Innovation-Focused Development: Ushering In a New Era of Philippine Entrepreneurship — Launchgarage
“A lot of people think that innovation is just having your great idea. But a lot of it is just moving quickly and trying a lot of things.” — Mark Zuckerberg
To first be driven by the goal, to nurture it by building the necessary pieces thereafter, and to expound on its foundation through lasting commitment with preconditions that ensure success. This, we believe, is the key to developing fruitful, relevant innovation in today’s age.
No ideas are unique, and we’re well aware by now that it’s the people executing the vision that matter. Launchgarage aims to be at the center of any Filipino’s aspirations as an entrepreneur with our world-class team, our vast global network and our founder-driven development tools.
This 2018, our goal is nothing short of being able to gain a deeper understanding of the Filipino culture, the different motivations behind their advocacies, providing proper support and countless opportunities to those who deserve it.
Here’s how we’re impacting many different proponents of innovation in the Philippines:
Garage Academy
Garage Academy is designed to provide startup knowledge to founders, entrepreneurs, and innovators that traditional institutions are not equipped to provide through a series of talks, lectures, and workshops.
This department, we believe, is essential for any entrepreneur as everything begins at the educational level. We’ve hosted a variety of workshops, ranging from Digital Marketing, User Experience Design, Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence and more. Being the industry-agnostic team we are, we seek to provide the most relevant information that startups need today. For more information, head to the Garage Academy page.
Corporate Innovation Program
As an extension of the Garage Academy department, the program is just as its name implies: To bring forward innovation within bigger companies, specifically Enterprise Corporations. Many times, these companies have trouble adjusting to the modern market because the margin for error is small and therefore there is less risk involved.
By injecting a dose of outsourced, structured innovation programs from Launchgarage, we are able to provide a unique perspective on things and deliver valuable, quality tools that are essential to remain relevant in this fast-paced world. Part of this program involves connecting our portfolio startups to them to utilize their services, a win-win for both parties involved.
From Ideas To Reality: Startup Pitching Program
This pilot program was conducted from September to December of 2017 showcasing a variety of tech companies in different stages. A total of seven startups were selected from a pool of over 30 applicants. FITR aims to assist entrepreneurs in different stages by helping them develop their pitches, giving them crucial feedback and having them present in front of real investors on the final day. In addition, this serves as an entry point for Startups who wish to join the Launchgarage Advisory Portfolio.
The results are quite pleasing, as one of its participants, RetailGate, a computer-vision based analytics platform for Retail Stores have signed on to be a part of our portfolio. A warm welcome to them and a toast to many more years of success.
Other notable participants include: EXORA Technologies, Minerva, Groundwork AI and WeLink. We will be hosting our next batch very soon. Keep an eye out for announcements on our Facebook page.
Garage Supercolliders
A Supercollider is an invite-only event where investors, corporate partners, and Launchgarage entrepreneurs (called Garageheads) gather to collaborate for future partnerships, piloting and/or investment deals. We invite international companies and investors not just from the Philippines, but also from Silicon Valley and Southeast Asia. With the goal of providing an avenue to seek investment for entrepreneurs, this event is held only a certain number of times every year and as such, we carefully select which startups are given the opportunity to pitch.
The Academic Partnerships Network
Last June 2017, we created the Academic Partnerships department, specifically to bolster innovation at the educational level as currently, most of it is found in other parts of the world. In order to replicate this in the Philippines, we have partnered up with various Universities — Both locally and abroad on three different levels: Administrative, Organizational and the Faculty level, providing an avenue for maximum engagement.
By forging partnerships across the region, we can ensure that the network we are developing can find opportunities to work with us or amongst themselves in an effort to empower our entrepreneurs. Bright minds are scattered across the country and they merely lack the right opportunities. With this department, Launchgarage is in the middle of that problem seeking to bridge the gap.
EVENTS
We’ve also been actively participating in a variety of events this year. If you’re interested in partnering up with us in some capacity, please don’t hesitate to send an email to: russ@launchgarage.com
Below are a few notable events we’ve helped organize this past month:
National Youth Business Convention 2018
Launchgarage was a co-presenter of one of the country’s biggest youth conventions, organized by the UP Business Administration Council. The event brings together more than 900 attendees, 170 delegates, 15 speakers over the course of three days with a series of talks and activities from top-notch professionals across various business industries open to thousands of student leaders from the Philippines and Asia Pacific.
We hosted over 50 delegates in the Entrepreneurship track at our space during day 2 of their event, conducted a Design Thinking workshop and heard their fantastic pitches during the final day of the event.
Held annually, you can look forward to another one next year. For more information head to their Official Facebook Page.
DICT-YouthHack Startup Challenge 2018: High School Edition
YouthHack Manila is one of the country’s most active student-led organizations that promotes innovation through startups and entrepreneurship. They aim to build a global community of youth entrepreneurs willing to help and support each other. This year, in partnership with the Department of Information Communications Technology (DICT) and the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), they hosted a Startup Challenge specifically for young and eager High School students. With fresher, bolder ideas than their older counterparts, the event showed promising signs of a bright future ahead for the Philippines. The top three winners of the event are currently under the mentorship of our team.
4-Hour Breakthrough: An Immersive, Gamified Workshop for Entrepreneurs
UPSTART is a board game that simulates the UPS and DOWNS of setting up and sustaining a business. It equips players with the tools & insights to have them take their business to the next level. Players learn lifelong lessons in an environment of fun, collaboration and play.
Under the Garage Academy belt, we hosted a session of Upstart: The Board Game. The gamified workshop enabled entrepreneurs from various backgrounds to both learn and relax as they participated in this game. Part of our community development initiative is to provide an atmosphere which enriches the working environment of entrepreneurs, and this game is perfect for that. Look forward to us hosting more of these fun-filled events in the future!
