Don't fall into the trap of the small idea. Here are 6 tips on how to avoid doing so. 1) Pick a painkiller I touched on this a bit in a recent post. A painkiller is something someone very urgently needs. He would be willing to pay for it NOW if you could make the pain go…
There was a moment during the actual pitching proper last Saturday's Open Coffee event that I looked at Matt and AR of JGL and said, "I love this...I love it!" It was one of the many times when someone in the audience had the the RIGHT contact or the RIGHT information and then just generously offers it…
I watched TURBO last night with my family. The wifey liked it. The kids LOVED it. Unbeknownst to them, I was loving it a little more than I probably should. Why? Turbo is easily the greatest entrepreneurial animated movie I have ever seen!!! (now that's a sentence I'd never, ever thought about writing in this blog) At the…
Last Saturday, Juan Great Leap and Hybridigm held Dare To Pitch at the STORM headquarters in Ortigas Center. It was a pitching forum where we invited startups to pitch to VC's. No winners, no prizes. We just wanted deserving entrepreneurs to have a venue where they could pitch to institutional investors. At best, they could get funded,…
Do you want to know what's truly important to you? There's really no need for further philosophical / existential analysis. Here's a surefire way to know. Take a look at your calendar for the past month. Take a look at the number of hours you spend on certain tasks. Where you spend your time will show you…
A few months ago a friend of mine told me about her recent life-changing plane trip It was the stuff of nightmares. The plane she was riding in was becoming unstable. So much so that they actually released the gas masks and were given instructions to brace themselves. She thought that was it for her. Fortunately, no…
Around 3 years ago, STORM was in a rut. We made a sellable product in Flexible Benefits. We were so excited that people were ACTUALLY BUYING our product that we... ...made OTHER products instead of concentrating and building on our winner. I blame my entrepreneurial craziness for this one. Wrote about this a bit for homegrown.ph -…
STORM transferred to its newest office a few weeks ago. I love it! It's brightly lit, incredibly functional, spaceous, and comfortable to work in. There are no "manager" rooms. There are whiteboards and wallboards everywhere, and multiple spaces for different kinds of meetings. Pictures below! Looking closely, you would also see rather peculiar items in the office:…
Fear has been my constant companion all throughout my startup career. I remember feeling I might be laughed at as I was about to present my idea to potential partners or investors. I remember that crippling feeling. That extreme doubt I felt when I was about to resign from my fulltime job. I remember hearing all the…
Gary Sells Soap A few weeks ago I felt I was representing the startup world when I was trying to convince a high-caliber fresh graduate to try out the startup life. (Let's call him "Gary") Yes, while he had several tempting, lucrative offers from MNC's, any of which would've dwarfed whatever salary offer any startup could've given, he…