“Cebu can never be Silicon Valley”

CEBU, Philippines - A Korean- American venture capitalist said Cebu can never be the next Silicon Valley, it should instead diverse its positioning as it can never be at par with California’s Silicon Valley for so many reasons.

Venture capitalist John Kim has this to say during the recently concluded ICT-BPO Conference hosted by the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI), “Cebu cannot be a Silicon Valley, it can only aspire as one.”

Kim, who has been in Cebu for a couple of years trying to capitalize on the good potential of talents here, said that there are a lot of factors why Cebu can’t achieve its goal in becoming the next Silicon Valley in Asia.

First, he said the culture is different here. Second, Filipinos are handicapped with two years education and live very sheltered lives. The lack of real world experience to know what is needed make way for the shortage of relevant talents.

Although, there are a lot of good and potential talents in Cebu, these people should be guided properly, and that Cebu needs more hands-on technology-savvy entrepreneurs that will guide them, instead of limiting themselves from being used by multinational companies, and be contented being employees.

Instead of aiming to be the “Silicon Valley” in Asia, Cebu could position itself as “technology hub,”, although there are ample of things and works to do first, before Cebu could really call itself as the “technology hub.”

Kim, who spent years in “Silicon Valley” in California USA, said that although Cebu is blessed with good and innovative minds, culture, infrastructure, right support for these talents should be well developed.

He said there is a possibility for Cebu to become a “technology hub” instead of being too ambitious in hitting the “Silicon Valley” level.

The government he said should also be strongly involved in the development of talents, not just to supply the big outsourcing investments that come to the Philippines, but to make these talents entrepreneurs, and monetize their innovative products and services.

“Cebu needs relevant talents. How can blind lead a blind?” Kim said referring to the mentoring system, which also needs improvement in Cebu.

Those entrepreneurs that will mentor the talents should know the technology ecosystem very well. Most people who are involved in the mentoring are “offline” people, he said.

“The key to start up is monetization—how to make money with your product. Cebu needs contribution from proven individuals in relevant space to coach and do more hand holding,” Kim who is the managing director of Now Group Inc., said.

He said having “quarterly meet-up” in an effort to advance the ICT and outsourcing sector in Cebu is not enough. “They need to be more involved, hold regular weekly office hours for start-ups to meet and keep them accountable for their time and keep them on track.”

He mentioned that “Sulit.com” founder for instance is a good mentor to be tapped by Cebu, to teach the young talents how to monetize their concepts, and maximize their brilliant minds to make money for themselves, not for the company they are employed with.

The culture of being contented as an employee should also be changed among talents. Kim believes that if the entrepreneurship platform for talented individuals will be well established, Cebu could easily become a “technology hub.”

“The academe can boost their exposure to popular programming languages. But, I know the limitations is really again the lack of professors well versed in the “newer” languages such as ruby and objective C.

More workshops to educate the young talents, and improve maturity levels are just few of the important factors that Cebu should work into.

“Kids here are so involved in wasting time pointing fingers at others, never accepting their personal shortfalls,” said Kim.

He added that more specialized courses on marketing, monetization, specialized programming languages is highly recommended in order to have a balanced ICT growth for Cebu.

It’s good to grow the investment of outsourcing, but Cebu should not also waste its ample talented people, there should be a good program or training courses that will be introduced to encouraged these people to convert their talents into wealth, not just to get monthly salary.

“Raw talents can’t start with ‘sideline projects’ they should be given support. Since Filipinos do not have the luxury to forego their jobs and be a full-time entrepreneur, building a proof of concept and seeking funding is ideal, so they can pursue something they are passionate about, not to be a the mercy of employers but to create their own enterprise,” he said.

“There is a lot of work to be done...and it will take concerted effort to build our own startup community,” Kim said adding that his company and the Cebu Educational Development

Foundation for Information Technology (CEDFIT) are cooking something to start off a good platform or program in developing “technopreneurs” in Cebu. /JOB (FREEMAN)