Kickstart symposium features 6 technopreneurs

MANILA, Philippines - Six technopreneurs under the mentorship of incubator-accelerator Kickstart Ventures Inc.  shared their startup experiences with a group of 80 postgraduate university students and professors during a recent symposium at the UP-Ayala Land Technohub to encourage more individuals to bring their tech-based business ideas to life.

The symposium was organized by Kickstart, a wholly owned subsidiary of Globe, in partnership with Ayala TBI (Technology Business Incubator) and the DOST-UP Enterprise Center for Technopreneurship. 

It featured startups such as AVA, Tripid, Tripsiders, My Legal Whiz, Work Inspire, and ZAP that were created by young enterprising people who want to challenge themselves and try their luck in the digital space.

AVA (www.AVA.ph) is a premier online shopping site for well-loved brands and experiences; ZAP (www.ZAP.com.ph), a Web and mobile retail promotions and loyalty program for brick-and-mortar merchants; Tripid (www.tripid.ph), a carpooling platform and community; Work Inspire (www.workinspire.com), an e-mail and document organization system for better project management; Tripsiders (www.tripsiders.com), a Cebu-based local itinerary creation and booking engine with insider community content; and My Legal Whiz (www.mylegalwhiz.com), a Web and mobile resource for legal research.

The group of 80 postgraduate university students is enrolled at a summer class under the Engineering Research and Development for Technology (ERDT) consortium composed of the University of the Philippines Diliman, University of the Philippines Los Baños, Ateneo de Manila University, Central Luzon State University, De La Salle University, Mapua Institute of Technology, Mindanao State University in Iligan City, and University of San Carlos in Cebu City.

Today, the need is in building a full support system for founders and aspiring technopreneurs. Kickstart does that through a combination of actual investment activity, community networking events, intensive workshops and training sessions for founders, and evangelizing among corporates.

“We are pleased to work with Ayala Foundation and UP Enterprise -— friends as well as real incubator pioneers. Through this symposium, participants of the ERDT’s summer program would have gotten startup founders’ real-world experiences and personal insights to complement hard-core theory. At the same time, these Kickstart-incubated startup founders could give back by encouraging the same passion and drive to actually start something and maybe even inspire (and) these university students to become future technopreneurs themselves,” said Minette Navarrete, president of Kickstart Ventures Inc.

Beyond the inspirational talk given to the students, the event was used to get out more stories about the startups and their startup journeys. It’s a 90-minute sharing of stories followed by a question-and-answer round.

Aside from the talks, those in attendance were given a tour around the Tech Portal and were shown the different function spaces for technology-based businesses.

“I find the session very interesting and it helps us a lot to push through with our ideas. In my part as an agricultural engineer, I see that they were much more focused in IT as compared to what we are usually familiar which is research, but the words of wisdom of the startups was very useful for us, that it gives us belief in the ideas that we have in mind and put it into reality,” said Claire Palunday, an MS Agro-Meteorology student who was one of the participants.