, typography, and visuals, among others, that formulate the overall brand.

鈥淚鈥檓 able to connect to other people in a way that I wouldn鈥檛 have been able to do if I was just thinking about the business,鈥� he says. 鈥淚f I was only thinking about business goals, I don鈥檛 think Tetsuo as a product would translate in the way it does.鈥�

---

INCIDENTAL INTELLIGENCE
Tetsuo is located at 88 Esteban Abada Street, Loyola Heights, Quezon City.

]]> /sparkfluencers/2018/05/22/159692/sparkup-sparkfluencers-akaba-daniel-lumain/ Tue, 22 May 2018 06:29:50 +0000 http://www.bworldonline.com/?p=159692 Akaba鈥檚 24–year–old chief operating officer Daniel Lumain was immersed in implementing policies for government-run companies before the country changed leadership in 2016 and put an end to his two-year career.

But that backdrop gave him 鈥渘ot just the connections,鈥� but also the fuel to continue being of service to his countrymen. He then returned to his undergraduate thesis at the Ateneo de Manila University and grew it into what Akaba is today: a social enterprise selling bags and accessories made of handwoven textiles by over 100 weavers from Ilocos Norte, Isabela, Abra, Oriental Mindoro, Zamboanga, Sulu, Basilan, Iloilo and South Cotabato.

鈥淚t鈥檚 our mission to help these weavers promote their artistry and craftsmanship, but at the same time create a sustainable business that is relevant to the supply chain,鈥� he said. 鈥淲hen we went to Ilocos Norte, we found out that a lot of weavers create handwoven textiles for around a month or so, but only sell them for around P20 per yard, and when we went to the market we actually saw middle men selling them for P150 to P200.鈥�

Unlike many handwoven crafts, however, Akaba didn鈥檛 target the so-called 鈥渢ita market.鈥� 鈥淲e chose a younger market and lowered our price points. What we always say is if you buy a high-end product worth P10,000, sure you鈥檝e helped a community, but when is the next time you鈥檒l help them? We can sell a product for around P1,500, sell a hundred pieces, and basically continuously support the communities.鈥�

Akaba currently sells its wares across major malls, but because it aims to become an established 鈥淪outheast Asian brand,鈥� it is also expecting to enter e-commerce platform Amazon to tap the American market this year, on top of its plan to expand its ties with Cambio Market to further introduce the brand in Canada. Lumain added that the team is also considering to widen its Asian market by selling its products in Hong Kong and Japan.

鈥淚 always believe that poverty is not just an economic situation, it鈥檚 a mindset problem,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hese people changing their views, believing that there鈥檚 a chance for them to have a better life, that in itself is the biggest achievement that we鈥檝e had.鈥�

---

INCIDENTAL INTELLIGENCE:
Shop at .

]]> /sparkfluencers/2018/05/22/159682/sparkup-sparkfluencers-petalier-diane-yap-lauren-gavino/ Tue, 22 May 2018 06:14:10 +0000 http://www.bworldonline.com/?p=159682 At the height of the AlDub love team phenomenon, Diane Yap and Lauren Gavino, who had been running an online flower shop for only a month then, received an order for 49 stems of red Ecuadorian roses to be delivered at the Philippine Arena in Bulacan, where some concert with ticket sales reaching P14 million would be filled with 55,000 people.

Their response: 鈥淚f you want, on top of the cost of the arrangement, pay for our gas and toll.鈥�

On that day, October 24, 2015, that three-hour commercial-free episode registered a TV rating of 50.8%, the channel stated citing data from AGB Nielsen, compared to the 5.4% registered by the competitor. Tweets for the hashtag reached 39.5 million. And amid that number of viewers, actor Alden Richards was walking up the stage carrying that 49-rose boxed arrangement himself鈥� the brand name 鈥淧etalier鈥� in clear, full view.

Gavino found herself crying in front of the TV.

鈥淎ng kapal ng mukha namin 鈥榙i ba?,鈥� the two now laugh, looking back at what they consider their store鈥檚 big break. 鈥沦辞产谤补苍驳 fail namin. We didn鈥檛 know who AlDub was.鈥�

But entrepreneurship isn鈥檛 a bed of roses, and getting flowers on screen took more than just luck or serendipity. At 11 p.m. the previous night鈥攐nly a few hours before the concert鈥攖heir supplier for the flowers backed out. Yet instead of giving up right then and there, they insisted on delivering.

Yap had a backup plan ready. The day before, she had begun contacting all the flower suppliers she could find on Google鈥攑leading 鈥淧lease po, magbabayad kami.鈥濃��all while going around public markets to do surveys for a senator she was then still working full-time for. After finding one, a certain 鈥淒ra. Anna鈥� who remains their main supplier to this day, they finally got the flowers by 2 a.m., arranged all 49 stems, then had their personal driver to deliver it to Bulacan. The rest, as they say, is history.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 the first time people saw pretty roses in a box,鈥� Yap said.

Influencer marketing has since been Petalier鈥檚 main avenue to drive sales.

A 鈥渃alculated gamble,鈥� Yap describes. 鈥淪ometimes they鈥檙e effective, sometimes they won鈥檛 post you. So that鈥檚 money out the door.鈥�

Still, it works, and the two have also launched a new baby: a luxury balloonery called Blloons.

鈥淲e thrive on Instagram. We鈥檙e typical millennial business people. Uber doesn鈥檛 own a single car. We thrive online,鈥� she said. 鈥淵ou can go far with just online. We鈥檙e the perfect example.鈥�

---

INCIDENTAL INTELLIGENCE
Petalier is an online business. Orders can be placed on but queries can be sent to 0977- 841-7738 or mail@petalier.com.

]]> /sparkfluencers/2018/05/21/159406/sparkup-sparkfluencers-linya-linya-funny-shirts-business/ Mon, 21 May 2018 09:17:20 +0000 http://www.bworldonline.com/?p=159406 So how have you been since our last interview?
鈥淎测耻苍,鈥� Ali Sangalang, the writer, answered with a straight face. 鈥淎ng yaman na namin.鈥�

Chuckling, Panch Alvarez, the artist, quickly interjected: 鈥淗颈苍诲颈, 箩辞办别.鈥�

鈥淣补办补-Uber pool 办补尘颈,鈥� Sangalang clarified.

From the first ten seconds of the interview, one can already glean how the founders of Linya Linya, purveyor of witty shirts, work together: Sangalang is the guy who spews humor without effort. Alvarez, his schoolmate-turned-colleague at ad agencies and in Malaca帽ang, sees right through him and interprets his lines through art.

They decided to put their collaborative art on t-shirts bought by the bulk in Divisoria. The two, who grew up wearing Pidro, would hull those shirts to a printer in Paranaque and then onto bazaars in Rockwell. At the end of the day, they鈥檇 spend their earnings on booze.

鈥�Ganoon ka-strategic 鈥榶ung mga decisions 苍补尘颈苍,鈥� Sangalang noted.

It didn鈥檛 take long before they realized that it takes more than just creativity and a little capital to run a business. That鈥檚 where musician Jim Bacarro, who completes the triumvirate behind Linya Linya, came in.

Armed with a supply of 250 shirts鈥� the sum of their initial investment鈥攖hey set up an online store. In a day, they sold three shirts.

Bacarro, who quit his job in marketing to do Linya Linya full time, had a panic attack. He recounted: 鈥淚 talked to my wife,鈥� referring to actress and singer Saab Magalona. 鈥淚 said, 鈥楲ook. I鈥檓 really, really in love with this. Can you give me at least six months to see where this goes?鈥欌��

Only then did the company have a semblance of a system and strategy. It included getting only fixed salaries (鈥淪weldo ha,鈥� Bacarro emphasized. 鈥淗indi pa dividends.鈥�) amounting to P6,000 each for a month, enough to pay the rent.

After opening a first stall at the UP Town Center, Linya Linya has grown into a 15-store-strong t-shirt company. Advertisements are plastered at the back of buses plying EDSA, close to their market: the average working Filipino who toils in the lamentable traffic situation but still manages to laugh despite the daily struggle.

Like the pace of buses along Edsa, success will take time. 鈥淚n terms of what we鈥檝e done, I don鈥檛 think we鈥檙e there yet,鈥� Alvarez said. 鈥淏ut we鈥檙e continuously getting there. We鈥檙e getting there.鈥�

---

INCIDENTAL INTELLIGENCE
For the complete store list go to

]]>