Startup Weekend Manila Is Coming To Town For The Third Time Around
is seeing its third incarnation on September 28 to 30, and the venue will be MINT College, McKinley Hill, Taguig City, where the previous SW Manila was held. Although the organizers have yet to make a formal announcement of the event, their Twitter account mentioned that the date has been set as above. SW Philippines [1] is organized by Jonathan Lansangan of Dynamic Objx and Jay Fajardo of ProudCloud. For SW Cebu and Davao, they help to facilitate the local events and let other local organizers take the lead. They help them by linking them up to various media groups, help them connect with other contacts and sponsors. I asked Jonathan, the COO of Dynamic Objx, why they brought Startup Weekend to the Philippines. Who are the other members of the team of organizers of SW Philippines?
Christian Besler (of Kickstart) and Charo Nuguid (co-founder of Mobile Monday Manila) are our co-organizers for all Startup Weekends in the Philippines. And, the Google Developer Group (GDG), headed by Anne Olvido and Chelle Grey, help out with logistics, registration, etc. In fact, GDG will be the official host and coordinator of the Pre-SW Manila Bootcamp this coming Sept. 22, to be held also in MINT College.
Why did you co-organize SW Philippine events? Why do you want to help other startups?
Part of our DNA and vision as a company has always been to champion Filipino talent and to help build the startup technopreneurial village. That’s why when my La Salle Greenhills (LSGH) school batchmate, and varsity football teammate, Jay Fajardo [of ProudCloud], invited us to co-organize the first Startup Weekend Manila event in October 2011, it was a no-brainer accepting. It was a significant step towards achieving that vision. Plus, we truly believe in the “Bayanihan” spirit. The more we band together and help each other out, as is befitting of us Filipinos, the more it becomes a win-win situation. The more we mutually support each other as fellow tech startup companies – as we go through the pains and rigors of conceptualizing an idea, crafting a business model canvas, launching a product, getting customer validation, growing a user-base, making iterations to the product, etc. – the more we guarantee success for all. We watch each other’s back, and help each other to succeed.
It’s very inspirational to see technopreneurs banding together, and I hope other startups from the Philippines will take note as well. As you move up don’t forget to look back where you came from - and also take the time to give back.