Champion of modern ‘masa’ and the Filipino ‘middleman’

Unlike legends that surpass many generations, there are still stories yet to be told. These are the tales of two business risk-takers, Orlando Vea and Peter Valdes, whose characters lead two of the biggest technopreneurship stories in recent times.

Smart Communications, the country’s largest mobile telecommunications company, started as Vea’s perfect plan of pooling all of his resources with that of his friends’ to organize Smart as a contender in a monopoly-dominated market. Massive technology shifts and telecoms liberation that swept the early ’90s triggered the plan’s perfect execution.

Recognizing the dynamic realm of telecommunications, Vea’s group took in as strategic partners the First Pacific Group led by its managing director (now PLDT chairman) Manuel V. Pangilinan, and subsequently NTT of Japan.

For Vea, "aside from choosing the right people, technology and strategy, technopreneurship also involves getting the right partners." With a shared range of vision with Manny Pangilinan, Vea eventually obtained one of the perfect partnerships in the history of Philippine entrepreneurship.

Creatively addressing the gaping market with unconventional pricing, marketing and distribution strategies and a fresh army of committed recruits, Smart soon bested the two incumbent mobile operators and by 1997 became the largest mobile carrier in the country.

Vea, whose grandest commercial achievements were established in the world of telecommunications, credited his accomplishment more to the democratization of telecommunications in the country.

"Seeing cellphones in the hands of the common tao gives me the greatest high," he said.

Vea’s egalitarian mindset springs from his schooling at the University of the Philippines where he graduated cum laude in economics in the turbulent ‘70s. Smart currently has more than 22 million subscribers nationwide, mostly from the lower economic strata.

In 2000, Vea ventured into modern technology that seeks the innovation of Internet and broadband services that are made available and affordable to everybody. In pursuit of his vision, he is now spearheading the group’s media thrust as president and CEO of Media Quest. Among the services he foresees to take on are direct-to-home (DTH) TV, Mobile TV and IP Broadcast.

As Vea continues to connect people relationships through trends in telecommunications, Peter Valdes, on the other hand, makes waves through connecting PC applications as a breakthrough in the realm of computer technology.

Fulfilling his mother’s request for him to find a "better paying" job after teaching operations research at De La Salle University, Valdes found refuge in the land of milk and honey. It was in Austin, Texas where he began his career in software technology and where he also found his future business partners Robert Fabbio, Todd Smith and Steve Marcie at the prestigious IBM’s AIX operating systems development laboratory.

It is in the collaboration of these "code gods" that Middleware was born.

Middleware is a new type of software that allows servers, work stations, software applications, printers, network resources, among others, from various software companies to be controlled from one location. System and network management software beforehand rested on the sole dominion of specific companies before Valdes and his partners introduced the middleware software.

Seizing the opportunity for their knockout innovation, Valdes and his partners decided to take the high road with the venture capitalists. Although it was initially a struggle finding the needed support for their business plan, they eventually found salvation in Kleiner, Perkins, Caulfield and Byers (KCPB), a popular Silicon Valley venture capital firm that funded technology giants Amazon.com and Google, among others.

With the KCPB partnership, Peter Valdes and his partners established the Tivoli Systems which brought KCPB’s stake to $30 million. Tivoli Systems then went public in 1994 where they got listed to NASDAQ for about $30 per share. In 1996, Tivoli Systems was acquired by IBM for $743 million.

Valdes’ success in the US could have eradicated any tinge of desire to come back to the Philippines. However, he believed that going back would be a great way to contribute a lasting technological development to his homeland.

So he decided to manage, direct and advise various software technology start-ups here on his several weekly trips while he also spends time with his family in California for the rest of the year.

Valdes is currently an elite member of Oxfords’ "Who’s Who in the Computer Industry." He has also been awarded several IBM Invention Disclosures and has filed US, European, and Asian patents.

As Valdes achieved software technology greatness, he has not only paved the way for connecting software through the middleware success. He has also united a link between sheer determination and patriotism to attain development.

Marking excellence in the field of telecommunications and computer software technology while serving a higher purpose to the common Filipino people, Orlando "Doy" Vea and Peter Valdes will be two of the awardees of the 10 inspiring Technopreneurs, during the biggest technology expo ever, the "Technonegosyo," slated on Sept. 14 and 15 at the World Trade Center.