First Startup Weekend brings Zamboanga in the Startup Loop

“Zamboanga is finally in the startup loop. We can now look forward to innovative ideas from there to help solve real world challenges.”

Thus said Department of Science and Technology Information and Communication Technology Office (DOST-ICTO) Deputy Executive Director Mon Ibrahim after the launching of the first-ever Startup Weekend in Zamboanga City last August 28-30.

What originally began in the US as an event to promote tech startups or innovation-driven enterprises has now reached the Zamboanga as a venue to generate and promote fresh ideas, build novel products, and launch new businesses.

Startup Weekend Zamboanga opened Friday night with participants forming 19 breakthrough product ideas. Prototypes and business plans were brainstormed over the weekend with the help of mentors. On Sunday evening, 14 final teams pitched their brainchild to a distinguished panel of judges.

Thriving startups by 2016

“It was heartwarming to see the enthusiasm of the participants during the startup weekend and exciting to hear inquiries from those who missed to join the next one,” said Startup Weekend Zamboanga Lead Organizer Maureene Bello of the Zamboanga ICT Council.

Over 100 participants trooped to the Ateneo de Zamboanga University to join the 54-hour tech competition which was organized by the DOST-ICTO in cooperation with the Zamboanga ICT Council and TechTalks.ph.

“Learning from this experience, we are headed to organizing training for teachers in business modeling and validation, boot camps, mentoring for entrepreneurs and another Startup Weekend in the early quarter of 2016. All of our efforts fit together in the Zamboanga ICT/BPO roadmap 2020,” said Bello.

Three startups emerged on top with EMA (Electric Meter App), an application for monitoring energy consumption for each appliances winning first place. AirDorm, an online dormitory booking system, took second place while URecyc, a mobile app encouraging everyone to recycle, landed third place.

But the contest’s crowd favorite was Cloud Bus, a USB stick with an internet connection that provides users an unlimited storage capacity.

“Hopefully, we will see thriving startups in the Western Mindanao area by 2016,” said Bello.

Philippine Startup Roadmap

DOST-ICTO Deputy Executive Director Mon Ibrahim said that Startup Weekend Zamboanga and other startups and entrepreneurship-related events supported by the DOST-ICTO are all spokes in the wheel moving towards meeting the goals of the Philippine Startup Roadmap.

“In line with our recently launched Philippine Startup Roadmap, we will continue to collaborate with the local stakeholders to get the momentum going,” he said.

Launched in the just concluded third Geeks on a Beach (GOAB) confab in Boracay, the Philippine Startup Roadmap is a checklist of what the country’s startup community needs to do in order to produce the next billion dollar Filipino startup.

The Philippine Startup Roadmap hopes to generate over 500 startups with an estimated cumulative valuation of $2 billion by the year 2020.

Tina Amper, TechTalks.ph founder, said that introducing Startup Weekend to Zamboanga goes a long way in helping drive economic growth in the Southern Philippines and the rest of the country. ###

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