Science For Innovation

SCIENCE FOR THE PEOPLE
SCIENCE
FOR
I N N O VA T I O N
ALL ABOUT TECHNOLOGY
B U S I N E S S I N C U B AT O R S
M A R E T F O L L O S C O - B A U T I S TA
ROBINA GOKONGWEI-PE
F O R T U N AT O T . D E L A P E Ñ A
SCIENCE FOR THE PEOPLE
SCIENCE
FOR
I N N O VA T I O N
M A R E T F O L L O S C O - B A U T I S TA
ROBINA GOKONGWEI-PE
F O R T U N AT O T . D E L A P E Ñ A
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SCIENCE FOR COMMUNITIES

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TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S
Preface 11
I . A L L A B O U T I N C U B AT I O N 13
I I . I D E AT I O N : P R O V I D I N G 33
MARKET SOLUTIONS
III. NETWORKING: FINDING THE 41

RIGHT MENTORS AND MARKETS
I V. A N E N T R E P R E N E U R I A L 53
MINDSET: DEVELOPING THE
PROOF OF CONCEPT (POC)
V. I N C U B AT I O N O P T I O N S : 61
THE RIGHT TBI FOR YOU
VI. LINK AND LEARN: THE 75

I M P O R TA N C E O F B U I L D I N G
PA R T N E R S H I P S
VII. OF HACKERS AND HUSTLERS: 83

BUILDING A LEAN TEAM WITH THE
R I G H T M I X O F TA L E N T S
V I I I . B U I L D I N G C R E D I B I L I T Y: 97
PITCHING AND IDENTIFYING
LINKAGES
IX. THE CROWD HAS 105

SPOKEN: TESTING THE
IDEA THROUGH PITCHING
COMPETITIONS
X . C A P I TA L 1 0 1 : 115
SECURING FUNDING
XI. PILOT PROJECTS: 125

TESTING THE IDEA IN
THE REAL WORLD
XII. TRENDS, CHALLENGES, 135

AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR
T H E P H I L I P P I N E S TA R T U P
ECOSYSTEM
References and Further Reading 147

Image Credits 153
Interviews 157
Acknowledgments 159
About the Authors 161
S C I E N C E F O R I N N O VAT I O N
P R E FA C E
It seems like there’s never been a riskier time to start a business. As

consumer spending shifts to what’s essential, and limits on global travel
disrupt supply chains, anyone with an entrepreneurial spirit is probably
asking themselves the same question: What now?
But “What now?” is exactly the same question that many bright minds
have had to ask themselves before inventing a new solution, whether it is
a product or process. In other words: an innovation.
In this book, we will be talking about how wild ideas become real-life
innovations, nurturing, stress-testing, and redesigning them before they
are released into the world in a vital process that ensures their viability
known as incubation.
Along the way, we’ll hear the stories of startups that have made it, and
the valuable lessons that they’d like to share with the business-minded:
those who not only want to survive through tough times—but find a way
forward, to thrive.
MARET ROBINA F O R T U N AT O
F O L L O S C O - B A U T I S TA GOKONGWEI-PE T. DE L A PEÑA
1
13
Chapter
ALL ABOUT
I N C U B AT I O N
14 S C I E N C E F O R I N NOVAT I O N
Before the widespread adoption of the internet and mediums

like podcasts, webinars, and even YouTube, ideas took a long
time to become a reality.
But thanks to these platforms, there is a healthy and robust

exchange of ideas now all over the world. Before you know
it, these very same platforms have allowed those ideas to get
funded, prototyped, produced, and launched.
This current fast pace of the global product development

cycle is due to a confluence of factors:
• Active collaboration between business, academe, and

government;
• Funding support from an increasing number of
sources: hedge funds, seed fund organizations, angel
investors, and even the government itself;
• Efficient platforms to market, sell, and deliver new
products (e.g., online markets);
• Economic incentives and infrastructure support from
the government; and
• Developments in technology—which circulate ideas
further.
As such, businesses have to keep up with the fast pace. There’s

even a special term for businesses that are designed to launch
a product in the market very quickly: a startup.
The term traces its origins to a 1976 Forbes magazine article

talking about “startups in the electronic data processing field.”
The magazine later on defined startups as young companies
established to develop a unique product or service, bring it
15
to market, and make it irresistible for customers. Compared

to regular companies at the time, startups were driven
more by innovation and broke existing templates of how a
business should work. That’s why they are often referred to as
“disruptors” in their respective industries.
Startups often harness technologies to come up with original

products and reinvent business models. For instance, while
agriculture has been considered a traditional sector, agritech
startups are fast becoming the force behind breakthrough
innovations that lead to more efficient food production and
sustainability solutions.
Startups vs. SMEs

According to renowned business school
professor and entrepreneur Steve Blank,
startups are considered temporary
organizations that are searching for a
repeatable and scalable model. In this
sense, they are expected to scale faster
over a relatively short period of time
(e.g., 10 to 15 times its initial size in
the span of three to four years).
Small and medium size enterprises (SMEs),

on the other hand, are more designed for
profit from the get-go. They are operated by
a specific number of employees and driven
primarily by constant profitability and
consistent long-term value. Hence, they
make slower progress than startups and
often require less capital.
Another glaring difference is that SMEs

rely on more developed technologies and
rarely try to invent something new or
disruptive.
16 S C I E N C E F O R I N NOVAT I ON
Although startups can grow explosively and become

unicorns—the industry term for companies valued at over
one billion dollars—they face enormous risks. On the other
hand, SMEs deal with less risks. Their profit generation,
while smaller, tends to be more stable.
In the Philippines, SMEs are the economic lifeblood. They

account for 99% of registered businesses in the Philippines
and employ 63% of the country’s workforce.
At the same time, the startup ecosystem in the Philippines has

also been steadily growing in recent years. It is now home to
over 400 startups and has become a vibrant community.
However, startups in the country still face many challenges—

like market readiness, talent acquisition, access to networks,
access to capital and technologies, and regulatory requirements.
Struggling with these problems, first-time entrepreneurs and
new firms can lose everything. In fact, global statistics show
that nine out of ten startups actually fail.
This is where the process of incubation comes in: the

incubators and accelerators.
Similar to how egg incubators provide the right environment

and favorable conditions for eggs to hatch, business
incubators support early-stage startups by building a
controlled and enabling environment to innovate and grow
until the business can thrive on its own. Business incubators
are enterprises that facilitate the development of startups by
providing an array of targeted resources and services such as
office space, shared resources, business support, and access to
17
networks and funding. The main objective of an incubator is

to further nurture the concept behind a startup or innovation,
build relevant linkages, gain customer traction, and guide
the startup toward revenue generation until it can be self-
sustaining.
Incubators are different from accelerators. Unlike incubation,

acceleration has to do with investing in businesses that have
proven the scalability of their concept. And just like the term
implies, they help startups scale very fast, usually through the
injection of investment funds that can help them build their
platforms or enrich their features—which will in turn bring
plenty of users.
Today, many entities serve as enablers of startups or

innovations. They include:
• Academic institutions like universities (e.g., the

University of the Philippines, which has established
various technology business incubation facilities in
campuses, like the DOST-UP Enterprise Center for
Technopreneurship)
• Government agencies that provide legal, marketing,
and technological assistance to information and
communications technology or ICT-based startups
• Nonprofit and development organizations (e.g., IdeaSpace
Foundation, a nonprofit organization supported by
various private institutions in promoting innovation,
technology development, and entrepreneurship as a
path to nation-building)
• Large corporations/corporate incubators (e.g.,
917Ventures, a corporate incubator in the Philippines
18 S C IE N C E F O R I N N OVAT I ON
under Ayala Corporation, for innovators in e-commerce,

fintech, health tech, and ad tech sectors based in
Southeast Asia)
• Venture capital firms, angel investors, or seed investors
who invest in startups in exchange for equity (e.g. JG
Digital Equity Ventures or JGDEV, the JG Summit/
Gokongwei Group’s venture capital arm)
The Miriam College

Henry Sy Sr. Innovation
Center (HSSIC)
Miriam College along Katipunan Ave. starts
their students at a young age through their
Henry Sy Sr. Innovation Center (HSSIC).
In fact, their youngest incubatees are
from the ninth and tenth grade levels.
These include Cusvita Observe, a system
that monitors utilities to prevent the
solitary death of elders, and Kinesthetic
Productions, which creates VR/AR (virtual
19
reality/augmented reality) mobile apps

customized for an educational institution’s
needs.
Envisioned as the first integrated

makerspace in the country, the MC-HSSIC
has different areas depending on the field
that the budding innovator—from preschool
onward—may be interested in: a multimedia
lab for software and content creation; a
performance lab that converts into an art
exhibition space; a makers’ cafe to develop
food concepts; an instru-lab with hand-
held tools, sensors, and building materials
for aspiring STEM (science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics) specialists;
a fabrication lab with 3D printers to bring
their ideas to physical form; a coworking
space; and an electronics lab where even
middle and high school students can access
learning tools for robotics and coding.
The innovation culture is so integrated
into their curriculum that they even have
a theater for their demo days or pitching
events, which they call the "innovatrium."
Meanwhile, their incubation program is
called "The Nursery" and runs for six
months.
"In the incubation program, we hold weekly

sessions on technology and business
development. We have on-demand sessions,
mentorship programs, and pitching
sessions. Once an incubatee graduates
from the incubation program, they can
extend their stay with us for another six
months under The Grade School Extended
Residency Program, which is more focused on
legalizing the ventures, access to funding,
and the mentorship program," says TBI
manager Cristina Ibañez.
20 S C I E NC E F O R IN N OVAT IO N
She adds that their incubatees are very

diverse. "Aside from honing the teams from
Miriam College, we also take in incubatees
from the community. Our incubatees are a
mix of high school students, those from the
higher education units, faculty teams, and
professionals... and since the program is
online, we have an incubatee all the way
from Sultan Kudarat."
Inside the Miriam College Henry Sy, Sr. Innovation Center (MC-HSSIC)
is the latest equipment to cultivate the interest of young innovators. Photo
courtesy of MC-HSSIC.
21
I N C U B AT I N G A B U S I N E S S
How does business incubation work?
Finding the right incubator. Similar to the first step in

incubating and hatching chicken eggs, it is important to find
the right incubator to increase its “hatch rate.” There are
many ways to do this, but the first step is always research. It
is important to know which incubators share the same vision
as your company and whose expertise can really contribute to
growing the business or innovation.
For instance, it is common knowledge that the Silicon Valley

cluster has been a magnet for entrepreneurs and tech-based
startups around the world because of its established business
infrastructure, resource pool, and flourishing marketplace.
Furthermore, with an environment fueled by innovation,
collaboration, and risk-taking, it offers the best motivational
framework for young tech companies. In fact, a similar center
for the tech scene called the Silicon Alley has blossomed in
Manhattan, New York, then there’s the Silicon Beach in Los
Angeles, California, Silicon Hills in Austin, Texas, and so on.
The bottom line is that joining the right community will
naturally lead you to the right incubator.
Sometimes, the right one is within one’s existing network

of mentors or peers. Another way is to apply to incubator
programs, seed funding competitions, or any other similar
platform that can be an opportunity to meet not only
incubators but also investors, partners, or potential clients
that can widen one’s network.
Building the right environment. Once a business incubator

accepts a startup, the immediate next step is to build the right
environment before actually going into business. Similar to
how incubators for chicken eggs must be running at least 24
hours prior to hatching to allow the environment to stabilize,
this is where the incubator and startup warm up to each other.
They discuss and agree on the relationship, services, priorities,
timeline, and most importantly, the incubator's share in the
business’ future profits.
When Filipino payments startup PayMongo applied to Y

Combinator (YC), one of Silicon Valley's leading startup
accelerators, which invested in companies like Airbnb, Stripe,
and Twitch, they didn't even have a product yet. Founder
Francis Plaza said they just had a compelling story. At this
stage, the relationship between PayMongo and YC was
one of mentorship. As YC says on their website: “We work
intensively with the companies for three months to get them
into the best possible shape and refine their pitch to investors.
Each cycle culminates in Demo Day when the startups
present their companies to a carefully selected, invitation-
only audience. But YC doesn’t end on Demo Day. We and
the YC alumni network continue to help founders for the life
of their company, and beyond.”
For their part, the incubator usually gets a share of the business
called an equity stake. They get their payback when the
company starts to profit, and the earnings are split according
to every party’s share, known as dividends. Every decision at
this point about how to engage with the incubator, and what
each one will put in and receive, just like in any business
partnership, will have consequences in the future. The key is
23
that the environment should be mutually beneficial for the

startup and the incubator for the next steps to work. Keep
in mind that setting cold eggs in a warm incubator will just
cause the eggs to crack.
Setting it up. An essential thing to bear in mind is that

business incubators look for more than just a good concept.
This is the holding stage at the outset where the incubator
would help the startup refine their big idea, as well as their
business model, and ensure that it is viable and relevant to
the market. This also involves building a team of people
with the right expertise and who can bring the concept and
plan into life. The incubator is also expected to help build
the startup’s capacity in dealing with the legal, organizational,
and administrative matters required in operating the business.
Incubating and growing. Incubating eggs is a slow process

and entails a lot of work—from the frequent turning of
eggs, to monitoring the temperature every now and then, to
adding water as necessary in order to maintain humidity. It
is no different from incubating a startup. However, the hard
work would all be worth it when the incubation leads to a
win-win situation both for the startup and the incubator. To
help startups succeed, incubators continuously provide:
• Workspace or access to free or heavily discounted

office space and basic amenities like printers or
internet connectivity (this will help the business cut
overhead costs);
• Startup services like human resource management
and recruitment, accounting, legal, manufacturing,
24 S C IE N C E F O R I N N OVAT IO N
marketing, or computer software services (to ensure

the business can launch);
• Business advice or a network of mentors to share their
knowledge to first-time entrepreneurs (this minimizes
costly errors—i.e., the startup learns from their
mentors’ mistakes); and
• Skills training in presentation, intellectual property
management, regulatory compliance, developing a
sales process, and setting a positive workplace culture.
The key benefit that incubation provides is access—from

funding, to services, to learning, people, and opportunities.
Completing the hatch. After a successful incubation period,

chicks will begin to peep from the eggs, and once they are
completely dry and fluffy, they will be moved to the brooder
to complete the hatch. In the context of business incubation,
this is usually the phase where the startup begins to “hatch” and
generate revenue, meet the market, and go on its way to being
financially viable and self-sustaining. There’s no prescribed
period as to how long startups should be supported by their
incubators. The average is usually two years, but this always
depends on how the business does in terms of meeting the
objectives and goals that it sets together with the incubator.
Extra push. After incubation, some startups proceed to

join the programs of accelerators, which more rapidly help
businesses grow and secure capital and additional funds
through angel investors, seed funding, loans, or grants, while
exposing them to more pitching platforms, networking
activities, training, and local and international programs.
25
Technology Business
Incubators from Paris
to 'PINAS'
There are business incubators that
target enterprises with high or advanced
technology content. Called technology
business incubators (TBIs), they
particularly support tech-based startups to
evolve and grow into mature tech businesses
by providing specialized services like
trainings in technology transfer and
commercialization.
In the Philippines, technology business

incubation is one of the strategies
identified by the Department of Science
and Technology (DOST) to create jobs,
develop entrepreneurs, and promote regional
economic development.
According to the European Central

Bank, innovations can lead to higher
productivity, meaning the same input create
greater output. So, the economy grows.
What’s more, it mirrors the type of economy
we have now: a knowledge-based world
economy where ideas spread quickly through
various online platforms.
No wonder governments are devoting budgets

to create their own tech scenes.
Of note is France, who calls their startup

scene “La French Tech,” which had an
annual budget of EUR 1.3 billion and an
additional EUR 4.3 billion rescue fund
during the pandemic. The program was led
by a Filipino, Katherine Borlongan, until
she stepped down as director in July 2021.
It has since produced 18 unicorns by
offering long-term visas and scholarships

to incubatees, among others. The idea is to
attract startup leaders with a proven track
record in other countries to come to the
nation renowned for its fashion, museums,
wine, and sophisticated culture in order to
assert its sovereignty—not needing to rely
on imports for technological products and
services. French President Emmanuel Macron
has even appointed a Minister for Digital
Affairs.
TBIs IN THE PHILIPPINES: A

HISTORY
TBIs have been around in the Philippines since the ‘80s,

evolving from one form to another. Prior to this, research
institutions were oriented toward academic research. “Science
was in an ivory tower,” recalled former Department of Science
and Technology (DOST) Undersecretary Dr. Eduardo R.
Magtoto (1989–1992). “It was science for science’s sake.”
Dr. Ceferino L. Follosco, a well-loved industrialist and

DOST secretary from 1989 to 1992, was behind the idea
of establishing science and technology (S&T) parks and
starting an incubation program as part of the agency’s master
plan for the modernization of the production sector through
massive technology transfer, the upgrading of research
and development (R&D) activities, the development of
infrastructures, institution building, and the development
of manpower and S&T culture. To differentiate, while
incubators facilitate the growth of startups by providing them
27
After his stint with

the government, Dr.
Follosco was invited
to the DOST and
state university–based
TBIs in the regions
to continue to assess
and provide guidance
on how to improve
the program. Photo
courtesy of the
National Academy
of Science and
Technology (NAST).
with the necessary resources such as space and opportunities

for collaboration especially during the early stages of their
life cycle, a science park is a much more comprehensive
establishment that houses the interactions between the
government, the academe, and the private sector, fostering
an environment of continuous innovation and research and
making them the perfect venue for incubators to support
their startups.
For Dr. Follosco, the main driver was the need for systems
integration to coordinate the programs of the government,
the private sector, and the academe, in the form of business
clusters that follow the model of successful innovative
technical enterprises in Boston and Silicon Valley. This was
inspired by his stint as Task Force Chairman of the Metals
Industry Research and Development Center (MIRDC), back
then under the DTI but now under the DOST, which was
part of his responsibilities as then Undersecretary for Regional
28 S C I E N C E F O R I NN OVAT IO N
Operations. With all the renewed activity of the post-EDSA

Revolution era, he focused on bringing back the confidence of
the private sector to the DOST-MIRDC by setting up what
would be the first TBI models of the country, providing space,
equipment rentals, and consultancy services to outsiders to
inspire collaboration with government institutions.
He started with S&T parks, initiated in 1989 at the DOST

compound in Bicutan and at the University of the Philippines
in Los Baños (UPLB). The idea was twofold: (1) to encourage
the growth and development of fledgling tech startups by
building a technically oriented environment and taking
advantage of the concentration of scientists offering myriad
technical expertise, and (2) to bring the research outside of
purely academic endeavors in order to develop real-world and
practicable solutions to various industry verticals.
Within one month, a total of 35 locators were established

in Bicutan, each of which attained varying levels of success
even without the need for extra personnel, budget, and
other resources. With total cooperation obtained from all
stakeholders, the success of the project led the press to bring
more focus on the DOST and its projects. In 1990, President
Cory Aquino and the Japanese ambassador rode into the
Philippine Trade Training Center to inaugurate a techno fair
and launch the Science and Technology Master Plan (STMP).
Ultimately, this led to a 300% total increase in the DOST’s
budget over a span of three years.
In December 1990, what can be considered the first incubator

in the country started in an existing space at the Technology
Application and Promotion Institute (DOST-TAPI) in
29
On July 2, 2021, the authors—Maret Follosco-Bautista (above left),

Sec. Fortunato de la Peña (middle right), and Robina Gokongwei-Pe (bottom
left)—interviewed former DOST undersecretary Ed Magtoto (middle left) and
Ms. Sonia Tiong-Aquino (above right) to gain insight on the colorful beginnings
of the Philippine TBI ecosystem.
the Bicutan compound. This was followed in 1993 by the

incubator at the UP Institute for Small-Scale Industries (UP
ISSI), whose focus was on SMEs. A space on the ground floor
was remodeled to accommodate four to five tenants. Instead
of occupying a whole office, the smaller cuts gave tenants a
more manageable overhead while they explored the types of
products they could go to market with.
At the time, ICT had taken off, so the first locators were
information technology (IT)–related service providers of
computer-aided design and sound-aided machine monitoring
for preventive maintenance, as well as consultants on energy
conservation for those seeking to design electronics. These
30 S C I E N C E F O R IN N OVAT IO N
included Julius Labrador, who attempted to recruit faculty

members for the task, and Jimmy Itao. Mr. Itao's engineering
maintenance company is now 32 years old, but it spent some
of its early years in the UP ISSI, selling and distributing
electronics components while they found their footing, to
the chagrin of some faculty members who were keen to see
startups working on product development.
Incubators were still being tested as a model for developing

enterprises, alongside the concept of technology assistance
(i.e., helping a private company adopt an already developed
technology) under the DOST Industrial Technology
Development Institute (DOST-ITDI).
In 1995, the DOST moved the management of the incubator

to Diliman under the then newly opened Technology
Management Center—meant to assist industries with
technology upgrading and the Philippine government with
technology forecasting—under Elvira A. Zamora and Leoncio
"Dong" Cubillas.
Acknowledging the role of the incubator in providing more

than just office space, Sonia Tiong-Aquino, who served as
deputy director at the UP ISSI, recalled that they would
invite banks to sell their loan products to the companies
located on their ground floor. There was also a handful of
“semi-TBIs” or common service facilities, like the Food and
Nutrition Research Institute (DOST-FNRI), the Industrial
Technology Development Institute (DOST-ITDI), and, of
course, the Metals Industry and Research and Development
Center (DOST-MIRDC). “Many institutions of the DOST
31
TBIs have been in the Philippines since the 1980s and its origins were rooted in
science. In 1987, the Technology Application and Promotion Institute (DOST-
TAPI) was founded. It envisioned to be the strategic partner in advancing
national socio-economic growth by advocating a culture of innovation and
promoting globally competitive and useful technologies in the country. Three
years later, what can be considered as the first incubator in the country started in
an existing space at the DOST-TAPI in Bicutan. Photo courtesy of DOST-TAPI.
were putting up incubators,” Ms. Tiong-Aquino said. “Each

one had their own definition.”
In Los Baños, a vacant building was converted into a food

packaging R&D center, while in UP Visayas, there was an
initiative to re-engineer an existing facility used for fish
processing into an incubator for aquaculture technologies.
Similarly, a vacant space at the Philippine Textile Research
Institute (DOST-PTRI) in Taguig became a research center
for silkworm breeding and weaving.
The first purpose-built structure started operating in 1997:

the DOST-UP-Ayala TBI in UP Diliman in a compound
near CP Garcia and Katipunan that celebrated the private-
public partnership among the government, the academe, and
32 S C I E N C E F O R I N N OVAT I O N
the private sector. With a common area for meetings and

basic equipment like copying machines, the site hosted 18
businesses, mostly in automation, electronics, and energy.
To break out of the infancy stage, the DOST invited partners

from Germany and Silicon Valley to share their knowledge
about establishing successful TBIs by conducting feasibility
studies before launching. From this exchange of knowledge
came the second-generation TBIs, which were different from
the first generation since they had focus areas for product
development that will be delved into in the succeeding chapters:
the DOST-UP Enterprise Center for Technopreneurship, the
DOST-Cebu TBI, the DOST-UPLB TBI, and the DOST-
Central Luzon State University (CLSU) TBI. (The first ever
incubator in TAPI has since been phased out.)
In the same spirit, the DOST is scouting more places to

become incubators all over the Philippines, like those for the
priority industries identified in each region (e.g., ceramics in
Iligan City, aquaculture in Bohol and Region 6 or Western
Visayas in general, animal breeding in the north). With the
DOST funding the lab equipment being used in incubators,
universities that were already ground zero for related research
were chosen as the host sites for TBIs; currently, the DOST
funds six.
At the same time, incubators established by venture capital

companies, entrepreneurs, and corporations are also thriving.
As such, the DOST is working to strengthen collaborative
partnerships among public and private incubators and even
R&D partners abroad.
2
33
Chapter
I D E AT I O N :
PROVIDING
MARKET
SOLUTIONS
34 S C IE N C E F O R IN N OVAT I O N
The first step in any business is ideation or coming up with

breakthrough ideas.
Katrina Chan, previously the head of growth and strategy

at IdeaSpace Foundation, one of the first private tech
accelerators in the Philippines, has listened to the big ideas of
a lot of startups—from the very profit-oriented to those who
just want to create value for users.
P R O F IT V S . VA LU E
To understand the difference between businesses
geared for profit versus value, take the music
app Spotify: It has 365 million users who love its
core product (access to millions of songs), but
given their revenues (they only have 165 million
paying subscribers) minus their costs (they must
pay artists per song streamed), they’re actually
not profitable yet. That said, the brand is highly
valued in the New York stock market—NYSE stock
symbol: SPOT—and at some point in February 2021,
their share price was higher than USD 300, with a
market capitalization of USD 69.35 billion.
Currently, Ms. Chan is the executive director at QBO, an

innovation hub that’s part of the Philippine government’s
program to implement startup-friendly policies, similar to
Malaysia, Singapore, and France. Inspired by the humble bahay
kubo, the hub is meant to be inclusive and accommodating
to a lot of “first-time founders,” as well as to encourage
bayanihan or teamwork.
“Our model at QBO, everyone can join, or everyone that has

a startup can be a member; we don't charge anything,” she
said.
35
QBO is the first TBI born out of a public-private partnership

with the DOST. Unlike most TBIs, however, which are
supported by their affiliate universities, and apart from grants
from the DOST, QBO does not receive funding from the
government. The Innovation Hub is essentially structured as
a nonprofit; to supplement any resources they would need in
nurturing their startups, QBO engages in partnerships with
corporate entities and other organizations. In return, QBO
links them up with incubatees who may be able to work with
them in their own innovation strategy.
Among the people that have passed through QBO's doors is

Kumu, the livestreaming platform which is in the running to
be one of the Philippines’ first unicorns (read: startups with a
market valuations of at least one billion—in this case, pesos).
Initially, they pitched something akin to Viber. In Ms. Chan’s
recollection: “We were, I think, the first incubation program
that they joined. And it was through the course of this program
that they were able to refine their value proposition; they met
their first investors and sort of got credibility that way.”
When excited entrepreneurs come in bouncing big ideas,

QBO is there to catch them and help refine their concept by
looking at three things:
1. Size of Prize
The first thing Ms. Chan advises startups who want to

succeed is to look at the market size or Total Addressable
Market (TAM).
36 S C I E N C E F O R IN N OVAT I O N
From QBO's
2020 QLITAN,
where attendees
meet new people
and hear from the
various members
of the QBO
"QMMUNITY."
Photos courtesy of
QBO's Facebook
page.
Ms. Chan explains it by way of two questions: “How big

is the problem that they're trying to solve? And how many
people could it impact if it actually worked?”
The problem and the proposed solution are then boiled down
into a crisp statement called a core vision. QBO has one itself,
which is: Filipino startups changing the world by supporting
an ecosystem for highly impactful solutions.
For QBO incubatee Senti AI, their solution was a bot that
could power automated bills payment. A customer can ask
a question in Taglish like: “Until when ako pwede magbayad
37
ng phone bill during ECQ?” (Until when can I pay for my

phone bill during ECQ?) And the bot, which is designed
with a dual language capability to also understand questions
in the vernacular, will reply with the grace period. When the
customer then asks: “Okay. Magkano ang babayaran ko?”
(Okay. How much do I have to pay for?), the bot can pull up
the actual bill and payable amount.
For this, Senti AI received a Breakthrough Partner Award

from Google Cloud and closed projects with the Asian
Development Bank, Unilever, the International Rice
Research Institute, two malls, the Department of Education,
the Supreme Court, and a host of companies that just wanted
to improve their customer experience—proving the usability
of their solutions.
2. Timing
Ms. Chan said: “I think that's probably one of the most

important things that differentiate if a startup succeeds: It has
the right idea at the right time.”
At the end of the incubation or acceleration (depending

on what the startup has entered QBO for), QBO regularly
conducts their version of a demo day, a presentation of ideas
that have been refined into working business models. QBO
calls their demo day "Showqase."
During the pandemic, QBO held one that was specifically

focused on finding B2B or business-to-business solutions. As
the name implies, it is when a business sells products chiefly
to other companies rather than directly to consumers. The
According to QBO executive director Katrina Chan, they don't charge startups
to join their incubator. As its name suggests, QBO puts bayanihan or teamwork
at the forefront of their values. This allows for an accommodating environment
for first-time founders. Photo courtesy of QBO.
most recent batch included platforms like Last Mile Inc.

(which aggregates logistics providers—a godsend in the time
of deliveries), Packworks (helps set up small corner stores
with a simple interface for online ordering), and ChatGenie
(which keeps track of a brand’s conversational commerce
channels, including Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Viber,
GCash, and PayMaya, all in one place).
“There's a huge variety,” Ms. Chan said. “But what they had
in common was they were all serving other businesses and
helping them adapt to these crazy times.”
3. Right to Win
Lastly, every startup is destined for the idea that they can
implement well, based on their level of grit (“their ability to
roll with the punches,” as Ms. Chan says), familiarity with the
39
industry or business model, and if there's any traction or user

feedback that the startup has already acquired.
Of note is another startup from the B2B Showqase: Nudgyt,

which is also the name of their platform that encourages
employees working from home to engage more with their tasks
through the power of nudges. The concept alone is fascinating,
popularized by the book Nudge: Improving Decisions about
Health, Wealth, and Happiness, which is about how humans
make choices—often poorly—and how to influence them to
make better ones. For this, the team received sponsorships
from Google, Microsoft, and the Association of Science,
Technology, and Research in Singapore.
Ms. Chan says: “It's really the team and the people executing
that idea that make the difference.”
Case in point: Nudgyt was represented at the Showqase by

their chief technology officer Kathleen Yu, who has eight
years of behavioral science and machine learning experience.
While Ms. Chan believes that part of what helps startups succeed is having the
right idea at the right time, the team behind the execution of these ideas makes
all the difference. Photo courtesy of QBO.
SAFE SPACES FOR

WOMEN IN TECH "When a female
founder pitches,
they get asked
wildly different
questions,
sometimes
inappropriate
ones, like, ‘Oh,
are you planning
to get married or
have kids?’ Things
that you would
never ask a guy
that's pitching a
business idea. So,
I think the whole
intention is to
be more conscious
about some of
these issues, some of the barriers that have
discouraged women from participating in the
tech startup space. We have a few programs
where we really discuss and encourage more
women to to talk about their issues actively.
We also encourage and invite more female
investors and female mentors. And it's also,
honestly, engaging a lot of male allies, and
experienced startup leaders to mentor more
women, because currently, it's less likely
for women to show up to pitch and have the
confidence to do what they're doing. Everything
we're doing, it's making sure we don't have,
say, seminars or workshops where there's a
panel of just six guys, right? Or just not
having events that are super late at night
and uncomfortable for women to join. We
are actively identifying, showcasing, and
celebrating women entrepreneurs.”
— Katrina Chan
Executive Director
QBO Innovation Hub
3
41
Chapter
NETWORKING:
FINDING
THE RIGHT
MENTORS AND
MARKETS
Two types of people are often instrumental in a company’s

journey and success: investors—who infuse capital to start up
or scale—and mentors.
A mentor is a teacher, adviser, and motivator with more

knowledge and experience in a given endeavor. For
entrepreneurs, having a trusted mentor is crucial not only
in helping them during the ideation stage but throughout
their journey in building their business. A mentor instills
the discipline to lead them to enact proper processes and
stimulate their mental capacities to take on the challenges
of building a startup. As Roger W. Ferguson Jr., former chief
executive officer (CEO) and president of TIAA (Teachers
Insurance and Annuity Association of America)—the
Fortune 100 financial services organization focused on
enabling the academe, research, medicine, cultural work, and
government—advised, “Find a good mentor, the kind who
Home to their very own Center for Innovation and Technopreneurship,

Batangas State University incorporates Technopreneurship 101 in all its
Engineering, Technology, and Computer Science programs. In the photo
is their Knowledge Innovation and Science Technology Park (KIST) on
campus. Photo courtesy of Batangas State University KIST Park.
43
can make you a better professional—but never forget that the

relationship is about giving as much as taking.”
This is true for the Philippine developers of BRYCE or

Biodiesel Reactor Yielding Commercially Available Energy,
who benefited from a strong support system.
R E A C H I N G I N T E R N AT I O N A L
PRESENCE
First prototyped overseas by a partner school, the Singapore

Polytechnic, the BRYCE machine turns waste cooking oil
into eco-friendly and cost-efficient biodiesel that can power
up generators. According to BRYCE CEO Sheena Manarin,
an engineer at Samsung Electro-Mechanics, one of their
motivations in furthering the project in the Philippines is the
chance to help cities that often experience power interruptions
to have an alternative energy source to keep the lights on.
Helping them was their incubator, the Batangas State University-

Center for Technopreneurship and Innovation (BatStateU-CTI).
BatStateU-CTI, established in 2014, is a university-based TBI
that aims to harness R&D output from the university, as well
as the innovation skills of aspiring entrepreneurs within the
region, for real-world applications. Apart from getting support
from the university, BatStateU-CTI is also a regular recipient of
project grants from the DOST-PCIEERD (Philippine Council
for Industry, Energy, and Emerging Technology Research and
Development), including two in 2015 and 2018, respectively
(the latter of which is as part of the DOST-PCIEERD's TBI
4.0 program).
The BRYCE team also went to the DOST in Taguig and the Department of
Energy in Makati to test the biodiesel product. Unfortunately, when the team
was scheduled for another run-through in January 2020, the pandemic happened.
However, the development continued. A new batch of students from BatStateU-
CTI are currently managing phase two of the biodiesel reactor. Photo courtesy
of Wikimapia.org.
With their commitment to technopreneurship, BatStateU-CTI

already had a dedicated instrumentation team that helped
BRYCE automate the conversion process. “So from just the start
button, we can have the biodiesel out of the waste cooking oil,”
BRYCE chief operating officer Daniely Mendoza, an engineer
at JG Summit Petrochemical Corporation, said.
What’s more, their counterpart from the Singapore Polytechnic

flew to the Philippines to help with troubleshooting. This
included Dr. Andrew Kon, a chemical engineer, Yimi Ng, who
served as the project coordinator, and chemical engineering
student Wei Jun Chen, who provided the initial design of the
prototype. “With them coming personally here in the Philippines,
they imparted to us valuable knowledge and skills both technical
and interpersonal. Most especially Dr. Kon, he’s very hands-on
45
in terms of the technicalities of the project. Whenever we face

difficulties in the project, we don’t hesitate to ask him because
we know that biodiesel is one of his specializations,” said Engr.
Manarin.
In the same month as the Singapore Polytechnic team’s

visit, the BRYCE team, which also includes Margie Pitel,
John Emmanuel Ramos, and Amir Macatangay, went
to their adopted community at Gawad Kalinga Arsenio
Village, Barangay San Pedro, in Batangas City. After a
series of discussions, feedback, and benchmarking from the
community, the machine was brought back to their local
fabricator in Batangas, who gamely helped them with further
enhancements.
Engr. Rejie Magnaye, BRYCE team mentor and a faculty

member of BatStateU-CTI, and the whole team highlighted
BRYCE or Biodiesel Reactor Yielding Commercially Available Energy is a

machine that produces biodiesel from waste cooking oil. BRYCE was named
one of the top ten tech startups of 2021 by Shell LiveWIRE.
Photo courtesy of BRYCE.
the importance of linkages and partnerships in achieving

prosperous results not only in the financial aspect but as well as
in developing the confidence of each team member. Recently,
BRYCE was included by Shell LiveWIRE, a flagship program
of Shell promoting local youth startups to help stimulate the
economy, in its top ten tech startups in 2021.
F R O M WA S T E T O P O I N T S
Another proud alumnus of BatStateU-CTI is ROBIN,

short for their product Recycle On-Demand Bin. ROBIN
is a reverse vendo machine that accepts PET (Polyethylene
Terephthalate) bottles and aluminum cans, which the
machine then identifies as recyclable or not. “The machine
ROBIN, or Recycle On-

Demand Bin, is a reverse vendo
machine that recognizes PET
bottles and aluminum cans as
recyclables and turns them into
points for users to purchase
load or wi-fi connection from
ROBIN’s partner shops. ROBIN
was recently awarded a spot
in Launchgarage, a startup
accelerator and tech innovation
hub based in Manila. Photo
courtesy of ROBIN.
47
ROBIN’s Chief Technical Officer Engr. Emmanuel Bobis pitched their product
during the ASEAN–JAIF Business Matching Program in Singapore and has met
several investors who are interested in the startup. Photo courtesy of BatStateU-
CTI.
will give corresponding points, and the user can use those
points to buy from our partner shops or exchange them for
load or even wi-fi connection,” said Engr. Emmanuel Bobis,
CEO and founder of ROBIN.
To find markets, the ROBIN team is focused on demonstrating

the technology to end users. In 2019, Engr. Bobis had the
chance to attend a business matching program in Singapore
where he pitched during the event and met with several
investors.
Through their efforts, ROBIN nabbed two fundings—one

from the DOST-PCIEERD and another from Launchgarage,
a Manila-based startup accelerator and tech innovation hub
cofounded by Jojo Flores and Jay Fajardo, who are two big
names in the tech startup scene in Southeast Asia.
48 S C I E NC E F O R I NN OVAT IO N
Engr. Bobis was likely influenced by the ideas of the ROBIN

team’s adviser, Engr. Albertson Amante, who noted that
investors commonly prefer seeing the product through a
demo to see its viability.
Currently, team ROBIN is in communication with SM

City Batangas, some private establishments, and the local
government of Lipa and Batangas City who serve as partners
or are potential partners. Engr. Bobis is optimistic that the
demand for technologies like ROBIN will provide exponential
growth in their operations postpandemic, since he believes
that people are now more aware about environmental issues
and will see recycling as more relevant. They hope to deploy
more units, especially in public places.
IMPROVING ON THE TECHNOLOGY
Another startup that followed a similar model of marketing

their systems to local governments is SIGAW or Solar-
Powered Isotropic Generator of Acoustic Wave. It is a tsunami
early warning system for coastal communities that can also be
customized for any disaster risk management.
When a possible tsunami is detected by the local Municipal

Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (MDRRMO),
they can remotely access SIGAW’s portal to trigger the sensor
of the 10-foot-tall instrument connected to a 126-decibel
siren. This sets off an alarm audible up to a distance of 500
meters, as well as the transmission of a text broadcast to alert
community members. This follows the standard audible sound
49
for tsunami warnings as prescribed by the Philippine Institute

of Volcanology and Seismology (DOST-PHIVOLCS).
Engr. Amante, who serves as both TBI manager and Vice

President for Research, Development, and Extension Services
at BatStateU, was actually part of the team who developed
SIGAW in 2014. He joked, “Batangas is, aside from being
rich in natural resources, also very rich in natural disasters.”
Pitching to the DOST-ASTI (Advanced Science and

Technology Institute) and securing funding from the World
Food Program, the team was able to deploy 17 units of the
instrument around Batangas. This caught the attention of
local governments from nearby provinces. The DOST Region
4A (CALABARZON) requested their help to install units in
Quezon since the province is situated near the Pacific Ocean.
SIGAW or Solar-Powered
Isotropic Generator of
Acoustic Wave is an early
warning system for tsunami,
volcanic eruptions, and other
natural disasters. The team
has already deployed 17 units
of the instrument around
Batangas and has pledged to
install 25 more in Quezon.
Photo courtesy of Batangas
State University.
As per Engr.
Amante, they
were able to
install six units
of SIGAW
through a grant
from the DOST.
Image courtesy
of SIGAW and
BatStateU-CTI.
Aside from Engr. Amante, the team of SIGAW is currently

composed of Dr. Anton Louise de Ocampo, who heads
the Electronic Systems Research Center of Batangas State
University, and Mark Domingo, who will be assisting in
developing future units of the technology.
Engr. Amante says it is essential to collaborate in order to gain

footing in the innovation space. “If you don't collaborate,
you will evaporate,” he quipped.
SELF-IMPROVEMENT
Apart from learning how to write proposals to get their own

funding in future stages, the startups are most grateful for
the opportunity to join seminars, networking, and pitching
events through the TBI.
For Engr. Manarin, her experience with BRYCE has allowed

her to get an internship in South Korea in 2019. She took part
51
in the Shell Ignite PH 2020 seminar, a five-day event wherein

startups could connect with local and international investors.
From the event, BRYCE got two potential investors who are
currently waiting for the final result of their biodiesel before
they provide their full support.
Engr. Mendoza, on the other hand, managed to build her self-

confidence in presenting to different kinds of people. “Before
joining the competition, I was very shy to face people, but I
built my confidence because of that experience,” she said.
molding mindsets
BatStateU has been offering
technopreneurship courses as early as 2013.
Through the Visiting Professor Program

sponsored by PhilDev Foundation, the
university TBI’s manager, Engr. Amante, had
the opportunity to be mentored by Professor
Donald Howard Lewis Jr. of Texas A&M
University. He also helped Engr. Amante set
up the facility.
Mechanics-wise, BatStateU-CTI’s incubation

program begins with Technopreneurship 101,
which takes around five months. Their formal
incubation program begins with a call for
proposals, which usually lasts from eight to
twelve months.
Approved proposals that move on to the

next stage get a PHP 500,000 grant that
the university has allotted, plus funding
from other sponsors or agencies. After the
incubatees graduate, BatStateU-CTI also
connects them to funding agencies.
BatStateU-CTI is currently assisting two

universities in setting up their own TBIs—
one in Mindoro and another in Aurora.
Tips for working

with TBIs
1. Trust your TBI.
Remember that TBIs have a vast network,

from government agencies to universities
and established businesses, that could
potentially help you with your idea and
skills. BRYCE began their journey without
having any solid idea of what to develop
until they created their prototype.
BatStateU-CTI is also continuously providing
guidance even though the original developers
have left the project and university.
2. Be proactive.
Participating in events like pitching and

business matching does not only build
confidence but also adds value to startup
leaders. For the recycling startup ROBIN,
their strategy is to connect with the person
who directly handles the corporate social
responsibility (CSR) program of a company
and highlight their recycling technology’s
capabilities to help the environment. They
do this all through email marketing.
3. Think long-term.
Set up metrics that the venture will follow

even as team members change.
4
53
Chapter
AN
ENTREPRENEURIAL
MINDSET:
DEVELOPING THE
PROOF OF CONCEPT
(POC)
In the sleek Arts and Sciences Building along the breezy

Gorordo Avenue in Cebu City is an incubator wittily
called inIT. The IT is capitalized because of its focus on
information technology, which, according to the Department
of Information and Communications Technology (DICT),
generated an estimated revenue of USD 26.7 billion in 2020.
Founded in 2010, the UP Cebu Business Incubator for IT

welcomes both technical and nontechnical entrepreneurs.
UP Cebu inIT manager Jason Nieva says that if, for example,
a student of mass communication approaches them with
a random prototype in mind, they would be paired with a
mentor from the university’s computer science department to
help out in the technology side. At the same time, engineers
and programmers who come to them with their ideas will be
matched with mentors to teach them about cost structure
and other business concepts.
Here, a concept called the path to profitability comes into

play. Profit is what is left after a business subtracts all its
expenses from the revenues they generate from selling their
product. The path to profitability, then, is a clearly defined
route that takes an enterprise from starting up to generating
a profit.
In Mr. Nieva's experience, the course of business planning is

not always linear. He has seen startups with really good ideas
fail because they lack business knowledge.
This is why they’ve designed two programs at the TBI:

preincubation and incubation. Under preincubation, which
lasts from six months to one year, students are given initial
55
support in fine-tuning their business ideas. This is where they

check if their ideas are viable by outlining a business plan or
a written document that contains the business' goals, as well
as the methods and time frame it will take to achieve them.
By the end of the preincubation program, the graduates will

have a business model, a workable prototype, and a business
registration. Since the mentee will be shouldering costs for
registering and building their prototype, this preincubation
mentorship is free.
Meanwhile, during the incubation proper, incubatees are

expected to treat the startup as an already operational business,
but using a working prototype for testing, marketing, and
commercialization.
Physical locators at the UP Cebu inIT facilities at the UP Cebu Arts and
Sciences Building. Photo courtesy of Jun Madrid, UP Media and Public
Relations Office (MPRO) and UP Cebu inIT.
Apart from their core work helping startups, UP Cebu inIT is also now trying
to help micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) adopt digital
technology to add value to their businesses in the time of the pandemic. An
example would be restaurants that shifted to cloud kitchens that mainly deliver
their wares. The TBI manager said: “We’re not forcing them to change their
business model, but instead we’re just adding value.” Photo courtesy of Jun
Madrid, UP MPRO and UP Cebu inIT.
A prototype is a tool that serves as the

initial model of any product or service whose
features and functionality can be further
developed.
UP Cebu inIT charges startups with a minimal fee for the

incubation stage. This instills commitment in the startup and
helps them learn to manage their budget.
THINKING LIKE
AN ENTREPRENEUR
Mr. Nieva has many cautionary tales: the startup that rented
an office space only to realize later that most of their funding
57
went to rent. The one that started making a prototype without

confirming if their dream product had a strong market.
(It did not.) Or the most common: employees who resign
from their full-time jobs to focus on their startup, without
planning for their own salary. "When they think about the
business kasi parang they’re treating themselves as free service.
“'Yong fact, dapat may sweldo talaga sila" (When they think
about the business, it is like they’re treating themselves as free
service, when in fact they should have their own salary), said
Mr. Nieva.
Such failures emphasize the important role a TBI plays in the

early stages of a startup. And once these hurdles are cleared,
the same startups that made mistakes can become success
stories.
Third Team Media, a Cebu-based social media and digital

agency and one of the TBI’s first startups in 2010, is proving
its strong presence even during the pandemic. So is UP Cebu
inIT incubatee Genii Hut, a productivity-oriented software
development business that has already expanded with Payruler,
a human resource management software that organizes and
keeps track of all HR concerns, such as recruitment, employee
information, timekeeping, payroll, and the automation of
BIR reports.
And then there is Mataverse—a company in the exciting

new field of virtual reality (VR). PricewaterhouseCoopers,
a worldwide network of multinational professional services
firms, stated that VR and AR (augmented reality) have
the potential to contribute USD 1.5 trillion to the global
economy by 2030.
Mataverse CEO Ryan Tan Yu used to just aspire to become

the number one guy in the Philippine VR market. That was
until he realized that he needed more resources to scale.
Mr. Tan Yu applied for R&D funding from the DOST and
was eventually awarded with a grant. Here, the DOST played
the part of an active investor, supplying experts to help
Mataverse come up with a well-defined business purpose.
The VR company initially adopted a subscription-based
business model wherein they would build the software for
the client and offer it as a service. Later on, they modified
the subscription plan by offering a one-time flat rate for a
year-long service that would make it simpler to adopt for
traditional businesses.
“We figured that virtual reality deserves more than gimmicks,

more than promotional activities, more than just gaming,
because virtual reality at its core can be consumed by the
common consumer,” Mr. Tan Yu admitted.
Mataverse wound up building virtual tours for the tourism

and real estate industries.
This proved useful in the pandemic. One only needed a

computer, headset, mouse, or any touchscreen device to get
a 360-degree view of faraway places, complete with audio
prompts. For example, Amuma Mactan plays soothing elevator
jazz music to accompany its visitors while prospecting their
luxury home. Casa Gorordo Museum, meanwhile, welcomes
its virtual tourists with a short message from a narrator on
what to expect in the virtual tour. And then the Department
of Tourism's Virtual Cebu is a field guide of what the island
59
Mataverse’s real estate tours offer both day and night views through a split
screen.
Photos courtesy of
Mataverse, Inc.
can offer. Clicking on familiar tourist spots on the virtual map

leads to more 360-degree virtual tours of towns and cities.
With VR being a relatively new technology, Mataverse tries

its best not to confuse their clients from museums, as well as
the real estate and tourism sectors, with the technical details
of their service in the contract. For Mr. Tan Yu, specifying
every feature of the unfamiliar technology might produce
a seven-page contract that might overwhelm them. “A long
process kind of makes them hesitate or maybe drives them
away,” he said. Instead, they enclose all essential information,
such as the business offer, service rate, and the turnaround
time of the deliverables, in a one-page proposal letter.
Startups should learn how to identify possible deterrents

to their target clientele's experience, and ensure the service
or product they're providing works seamlessly for potential
customers. This is an important mindset for any startup to
keep as they evolve their business plans to stay relevant.
The Mataverse Team (Reymart, Jemar, and Vincent) with the Cebu Provincial
Tourism Staff headed by John Roland Tabuñag in a collaboration project to
take a 360-degree photo of all the tourism sites across the province of Cebu.
Photo courtesy of of Mataverse, Inc.
5
61
Chapter
I N C U B AT I O N
OPTIONS: THE
RIGHT TBI FOR
YOU
An inspiring physical workspace matters now more than

ever to create an uplifting and motivating atmosphere for
employees. It could be a well-lit room with an open office
layout minus dividers that could obstruct communication and
participation. Aside from computers and other paraphernalia,
plants could also be added to provide relaxing greenery. And
most importantly, internet connectivity should be smooth.
This is what Pat Wadors, former Senior Vice President

of Global Talent Organization at LinkedIn, described to
Forbes as a workspace that lessens the intimidating culture
One of the major benefits of entering an incubator is the cheaper rent

compared to getting an office in the central business districts. For iDEYA, this
is made possible by the fact that it is hosted in a real estate that’s not primarily
for commercial profit but more for the advancement of knowledge: the
university. Photo courtesy of iDEYA CIT MSU-IIT.
63
of work. There is a big difference between employees forcing

themselves to stay and finish their tasks versus being present
because they actually enjoy what they do.
Of course, the startup scene is one of the sectors that have

adopted a more contemporary approach, where physical
design is an integral part of creating a more inclusive and
collaborative experience. This spirit carries through in
university-based TBIs, private TBIs, and global TBIs.
UNIVERSITY-BASED TBIs
University-based TBIs allow startups to connect with experts in

the academe, and not just from their host school. An example
is the iDEYA Center for Innovation and Technopreneurship
hosted by the Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of
Technology (MSU-IIT). Supported by the DOST-PCIEERD,
it has already produced four batches of graduates in just four
years in cutting-edge industries, from fintech, to edutech, the
Internet of Things (IoT), and clean energy, to name a few.
Through their contacts, they convened an iDEYA Startup

Council composed of young marketing and operations
experts, as well as professors from the academe who can
be a sounding board for business ideas. iDEYA’s lead for
incubation, Ceej Brasileno Jr. (who happens to be a graduate
of the TBI himself ), emphasized two criteria for any new
venture in the ideas stage: profitability and sustainability.
Being in Mindanao, a major necessity for the iDEYA TBI

was the capability to connect outside the region. Dr. Jinky
Bornales—director of iDEYA and the vice chancellor for

research and extension at MSU-IIT—prioritized having
a strong, stable, and fast internet connection. “The virtual
space will be a space where everyone will converge, and we
have already started our programs online,” she explained.
That said, the team has had to contend on multiple occasions

with the sudden brownout and inadequate generator power
for internet connectivity. This has led them to create their
own backup plans, like bringing their own pocket modems
and assigning multiple Zoom hosts during presentations.
The Responsibilities
of Being First
Among TBIs, iDEYA is special: It is the
first technology business incubator in
Mindanao.
Being the pioneer, the first real challenge

the TBI faced was educating the region
about what a startup is and raising
the community’s level of awareness and
engagement. To do this, they introduced the
ideas of technopreneurship (introducing
new concepts of products and services
in the market), technology adoption
(how to infuse advanced equipment into
existing businesses), and design thinking
(understanding users, challenging
assumptions, and redefining problems to
come up with innovative solutions) in the
region.
65
Currently, iDEYA has startups from

different industry verticals: an agritech
e-commerce business focused on food
security, urban farming, and farming
education to help farmers in growing their
crops; a fintech company developing a
payment software system for websites; and
an artificial intelligence startup, among
others.
iDEYA's TEENPRENEUR program is an annual congress and competition

for high school students throughout Iligan and other neighboring provinces.
Students compete in several entrepreneurship competitions and listen to
seasoned entrepreneurs throughout the program. Photo courtesy of iDEYA
CIT MSU-IIT.
Being the first incubator in the Mindanao region is a great feat, but it also comes
with its own challenges. Despite the setbacks, iDEYA has been determined to
succeed and educate their region about startups. Photos courtesy of iDEYA CIT
MSU-IIT.
67
A project management tool, the iDEYA Tracker was developed under the
leadership of a computer studies professor at MSU-IIT, Mae Vicente, to easily
track a startup’s progress, on a per-activity level, from incubation to graduation.
Image courtesy of iDEYA CIT MSU-IIT.
It was the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 that

really tested their resilience. However, the team was able to craft
several programs and improve existing ones, like their series
called iDEYA Flight Talks. “Now we can tap anyone from
anywhere to get involved with us,” shared Stephen Fajardo,
TBI faculty coordinator and professor from the MSU-IIT
College of Business Administration and Accountancy.
P R I VAT E T B I s
Apart from government-funded incubators, established

companies and small private firms can also run their own
incubators—each with their own focus:
68 S C I E NC E F O R I N NOVAT IO N
JG SUMMIT LAUNCHGARAGE
Jojo Malolos, Jay Fajardo, CEO & Founder
JGDEV President & CEO
"We look for sustainable and scalable "The key to having a healthy source of
business models that can create relevant innovation is to help nurture it
value to the core businesses of the from the grassroots.
Gokongwei Group with special focus
on e-commerce, fintech, and supply This is why we reach out to the different
chain & logistics. stakeholders in schools, maker spaces
and hubs, government departments,
I am particular with founders, their LGUs, and university-based TBIs."
conviction, their passion, and problem-
solving."
Incubatees of note Incubatees of note

GrowSari, iPrice, Tyme PearlPay
Photo courtesy of JG Digital Equity Photo courtesy of Jay Fajardo of

Ventures, Inc. (JGDEV). Launchgarage.
69
A I M - D A D O B A N ATA O S TA R T U P V I L L A G E
Prim Paypon, Executive Director Carlo Calimon, Director
"We positioned AIM-DBI to be a nation- "Culturally, we've been trained by our

building platform where technology, parents to 'study hard so that you can
innovation, and entrepreneurship help get a great job.' But nobody really said,
bring about total human economic “study hard so that you can start your
development. own business.' We encourage more
people to come up with something
We now have ten development tracks related to their passion.
that include data science, intellectual
property, and sustainability and impact." We focus on early-stage startups
and mentor them in self-mastery,
environment mastery, and then
enterprise mastery."
Incubatees of note Incubatees of note

InvestEd, Eskwelabs, Kumu Wagtails
Photo courtesy of of AIM-Dado Photo courtesy of Startup Village.

Banatao.
70 S C IE N C E F O R I N N OVAT I O N
Entrepreneur and engineer Dado Banatao together with DOST Secretary

Fortunato de la Peña, officials, professors, and alumni from AIM at the
inauguration of the AIM Dado Banatao Incubator. Photo courtesy of the Office
of the Secretary, Department of Science and Technology.
GLOBAL TBIs
When you walk into an office in Silicon Valley, the famed district
in San Francisco for startups, companies such as Facebook,
Google, and Airbnb all have similar airy environments that
represent the character that these companies want to embody
in today’s creative business landscape—collaboration,
connection, and innovation.
Reflecting the fast pace, employees were constantly moving

prior to the pandemic. And when tech companies like
Facebook and Twitter had to shift to remote work, they
designed new “paid time off” programs and provided access
to mental health care services, as well as daycare support
for employees who care for their children throughout the
workday at home.
71
HOW WE FOUND OUR TBI

1.
Before joining UPLB SIBOL, agritech

company Binhi Inc. surveyed the landscape by
joining competitions, attending networking
events,and participating in design-thinking
workshops. “Ang maipapayo ko talaga sa mga
local entrepreneur, mga estudyante, explore
all the available platforms and TBIs as
much as you can” (What I can advise local
entrepreneurs and students is to explore all
the available platforms and TBIs as much
as they can), said Dr. Glenn Baticados,
Binhi Inc. cofounder and chief strategist.
“Search, look, and apply. ‘Yon lang ang
kailangan nilang gawin” (That’s all they
have to do).
After their search, they realized they

would fit well into the environment at UP
Los Baños. “We know that UPLB has a wealth
of knowledge and information, as well as
technical people and scientists who have
devoted their careers and lives in pursuing
their craft and striving to be the best in
their fields,” said Binhi Inc. CEO Rodel
Anunciado.
2.
Before joining QBO, Senti AI founder

Ralph Vincent Regalado started dabbling
in the startup world on weekends, joining
hackathons. After years as a professor and
researcher at DLSU, he left the academe in
late 2018 and has since been able to focus
on leading his venture.
QBO’s staff, for their part, see themselves

as human switchboards, to help the different
parts of the startup ecosystem work together
better and give confidence to first-time
founders beyond the university setting.
3.
Before joining Y Combinator, Filipino

startup Paymongo had a rather big
vision: to build the digital payments
infrastructure of the Philippines.
Cofounder and CEO Francis Plaza blogged:

“We started out as a team of young
engineers and entrepreneurs, mostly failing
from previous ventures and without any
formal financial background trying to make
our way into FinTech. Many thought we had
no business building a payments service; to
be fair, so did we.”
They had an ambitious road map, but this

proved a fit with the pace and access to
capital of the global accelerator—USD
2.7 million for Paymongo’s seed round,
with which they have grown their monthly
processing volumes to more than 50 times
since the launch of the platform. “We’ve
built many things in a year, and we’ve made
them fast,” Plaza wrote. “But we’re just
getting started.”
One accelerator in Silicon Valley was cofounded by a Filipino.
Plug and Play Tech Center, headquartered in Sunnyvale,

California, is the world’s largest accelerator and early-stage
investor. Cofounded by Jojo Flores, who also leads the
Quezon City-based innovation hub Launchgarage, the firm
started in January 2006 by capitalizing on the bursting of
the tech bubble that saw the rise of the unemployed looking
instead to open their own businesses.
73
Their initial offering was to handpick the best startups to

host inside one of the depressed properties turned coworking
space in Sunnyvale. More than just real estate space, Plug and
Play was soon able to offer more—funding included. “Having
that focus and having all the best startups inside the building,
it then attracted everything else: It attracted investors, it
attracted the members, it attracted even the universities,” Mr.
Flores shared.
INCUBATOR VS. ACCELERATOR

If the idea is fresh and has not been validated
yet, it is best to seek an incubator. If the idea
has already been proven to have a viable model,
and the goal is to crank up growth aggressively,
it might be best to seek out an accelerator. By
providing education, mentorship, and financing,
accelerators drive the rapid growth of young,
full-fledged companies by introducing them to
a vaster network of angel investors and venture
capitalists looking to invest in the next big
thing.
Amassing those with the best to offer under a single roof

proved to be a successful strategy in reaching out to venture
capitalists, not just in the Bay Area but eventually across
the world. The process of fundraising has become as easy as
inviting the biggest investors to take their pick of the 300 or so
startups housed by the property. Among the globally known
unicorns that found their early beginnings in the Sunnyvale
compound are Dropbox, PayPal, and SoundHound.
Mr. Jojo Flores (bottom right) of Plug and Play sharing with the authors
(counterclockwise from top right: Maret Follosco-Bautista, Sec. Fortunato
T. de la Peña, and Robina Gokongwei-Pe) the adventure of a story of how he
cofounded the global tech center.
6
75
Chapter
LINK AND
LEARN: THE
I M P O R TA N C E
OF BUILDING
PA R T N E R S H I P S
76 S C IE N C E F O R I N N OVAT IO N
Spanning over ten campuses, Isabela State University (ISU)

is home to 24 research and development centers, from
agriculture, to aquatic environment and natural resources,
farm machinery, climate change, disaster risk management,
social sciences, higher education, business and management,
information and communications technology, and health.
Name it, ISU will most likely have an expert on it.
One of these is Dr. Jonathan Nayga, a professor of animal

science who completed a fellowship in London and earned
entrepreneurship chops specific to science and technology–
based businesses at the Asian Institute of Management.
He runs the Cagayan Valley Small Ruminants Research Center

(CVSRRC), which aims to mentor micro, small, and medium-
With complete access to ISU’s facilities, Agricom Best Foods has not only been
able to carry out production at the state university but also learned how to craft
their own business strategy and marketing promotions to sustain their business
long-term. Photo courtesy of Isabela State University Senior High School
Student Council Facebook page.
77
sized entreprises (MSMEs) so they can transform a goat and

sheep raising operation from a subsistence- (providing for
mouths to feed) into a profit-oriented enterprise.
Two of the MSMEs under his wing are Agricom Best

Foods, a local meat production and processing company,
who successfully commercialized their chevon—short for
chèvre (goat) and mouton (sheep)—products, as well as the
Federation of Goat and Sheep Producers Associations of the
Philippines, Inc. (FGASPAPI), a goat breeding laboratory
that wants to transform itself into a proper business.
S E R V I C E C E N T E R F O R G O AT
BREEDING
Dr. Noel Soliman, president of FGASPAPI, visits various

agriculturally rich regions and observes the lives of farmers.
When it came to propagating goats, he learned that farmers

found it hard to breed goats of good weight and size in their
backyards. Dr. Soliman, a goat breeder himself, teamed up
with CVSRRC in implementing Dr. Nayga’s research on
artificial insemination (AI) in goats, which is readily available
on the ISU website.
Putting this together, Dr. Soliman came up with the idea

of starting a community-based center where farmers could
buy high-quality genetic materials, which could produce
physically larger goats with more meat than the ones sold in
the market.
Dr. Noel Soliman,

a goat breeder from
Tarlac City, runs a
breeder farm and
community-based
goat semen lab that
helps farmers in his
hometown improve
the quality of their
livestock.
The semen—readily
available in straws—
are administered
by a trained AI
technician to
multiple ruminants,
to better increase
the population as
compared to natural
mating. Photos
courtesy of the
AI Goat Center,
FGASPAPI.
79
Having put up a laboratory in his farm in Tarlac back in

2017, he had doses of semen from purebred bucks that had
high motility or capability for movement, structure, and
concentration. He had preserved them in nitrogen tanks.
He priced each at a fee of PHP 300 to PHP 350. (In contrast,

Dr. Soliman shared that one imported purebred buck would
cost around PHP 30,000 on average.)
With his technology and affordable pricing in place, the next

challenge was how to inspire confidence in the technology.
OPPORTUNITIES TO TEACH
AND CONNECT
In Dr. Soliman's experience, younger farmers are more open

to the idea of AI, while older and more seasoned farmers
operate on a wait-and-see approach and would usually
hesitate because of the term “artificial.”
Having enrolled in the CVSRRC TBI program in order to

transform his lab operations into a self-sustaining business,
he was put in touch with Tarlac’s provincial veterinary office
and Central Luzon State University (CLSU).
It was through these partnerships that Dr. Soliman was able

to develop a friendlier model for distributing the frozen goat
semen and AI services that brought genetics to the farmer’s
doorsteps.
When the artificial insemination project was first rolled out, it was seeded to
only two to three goat farmers in Echague, Isabela. Photo courtesy of DOST-
PCAARRD.
A researcher who worked with Dr. Nayga on the AI for

Goats R&D, Aubrey Joy M. Balbin, shared that by doing so,
they prevented farmers from turning to loans or purchasing
expensive pure breeds.
While the TBI heavily guided the first few training sessions on
semen processing held for the members of FGASPAPI, CLSU
offered trained hands to collect semen from commercial farms,
and the provincial veterinary office of Tarlac helped supervise
the collection since farmers couldn’t do it by themselves just
yet.
81
Meanwhile, there is also an active effort to upskill through

a season-long training called Farmers Livestock School on
Goat Enterprise Management (FLSGEM), made possible by
a collaboration with the Philippine Council for Agriculture,
Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development
(DOST-PCAARRD).
As the TBI’s overall head and project leader, Dr. Nayga

envisions the steady implementation from the municipality
to the regional level, until, finally, the technology reaches
nationwide coverage. He pointed to something he called the
radiation effect: From the good experience of the first farmers
who adopted the technology, eventually around 40 farmers
in the locality have requested artificial insemination for their
livestock.
Dr. Jonathan Nayga runs the Cagayan Valley Small Ruminants Research
Center (CVSRRC) to help MSMEs transform their goat raising operation
into a profit-oriented enterprise. Photo courtesy of DOST-PCAARRD.
The DOST-PCAARRD promotes goat raising and production technologies

through activities like the Goat FIESTA (Farms and Industry Encounters
through the Science and Technology Agenda). In the first Goat FIESTA in
November 2018, around 2,000 farmers were in attendance. Photos courtesy of
DOST-PCAARRD.
7
83
Chapter
OF HACKERS
AND HUSTLERS:
BUILDING A LEAN
TEAM WITH THE
RIGHT MIX OF
TA L E N T S
Everyday experiences and the obstacles that come with

these can become catalysts for innovation. The mobile app
Checkmate, for one, was born out of the firsthand experiences
of its founding team, who witnessed the tedious processes
their educator parents had to go through in manually checking
test papers. In their technopreneurship class at the University
of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines (USTP),
they consequently sought to zero in on finding a solution for
that shared background.
But while the team’s idea proved promising, Checkmate

encountered roadblocks in solidifying a viable product. As
computer engineering students, Team Checkmate was trained
developers and coders, but building a tech startup company
entailed more than just technical knowledge and skills. This
was where the guidance of CDO b.i.t.e.s. proved significant.
Founded in 2016, CDO b.i.t.e.s., which stands for Cagayan de

Oro Business Incubation Technology Entrepreneurship and
Startups, is a university-based technology business incubator
that nurtures the innovations of IT- and ICT-based startups
and budding industries, entrepreneurs, and individuals by
providing suitable venues for membership and networking.
Checkmate discovered CDO b.i.t.e.s. through one of the

competitions held by the TBI. Prior to joining, the members
of Team Checkmate admittedly were not familiar with how
TBIs worked. Through the encouragement of their class
professor, they joined one of the pitching competitions hosted
by the TBI. When they won second place, they decided to
join the incubation program.
85
The pioneer TBI in the city of Cagayan de Oro, CDO b.i.t.e.s.

traces its roots to 2016 with a project proposal submitted to
the DOST. Two years later, they received additional funding
and started growing to become one of the most successful TBIs
in the country. To date, they have incubated 49 companies,
including Checkmate.
CDO b.i.t.e.s. is a university-based technology business incubator that

nurtures the innovations of IT-/ICT-based startups and budding industries,
entrepreneurs, and individuals providing suitable venues to membership and
network. Through the partnership with the USTP and the DOST-PCIEERD,
CDO b.i.t.e.s. aims to enable and nurture its participating companies to make
economic and social contributions to the region. Photo courtesy of CDO
b.i.t.e.s.
Checkmate was born out of the firsthand experiences of its founders, whose
educator parents had to go through the tedious process of manually checking
test papers. Photo courtesy of Checkmate.
Business incubator manager Rhea Suzette Haguisan shared

that during the TBI's early years, they benchmarked other
TBIs in the country, such as UP Cebu, and also researched
how TBIs overseas ran their operations. Today, the award-
winning TBI boasts of its very robust two-stage program for
incubatees.
The first is the month-long preincubation program called

Start Track that serves as an assessment period for the viability
of a startup’s business idea. Ms. Haguisan stressed that a good
way for startups to begin their journey is by knowing how to
validate their business idea and identify their market. In this
first step, applicants are highly encouraged to pivot their idea
if it is proven to be unfeasible.
A demo day with selected judges will then assess the incubatees’
mini business plan. Once approved, the company undergoes
the six-month-long intensive incubation program called
Fire Starter. Meanwhile, those who do not meet the criteria
87
are given the opportunity to take a step back and improve

their strategies, then reapply once they have fine-tuned their
business plan.
As a university-based TBI, CDO b.i.t.e.s. attributes its success

to the ecosystem that revolves around the incubatees—that is,
the support of internal stakeholders, including the DOST and
the USTP, and the external stakeholders and private entities
who helped the TBI from the ground up. These stakeholders
and partners have not only served as supporters but also as
mentors to every incubatee. Over the years, they have created
an environment that nurtures and fuels incubatees’ ideas into
fruition.
BUILDING AND UTILIZING

A LEAN TEAM
For the TBI, succeeding as a startup starts with building

the right team. This is, in fact, one of the first lessons in its
preincubation program. CDO b.i.t.e.s. recommends applying
the 3H pillar:
1. Hacker. This is the person in charge of the

tech development of the product, the backend of the
application. Most tech startups are founded by coders
and developers, which is the case for Checkmate that
was founded by computer engineering students.
2. Hustler. This is the team member in charge of
marketing, public relations, branding, and customer-
facing roles. They are aggressive toward converting
people to be their customers. Like Checkmate, most
88 S C I E N C E F O R I N NOVAT IO N
tech startups face roadblocks when it comes to this

area of the business since most of the team members
lack experience in marketing. Through the incubation
process, team members who have little to no experience
at all in this area are trained and mentored to reach their
fullest potential.
3. Hipster. The hipster is in charge of the realm of
customer experience. This role is essential to the team
such that they must analyze how the customer thinks
and what they would want to see in the product.
Designers are the designated hipsters—the safekeepers
of how a certain product will suit the customers’ eyes
and how they can make it as user-friendly as possible.
No matter the number of team members, these three team

pillars can represent a complete arsenal of talent. In fact, Ms.
Haguisan advises tech startups to build a lean team and utilize
the roles given to each team member.
In a 2019 article in the Harvard Business Review, Dr. Eva

de Mol, one of the biggest thought leaders in the field of
entrepreneurship, elaborates on the perfect formula in
assembling a startup team, which interestingly reflects this
3H pillar. According to her, while adequate experience—not
necessarily in running a startup but in terms of the hard skills
associated with the business product—remains an important
metric for choosing a team member, rounding up the soft
skills needed in marketing the business is just as integral.
Further, Dr. de Mol specifies that team members need to

share the same passion and vision for the company in order
to push it forward.
89
Besides employing the 3H selection process, Checkmate’s

Christian Ted Pagaspas believes in teaming up with people
who will fit and complement each other’s strengths and
weaknesses. Flexibility and proper communication are also
keys to successful teamwork. Team Checkmate shared that
each of their members can comfortably switch their roles from
hacker, to hustler, and to hipster, whatever is required given
the circumstances. The ability to be flexible and utilize the
team by switching roles ultimately results in a collaborative
dynamic relationship.
AN ENABLING ENVIRONMENT
The capability to nurture talent and provide the needed

guidance to technopreneurs who go into incubation is a
source of pride for the TBI. Dr. Alexandria Reyes of Yes
Tech Solutions, who joined the CDO b.i.t.e.s. in 2019,
attests to this. Unlike Team Checkmate, which is composed
of developers, Yes Tech’s founder and CEO Dr. Reyes is an
educator who had the idea to create a virtual campus that
parents, teachers, and students can all benefit from.
However, the lack of experience in other areas of business

development such as marketing became Yes Tech’s roadblock
as they were starting. According to Dr. Reyes, going into the
incubation process allowed her to connect with experts in
the field, which helped her company do more; part of the
incubation program is to help expand the incubatees’ network
for recognition in the ICT and startup community through
branding and marketing.
CDO b.i.t.e.s. offers a post-incubation program to help accelerate incubatees

through collaborations and partnerships with Spring Valley Tech Corp. and
other TBIs. Photos courtesy of CDO b.i.t.e.s.
91
“They [CDO b.i.t.e.s] know the right people. They know the
right contacts and all you have to do is just be there and just
do it. They will guide you,” said Dr. Reyes.
Incubation training and mentoring programs are provided

to help incubatees grow into a full-fledged business and
to find potential investors and funding. These also open
opportunities and provide fresh insights into their business
model.
Incubation is especially helpful for students and aspiring tech

entrepreneurs who have an idea but do not know how viable
or marketable their idea is. TBIs help widen the perspective of
their incubatees by offering expert opinion through seasoned
mentors who are part of or are tapped to join the program
to guide incubatees, as well as by introducing startups to the
views of other speakers and investors. More importantly, the
enabling environment is built not only by TBIs like CDO
b.i.t.e.s. alone but also through the conscious willingness of
co-incubatees to learn and grow with each other.
As government-funded organizations, public TBIs not only

provide a nurturing environment to their incubatees mostly
for free but also encourage other entrepreneurs who have yet
to discover the wonders of being under a TBI. “Having a
TBI would encourage entrepreneurs and bring more people
into the business of tech,” said John Vincent Fiel, CEO of
incubatee Wela School Systems. Knowing that there is an
available and accessible support and coaching organization
that caters to startups, more and more ideators will have the
courage to pursue the industry.
S U C C E S S FA C T O R S
CDO b.i.t.e.s. credits the companies’ founders that trusted

the incubation process in nurturing a successful TBI. When
asked about the common denominator of successful startups
under their care, Ms. Haguisan shared three important
qualities that the founders possessed, interestingly proving
that shared strategic vision and entrepreneurial passion really
keep a startup on the right path.
First is the heart and soul to proceed despite challenges. Ms.

Haguisan shared the experience of Wela School Systems, the
company behind an automated reporting software. When
they started as an incubatee in 2017, CDO b.i.t.e.s. didn’t
have a complete facility yet and what they could only offer to
the startup was an air-conditioned classroom without tables
and chairs. Being keen to hold office and eager to convene
as a team, Wela accepted the offer and brought chairs and
tables of their own—a sense of diligence against roadblocks
that was sure to help the startup succeed.
Second is aggressiveness toward their goals. A focused mind

remains to be one of the biggest drivers of success. It helps
especially when incubatees already have the drive, energy, and
specific goals to follow through for their startup right from
the beginning.
Lastly, she asserted that the right soft skills and level of grit
should not be forgotten. While good technical skills are
necessary in tech startups, soft skills such as pitching, public
93
speaking, and networking are also essential in marketing an

idea and product. These skills are keys to communicating an
idea well to potential investors and customers.
Part of the success that the incubatees are enjoying now can be
attributed to how the TBI has supported them through their
incubation period and even after. These companies highly
recommend tapping CDO b.i.t.e.s. or any TBI to help guide
them through their technopreneurship journey to success.
Checkmate’s Mr. Pagaspas recommends to fresh graduates

who want to pursue a startup to grab the opportunity to join
a TBI, especially a university-based TBI like CDO b.i.t.e.s.
“Not all schools have that program na nag-a-accommodate ng
mga startup” (Not all schools have programs that accommodate
startups), he added.
Checkmate developer Gams Basallo commends the TBI’s

openness to ideas and the eagerness to guide them toward
a marketable product. Yes Tech’s Dr. Reyes shared the same
sentiment with her experience with CDO b.i.t.e.s., especially
as she is unlike other founders who are mostly young and are
already experienced in the technical side of the business. Both
Dr. Reyes and Wela’s Mr. Fiel recommend joining a TBI for
those who are in the early stages of their tech idea and feel
that they are lost and do not know yet how to proceed.
Yes Tech’s Dr. Reyes said that even after her incubation with
the TBI, CDO b.i.t.e.s. has always been there for her company
and encouraged her ideas. “Hindi ka talaga nila bibitawan
(They really wouldn’t leave you hanging),” she added.
94
While the 3H pillar proves to be a solid setup in building a lean startup

team, it is still important to have a leader figure that sees the group
through many different crises, especially now in the face of a pandemic.
Here are some founders that have steered their teams success and progress:
PA U L R I V E R A
Cofounder and CEO, Kalibrr
1. Could you share a brief background about

yourself?
I was born in the Philippines and grew up in the San
Francisco Bay Area. Graduated Political Economics
from University of California (UC) Berkeley. Father of three. I love my
kids. I love my family. Entrepreneurship, fitness, wellness, spirituality. I
would say I would always be looking to learn something new. Maybe the
biggest area of interest right now is cryptocurrency.
2. Could you share some background about your parents, their

profession, and their reaction when you shared your idea?
My mom had me when she was 19 years old. She raised me and my
brother as a single mom in the US who had to go back to college while
we were growing up because she couldn’t finish it when we were born.
Today, she is a nurse. My stepfather is retired. He was in the F&B [food
and beverage] industry. Their reaction? “You are crazy, you are loko-
loko.” And I think that was really from me deciding to move back to the
Philippines to be an entrepreneur. That’s when their reaction was you are
loko-loko. You know, [the common impression is] you don’t move back
to the Philippines; you move away from the Philippines.
3. How did you meet your cofounders?

I met my cofounder Dexter [Ligot-Gordon] at UC Berkeley and our
other cofounder Danny [Castonguay] here in the Philippines. He was a
visiting professor at the UP Diliman.
4. How did you arrive at the idea of your startup? What inspired you?
People always ask me, “How did you come up with Kalibrr?” And it is
connected to a question people always have, which is, you know, how do
you come up with a startup idea? I think my framework to come up with
an idea, the approach to take, is to first find a problem that you really,
95
really care about. Second is to try to become an expert in that problem,

to the point where you know so much about the problem that you come
up with that “aha” moment. That aha moment is the idea that can form
a startup. Becoming a domain expert in an industry or problem, like I
did when I was running my first company which was a BPO call center,
recruiting and hiring thousands of people, seeing how hard it was to
recruit for several years—that’s how the idea of Kalibrr was born.
K AT H L E E N Y U
Founder and CEO, Rumarocket
Founder and Chief Data Scientist, Nudgyt
1. Could you share a brief background about

yourself?
From an early age, I was always very interested in making mistakes. I
failed an entire grade level when I was in elementary school and teachers
approached my mom telling me that it might be better if they moved me
to another school, somewhere easier. My mom refused.
It was a difficult journey, but the year after I failed in school, I became an
honors student for the very first time.
The year I failed, I was “a disappointment.” The year after that, I was
“???” Society puts us into boxes with nice, convenient labels about who
we are or who we should be. My main interest and the biggest pursuit
of my life has always been staying in the “???” box. I am interested in
learning, growth, and constantly evolving to become a better person.
2. Could you share some background about your parents, their

profession, and their reaction when you shared your idea?
My grandfather, an engineer, told me I was never going to succeed.
He discouraged me from going to Shanghai to pursue my startup. My
mother, a psychologist and consultant, was worried about me because I
was young and careless. When I got my first cheque for PHP 300,000,
she encouraged me to be careful and not to spend everything at once.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t careful. I went to Shanghai at age 22 to pursue my
startup and to see if I could make something of myself. It was definitely
an adventure.
3. How did you meet your cofounders?

My cofounders are Shao Yong Chew (COO/CFO) from Singapore and
Jack Tsai (CTO) from Taiwan. They used to be employees in Rumarocket,
but stuck by the company during a difficult time. They are both quality
people, and I respect them a lot.
4. How did you arrive at the idea of your startup? What inspired you?
I don’t really remember how I arrived at the idea for my startup and I’ve
realized over the years that it doesn’t really matter. Ideas are cheap, but
good entrepreneurs differentiate themselves with their execution.
My mom was a big inspiration to me as an entrepreneur. She had to

reinvent herself in a lot of ways to constantly stay relevant and make a
living for us as a family. I am inspired by her grit, her passion, and her
unwillingness to give up.
8
97
Chapter
BUILDING
C R E D I B I L I T Y:
PITCHING AND
IDENTIFYING
LINKAGES
Building a science-based business is no easy feat, especially

when there is generally low understanding and appreciation
of the profitability of science and its interface with business.
For Binhi Inc., an agri-research startup company, it took
nearly two years of pitching, fund-seeking, and building
linkages within and outside the country before a window of
opportunity opened.
Binhi Inc. is a plant tissue culture laboratory that focuses on

micropropagation both for mass production and on-demand
propagation. Aptly named after the Filipino word for “seed,”
it envisions planting the seed of the future, contributing to
solving food crises, and raising the flag for the viability of
Filipino agri-based technologies.
In their specific field of micropropagation, plant cells, tissues,

organs, or even the whole plant is regenerated under sterile and
controlled environmental conditions to produce thousands or
millions of new plants. Through this agricultural technology,
Binhi Inc. works to produce new, improved, and disease-free
plants.
To date, Binhi Inc. has already produced around 70,000 crops

and 100,000 ornamentals that contribute to food security,
safety, and sustainability. Its lab operations commenced in
2019, with banana and macapuno (soft endosperm or coconut
sport) as the first crops to be micropropagated. Currently, the
laboratory is led by Dr. Glenn Gregorio, an academician and
plant breeding expert, and Dr. Aurora del Rosario, a pioneer
in the tissue culture industry of the Philippines.
99
Filipina Hybrid
Corn Seeds makes
use of a bio-furnace
that burns discarded
corn husks. Photos
courtesy of Binhi
Inc.
The company itself was founded in 2018, when a small group

of graduates from UPLB started talking about their dreams
and aspirations, CEO Rodel Anunciado recalled.
While plant tissue culture was then considered a mature

technology that had already been commercialized, there was
no breeding company yet in the Philippines and not a single
tissue culture laboratory in the Luzon region. The founding
team behind Binhi Inc. saw great opportunity in this.
“UPLB has contributed a lot to sharing knowledge about

tissue culture across Asia. Some Asian countries like Thailand
and Taiwan are now commercializing it,” shared Dr. Glenn
Baticados, cofounder and chief strategist of Binhi Inc.
10 0 S C IE N C E F O R I N N OVATI O N
“Although we know a lot about this technology, we end up

buying from our neighboring countries. It is high time we
push for the local hold of technologies like this.”
They applied to UPLB-SIBOL (University of the Philippines–

Los Baños Startup Innovation and Business Opportunity
Linkages), a TBI that supports green startups, including agri-
based companies.
It was not difficult for Binhi Inc. to get the support of UPLB-
SIBOL as some of its founders, including Dr. Baticados and
Mr. Anunciado, had already been engaged with the TBI even
before starting the company. “In fact, Binhi Inc. served as a
guinea pig for UPLB-SIBOL,” Mr. Anunciado remarked.
With the TBI’s support, Binhi Inc. has taken the enterprise
from concept to reality and steadily prospered through
continued innovation, knowledge-sharing, and partnerships
and collaboration. The TBI has also given Binhi Inc. access to
state-of-the-art prototype testing and fabrication equipment
through the Dr. Ceferino L. Follosco Innovationeering Lab,
UPLB-SIBOL's support service facility designed to serve
as a thinking and collaborative space for entrepreneurial
technologies.
In particular, the incubation significantly helped Binhi

Inc. in addressing funding problems and working toward
sustainability by identifying and forging strategic partnerships.
While the team behind Binhi Inc. was confident of the
marketability and competitiveness of their technology and
solutions, some potential investors and stakeholders were not
immediately sold.
101
Joining pitching competitions to seed investors in the

Philippines and Southeast Asia allowed them to improve on
what was lacking in their concept, from logistics to operational
viability.
“Every pitch, nag-i-improve kami” (We improve with every

pitch), Dr. Baticados shared. “It is because we get a lot of
feedback and comments from investors and mentors during
the pitching competitions.”
The UPLB-SIBOL is a technology business incubator and shared services facility

that helps startups and innovations in the agritech and food industry increase their
productivity through rapid prototyping services, small-volume manufacturing,
computer modeling, and design-thinking classes. Currently supporting 14 innovations,
its mission is to nurture the next generation of premier agri-based startups. It is a
collaborative endeavor between the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and
the UPLB Technology Transfer and Business Development Office (UPLB-TTBDO)
and College of Engineering and Agro-Industrial Technology (CEAT). It recently
bagged the Best Incubator Community Program Award in the 2021 PH Startup
Incubator Awards. The UPLB-SIBOL believes in the power of collaboration and
in building an innovation ecosystem that promotes inclusive development, as
embodied in their mantra of Angat Lahat Dapat. Photo courtesy of UPLB-SIBOL.
Apart from UPLB-SIBOL's incubation, Dr. Baticados sought

to learn from those in the industry. Through them, he
found out about Small Business Corporation (SBCorp), the
financing arm under the Department of Trade and Industry
(DTI). Not only that, one of its CEOs was a UPLB alumnus
and two board members have strong backgrounds in the agri
industry. Dr. Baticados told Mr. Anunciado that maybe they
should try approaching them. “Sometimes, it is not what you
know but who you know,” Dr. Baticados said.
His move paid off: SBCorp had a venture capital program

and was actively seeking a new tech-based project to support.
In 2019, SBCorp invested in an equity fund for Binhi Inc.,

which became instrumental in its initial years for three reasons:
1. It provided them working capital to set up a tissue

culture laboratory and nursery facilities, procure supplies,
and pay the salaries of technical staff.
2. SBCorp helped Binhi Inc. with the business aspect, like
dealing with legal compliance processes. (In return,
SBCorp has been learning a lot from Binhi Inc.; in fact,
they have adopted some of the tools, policies, and
evaluation metrics of Binhi Inc. to support other
companies under their program.)
3. The partnership with SBCorp helped strengthen the
credibility of Binhi Inc. as an agritech startup. With
this, Binhi Inc. has been able to accelerate the growth of
its market share. Some of the deals that Binhi has
recently secured include an arrangement with Quezon
Province farmers and IsaacSeed Philippines Inc. (a
corn, rice, and vegetable seed provider in Isabela) to
103
build more banana farms, as well as a collaboration with

Santeh Aquaculture Science & Technology Foundation
for the commercial propagation of high-value crops.
With SBCorp being a government-owned financial institution,

Mr. Baticados stressed the complexities of public bidding
protocols and procurement laws that affect equity and
corporate transactions. These make it tedious for startups not
just to do business but also to leave government partnerships
for more independence.
In general, he advises startups: Not every partnership

opportunity should be seized. Having bigger partner
organizations is not always the better option, as it might also
mean more legal requirements. For Binhi Inc., what’s more
important in identifying linkages is sharing the same vision
and values. “Even if you’re offered millions of pesos, if the
values are not in sync with ours, we won’t do it,” Dr. Baticados
asserted. “At the end of the day, you won’t be able to sustain
the business because you don’t believe in the same thing.”
Now, Binhi Inc. is exploring synergies within the distribution

sector. It is also committed to improving current techniques
and technologies used for plant tissue culture.
What We Learned from

Business Pitching
Get to the opportunity right away.
“Sa mga nauna naming pitch, we talked about
the business itself pero nalaman naming hindi
pala dapat gano’n. (In earlier pitches, we
just talked about the business itself but we
learned that that was not the right way to
do it.) Kapag nai-present mo ‘yong problema,
solved na sila roon kasi that’s what can be
translated into real opportunities. (Once
you are able to clearly present the problem,
that’s when investors see real opportunities
and decide to buy into the company.)”
Speak the language of business investors.

Before pitching, startups should find out as
much as they can about their prospective
investors and try to answer basic questions
including: What did they previously invest
in? Are these ventures successful? Are they
in the same industry? Do they share the same
values? Can they bring other types of benefits
or support to the table aside from funding?
During the pitch itself, take note of the
details and elements that seem to elicit
interest or reactions.
Pitch your people.

“In our pitches, lagi kaming tinatanong ng
composition ng team. (In our pitches, we are
always asked about the composition of our
team.) Most of the time, investors already
understand the technical side of it, but they
need to be assured that the team behind the
venture has experience and capability in all
aspects needed to run the business and pursue
scalability so that they know it is worth the
risk.”

—UPLB-SIBOL CEO Rodel Anunciado
and Chief Strategist Dr. Glenn Baticados
9
105
Chapter
THE CROWD
HAS SPOKEN:
TESTING THE
IDEA THROUGH
PITCHING
COMPETITIONS
It can be difficult to find significant input to create relevant

products and services—which makes crowd-testing critical
to most budding businesses. Crowd-testing offers a way
for businesses to experiment and assess their products and
services compared to alternatives. It can provide insights on
scalability and whether the product will have value in a real-
world setting.
One way to do crowd-testing during the ideation stage is

through competitions, such as hackathons. Hackathons are
events often organized by an organization or company to
let programmers come together for a short period of time to
collaborate on a project. It is a competition-style event that
requires participants to work fast and efficiently.
Animo Labs, a DOST-supported TBI housed at the De La Salle

University (DLSU), aims to foster innovative startups—from
providing facilities, to counseling, workshops, opportunities
for networking, and staging hackathons.
One of the businesses they nurture is iNON, coined from

the famous adage “it’s now or never.” The startup emerged in
2018 during the NASA Space Apps Challenge, a competition
hosted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA), focused on the development of apps, software,
hardware, data visualizations, and platforms that could
contribute to space exploration missions or help improve the
way of life on Earth.
iNON’s winning concept? An inclusive application that can

help fishermen navigate the vast waters of the Philippine
archipelago.
107
S H A R E D PA S S I O N
Cofounder Julius Czar Torreda shared that being from

General Santos City, where he grew up witnessing fisherfolks’
problems firsthand, gave him the spark to improve the
fishermen’s situation. He conceived the idea for the
application with cofounder Revbrain Martin, who shared the
same background. Their aim then and now was to alleviate
uncertainty in the lives of the fishermen.
With this, the team was able to come up with the design for
their product, ISDApp, which pushes SMS or text updates
about the tide and weather to ensure fishermen’s safety every
four hours. The choice of SMS is crucial as it allows even
fishermen with analog phones to access it. The language is also
simple and direct, with practical information generated from
live satellite updates from NASA and weather forecasts from
the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical
Services Administration (DOST-PAGASA).
As with a simple load service from a telecommunications company, subscription

to ISDApp with the community leaders who have the capacity to download
the software is straightforward for Filipino fishermen. This will enable them
to receive weather notifications via SMS messages. Photo courtesy of ISDApp
Facebook page.
10 8 S C I E N C E F O R I N N OVAT I O N
Team iNON joined the NASA Space Apps Challenge in October 2018 and won
in the Global Impact category. The team is composed of (from left to right)
Julius Czar Torreda, Revbrain Martin, Herlan Czar Leuterio, Marie Jeddah
Legaspi, Migs De Guzman, and Rogelio Patrick del Rosario Jr.
Photo courtesy of iNON IT Solutions.
At the time they were starting, the cofounders did not have
enough IT experience to develop the application. Only Mr.
Torreda had the IT background they needed, while his other
teammates came from the media and airlines industries.
Initially, the idea was to connect the team to capable IT

developers in a department of DLSU. However, Mr. Torreda
was able to garner support from Globe Telecommunications,
Inc., by securing help from his former colleagues in the
telecommunications company. They were able to go to the
competition with a working prototype.
They came out victorious. When asked what he thinks sets them
apart from their competitors at the hackathon, Mr. Torreda
109
believes that it is the team’s passion and purpose—wanting to

help fisherfolk—that got them ahead of the pack. He humbly
mentioned that almost all of the information relayed by the
application were readily available on the internet; however,
it was probably the value or impact that the application had
on underprivileged fishermen that the award-giving body
considered and that boosted their entry despite such a tight
competition. As of 2021, the pilot version of ISDApp has been
deployed virtually in two communities.
MAKING THE LEAP
A huge benefit of the hackathon, and any pitching competition

for that matter, was that it forced the team to think about
both strategic and operational questions:
1. How can the product be distributed or used?

2. Who should the startup prioritize?
3. How can they effectively integrate the product to the
current local market?
All of which the iNON team were able to answer:
1. ISDApp is first downloaded by community leads or

centers, who then administer guidance to—
2. The fishermen (the priority audience of the app).
3. The app is offered through a simplified subscription
model, patterned after subscribing to a load service
from a telecommunications company.
When the iNON team first met with Animo Labs, they were already finished
with the ideation phase and had a prototype of their product. Next was getting
initial funding. Cofounder Julius Torreda cited how hard this step was, owing
to the fact that their product, ISDApp, was not conceptualized to be revenue-
generating. But thanks to the help of multiple sponsors, such as the US Embassy,
corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs, the Bureau of Fisheries and
Agriculture, and the invaluable support of Animo Labs, the situation has
improved since. Photo courtesy of ISDapp Facebook page.
After winning the nationals, team iNON took center stage at

the global leg of the NASA Hackathon. At the Kennedy Space
Center in Central Florida, United States, they went toe to toe
with multiple IT groups worldwide. Right after bagging one
of the most prestigious awards in the competition, however,
the group found themselves at a standstill; it was difficult
to maintain a business when all of them had day jobs they
needed to attend to.
This is when Animo Labs’ unique approach as a TBI—focused

on the commercialization of research projects, inventions,
and creative ideas—came in. Animo Labs program manager
111
Virgilio Linis said they approached the iNON team to work

under their care and assistance. iNON would officially
be institutionalized a little later in 2019, and Mr. Torreda
attested to how vital the TBI was to their establishment as a
company, providing them with all the tools, connections, and
know-how they needed to begin.
“They were able to introduce us to the business world,” Mr.

Torreda said.
Tips for Presenting

Ideas at Hackathons
• Specify a product or service
people need.
Most aspirants focus on a vague idea that

needs to be sorted out or researched
further. Do not mistake the drawing phase
for the actual pitching. Ensure that you
already have a solid product or service to
present. Of course, prior to that, you have
to observe a societal problem you can fix.
From there, you can search for a solution
that you can eventually sell in the form of
a service or product.
• Check the viability of your business idea.
Refrain from outlandish ideas. You have

to be certain that your idea is entirely
based on reality. Brainstorm with your
team of partners. Compute your finances and
invest in a prototype. Sort out processes
and all the nitty-gritty details before
deciding if something is worth pitching.
This is probably the most underrated and yet
needed step of all. Equip yourself with the
necessary tools to present your idea in the
most optimal way.
• Create a compelling pitch presentation.
Market your business idea with a presentation

that will reflect it best. Make a script you
can follow to make sure that you do not miss
any points. Tickle the visual senses of your
audience by adding appropriate photos and
video presentations but make sure to keep the
presentation at just the right length. Invest
in application subscriptions that will give
you the freedom to create. You can also hire
a professional graphic designer to ensure
that your message gets across the way you
intend to.
In your back pocket:
S e t a timeline for your st ar t up. This will help

the TBIs see how viable your services or
product launch will be. It can also aid in
setting up expectations.
Sh ow pr ep ar a ti ons for unc er t ain t i e s. This will

showcase your ability to adapt to situations
and the company’s resilience. This has become
much more pronounced and reassuring now due
to the pandemic.
Another team that has commercialized their scientific research is iNano, led
by Dr. Nonato Gil Santos. They have created a Marine Nanocoat that protects
ships from various elements that degrade the surface of its hull. Photo courtesy
of iNano Solutions.
From Research to Profits
Animo Labs focuses on commercializing
scientific research. Another company that
started under their wing is a father-
daughter-led enterprise, iNano Solutions,
which used to be a research facility under
DLSU’s Center for Natural Sciences and
Environmental Research. Dr. Nonato Gil
Santos, the founder and research head of
the group, started the company by offering
analytical services in 2006.
One of their famous contributions to the

country’s technology ecosystem is their
Marine Nanocoat: a way to coat ships to
protect them from corrosion, ultraviolet
(UV) rays, and other unwanted buildup. Prior
to the introduction of their product, a
water vessel is usually coated with several
layers of protection. With iNano’s Marine
Nanocoat, however, the tedious steps have
been reduced to one—and it has a lower
downtime for coating.
For their nano coatings, iNano garnered a

record of discovery from the DOST.
Research remains at their core, And in

fact, they have built an array of pending
patents. Their nano gas sensor is an
intelligent detection system that can be
used in the medical field (for the real-time
evaluation and initial detection of lung
disease), at home (to monitor air quality
both indoors and outdoors), as well as for
environmental science, automotive, and even
military applications—a horizontal way of
growth: expanding a single nanotechnology
application to new markets, geographies, or
business domains.
With a culture of innovation already in

place, iNano is working on a tintless
alternative to glass that can just as
efficiently block UV rays, and Anitech, an
application to test the quality of fresh
produce spearheaded by iNano researcher
Mary Gillian Santos.
114 S C I E N C E F O R IN N OVATI O N
Commercializing science means connecting scientists and their research to the

different industries that may need their expertise. Dr. Nonato Gil Santos' iNano's
Marine Nanocoat is one example of how science and technology can support a
specific industry. Usually, water vessels are subjected to various harsh elements
when regularly taken out to sea. Over time, this can cause unwanted corrosions
and buildup on the ship, consequently increasing the ship’s drag and leading to
more fuel consumption. The iNano Marine Nanocoat is an anti-barnacle, anti-
corrosion, and anti-UV coating that protects the vessel and reduces maintenance
costs. Photos courtesy of iNano Solutions.
10
115
Chapter
C A P I TA L 1 0 1 :
SECURING
FUNDING
116 S C I E N C E F O R IN N OVAT I O N
Prototyping and registering your business comes with costs

for materials, skilled labor, and permits. But this sometimes
feels like a chicken-and-egg situation: How does a startup
find money in order to make money?
Dr. Francis Uy and his childhood friend Engineer Donato

Santiago know the challenges of this process. When they
realized the potential of a technology they built to assess
the safety of buildings from earthquakes, they decided to
introduce it for funding to various private individuals. An
opportunity almost came up with a well-known structural
engineer, who, however, had to put them on hold given their
differing priorities at the time.
On the other hand, there were interested investors that

approached him, but he felt that they did not completely
understand what his technology, which he called the
Universal Structural Health Evaluation and Recording
System (USHER), represented. Some people he shared the
venture with felt it was risky. After a few months, he decided
to turn to the Mapua Institute of Technology—where he
serves as the dean at the School of Civil, Environmental,
and Geological Engineering—to request research funding
support from a program of the Department of Science and
Technology (DOST).
The DOST was then able to set him up with grant funding,
which he and his peers used to develop their product, seek
certification, and carry out market validation. And with
their own savings, they were able to set up a fully functional
office, register their business, finalize their business licensing
117
A technopreneur, Dr. Uy is a multiawarded researcher—among his accolades

are the Newton Agham Grant, the Kabalikat Researcher Award, the DOST-
PCIEERD 2018 Outstanding R&D Awardee, and the 2018 World Summit
Awards Winner. Apart from the earthquake monitoring system, he also
developed the Automated Real-Time Monitoring System (ARMS) for dams
and the Philippine Structural Integrity Monitoring System (cofunded by the
DOST-PCIEERD and DPWH), which monitors the structural integrity of
22 government buildings and 10 bridges in Metro Manila. Photo courtesy of
USHER Technologies, Inc.
agreement with Mapua, and secure the necessary permits to

run USHER Technologies Inc. as a proper company.
To boost their commercialization efforts, USHER also joined

the DOST-PCIEERD’s Funding Assistance for Spin-off and
Translation of Research in Advancing Commercialization
(FASTRAC) program. One of the schemes they tried was the
USHER NOW, PAY LATER program, where they installed
the USHER system for free for at least six months. Building
118 S C I E NC E F O R I NN OVAT I O N
owners were then offered the option to purchase the system

at a discounted price or return it. Those who were happy
with their structural monitoring system ended up signing
with USHER Technologies, providing their first revenues
that could be invested back into the company. It helped that
unlike foreign-made systems, USHER streamlined the system
to the essentials to make the costs remarkably lower for the
Philippine market.
IDENTIFYING THE RIGHT TYPE OF

INVESTOR
To start the search for a willing investor, it is always a good

rule of thumb to seek out agencies, firms, or incubators that
are aligned with the startup’s goals and have the expertise to
help the startup based on what stage they are in.
In USHER’s case, the DOST connected them with the

DOST-PCIEERD, a sectoral planning council focused on
driving a knowledge-based economy—perfect, given how
the technology was actually positioned as a 24/7 system,
providing reliable information about the safety of buildings,
bridges, and other critical structures.
Dr. Uy likens his technology to devices used by heart doctors

to listen for anomalies in a person’s heartbeat. “So, USHER
is like the ECG [electrocardiogram] for buildings,” he said.
“No matter how stiff or rigid they look like—buildings and
bridges—they’re actually vibrating.”
119
CLEAR USE CASE
Dr. Uy identified a clear use case for their tech: After a strong
earthquake, and you evacuate, when do you know it is safe
to go back? Without the necessary technology to accurately
assess the post-earthquake state of a building, people often
turn to visual inspections—looking for structural damages,
big cracks, or other physical manifestations. “Unfortunately,
it’s actually hard to do that,” he explained. “What if you
have a high-rise building? You go floor by floor? How would
you be able to really do that task properly? What about the
foundation underneath?"
With USHER, they are able to provide data using an advanced

accelerograph or instrument that records the acceleration of
As the country is located along the Pacific Ring of Fire and typhoon belt,
calamities are a continuing challenge for the Philippines. As such, Dr. Uy
believes that it is important to focus not just on disaster response—after an
earthquake—but rather disaster prevention and preparedness. Image courtesy
of Wikimedia Commons.
120 S C IE N C E F O R I N N OVATI O N
The DOST-PCIEERD connected USHER with agencies like the Department of

Public Works and Highways (DPWH), which led to their system’s deployment
in government buildings and bridges. One of the approved proposals was the
SmartBridge project—a system that employed their early technology tailored
specifically to bridges. This was implemented in a bridge in Manila at the request
of DPWH, whose priority was bridge maintenance at the time. “We won the
DOST R&D award because of that bridge project, and that resulted in USHER,”
Dr. Uy shared. Photo courtesy of USHER Technologies, Inc.
the ground and building performance, a web portal system,

and a mobile application. When they find that there is no
significant difference in the building’s structural integrity
before and after the strong earthquake, the building is good
for reoccupation.
Being in the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Philippines is prone to

volcanic eruptions and quakes. In 1990, the country was hit
121
by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake that resulted in thousands of

deaths, injuries, and missing people. “I was only 11 years old
when it happened but I can still remember myself helplessly
lying down on our school grounds praying for it to stop,”
said Dr. Uy. As such, he believes it is important to focus not
just on disaster response—after an earthquake—but also on
disaster risk prevention and preparedness.
This is in line with the DOST-PCIEERD's own objective

to develop prediction and warning systems, including the
Landslide Investigations for Geohazards Preparedness and
Timely Advisories in the Philippines (LIGTAS) project. It
smartly analyzes a place’s threshold for rainfall before the
place turns into a landslide.
TECHNOLOGY FOR THE PEOPLE
Having completed a Leadership in Innovation Fellowship

program in the United Kingdom, Dr. Uy realized that creating
awesome technology is not enough. “It is important to realize
the value proposition,” he shared. “If you are able to identify
and clearly address a problem, it will be easier for people to
support your startup. It should be about value creation, it
should be about people. ”
He added how important it was to convince investors and

potential partners about the vision. In fact, even if they
did not get him as an investor, the structural engineer they
initially approached is now one of their structural engineering
partners.
Most importantly, Dr. Uy espoused a needs-first approach:

to first determine the need, and then design the technology
around that need. “Then, you will be assured that there will
be someone to champion it, there will be someone who will
fight for it, and there will be someone to fund it,” he said.
Through the DOST, Dr. Uy and his team received grant funding that enabled
their technology to come into fruition. Photos courtesy of USHER Technologies,
Inc.
123
USHER includes a web portal to check the health of structures. Photos courtesy
of USHER Technologies, Inc.
A good product or service does not

automatically translate into an outpouring
of investments. Payson Johnston of the
Forbes Business Council spells out the three
things necessary in raising capital for your
business:
1. Under st and your o f fer ing insi de and out,

and this applies not just to the product
or service being offered but in terms of
the relationships between the founders as
well. A venture capitalist would look for
a team that knows how to collaborate and
that nails their narrative as a sign that
the company would hold well in the long
run.
2. While it helps to already be familiar

with the network of investors one can
approach to fund their business,
newcomers in the scene would do well to
make a list and de velop r ela t i onships that
they can nurture in the years to come.
3. Finally, startups should k now h ow to

foster tr ans p ar ency wi th th e ir in ve stor s and
welc ome much ne e de d fe e db a ck.
Startups need to understand that

raising capital entails more than just
approaching venture capitalists; on their
end, entrepreneurs need to invest
hard work and time, especially given how
some funding takes years to materialize.
Maintaining relationships with investors

will ensure their success throughout the
years, and that includes providing them
with the right incentives (e.g.
providing a venture firm with enough
shares or offering below market prices
for shares to long-term investors).
11
125
Chapter
PILOT
PROJECTS:
TESTING THE
IDEA IN THE
REAL WORLD
Incubators and accelerators can improve, shorten, and

modernize the product development process for startups.
The traditional product development process involves the
following stages over the course of several years:
1. Idea generation
2. Product definition
3. Detailed design
4. Validation/testing
5. Commercialization/marketing
The first version of the product that gets produced is the

prototype. This is usually designed for initial testing and
provides a quick pattern for future versions that have been
adjusted based on earlier appraisals. Once prototyping
reaches the stage wherein operational features are more or less
final, the ideal next step is to pilot the project. A pilot project
ensures that the idea will be successful by testing it in a real-
world environment, or at least a controlled environment that
mimics the desired setting as closely as possible.
FA S T - C H A R G I N G S O L U T I O N S
CHRG Electric Vehicle Technologies Inc. is a young company

in Quezon City aiming to provide Electric Vehicles (EV)
solutions that enable the budding EV industry to gain massive
acceleration within and outside the country. CHRG was
founded by a group of electronics engineers with expertise in
power electronics, battery technology, electric vehicle systems,
renewable energy, and microcontroller systems.
127
A DOST-funded project called Rapid Electric Vehicle Charging - Charging in

Minutes (CharM) started what is now known as the CHRG Electric Vehicle
Technologies Inc. The group of engineers that started this company is oriented
toward providing Electric Vehicles (EV) solutions in the country. Photo courtesy
of CHRG Electric Vehicle Technologies Inc.
This group of engineers' mission to develop and provide EV

fast-charging solutions to the Philippine market started in
2013 through a DOST-funded project called Rapid Electric
Vehicle Charging – Charging in Minutes (CharM). CharM is
a fast-charging station that provides an alternative charging
strategy by eliminating the conventional four to six hours of
charging to less than an hour or even a matter of minutes for
EVs. The initial R&D of CharM was hosted by the Electrical
and Electronics Engineering Institute of UP Diliman. In
2015, CharM won the Most Outstanding R&D Award
by the DOST-PCIEERD under the Energy, Utilities, and
Systems category.
In 2017, CHRG was able to pilot the first commercial EV

charging station in Cauayan City, Isabela, to service local
e-trikes. The deployment was done in partnership with the

local government and as part of its vision for a smarter city.
This pilot enabled them to gauge the market for the product;
seeing the potential to commercialize their technology helped
them realize that they were on the right track.
Commercializing technology means finding a community that a company's

research and development can help. CHRG's first commercial success happened
in Cauayan City, Isabela, in partnership with the local government. Photos
courtesy of CHRG Electric Vehicle Inc.
129
Their journey toward being able to pilot their project is

one filled with ample guidance from various institutions.
Through the vast network offered by the DOST, CHRG
was able to connect to various capacity-building programs
of the UP Enterprise, the startup incubation program hosted
by UPSCALE Innovation Hub, which helped them shape a
sound business model that could scale.
UPSCALE Innovation Hub

serves as a venue for industry-academe-government
collaboration. It houses three programs:
• UP Enterprise, an incubation and

acceleration program for startups;
• Industry-Government Network
for Innovation and Technology
Entrepreneurship (IGNITE) Innovation
Labs, a market-driven development program
for industry collaborations; and
• EntreLEAD, a scaling up program for
technology startups.
UPSCALE also serves as the incubator arm of the UP

Engineering Research and Development Foundation (UP-
ERDFI), which helps secure seed funding for startups.
More technical than most, their screening process places a

huge emphasis on whether the tech behind the startup is
sound.
MARKET-DRIVEN PRODUCT
DEVELOPMENT
UPSCALE is led by Dr. Luis Sison, its project leader, who

practically started the innovation hub in 2018 as a project
with the DOST. Dr. Sison has over 10 years of experience
mentoring early-stage startups. Also serving as the director
of the UP System Technology Transfer and Business
Development Office (UP-TTBDO), he is not only a key
figure in UPSCALE—serving as the very first official and
prime “mentor” to its first incubatees—but also in the entire
local TBI and startup community.
UPSCALE works with universities, innovation centers, fellow

incubators and accelerators, and social enterprises within and
outside the country, and has entered into various corporate
partnerships to deliver its three priorities as of the moment:
incubating and supporting startups, facilitating market-driven
product development, and nationwide capacity-building for
technopreneurs. Some notable active partners include the
National University of Singapore (NUS), Accenture, USAID
STRIDE, PhilDev Labs, and Leave a Nest. “The most
recent one is with NUS, in collaboration with our Office
131
of International Linkages,” shared Dr. Sison. “They have a

summer program that they run in NUS and we help them
screen and prep our students from around the UP system.”
In 2019, CHRG applied to the spin-off program of the

DOST-PCIEERD called FASTRAC. Through this program,
the team was connected to UPSCALE’s incubation program.
The usual agreement for incubation is two years, which
covers the first six months of intensive mentorship sessions
and subsequent support on networking, mentorship, and
facilitating grant funding.
Dr. Luis Sison is the project leader of UPSCALE Innovation Hub, which
started in 2018. As a key figure in this innovation hub, he shares a lot of his
wisdom and experiences to UPSCALE's incubatees. Photo courtesy of BARAS
TBI's Facebook.
Not everyone has the opportunity to join, as UPSCALE

screens applicants to its nationwide open call based on three
criteria:
1. The main concept behind the product or innovation of
the startup;
2. The marketability and technology readiness of the
product; and
3. How UPSCALE and its community and network can
contribute to the startup in terms of research and
product development.
When a startup joins an incubation program, it undergoes intensive mentorship

sessions and receives support on networking and grant-funding fronts. The
mentorship is quite important as it hones the product to be ready for the market.
Photo courtesy of UPSCALE Innovation Hub.
“The product is really important. It has to be technically

feasible,” emphasized Dr. Sison. “If we have identified some
major technical showstoppers in the product, it will be lower
in our priority list.”
133
UPSCALE Innovation Hub has been successful in the past years, and it may
be credited to its thorough processes and criteria for the selection of applicants.
So far, the incubator has worked with partners such as the National University
of Singapore (NUS), Accenture, and USAID STRIDE. Photo courtesy of
UPSCALE Innovation Hub.
LEARNINGS FROM THE PILOT
After CharM’s pilot in Isabela, CHRG was able to conduct

more deployments of the fast-charging station in Muntinlupa
and Cagayan. During these deployments, they were
acquainted with various challenges, such as resistance from EV
manufacturers to issues on cost-effectiveness of the units for
the target market. Given this, the team had to come up with
solutions, such as pursuing tie-ups with local manufacturers
and re-engineering the CharM units for better market fit.
According to CHRG, they greatly benefited from the

mentorship component of UPSCALE’s incubation. Their
assigned mentor, the former president and CEO of PNOC
Renewables Corporation, has allowed them to gain an inside
look into opportunities for growth. In the next two to three

years, CHRG would also like to explore the possibility of
venturing into electric vehicles themselves and develop in-
house EVs like e-trikes, e-bicycles, and even bigger vehicles.
Tips to Overcome
Barriers to
Commercialization
• Validate the product-market fit. Talk to the

market segment that you are targeting
and that you're planning to market the
product with. It is important to know the
pain points of users and always consider
their feedback to identify gaps in the
technology.
• Be creative in seeking funding and resources.
Be open to and explore all possibilities,
whether it is in the form of a grant,
partnership, or sponsorship.
• Build a network with the right people. Being
in the energy and utilities sector was
challenging for CHRG because the market
segment was already mature. UPSCALE and
the DOST, according to CHRG, bridged them
to the right community.
• Do not be blindsided by the first-mover
advantage. CHRG was the first company
in the country to produce a technology
like CharM. However, UPSCALE challenged
them to identify, recognize, and address
issues, like market readiness or the lack
of willing adopters, which come with being
the “first.”
12
135
Chapter
TRENDS,
CHALLENGES, AND
OPPORTUNITIES
FOR THE
PHILIPPINE
S TA R T U P
ECOSYSTEM
Of the nearly 109 million people in the Philippines, 73%

have access to the internet, with an average of 10 hours spent
daily online—the most across the world.
It could be compared to Indonesia—both are archipelagos with

large rural populations engaged with the Internet. Indonesia,
however, has produced unicorns and even decacorns, or
companies valued at over USD 10 billion, in their startup
community, while the Philippines so far has none.
One reason could be the lack of R&D output for applied

research. To address this, one strategy could be to give
professors grants for applied research. There should also be
a more realistic balance between basic and applied research
since, up to now, only 10% is commercialization-oriented.
Another strategy that can be emulated is how in Singapore, at
a certain point in time, they considered providing promotion
merits to employees who can initiate startups or become an
adviser to a startup.
Of course, the biggest hurdle for Filipino startups remains

access to capital. Majority of startup founders bootstrap
to fund their operations, but at some point, they will need
greater capital to thrive.
As a response to this, the Philippine Government has

established the Startup Grant Fund (SGF) and the Startup
Venture Fund (SVF) through the DOST and the DTI,
respectively.
The SGF is meant to support prototype improvement, the

development of product specifications, and validating user
137
The Startup Grant Fund (SGF) created an open call for businesses designed
for the new normal in order to help them strengthen their intellectual property
(IP), establish initial market traction, refine their business model, and prepare
business continuity plans, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Working
on innovations in supply chain and logistics, education, sustainable industries,
content and talent development, public service, and work-from-home productivity
tools, the first batch of startups approved for funding under this program was
announced in June 2021, with a total of PHP 43 million in grant funds approved
for 14 startups. The next call for proposals has also already been announced, with
a target to support more startups with a maximum grant of PHP 5 million each.
Photo courtesy of the DOST-PCIEERD's Facebook page.
requirements, while the SVF focuses on Filipino-founded

startups that have high growth potential, helping them
accelerate through further product development; plant and/
or facilities establishment, improvement, or expansion; and
product manufacturing, sales, and marketing.
Both are part of an effort by the Philippine government to

have more globally competitive startups and unicorns, at par
with other ASEAN neighbors. This is the essence of Republic
Act (RA) No. 11337 or the Innovative Startup Act of 2019.
Another recent development is the DOST and QBO’s TBI

4.0 Program, which “ultimately seeks to develop world-
class TBIs and incubator managers around the Philippines.”
Their immediate goal is to provide further training and
interventions for the existing public TBIs across the board,
even less mature or already obsolescent first- and second-
generation incubators, and eventually produce a set of fourth-
generation TBIs that follow up-to-date global standards and
best practices adapted for a Philippine setting, which would
translate to better encouragement and guidance for aspiring
startup entrepreneurs.
To become a unicorn, the target addressable market needs to

be huge.
Thriving in the
New Normal
During the pandemic, online platforms are
proving to be resilient.
my.Eskwela was a platform conceptualized in 2010

by Dr. Orven Llantos of the Computer Science
Department at MSU-IIT, seeing the need of OFW
parents to monitor their child’s education.
But now, it has become a vital tool for a
school’s faculty, students, and parents to
view a child’s grades, quizzes, assignments,
and other measures of academic performance. As
the demand to include more users increased,
Dr. Llantos expanded my.Eskwela by availing of
cloud services—or infrastructure, platforms, or
software hosted by third-party providers—using
a grant of PHP 80,000 through the iDEYA TBI. To
date, my.Eskwela has garnered more than 3,000
Filipino users from all over the world, and
Dr. Llantos hopes to bring it to more public
schools, for the sake of the country’s learners
and teachers, who used to take until the wee
139
hours of the morning just to finish submitting

their students’ grades.
Another startup proving its survivability

is Tarabuy, which roughly translates to the
invitation “Let’s buy!” The founders initially
joined iDEYA’s incubation program with a
platform used by banks to authenticate its
customers who use their online services.
However, they weren’t able to proceed with the
validation process of onboarding cooperatives
or lending firms on the platform, as it
involved traveling to meet key personnel
on-site to close the sales. Their pivot?
Become a marketplace for couriers by bringing
together all delivery service providers in one
platform. This then allows users to compare
courier or delivery services in terms of rates
and speed of service, a use case so compelling
that Tarabuy was able to easily acquire
its first customer through social media and
increase user growth by 145%.
Three key areas to explore would be innovations in:
1. Content creation. This stems from the Filipino’s

penchant for content consumption—the same
driving force behind livestreaming platform Kumu,
which received USD 15 million (PHP 750 million)
series B funding and is one of the Filipino startups on its
way to becoming a unicorn.
2. Online learning platforms. This will aid in the shift to
blended learning, as well as satisfy the demand for
hobbyist content, skills training, and master classes, as
people find ways to spend their time at home.
3. Agricultural startups. As with the goat AI project, the

micropropagation startup Binhi Inc., and the fishermen’s
warning app by iNON, startups catering to the
agriculture sector could modernize one of the largest
and arguably most essential fields in the country.
In this, gearing up with high-speed Internet and relevant

software will be important.
Dr. Bornales of iDEYA, the TBI at Mindanao State University,

said they had to deal with some delays in acquiring new tools
and platforms like Zoom through the school’s administrative
processes. Thankfully, collaboration between TBIs is
happening: QBO Innovation Hub has provided them with a
Zoom link for some of their online activities.
UPSCALE, at University of the Philippines Diliman, on

the other hand, intends to deepen its relationships with
institutions—building an environment where government,
industry, and the academe can create a rising tide.
However, while the TBIs and science parks established by

the government, academe, and private sector are showing
remarkable growth, the Philippines still has a long way to go
to be at par with other countries’ startup programs. There
are still compounded issues and problems, as well as the
challenges posed by the current COVID-19 situation, that
have to be overcome.
One strategy point is to create a complete ecosystem that

would provide startups access to infrastructure, common-
service facilities, advanced equipment, training, administrative
141
and legal assistance, marketing, networks and linkages, and a

funding and incentives system—also hence the need to pool all
stakeholders in the startup environment.
To supplement this, interdepartmental government programs,

policies, and laws should be well-coordinated and crafted, not
to mention consistent, to support TBIs and their programs.
Further investment in R&D is also integral and should be
refocused on applied research that solves a market need or gap,
especially since TBIs are crucial for job creation and overall
national development.
A national awareness campaign would go a long way in

encouraging potential technology-oriented entrepreneurs to
pursue startup plans. Such a campaign may include:
• A feature on successful startups—like a short video on

how their idea was born, the processes they followed,
and the people behind the success of their startup;
• An easily accessible database of public and private TBIs,
which also lists down their location and offerings;
• Funding facilities and options;
• Training, tech support, and mentorship options;
• A list of trends, technology needs, technological
innovations and tech-related opportunities, which
potential startups can take advantage of or develop
products or services for; and/or
• All other support facilities in the ecosystem as described
in previous chapters.
S TA R T U P S I N T H E C O R O N AV I R U S
PA N D E M I C
Startups were not spared from the negative impacts of the

pandemic. Data from PwC Philippines from 2020 shows
that of 90 startup founders surveyed, 48% felt threatened by
COVID-19, while 49% pivoted to survive and adjust to the
situation.
Despite being affected by business and transportation

lockdowns, the temporary closure of offices and schools, and
social distancing regulations, startups still drove e-commerce
to new heights during the different stages of community
quarantine. The availability of affordable digital technology
allowed the startup community to reach more people and
more businesses, big and small.
For one, the demand for contactless solutions opened more

opportunities for startups in the logistics, e-commerce,
entertainment, education, and health sectors to put forth
technologies, products, and services that could answer the
needs of the new economy. Additionally, shutdowns in the
worst-hit sectors made room for startups that can now offer
new products and better prices to customers.
Several examples include the DOST-funded edutech startups

Edusuite Inc. and Wela Online Corp. (the latter developing
the Wela School Systems), which became more relevant during
the pandemic as educational institutions shifted to online
and blended learning methods. In 2020 alone, Edusuite and
Wela generated PHP 11 million and PHP 30 million worth
of revenues, respectively. Another DOST-funded startup,
143
SENTI Techlabs, Inc., developed a machine learning–based

language classifier that automatically detects the language of
any document. This allows clients to view market behavior
on social media, as well as real-time conversations about their
brands. SENTI generated PHP 10 million worth of revenues
in 2020.
And then there is Kumu. It aims to be the Filipino “super

app,” where people can livestream, video chat, play games,
run their businesses, and more. Kumu became a big hit with
Filipinos during the pandemic, with many looking for ways
to entertain themselves while on home quarantine. Users
were also able to take part in “live commerce,” which allowed
MSMEs to market their respective brands.
The digital economy also allowed very small businesses (VSBs)

to participate in the supply chain even without scaling. Online
purchases were made much easier by payment platforms like
GCash and PayMongo, which widened the scope in terms
of not only accessibility (versus credit card payment options)
but also geographical reach.
In general, fintech and e-commerce startups quickly became

the standard for online payments and money transfers
According to the Philippines Fintech Report 2020, there were
a total of 197 startups into payments, lending, e-wallets, digital
remittances, cryptocurrency, and crowdfunding, among
others. Agrabah Ventures, a startup from the AIM–Dado
Banatao Incubator, is a prime example. Agrabah provided
an integrated platform arranging the delivery of agricultural
produce from farming communities to enterprises, providing
farmers a seamless experience for marketing, giving easy

access to clients, and financing to meet volume requirements.
Finally, there were startups that provided online platforms to

make VSBs more accessible to buyers. There is Pushkart.ph,
an online grocery service aiming to ensure the fast, convenient,
and safe delivery of groceries right to customers’ doorsteps.
Another is the GrocerGenie PH website, an online grocery
marketplace allowing users to conveniently purchase items
from their mobile devices.
There are a lot more examples that prove the ingenuity of

Filipino startups, which clearly shows how technology can
increase opportunities and benefit people in adjusting to the
new normal, especially in today’s digital age. When the DOST
opened a call for COVID-19 solutions during the onset of
the pandemic, startups also led the number of innovators
who responded.
In terms of medical solutions, one of the most notable is

Futuristic Aviation Maritime Enterprises, Inc. (FAME),
who designed the Specimen Collection Booth (SCB) for
COVID-19 testing and developed 132 SCB units to be
deployed to government hospitals and medical centers across
the country. There were also startups that designed ventilators
to help alleviate the demand for local ventilators in the country,
like Neuronmek. They developed the Neuronvent Ventilator
System, which featured a modular actuator design that can
hold different sizes of Ambu bags. This proved useful in
transporting COVID-19 patients during the administration
of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) as it prevented
145
aerosolization to health care workers, thereby keeping them

from getting infected by the virus.
Overall, the Philippine startup ecosystem continues to thrive.

This is because startups are agile enough to adapt rapidly to
the changing market. Despite economic uncertainty and a
volatile market, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a surge
in startups—and such a surge is being attributed to workers
who were laid off and who started their own businesses. Seeing
that startups can still thrive and be successful, more people
should be encouraged to put their ideas out and establish
their own startup company, and ultimately contribute to the
growth of the Philippine startup ecosystem.
147
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154
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157
INTERVIEWS
Amante, A. (2021, August 30). Online interview.

Anunciado, R. (2021, July 3). Online interview.
Aquino, S. (2021, July 2). Online interview.
Baticados, G. (2021, July 3). Online interview.
Bobis, E. (2021, September 2). Online interview.
Borlongan, K. (2021, July 9). Online interview.
Bornales, J. (2021, August 19). Online interview.
Calimon, C. (2021, August 8). Online interview.
Chan, K. (2021, September 9). Online interview.
Cruzate, R. (2021, September 8). Online interview.
de la Peña, F. (2021, July 2). Online interview.
De Ocampo, A. (2021, September 2). Online interview.
Del Rosario, A. (2021, July 3). Online interview.
Domingo, M. (2021, September 2). Online interview.
Fajardo, J. (2021, July 19). Email interview.
Fiel, J. (2021, August 24). Online interview.
Flores, J. (2021, June 22). Online interview.
Gallos, P. (2021, August 12). Online interview.
Haguisan, R. (2021, August 21). Online interview.
Ibañez, C. (2021, October 8). Email interview.
Layco, J. (2021, September 2). Online interview.
Linis, V. (2021, August 31). Online interview.
Llantos, O. (2021, August 9). Online interview.
Magnaye, R. (2021, August 29). Online interview.
Magtoto, E. (2021, July 2). Online interview.
Malolos, J. (2021, July 13 & 22). Email interview.
Nieva, J. (2021, August 19). Online interview.
Nisperos, N. (2021, August 31). Online interview.
Pagaspas, C. (2021, August 13). Online interview.
Paypon, P. (2021, July 29). Email interview.
Pili, R. (2021, September 10). Email interview.
Reyes, A. (2021, August 13). Online interview.
Rivera, P. (2021, October 7). Email interview.
Santos, G. (2021, August 20). Online interview.
Sison, L. (2021, September 13). Online interview.
Soliman, P. (2021, September 23). Online interview.
Sueño, L. (2021, September 10). Email interview.
Tayo, R. (2021, September 8). Online interview.
Torreda, J. (2021, August 25). Online interview.
Uy, F. (2021, August 18). Online interview.
Yu, K. (2021, October 11). Email interview.
Yu, R. (2021, August 18). Online interview.
159
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to express their appreciation for the contributions of
former DOST Undersecretary Eduardo Magtoto, Ms. Sonia Tiong-Aquno,
the innovators, startups, universities, institutions, venture capitalists, and
technology business incubators and the support of the Department of
Science and Technology, the Philippine Council for Industry, Energy
and Emerging Technology (DOST-PCIEERD), Philippine Council for
Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources (DOST-PCAARRD), and
the National Research Council of the Philippines (DOST-NRCP).
Lastly, the authors wish to thank Ms. Lynn Talingdan from the DOST-
NRCP and the editorial team that made this book happen: Editor-in-Chief
Anna Canlas, Editor Mons Sta. Cruz, Publisher Bam Besa, Managing
Editors Jenny Aguilar and Camille Ledesma, Program Director Danielle
Canlas-Torres, Illustrator Maia Puyat, Art Director and Illustrator Zoe
Sabandal, Researcher-writers Mikaela Amador, Aly Narvaez, Gabbie
Natividad, Julianne Suazo, and Ria Torrente, and Research Assistants
Janelle Cielo, Shaine Tabuquilde and Patricia Villoria.
160
DOST
Science for the People is a publication of the Department of Science and
Technology. The implementation of this book project was monitored by
the National Research Council of the Philippines.
For more information about the Department of Science and

Technology and their programs:
Website: www.dost.gov.ph
Facebook: www.facebook.com/DOSTph
DOST Building
General Santos Avenue Bicutan, Taguig City
Metro Manila, Philippines 1631
Phone: (632) 8837-2071 to 82 or (632) 8837-2937
Email: osec@dost.gov.ph
161
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
MARET FOLLOSCO-BAUTISTA is the chairman and president of

companies under the CL Follosco Group, a multicompany organization.
She is passionate about her advocacies on entrepreneurship, women and youth

empowerment, education, industry-clustering, and science and technology,
all in support of nation-building. She has mentored a number of startups and
coached them on how to make that “perfect pitch."
Science and technology runs deep in her veins, being the daughter of former
DOST Secretary Dr. Ceferino L. Follosco.
ROBINA GOKONGWEI-PE is president and CEO of Robinsons Retail

Holdings Inc., a publicly listed multiformat retailer. Robinsons Retail,
which is an affiliate of the JG Summit Group, has also invested in local
e-commerceplayers like BeautyMnl and GrowSari. The JGS group also set up
one of the country’s leading TBIs—JG Digital Equity Ventures Inc. (JGDEV)
and Data Analytics Ventures Inc. (DAVI).
Taking from the entrepreneurial spirit of her father, John Gokongwei Jr., she
actively promotes local business enterprises as her contribution to national
development.
FORTUNATO "BOY" T. DE LA PEÑA currently serves as the Secretary of

the Department of Science and Technology (DOST)—a position he holds
after being the undersecretary for thirteen years.
Part of his legacy throughout his years in position is leading the steering
committee on the formation of the National Innovation Strategy, which gave
rise to the National Innovation Network (Filipinnovation) that he also co-
chaired. Filipinnovation harnesses the creativity and ingenuity of Filipinos to
develop practicable and compelling solutions to the problems being faced by
various vertical markets—cultivating a more vibrant startup landscape and
hence more robust industrial systems in the Philippines.
Robina and Maret's friendship goes all the way back to their freshman year at
the UP School of Economics, with both being staunch supporters of the UP
Maroons men's basketball team. They also both believe in the specific Filipino
brand of ingenuity and champion excellence in their respective businesses.
Their shared passion extends to good Filipino food like lechon and daing na
bangus with garlic.
163
Maret, Robina, and Sec. Boy de la Peña have traveled together all over
the country to visit the SME beneficiaries of the DOST’s programs. They
enjoy eating the local delicacy and freshest fruits offered by each region.
Their common interests aside from food include history and culture. A
visit to heritage houses and churches in Bulacan was one of their most
enjoyable and memorable trips.
Wr i t te n i n si m p l e l ang uag e, t his
bo o k b re ak s down t he st rategy t ha t
f re s h g r a duates, ent rep reneurs, a nd
c o m p a n i e s al i ke c an use to bring a n
i d e a to m a rket : t he p ro c ess of bu sine ss
i n c u b a t i on. Feat uri ng 10 sto rie s of
c o m p a n i e s at vari ous st ag es, t his book
a i m s to p ro mo te techno p reneu rship
a n d h i g h l ig ht t he advant ag es of join in g
a te c h n o l og y busi ness i ncub a tor
( T BI) , t h e Dep ar t m ent o f Sci ence a nd
Te c h n o l o gy ’s ver y own T E C HNO LO GY
B USIN E S S IN C U B ATO R progra m, a nd
c o l l a b o r a ti o n bet ween t he aca de me ,
i n d u s t r y, g overnment , and p riva te se ctor,
wh i l e fo c usi ng o n i mp o r t ant le sson s
for s t u d e nts, ent rep reneurs, a nd TBI
m a n a g e r s to t ake away.

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SCIENCE FOR THE PEOPLE

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SCIENCE FOR SCALE

SCIENCE FOR SUCCESS

SCIENCE FOR SOCIAL CHANGE

SCIENCE FOR CHANGE

SCIENCE FOR COMMUNITIES

III. NETWORKING: FINDING THE 41

VI. LINK AND LEARN: THE 75

VII. OF HACKERS AND HUSTLERS: 83

IX. THE CROWD HAS 105

XI. PILOT PROJECTS: 125

XII. TRENDS, CHALLENGES, 135

References and Further Reading 147

It seems like there’s never been a riskier time to start a business. As

Before the widespread adoption of the internet and mediums

But thanks to these platforms, there is a healthy and robust

This current fast pace of the global product development

• Active collaboration between business, academe, and

As such, businesses have to keep up with the fast pace. There’s

The term traces its origins to a 1976 Forbes magazine article

to market, and make it irresistible for customers. Compared

Startups often harness technologies to come up with original

Startups vs. SMEs

Small and medium size enterprises (SMEs),

Another glaring difference is that SMEs

Although startups can grow explosively and become

In the Philippines, SMEs are the economic lifeblood. They

At the same time, the startup ecosystem in the Philippines has

However, startups in the country still face many challenges—

This is where the process of incubation comes in: the

Similar to how egg incubators provide the right environment

networks and funding. The main objective of an incubator is

Incubators are different from accelerators. Unlike incubation,

Today, many entities serve as enablers of startups or

• Academic institutions like universities (e.g., the

under Ayala Corporation, for innovators in e-commerce,

The Miriam College

reality/augmented reality) mobile apps

Envisioned as the first integrated

"In the incubation program, we hold weekly

She adds that their incubatees are very

How does business incubation work?

Finding the right incubator. Similar to the first step in

For instance, it is common knowledge that the Silicon Valley

Sometimes, the right one is within one’s existing network

Building the right environment. Once a business incubator

When Filipino payments startup PayMongo applied to Y

that the environment should be mutually beneficial for the

Setting it up. An essential thing to bear in mind is that

Incubating and growing. Incubating eggs is a slow process

• Workspace or access to free or heavily discounted

marketing, or computer software services (to ensure

The key benefit that incubation provides is access—from

Completing the hatch. After a successful incubation period,

Extra push. After incubation, some startups proceed to

In the Philippines, technology business

According to the European Central

No wonder governments are devoting budgets