Startup weekend opens in Davao

IN A bid to empower local startup business scene, a technology group stages anew the the three-day Startup Weekend Davao (SWD) 2015, which opens today and runs until November 22 at the PLDT-Smart Business Center in Davao City.

Angel Abella, vice president of Startup Davao, told Sun.Star Davao in an interview that in its fourth year, the 54-hour event will gather some 100 local technopreneurs, developers, designers and business professionals to tackle local problems through the use of technology.

"The SWD 2015 is aimed at creating ideas, execute it and be a game changer startup. It will highlight the role of startups in boosting the Philippine economy,” she said.

“Startups can help solve problems such as social inequality, financial literacy and healthcare provisions. The Philippine startup ecosystem is still in its infancy," she added.

The Philippine Roadmap for Digital Startups said that by 2020, the objective is to achieve at least 500 Philippine startups with a cumulative valuation of $2 billion.

In a primer released by Startup Davao, as of 2015, the industry estimated "around 100 startups with $40 million in funding, 250 founders and 1,700 highly-skilled jobs created."

Dulce Rose Lada, SWD global facilitator and TechTalks.ph COO, for her part, said that for the past Startup Weekends, it had given participants' inputs and industry overview, both local and global especially insights Filipino businesses need to compete in the global scale.

"Most especially, the event encouraged participants to build their own startups and, from there, build a synergetic community of startup movers and shakers," Lada said.

The winning ideas from local SW events will then be joining the Global Startup Battle (GSB). The top three teams in each city will compete in two regional rounds. Two regional winners from six regions will then face off against other teams to become the GSB Champ.

Winning teams move into an online video pitch competition for a chance to win prizes designed to help their startup idea succeed.

“Also for this year, government offices had an involvement of the three-day event, it is a sign of the strong private-public partnership,” Abella said.

The panel of judges are Joey Limjap, Vice President & Head of ICT Research and Development of PLDT, Ernie Tomas Jr., Chief of the Investment Promotions Division of the Mindanao Development Authority, Eric Clark Su, CEO and Co-founder at Lifebit, John Naranjo, CEO & Founder at Ingenuity, Rica Villanueva-Gadi, Managing Director at New Options Worldwide Outsourcing Services.

Mentors for the event are: Timmy de Jesus, Country Manager for the Philippines at JFDI. Asia-Joyful Frog Digital Incubator, Eddie Ybañez, CEO and Co-Founder at MiCab, Gilmar Padua, CEO at Infinityhub.com, Eliza Kirsten, President, Creative Director & Owner of Illumedia; GlorypearlDy, CEO & Founder at SwitoTwins, Inc., Marvin Te, Creative Director at Plainly Simple Studios, Franch Maverick Arellano Lorilla, COO and Co-Founder, Heat Stress Analyzer by CloudFarmm, and Jan Rey Altivo, CEO and Co-Founder, Heat Stress Analyzer by CloudFarm.

In its website, it was posted that Startup Weekend is a “global grassroots movement of active and empowered entrepreneurs and considered as the largest community of passionate entrepreneurs with over 1800 past events in 120 countries around the world in 2014.”

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