Gate Fee: Kindly bring P100 for simple coffee and snacks
You know, just to make up missing the last 2 months, LET’S MAKE THIS THE BIGGEST OPEN COFFEE YET!
Don’t hesitate in inviting all entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs-at-heart that you know of! The more we are, the more value the event generates for all participants.
What happens at the JGL OPEN COFFEE again?
For those new to this monthly gathering, the format of OPEN COFFEE is pretty unique – volunteers will have a strict 2 minutes to make a pitch. A pitch could be ANYTHING – validating business idea, a call for advice, a call to partner, a recruitment pitch, a call to network, etc…
(Well, anything EXCEPT doing a hard sell of an existing product or service).
Then the fun starts, as people just chime in and help the entrepreneur pitching.
The LEARNING and NETWORKING that happens in these events are awesome, facilitating new clients for current startups, people finding co-founders, and even new startups being formed. I do know I’
Postscripts of past OPEN COFFEE gatherings can be found here, here, and here.
Given the rains, I actually had a lot of time to write, but I found myself spending a lot of time thinking and regrouping instead. Given all things I’ve been diving into and experiencing lately, I think I needed to take a step back.
Needless to say, we’ll be back to standard programming by tomorrow!
Posting the last call for this Saturday’s Open Coffee event at the 47 East compound!
Do register here now and grab the remaining slots before we close registration.
What I’ve observed is, the larger the crowd, the more valuable the process becomes. When someone pitches a large crowd, there is almost always someone who has a very intimate level of information that’s extremely useful for the one pitching. The larger the crowd, the more chances someone finds another person who’s the perfect collaboration partner (I’ve seen this happen multiple times)
So…let’s make this one the BIGGEST ever!
If you haven’t been to our previous open coffee events, do let this Saturday be your first!
Do join us for the next JGL Open Coffee on July 27, Saturday. We’ll be doing it again at the beautiful 47 East Co-working facility at 47 Esteban Abada, Loyola Heights, QC.
Remember, the more we are, the more value the resulting networking and learning creates, the more chances cross-industry idea pollenation happens. Do invite more awesome people to go with you!
Do reserve your slots HERE, now! Don’t forget to bring P100 for the coffee and snacks.
Seeya!
(Know someone who would especially benefit from attending Open Coffee? Hit the share buttons and be a blessing!)
May Open CoffeeApril Edition at Bo’s CoffeeMarch EditionFebruary EditionNovember 2012 Open Coffee
Coming back from lunch last Monday, I was surprised to see someone who has been a frequent attendee at JGL events. Let’s call him Mark (not his real name).
When I began talking to him in our conference room, tears began to well up in his eyes as he narrated his story. This wasn’t going to be another startup brainstorming.
His mom’s kidneys were failing, and she needed to undergo dialysis to properly filter her blood and survive. This would be something permanent – she would need to undergo dialysis three times a week.
Mark and his brother had been scrambling the past few weeks to keep up with the payments. They had resorted to selling appliances and personal belongings.
But now they had nothing else to sell, no loans left to apply to.
Mark was at the end of his rope. He told me that he was supremely embarrassed to ask for help, but that he would do anything for his mom. He was asking me if it were possible to do a short-term loan.
Having gone through almost losing my own mother to meningitis some years ago, and having personally known what financial desperation feels like, I gave Mark some money.
It won’t nearly be enough. Since his mom is confined in a hospital, the dialysis rates are much higher (P5000 a pop) than some other places.
There is light at the end of the tunnel though. Sometime late July, Mark’s HMO coverage would reset, and he would be able to get some needed financial assistance. From now until then though, they would need to pay P15,000 a week. Mark would need around P45000-P60,000 to bridge that gap.
Mark needs our help. With his permission, I am posting this to appeal to your generosity.
There are two ways you can help Mark out.
A) Send Money
Do send it to my account:
BPI Account name: Peter Paul V. Cauton
BPI account no: 3300 2024 53
(do email me a photo of the deposit slip so I can account for the amount properly)
You can also drop it off at the STORM office, Unit 602, Centerpoint Building, Garnet cor Julia Vargas Streets, Ortigas Center. You can look for either me or Angeli.
Any amount helps.
B) You can give Mark some opportunities to earn money on the side
Mark currently works for a BPO firm doing graveyard. He has some time during the day to work with you on some other stuff. Mark is an EXCELLENT communicator and works well with people. He’s entrepreneurial. He’s obviously pretty motivated. If you have something for him, then please send me an email at peter@juangreatleap.com
I’ve always marveled at how incredibly generous and giving this community is.
Let’s step up to the plate and help someone in his hour of desperate need.
Record number for June! We can’t fit the pictures anymore!
As usual, everyone had a grand time in the June edition of JGL’s Open Coffee series held at the beautiful 47 East compound last Saturday.
It was a good mix of seasoned startup guys (like Joey Gurango, Ari Bancale, Jojy Azurin, Glenn Santos, David Elefant, Jason De la Rosa, Robert Bernabe, Roxanne Aquino, and so many others), newly-minted startup guys, and newbies.
As per Open Coffee tradition, 199jobs.com’s main man Glenn Santos starts things off with some startup news:
The first pitch is always kind of crucial. There’s usually a bit of hesitation as to who wants to go first.
Not in the June edition though!
Rick Sindiong quickly steps to the plate and gets the ball rollingDigital media publisher and freelancing advocate Arianne ChantelleJGL mainstay Alex Calero pitches
An evident trend I really like is the increase of the number of students. In fact, a college freshman, Kenley went up to pitch a cool university-based idea.
ADMU Freshman Kenley TanDLSU student Charles UyBlue Consulting’s Byron Raymundo and Karen Medriano
The pitches veered a bit more tech this time. With dashes of finance, retail, and social enterprise ideas/problems thrown into the mix. (Again, I’m amazed at how much information and help is exchanged in these forums.) The variety of ideas was just amazing. We had people pitching procurement e-commerce sites, angel “brokers” asking if anyone wanted 15 million in funding, asking for co-founders in the development of an IT firm targeting rural banks, asking for help for an entry for a US video production contest, a Japanese food retail play, a unique take combining crowdfunding and CSR, Joey Gurango pitching for more startups to join PSIA’s Launchpad program, and so, so much more.
Joey G. pitching PSIA’s awesome Spring.ph program for entrepreneursDino Alcoseba pitching the idea behind sportscout.ph
While this time, we had no moments of spontaneous beatboxing or singing, I think the pitch of the day came from Myles Jamito, who got the crowd’s imagination buzzing with samples of 3-D printed items.
Myles Jamito inciting a host of 3-D printing ideas from the audience
I CANNOT wait for the July edition!
More pics…
Randy Tan of Lookingfour does a pitchDLSU professor and entrepreneur Ren de los santos pitchesTim Mislos pitching!47 East’s Zar Castro gets the last say!
Looks like we’ll be having our biggest open coffee yet! 75 people now confirmed! We have to cap the attendees to a manageable level (too many people doesn’t work for the format used).
We’ll be closing off registration at 100 slots. Do register HERE now to quickly reserve your slot. (I suggest doing it NOW)
I’m excited to see everyone this Saturday, 9:30 am at the magnificent 47 East compound!
Soon, we had more products than we had people! While each idea was an innovative one and made a BIT of money for us, what we mostly produced was a boatload of mediocrity. Instead of making one GREAT thing – we did a number of inspired but UNDEVELOPED products.
So channeling our inner Steve Jobs, we killed all our horses except for the biggest one, the one which put us on the map – flexible benefits.
It’s been a great decision.
My STORM business partner Paolo and I made a little experiment though. Among the dropped products, we decided to pursue the next-most promising (and profitable) one, and spin it off into a startup.
Wary of committing the same mistakes again, Pao and I swore we won’t be involved operationally in this new one. So we then looked for TWO MORE co-founders for the would-be firm: a Pitcher CEO and a DOM (Borrowing Maoi’s awesome definitions). Pao and I would only continue to be involved on a board level.
A few months after?
Strata.ph was launched. What Strata wants to do is to disrupt the way companies manage their people through an online platform which manages competencies.
Within the first few months of operations, it has already managed to secure lucrative b2b contracts. Using the standard of “How much time does it take for the startup to make its first million,” this, by far has been the most successful startup I’ve been involved in.
How has Strata.ph done this?
Here’s why it worked:
1) Fulltime founders
Really quite crucial. Self-explanatory.
2) Sharing the STORM marketing database
Storm and Strata have the same target market.
So instead of Strata calling clients on the phone and asking:
Good afternoon! I’m _____ from Strata. We sell an online competencies platform. May we talk to your HR Director? (pause to listen)
Uhm, no he isn’t expecting my call.
Hello? Hello?!
We can instead call clients on the phone and ask:
Uy, Jun how are you? How are the kids and their first days in school?” (pause to listen)
Sounds good! Kamusta naman ang flexible benefits ninyo? (pause to listen)
I’m glad to hear that! Tawagan mo lang ako kung magkaroon kayo ng problema ha.”
Dude, do you remember that sister company I told you about? The one doing an online competency framework? Would you have some time this week to meet with them?
This is a BIGGIE.
3) The board knows the market and the business – from a startup perspective
Pao and I are members of the Strata board. Who better to help the CEO and COO of new HR technology startup than another CEO/COO pair who run a successful one?
So where does this all point towards?
I’m now looking at the remaining dropped STORM product lines with a glint in my eye.
Does anyone want to help me put them up?
There are 3 HR ideas I want to pursue and build startups above.
Here’s who I need (it should be pretty obvious if you’ve read the above):
1) I need people who can commit FULLTIME or if you’re working fulltime, someone who is SERIOUSLY considering a fulltime leap.
2A) The first idea has something to do with training and development. I need 2 people for this one. I need a pitching CEO, and a STATISTICIAN – someone who loves numbers and analysis.
2B) The second idea has something to do with recruitment. For this I might need 2 people as well people. A pitching CEO (ideally someone with recruitment background), a tech guy who knows how to build web products.
2C) The third idea is an OD consulting play. It ALREADY has a pitching CEO, I would need a partner for him – preferably a someone with an OD background.
3) I need people who will LEAD and be accountable. I need entrepreneurs.
These people I’m looking for will really be STARTUP FOUNDERS. I will not be involved directly in operations, so it’s up to you to build the company.
If you’re interested, send me a line at peter@juangreatleap.com. Do attach a CV and a cover letter as to why you think you’d be a great fit.
WHERE: 47 East Compound, 47 Esteban Abada Street, Loyola Heights, QC (Right in front of the MCDC school)
It’s that time of the month again!
For those who’ve been to one of the sessions, you already know how awesomely helpful open coffee is when it comes to networking, validating ideas, and finding opportunities are concerned. I’m excited to see all the familiar faces!
For those who haven’t gone – you just have to check out for yourself what all the fuss is about!
(from L-R) David Cruz, Richard Cruz, Maoi Arroyo, Me, and Karen Hipol
I had a great time at the Pitchcraft Event last Saturday at AIM. With nearly 70 people, there was a lot of energy in the air. Most importantly, I saw there was a lot of learning happening.
Just a quick summary of what happened, for those of you who missed it:
First, Karen Hipol of Carillion Partners (yup, she of the $100 million fund) came in to give the first talk: WHAT should the pitch contain. Then, Maoi Arroyo of Hybridigm delivers the second talk: HOW the pitch should be given. After a short break, the panel/simulation activity began. First a panel of experts are introduced: technology serial entrepreneur David Cruz, AIM professor and entrepreneurship expert Richard Cruz (not related to David), and Karen Hipol. The panel and the audience are then shown 5 selected pitch videos from Shark Tank. Both the audience and the panel are given a chance to chime in after each video. Finally, the audience is asked whether they would want a chance to do REAL pitches to a select group of investors in a post-event happening in 2 weeks. (14 volunteered)
Here are some of my observations and musings, post-event.
A) Entrepreneurs are willing to pay for LIVE!
This was the first Juan Great Leap PAID event, so I was paying a lot of attention as what would happen. Scores of people would attend our free events, so I was wondering what would happen if we attached a price tag.
I asked this precise question (would you pay P1000 for a startup course) to our JGL newsletter recipients (thank you for ALL the respondents!), and while the majority said yes, there a number of people who said entrepreneurial people (the target market) would find a ton FREE content on the web and will not pay. I found this to be a very credible argument – so I was eager to see what would happen with our own “MVP” which Pitchcraft represented.
3 weeks of marketing yielded 70 people.
There is still a large number of people who would want to learn LIVE! from experts – even entrepreneurs. I guess there is still something with a LIVE! learning session – the learning is more palpable, you learn with a community, you can network (with both audience members and the speakers), and when the content is good – there’s just a larger chance of not only education, but inspiration (try watching a training video for more than 10 minutes – even if the speaker is really good, I doubt if you’ll get the same impact).
Same reason as to why we still go to concerts even we could just download past ones.
I’m pretty happy with this development – not because I will be able to earn from it (I don’t earn anything from JGL activities), but because we can give you BETTER events and even more value-adding activities down the line.
B) Paid Tickets Magically Make Flakers Disappear
Yes, the last 2 JGL big conferences attracted around 200 people, but also had around 400+ signups. No matter how much I begged for people NOT to flake because the tickets are finite (someone will LOSE a slot if you flake), we still encountered a bunch of them. Our monthly open coffee attracts 60-70 people with around a 50% flaker rate as well.
Flaker rate in Pitchcraft? ZERO.
It’s a pretty predictable stat, but still, this makes me think.
I’ve always vowed to make what we do here free and as reachable to EVERYONE as possible. But this flaker thing is making me think. Open Coffee, because of what it stands for, will ALWAYS be free. But now I’m thinking the big conferences might actually benefit from say, a very reasonable P300 fee. (Tell me what you think!)
3. The Community Thing Is Just Awesome
It’s sappy, but it really warmed my heart to see so many JGL “regulars” learning at the event. I mean, for a number of these guys, I KNOW their stories, and where they are, and what some of their struggles are, and I just KNEW they got a lot of value.
Jode, Ricci, Tet, Mano, Burns, Luis, AJ, Alex, Romylee, Randy, Albert, Rona, Kath, Grace, John, and all the others whose names I have forgotten (because I am simply the worst “HR” person alive as far as name-face association is concerned) – thank you for supporting not only the event but JGL as a whole. I pray that we may always deliver what you guys NEED to take your ideas/startups to the next level.
4. Maoi is the REAL DEAL
Quick, think of the best stand-up comedian you know.
Now, think of the best teacher you’ve ever learned from.
Now proceed to COMBINE these.
THAT is the Maoi Arroyo experience. In a delectable mix of irreverence, wit, timing, experience, entrepreneurial knowledge and wisdom, she gave such a memorable talk that must have been exhausting to deliver (thank you, Maoi). You HAD to be there. (you can ask ANYONE who attended how this went)
(If you have a biotech/natural science-related idea and you need someone to help you get to the next level, do reach out to Maoi NOWand get Hybridigm to help!)
JUAN GREAT LEAP 