'Pinoy Bill Gates' urges entrepreneurs to take risks

CEBU CITY, Philippines - Silicon Valley entrepreneur Diosdado "Dado" Banatao urged Filipino startups to take more risks in creating new technologies to maximize their talents and creativity.

"Filipinos are extremely creative and talented. This creativity and talent must be directed toward innovation and entrepreneurship. But creativity and talent are not sufficient. They must be accompanied with a heavy dose of risk taking," he said.

Banatao, known as the "Filipino Bill Gates," chairs the Philippine Science and Technology Development Foundation Manila, Inc. (PhilDev), which organized on Thursday the second annual IDEA Global Entrepreneurship Symposium in Cebu City. The symposium helps Filipino engineering students get into entrepreneurship by giving them mentorship from established businessmen, US professors and venture capitalists. The event was held with the help of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Commission on Higher Education.

Dado Banatao

"PhilDev believes that by equipping our engineering students with the entrepreneurship knowledge, we will create a generation of entrepreneurs who not only are creators of technology, but also are creators of jobs and a better life for their fellow Filipinos," Banatao said.

Brian Goldbeck, deputy chief of mission of US Embassy in Manila, said game-changing technological advances from Filipino entrepreneurs will help in supporting the Philippine economy in the future. USAID currently works with the Philippine government to get more people into entrepreneurship by sending students to US and establishing connections between industry leaders and the academe.

"What I'm hoping will happen is that we will be able to unleash the creative productive power of Philippine entrepreneurs," Goldbeck said.

Banatao said a lot still has to be done to improve the quality of entrepreneurship in the Philippines.

"The level of expertise has not yet matched the level of innovation expertise in other countries," he said.

He added, however, that the Philippines can be a developed country if its entrepreneurs reach their potential, and start at a young age.

"There are a million of those kids in the provinces, who are bright enough to get out of that mold and be successful," he said.