I appreciate the very big topic that building a Silicon Valley-like hub in the Philippines is. Right now, I’d just like to see what’s out there and what’s been said. In academe, an ever-more-brief review of related literature.
In a 2006 article by Paul Graham, the two key elements in reproducing Silicon Valley are:
- rich people
- nerds
Will from OutsidetheValley succinctly gives two key components for execution:
- Create a city with a tech-creative class culture.
We have nerds, sure. The entrepreneurial techies gravitate toward Makati and Alabang and still a few scattered nationwide. These gifted tech-creative have to be nurtured with art galleries and coffee shops. (We’re pretty lucky, the nearest our office is a 20-minute trike ride.) - Create a city with a world-class university.
To spawn startups, your university has to be in a town that has attractions other than the university. It has to be a place where investors want to live, and students want to stay after they graduate. (Paul Graham)
Top of mind cities are Makati (though overexposed), Filinvest, and Fort Bonifacio. About what or which university, that requires more thought. Schools (and parents) generally orient students with the employee life, even those with Entrepreneurship courses. Getting big name professors (and finding out exactly who those are) requires a lot of moolah - who might those educators might be?
A place to get some educators might be GoNegosyo, an informational site by the Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship, spearheaded by Selecta’s Joey Conception. They have a list of ICT mentors: Myla Villanueva, Federico Gonzalez, Mike Jurado, Yu Ming Chin, Mary Anne Tolentino, Wilson Ng, and Paco Sandejas. (Sadly, the site doesn’t contain profiles of the mentors, they seem to expect you to just click on their photo and IM them??)
Apparently those two components still aren’t ripe in Metro Manila.
Bill of InstigatorBlog points out what else is wanting in Montreal, CA. (They at least have the 2 components going for them).
- Successful entrepreneurs have to give back.
- Angel investors need to raise their profiles.
- Governments should get out of the way.
- Existing startups have to get involved. So list up here at Pinoy Web Startup!
- More cheerleading.
- More startups.
Can we make some progress in 2008?
Hey, you can also read some stimulating thoughts by Migs on the future of web startups.
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Comments
Terence Pua
January 23, 2008 6:54 pm
What the Philippines needs is a “web hit”, not money or place. Imagine if Flickr came out of the Philippines…it could spur graduates starting their own startups (instead of going to ibm/hp, etc.) and investors to actually invest in high-tech companies (rather than real-estate or food cos).
We need a bottom-up approach, not a top-down approach. And a bottom-up approach can be spurred by a couple of “minor” hits.
Miguel
January 27, 2008 1:28 am
I actually work for one of the people listed…
Silicon Valley in the Philippines? | YugaTech | Philippines, Technology News & Reviews
February 6, 2008 4:21 am
[...] There’s this three-year itch about the idea of having our own version of the Silicon Valley in the Philippines. Migs started the discussion just over 2 years ago and has been revived by Marie of Pinoy Web StartUp. [...]
Jon Limjap
February 6, 2008 9:24 am
Terence,
LOL, you could say that Flickr somewhat did come out of the Philippines. Catherina Fake has Filipina blood.
Marie Casas
February 11, 2008 1:10 am
@Terence: Are we talking Catch 22?
Startuppers need to be enabled (willpower/passion/money/time/focus/workplace) to even just get started developing a “web hit”, as you call it. If an angel can help enable, then the entrepreneur and the angel have to have a chance to meet, which here and now, is not as straightforward as it seems to be in a Silicon Valley setting. Then again, angels probably have to see some “hits” before they get on. Sigh.
jun-jun
June 18, 2008 9:27 am
@terrence
if flickr did come out of the philippines from a philippine company, it won’t be as big as it is now. i think your giving too much credit on the democratizing power of the internet. people in the west, i believe would be apprehensive in using a product off a third world country. it’s a cultural thing i believe.
i think one important hindrance to a would-be filipino silicon valley is the filipino mentality. filipinos are generally thinking like worker bees not as trailblazers. we always like to say we can do what the west are doing. well, we’ve been saying and doing that for more than a decade now and we are still in doubt of ourselves. we’re perenial followers to our former colonial masters.
Terence Pua
June 27, 2008 6:12 pm
@jun-jun
Your comments cover 2 very important points:
1) Can a web app coming out of the Philippines succeed?
2) Why aren’t Filipinos more innovative?
On the first point, absolutely. Users/customers don’t care where you are from. As long as the service/app you provide solves a problem and your app scales properly. The problem is we don’t have such an example and thus you really believe that the West will not use a third world product.
On the second point, this is a much longer answer (and could qualify for an actual paper). But to summarize, Filipinos have generally had more things to worry about than just innovation - food, shelter, medicine, clothing. When you are barely making necessities in life, you don’t worry about other things. Many years of this leads parents to tell their kids to go work for a big corporation for stability and security, not to go out and do something innovative (and thus riskier).
However, with more recent direct foreign investment and the ease and low cost of starting a web company, hopefully things will change. Having a “flickr” here will only help.
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