Youth urged to be technopreneurs

CEBU, Philippines - Major information technology players urged young individuals to venture into technopreneurship, changing the notion from being employed to work for companies after graduation towards building their own.

Hack2Hatch co-chair Alvin Gendrano said that the Philippines has a good potential to become a technopreneurship hub both for technology services and cloud-hosted software products catering to local and global customers. 

He added that it is an industry with the most potential for growth and profitability driven by the global shift towards creating software products.

“With the advent of cloud computing and connected smart devices, software developed in the Philippines can be exported worldwide without worrying about packaging, shipping, payments, or distribution. This opens up a global market worth billions of dollars for our local software startups to go after,” he stated.

Gendrano is also the director of the Microsoft Philippines’ Developer and Platform Group and a board director at the Philippine Software Industry Association.

Citing a lot of startups that have the potential to grow in the market, he recommended changing the mindset of the youth and preparing them for the world of entrepreneurship. 

“They have a very bright future ahead. It all starts in educating them and supporting them. If they have a dream on having a big company, go out and live it,” he added. 

Although there are enough information technology graduates, he said that only 8 to 10 percent are   employable in such industry. 

He suggested that educational institutions should be responsible in imparting the skills needed by the industry and promote entrepreneurship among students.

To boost technopreneurship in the country, he said that encouragement, mentoring and the ecosystem needed to support the startups from the seed funding, business registration, talent pipeline, access to capital and go-to-market must also be provided.

Exist Chief Executive Officer Jerry Rapes also supported Gendrano’s recommendation, adding that there is a need for collaboration between the academe and industry to establish.

He noted that the country was not included on the list of top-performing nations in the field of software engineering but added that the Philippines could deliver complex applications in the global industry.

Rapes also said that there is a need for an avenue for aspiring technopreneurs where they can learn more and be exposed more, citing Hack2Hatch session as an example.  

Created by Morphlabs Chief Executive Officer and Philippine Development Foundation Trustee Winston Damarillo, “Hack2Hatch: from Hacker to Founder – ‘the Grad School for Startups” will be held on October 5 to 7 at the Radisson Blu Hotel.

Hack2Hatch is a series of pitching and presentation sessions where young startup groups will receive one-on-one mentorship from leading global entrepreneurs, learn how to present to venture capitalists and win seed money to fund and grow their business. (FREEMAN)