Startup Weekend Cebu Pitch Starts Soon

The First Startup Weekend In the Philippines Held Outside Metro Manila

Startup Weekend Cebu participants are slated to make their pitches today at 5:30 in the afternoon. The event will be from May 11 to 13, 2012 at the University of the Philippines Conference Room, 1st Floor Main Admin Building, UP Cebu, in Gorordo Ave. Lahug, Cebu City. 

It is organized by TechTalks.ph, which have partnered with Globe Telecom, Kickstart Ventures Inc., Philippine Development Foundation (PhilDev), Developers Connect (devCon), Exist/Morphlabs, and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

It is part of the activities of Startup Philippines 2012, which started with Startup Weekend Manila last April 27-29, 2012. It is also the first activity of its kind held in Cebu City, an IT hub and the second largest city in the Philippines in term of economy. Startup Weekend Cebu is a 54-hour event that focuses on building web or mobile applications. This should then become the basis of credible business tech ideas. It aims to bring people with different skills together. Software developers, graphics designers and business people are tasked to collaborate and create applications and develop a business model.

Startup Weekend Manila organizers like the web engineering firms ProudCloud and Dynamic Objx, and incubator Kickstart Ventures are also on hand to build on the lessons learned in the last two Startup Weekend events held in Manila. The winner at the Startup Weekend in Manila was Kiddle which is a gamified web app that lets kids earn points and upgrade their avatars by completing tasks like household chores and homework.

The concept behind Startup Weekend is to take digital start-up businesses from ideas to concrete business plans. This is done by providing industry experts as mentors and by giving participants access to markets and investors across Asia. This event is a startup fund raising activity that started in the US which is now a worldwide movement.

Last May 5, participants joined a pre-Startup Weekend Cebu Bootcamp. The Google Technology User Group (GTUG) helped in organizing the bootcamp where aspiring and first-time technopreneurs and startup veterans were invited to join the event. Organizers expect to attract around 200 participants and Investors from Singapore and the United States will also be around to listen to the pitch of the participants.

The rooster of mentors includes Christian Besler, Dan Siazon and Minette Navarrete of Kickstart, Eugene Fabian and Alex Goh of Microsoft Singapore, Albert Padin of SpellDial, Ppip Cimafranca, Jay Fajardo of ProudCloud, Jonathan Lansangan of Dynamic Objx, finance professional Bryan Low, Chris C. Ducker of VBS, Eric Su of Twidl Inc., Paul Villacorta of Cebu Directories, Gwendolyn Regina Tan, Ruben Licera Jr. of RLComm International, Taylor Miles of webbROI, and Wilson Ng of Ng Khai Development Corp.

Wilson Ng of Ng Khai Development Corp. wrote in his column in a local daily that “On their registration site (Startup Weekend Cebu), there are already over two hundred people who have signed up to join the event. This weekend, teams will be formed where they will develop software and business plans and pitch it to some of the top VCs of the country to get feedback, explore collaboration and investment opportunities, as well as get funding.” 

The board of judges for the first Startup Weekend Cebu is composed of  Kickstart president Minette Navarrete, Alvin Gendrano of Microsoft, Winston Damarillo of Morphlabs, Jean-Patrick Bisson of ClickingLabs.com, Harm Rietjens of CareSharing, Vinnie Lauria of Golden Gate Ventures, Jay Aldeguer of The Islands Group, and PhilDev chairman Diosdado Banatao.Aside from Cebu, simultaneous Startup Weekends will also be held in Naples, Italy and Burgos, Spain on the same dates.