A few of my startup founder friends are deliberately choosing NOT to have a physical office. Their logic is simple: Smaller utility costs (electricity, water, rent) No travel costs (gas AND cost of time lost to traffic) No furniture costs Mobile technology now allows for free video conference calls across the internet Last weekend, we moved to…
When Pao and I started STORM, we thought of a product which people WILL be buying - an online flexible benefits service for companies. There was nothing like it in the market yet. We decided to pursue a FUTURE need, as opposed to coming up with something we knew people were ALREADY buying. In 2005, we launched our product…
Last Saturday in Starbucks Masinag, I had a slightly different Startup Saturday meeting with Nico Policarpio, a promising young entrepreneur (whose team won the second Startup Weekend). I was originally going to meet 2 other people, but they each had sudden emergencies, so I met with Nico one-on-one. Partly as a result of the decreased number of…
My whole entrepreneur life has been a series of episodes where my eyes were opened to a greater reality. I can still remember when STORM collected its first payment back in 2005. My partner Pao and I gave a gaming company 2-weeks of access to our new online survey software for P5000. (which was completely, idiotically underpriced!)…
At this time last year, I was looking around our Southeast Asian neighbors with startup-scene envy. Why wasn't our startup scene as vibrant? What a difference a year makes. In just one year, we've seen a couple of Startup Weekends, the rise of Twitmusic, the launch of Kickstart and Ideaspace, a booming economy, Streetfood Tycoon, co-lab amenities…
The entrepreneurial life can be exhilarating. Receiving your first payment, landing a first client, landing a first BIG client - these experiences can rarely be matched by anything the corporate world can offer. Then this whole new social network/internet/mobile landscape just takes that experience and injects it with WWE-level steroids. There is so much to do. People…
Glenn is a 30-something product manager who dreams of one day escaping the corporate rat race to pursue a music-related startup he's always dreamed of. Sylvia works for a telco. As such, it isn't a rarity for her to log in 60-70 hours of work a week. She yearns of saving enough capital to put up a…
It's not just about the money. It's not just about making a dent in the world. It is very much WHAT SORT OF DENT and WHERE YOU WANT TO MAKE IT. Ultimately, the answer boils down to WHO YOU ARE. What do you like doing? How and when do you do your best work? What are you good…
Seasoned entrepreneurs know that they will eventually get punched in the mouth. A lot. This is the litmus test for new entrepreneurs, and remains one key reason why the majority of people don't take the plunge. When you are starting up, you have all sorts of enthusiasm. Everyone is excited. The energy is palpable. You think you've…
Two quick stories. Last week, a friend of mine was about to take the leap. She had a consulting concept in mind and had a client ready. Being someone with integrity, she decided to ask her boss if there was anything at all that would be construed as unethical if she put up the practice she had…