Young entrepreneurs shine in Go Negosyo’s YEDW program

Go Negosyo and the US Embassy in Manila teamed up to organize the Youth Entrepreneurship Development Workshop (YEDW) program that began last July and ran until October 2015.

YEDW is a series of developmental three-day workshops for existing young Filipino entrepreneurs and young aspirants with actual business ideas. It aims to build an entrepreneurial mindset in the Filipino youth and help improve their ideas and concepts through mentorship by field experts and successful entrepreneurs.

YEDW had four legs: Manila, Luzon (held in Batangas), Visayas (held in Iloilo), and Mindanao (held in Zamboanga).

The workshops include training, networking, mentorship opportunities from the US government exchange program alumni and Go Negosyo Angelpreneurs, and a business innovation plan competition.

We have discovered many amazing young, aspiring and practicing entrepreneurs in our YEDW journey all over the Philippines.

Rachel De Villa was the winner of the YEDW Manila leg, Business Idea category. Rachel and her team identified three root causes of the food security problem in the Philippines: funding, farmers and productivity. Her business idea, Cropital, is a social enterprise that aims to connect investors/lenders/donors with local Filipino farmers.

Flora Señosa won the YEDW Manila leg, Existing Business category. Flora’s business, FDIC broilers, offers affordable and quality poultry products. Initially, her business idea was just part of her school requirement as a management student. She and her group mates then agreed to pursue a poultry business to build a long-term investment that would also be beneficial to the Biliran locals since the province is a great importer of chicken meat.  

Raphaelo Perez won the YEDW Luzon leg, Business Idea category. Raphaelo’s idea of having a modified Volkswagen Beetle serve fast and fresh off-the-grill burgers is called Overheat Burgers. He aims for Overheat to ply the different areas of Santa Rosa City, Laguna, especially in developing areas and work hubs where people tend to congregate most of the time. With Overheat, customers are guaranteed fresh, quality, affordable, and delicious burgers without having to go far from their workplaces and wait for a very long period of time.

Jesus Dane Lavarias, winner of the YEDW Luzon, Existing Business category, came up with Kabooms Wings and Burgers, the result of a failed business. Now it is a favorite go-to place at the university belt. Serving glazed fried chicken and burgers, it is a good place for students to dine in and spend time with friends while studying.

The company of Cezar Chan II, winner of YEDW Visayas leg, Existing Business category, is a systems integrator not only for audio and video, but also for IT, communications, and security systems. It provides a local in-person sales force solely dedicated to the corporate market, carries up-to-date business software, and offers ongoing technical support to corporate clients at little or no cost.

Agri-Block Builders or simply Agriblocks, the business idea of Maria Mariel May Obrego, winner of the YEDW Visayas leg, Business Idea category, aims to address the high demand for hollow blocks and the increasing rate of agricultural waste. Agriblocks integrates the concept of “green construction,” where rice hull ash will be used as a raw material in the production of hollow blocks. According to Mariel, unlike the traditional hollow blocks commercially sold in the market, Agriblocks, as per study, is proven to be stronger and lighter.

Robert Basco, winner of YEDW Mindanao leg, Business Idea category, wishes to promote a local product: Yakan cloth. His business idea, Dream Weavers: Pangarap Sin Ka Dendehan, is geared towards the preservation of the living tradition of the Yakan and employment of local weavers, thus reducing the poverty rate in the community. His plan is to sell the woven Yakan cloths to different institutions to be given to tourists as gifts or souvenirs. 

Gideon Pahagas, winner of YEDW Mindanao leg, Existing Business category, got P30,000 in cash to support his business, Gideon’s Alpha Betta. Gideon is a champion fighting fish breeder and animal care advocate. What started as a hobby became a business when he saw how fish breeding could help the out-of school-youth in his community shift from life on the streets to becoming fish breeders themselves.