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…
(This is the third of a 3-part post which talks about the tremendous lessons we can apply from closely looking at how the preeminent Startup Nation - Israel - attained tremendous economic success through the deliberate development of startups. Previous posts: part 1, part 2) 5) We Need To Just Ship It, Ship It Good In 2006,…
(This is the second of a two-part post regarding the tremendous lessons we can apply from closely looking at how the preeminent Startup Nation developed. Part 1 can be found here.) 4. We Need To Have More Filipino Argonauts In Greek mythology, the Argonauts were sailors and adventurers who travelled with Jason in search of the Golden Fleece.…
So who's the real Startup Nation? Nope, it's not who you think. The country we are talking about received more venture capital per capita than any nation in the world - 2x as much as the United States. They have more companies listed in the NASDAQ than Korea, Japan, Singapore, China, India and all of Europe combined.…
When Pauline and I celebrate our wedding anniversary together, we usually find a fancy restaurant which satisfies one important criteria: it has to be conducive to talking. Then we talk about the year that was. All the highlights. Good times and bad. What we thought God was saying to us. Afterwards, satisfied with our summary, we talk…
It's been close to a year now that I wrote this post. In it, I lamented at how poor the startup support was in our country. I compared our startup scene to that of our neighboring countries and complained. Then, almost on cue, all the activity started. The first Startup Weekend was launched and was followed by…
I'm writing this as the final minutes of my birthday tick away. I'm trying to assess how I feel. On most birthdays, I feel sentimental, nostalgic, and often existential. Tonight though, I feel blessed that more than anything else, I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude. I just feel compelled now to pump out this list of…
If the young Filipino version of Jobs or Zuckerberg is studying in your institution right now, are you doing everything that you can to ensure that your environment is allowing him to pursue his passions?