One of the things I had promised myself was that I would always say "yes" to entrepreneur speaking engagements whenever I would have the honor of being invited and if my time permitted. A few weeks ago I was asked by Ateneo MBA students to be one of the speakers for their culminating event, "Night with Entrepreneurs."…
We've heard it so many times for entrepreneurs - how you have to know how to fail in order to succeed. I wanted to dissect how exactly this is so. How exactly does failure help you succeed? My first instinct in answering this question is to look at my own entrepreneurial journey. Has failure helped me? When asked…
Juan Great Leap will be holding its NOVEMBER EDITION of OPEN COFFEE on November 30, 2013. Yolanda-themed Just for this edition of Open Coffee, we shall be slightly increasing the entrance fee to P200 (we usually charge P100 for venue and simple snacks). The extra cash shall be given to Yolanda typhoon victims. You may give more…
When I arrived home Sunday night to watch news on what happened with the super typhoon, I was in shock. The first few aerial pictures of Tacloban were coming in. It was utter devastation. Worse, there was a blackout on how people actually were on the affected islands as all communication lines were down. It was getting…
Okay, so you've given both money and items in kind. You've volunteered your time and helped packed goods. Chances are though (especially if you've seen the gut-wrenching footage), you're still asking: WHAT ELSE CAN I DO WHAT ELSE CAN I DO WHAT ELSE CAN I DO? Perhaps one thing is to do what this blog advocates. Be…
Coming from a weekend retreat, I only recently saw footage of the utter devastation wrought by Yolanda. For a good hour, my wife Pauline and I were just silently watching, with a hand on our mouths. I've never seen this kind of footage from Ondoy, Habagat, or even the recent 7.2 Bohol earthquake. It was heartbreaking. I…
Recently, I took a picture of the weekly FLEXIBLE BENEFIT products we received in our office and now had to deliver to our clients: There were hundreds of items ordered in a span of a few days. It was the very first time I've seen this many orders made in our system. We had to find a…
I've been in the Philippines for almost exactly a year now. Oh, what an incredible ride it has been so far. Within the year, I've had so many different experiences from starting things up with JGL to a brief stint at co.lab to being part of the launch of Ashoka Philippines. Life has been unpredictable. I've been…
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.…
Our Brief Fling With Payroll More than a few years ago, when STORM was finding out first hand that we still needed to educate the market about flexible benefits, we were scrambling on ways on how to generate more sales. I had an idea. "Let's offer payroll!" My several justifications were many: to be known as both…