From idea to Big Business

Everything starts from an idea. The newspaper you’re holding started from someone’s idea of putting his thoughts on paper, reproducing it and selling the finished product to you.
Thus, it comes as no wonder that people with money are always searching for bright ideas to turn into big businesses. For them, right ideas developed rightly bring tons of money.

iAyala, the technology arm of the mammoth Ayala Group of Companies, has come up with its own bright idea of putting up a business incubator which will work on raw concepts and turn them into big-time companies.

Dubbed IdeaFarm, this business incubator was formed in partnership with the University of the Philippines and will be housed in a technology lab along Katipunan Avenue in Quezon City, beside UP’s Diliman campus. As its name suggests, IdeaFarm will serve as a "farm" where "seeds" of future businesses will be planted, nursed and harvested.

Arcy Canumay, the director of IdeaFarm, admitted that the business incubator concept is not at all original. In the United States, incubator Garage.com has given birth to hundreds of Internet businesses. And in the Philippines, a company called HatchAsia is considered the pioneer in this aspect.

Canumay, though, wants IdeaFarm to develop not only Internet-based companies. He is looking also into the possibility of developing new products and new services which the Philippines can sell locally or abroad.

And he is looking up to one place as his model for IdeaFarm.

"Our model is Silicon Valley," he said, referring to a valley in Palo Alto, California where the computer’s microprocessor – made of silicon – originated, and where most of the legends in the computer industry started. "We want to create an atmosphere similar to Silicon Valley, an atmosphere suited for the development of promising startups."

An electronics and communication engineer by profession, Canumay has had his own share of bright business ideas. In 1996, he met a partner, George Chua, and put up Web Philippines Inc., the company behind one of the country’s first successful websites, trabaho.com, which offered jobs through the Internet.

He believes that his experience with Web Philippines has prepared him for the career of serving as a "mentor" to budding technology businessmen or the so-called technopreneurs.

"I am like a coach here," he said. "My job is to coach starting technopreneurs and see them succeed."

From fruits to silicon

Canumay may have chosen a perfect model for IdeaFarm. The place which came to be known as Silicon Valley was formerly hectares and hectares of orchards planted with berries and apricots.

It was only in the 1930s when the place began to change with the rise of technology companies. The place now serves as home to at least 4,000 of the world’s biggest computer companies.

Canumay pointed out that the birth of Silicon Valley was brought about by the marriage of a major educational institution and private individuals.

"There would be no Silicon Valley if there were no Professor Terman and Stanford University," he said. He narrated the classic tale of Fred Terman who egged two Stanford U freshmen to put up a technology business right in their garage which, after several decades, grew to become one of the biggest technology firms in the world. Those freshmen – Bill Hewlett and David Packard – are now known worldwide by the Hewlett Packard brand.

"We want to follow this model with IdeaFarm and UP. The university will help in nurturing the ideas of our talented technopreneurs and iAyala will finance them till they’re ready to go on their own," he explained.

Canumay encourages people with innovative ideas to send IdeaFarm their business concepts or to talk to any of his staff who will help them get started. IdeaFarm will provide office space, computers and other logistics plus assistance in administration, finance, legal and other aspects of the business.

"The process of incubation is normally one year," he said. "After a year, the incubatee will have two options – either to seek further financing from somewhere else and go on his own or sell his business to a buyer. Either way, he’s assured of a clean profit."

IdeaFarm is also encouraging new inventions. Canumay noted that Filipinos are known for their ingenuity, thus, he will not be surprised if he gets hundreds of original concepts in the coming months.

Canumay merely laughed when one reporter asked him why start IdeaFarm at this time when the country is deep in crisis. "This political and economic crisis will not go on forever," he said. "Now is the best time to find seeds of ideas. When the right political and economic climate comes, you’ll have an easier time growing these seeds and seeing them bear fruit."

For more information, visit http://www.ideafarm.ph.