From Startup to Scale in 3 Escalating Leaps

January 2, 2017 by Leave a Comment

Years ago when I graduated, I had no special commendations. My grades were slightly above-average. Flunked one or two, if I remember right. I have no MBA. No special connections. I was raised in a middle-income family, where I contributed a portion of my earnings as a breadwinner along with my brother. I never got the chance to work abroad. I started my professional career out as a high school English teacher, and then entered corporate life as an HR Officer. I remember slowly going up the corporate ladder. The frustration of it. The ups and downs. The multiple crises, quarter-life and otherwise. You know. I remember refusing to have my dreams slowly snuffed out by reality though. I … [Read more...]

Filed Under: GETTING STARTED, GOD@WORK, Small Steps, STARTUP ADVICE, TAKE THAT LEAP!

Been Awhile, JGL

August 25, 2015 by 4 Comments

After 8 months, I had all sorts of ideas on what my "first" post will be like. Some long, drawn out 5-parter on what I've learned all this time, perhaps? Some Michael Jordan "I'm back" one-liner? I was even mulling just hammering out a regular post and pretend the 8-month gap never happened. I had all sorts of ideas. Of course it came down to me just opening good old Wordpress and suddenly just typing. And here it is. When Peter? I would get asked around a lot "when are you writing again?" or "when is the next open coffee?" And I would just smile and apologize. I did have the perfect excuse. It has been a busy year. STORM went through a huge fundraiser. We … [Read more...]

Filed Under: GETTING STARTED, TAKE THAT LEAP!

What Is Your Fearlessness Quotient?

December 4, 2014 by 1 Comment

At work, when we talk about hiring (which we talk about A LOT nowadays), I usually tell my co-managers that I am very interested in hiring "entrepreneurial-minded" people. Then I'd get often asked: What does that mean? That's a question I've been mulling about for ages. What exactly is it? How do you evaluate if someone has it? How do you know if someone has the potential to have it? There are so many theories on what entrepreneurship is. Here's one of mine. I think, when you distill it, when you boil entrepreneurship down to its basest levels, entrepreneurship is all about fearlessness. Entrepreneurs just conquer fear. Innovation, a word long synonymous with … [Read more...]

Filed Under: GETTING STARTED, Small Steps, STARTUP ADVICE, TAKE THAT LEAP! Tagged With:

5 Reasons Why You Should Quit Your Job Now and Work for a Startup (With Traction)

August 12, 2014 by Leave a Comment

So, you want to put up a startup. You want to take the leap. But it's sooooo hard to let go of the cushy job you've spent numerous years cultivating... You worry about the sudden disruption of that bi-monthly cashflow you're now so accustomed to and built your life around. So what now? Here's a solution - work for a startup. But don't just work for ANY startup - work for a startup with traction. What's traction? I like Naval Ravikant's (Angelist founder) efficient definition of traction: "Quantitative evidence of market demand." A startup has traction when it has increasing numbers - revenue, users, profitability, engagement, traffic, etc... These are evident signs … [Read more...]

Filed Under: GETTING STARTED, Life in a Startup, STARTUP ADVICE, TAKE THAT LEAP! Tagged With: , , ,

Introducing Thursdays Unplugged – And Why I’m Limiting It to 4 People

July 17, 2014 by 4 Comments

While I like organizing events like Startups Unplugged or Open Coffee, where I really get my kick is when I go on one-on-one coffee-talks. In the bigger events or in some of the speaking events I've done, I may be able to impart knowledge and help out, but obviously, the learning cannot be customized to the individual. Sure, after the event there can be informal networking and getting to know people, but I don't really get to KNOW people that much. This is why I like doing one-on-one coffee-talks. More than just the startup idea, I get to know the entrepreneur's story. I get to know his motivations. I get to read body language. I don't just shoot from the hip and comment on just the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: ANNOUNCEMENTS, GETTING STARTED, STARTUP ADVICE, TAKE THAT LEAP!, TOOLS AND RESOURCES Tagged With: , ,

Building a B2B Startup? Here are 5 of the Most Crucial Lessons I’ve Learned

January 21, 2014 by 7 Comments

I hope my previous post got you more interested in taking a longer look at building a Business-to-Business (B2B) startup. If you're interested in plunging into one, here are 5 of the most crucial lessons I've garnered in building B2B's for almost one decade now (Can't believe it!): 1) Doing Lean Startup? You cannot use a traditional "MVP" If you aren't familiar with Lean Startup Methodology, then please buy Eric's book as soon as you finish this post. Essentially, the book says that you have to validate your assumptions about the product and the market systematically before you spend money on building. Specifically, it suggest building a "minimum viable product." This is … [Read more...]

Filed Under: GETTING STARTED, Sales, STARTUP ADVICE, TAKE THAT LEAP! Tagged With: ,

Six Powerful Reasons Why Your Next Startup Must Be a B2B

January 17, 2014 by 5 Comments

To B2B or not to B2B? Ah. This is the question. For me the answer is clear. With all things being equal, if you are a Philippine-based startup, you should try building a B2B first. Let me get my obvious bias out of the way first - I am primarily a B2B guy. Most of startups I've been involved with - STORM, Strata, Stream Engine - have been B2B's. (the notable exception is JGL) Waitaminit! What do mean by B2B again? You can generally classify as startup as being a B2B (Business to Business), as opposed to a B2C (Business to Consumer). A B2B company sells to other companies (also called enterprise business), while a B2C sells its wares directly to consumers. I think there is an … [Read more...]

Filed Under: GETTING STARTED, STARTUP ADVICE, Startup Ideas, TAKE THAT LEAP! Tagged With: ,

Stopping Reverse Momentum

January 16, 2014 by Leave a Comment

Starting the middle of last year, I began running in the morning. 5K, every other day. I was pumped. Then I sort of injured my calf and I couldn't run for a while. I vowed to bounce back fast - as soon as my calf was fully healed. Then my calf healed. But for some reason, I couldn't find the energy to start again. The longer I waited, the harder it was to start. I could describe it best as reverse momentum. This is my best explanation for the writing hiatus I experienced. This is my first post in almost 2 months.  People started to ask me - are you still writing? Do you still love it? Do you still believe in it? The answer for me is a quick, resounding … [Read more...]

Filed Under: GETTING STARTED, TAKE THAT LEAP! Tagged With: ,

JGL’s One Great Leap!

October 23, 2013 by 1 Comment

There's a lot going on now with two of my startups, STORM and STRATA. People movement, scaling, fire-fighting, creating processes, client meetings, projects, you name it, we're doing it right now. For STORM specifically, we usually do systems implementation around this time in preparation for the coming year. Plus we're also renewing with all our current clients. These next few weeks leading up to the first quarter of 2014 will be quite taxing for our team. I wish there were two of me sometimes. November marks the 2nd year anniversary of JGL's first post. While the blog has been growing and our events have been successful. There's so much that I've wanted to do in JGL which we … [Read more...]

Filed Under: ANNOUNCEMENTS, GETTING STARTED, TAKE THAT LEAP! Tagged With: ,

The Rise of the Free Agent Era and 5 Strategies to Survive It, Part 2

September 12, 2013 by Leave a Comment

(This is part 2 of a 2-part series. Part one can be found here.) 3) Build Free Agent Skills So what sort of skills are highly useful in this free-agent era? Skills which maximize your ability to be independent - skills which can allow you to be highly mobile and flexible. Here are three really strategic ones you can work on: a) Learn How To Learn Real Fast Two common realities of the free agent era: there's always something new to learn, and you have to learn it fast. If you learn things fast, then you can work in vuitually any condition and won't be a victim of obsolescense. Adapt and live. So don't get married to a skill set (especially technical ones, which … [Read more...]

Filed Under: GETTING STARTED, GOD@WORK, STARTUP ADVICE, TAKE THAT LEAP! Tagged With: ,
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