How to build tech unicorns in PHI recently met a friend who founded a tech startup five years ago. I asked him what he is doing nowadays. He curtly said, “Still running my startup”. Apparently, he’s still trying to grow his customer base in Metro Manila. This is one of the main problems why there’s no Philippine tech company that reached a regional, more so global scale, despite the vigorous activities over the past five years from tech incubators, accelerators, conferences, local venture capitalists, and tech associations. “Our local founders still don’t dream big,” said Jojo Flores, the co-founder of Plug and Play, a Silicon Valley-based accelerator and incubator firm. Many local startups solve local problems — from traffic, to delivery of goods, to finding parking. Nothing wrong with this lofty goal, but it simply won’t sustain economic viability in the long run.No wonder why the Philippines does not have a tech unicorn, a term … [Read more...] about How to build tech unicorns in PH
Dreaming big quotes
How big (or small) is your psychological wallet?
Many years ago during one family gathering, my youngest son Anton was in a conversation about money with our relatives and he said, “Oh, I do have a big psychological wallet!” And all the titos and titas expressed surprise to hear this from a young grade school kid, “Psychological what?” Months before this happened, my young bunso asked me, “Ma, how come a lot of stories are about rich people who are bad and poor people who are good. But I want to be rich and good!” After that I gave him the book of Bo Sanchez entitled 8 Secrets of the Truly Rich and he really liked it. And that’s where he got the term psychological wallet. To quote Bo, “The poor have tiny psychological wallets. God wants to give them more but their psychology can’t handle the blessing.” What is psychological wallet? My interpretation and the way I explained it to my son goes something like this. Psychological wallet is the way you think about and treat … [Read more...] about How big (or small) is your psychological wallet?
Neil Humphreys: Big boys’ dominance bad for football
Pep Guardiola was angry. One irate Manchester City supporter was practically foaming at the mouth. Even the club's owners must be taken aback by the perplexing reaction to their historic treble. Where's the love? Where's the eternal gratitude for providing the greatest show on Planet Football? Were we not entertained? Actually, the lazy Gladiator quote is an apt one here, because Manchester City's domination of Watford in the FA Cup final was just as one-sided as Lions against Roman slaves and the underlying circumstances were the same. City just couldn't lose to the Hornets. The first treble in English history wasn't the coronation that City hoped for, but a depressing confirmation of monopolistic control. For the first time, Europe's top-five leagues saw their titles retained. Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain and City unwittingly came together to highlight the rich-poor divide like never before, because this has never happened before. Even though City became … [Read more...] about Neil Humphreys: Big boys’ dominance bad for football
What Richard Yap dreams for Cebu
First of all, we want to improve the mass transport system in Cebu. We are also pushing for the LRT to be built, that is one thing that can help us with our traffic. Waste to energy (facility), renewable energy, those are the things we want for Cebu. We want to bring water to the mountain barangays. These are the things that require immediate action. I think we also need to go into the direction where Singapore has gone, which is water recycling. They recycle their water, wherein their waste water becomes so clean that they can drink it. Big dreams? Not really, if you ask Richard Edison Uy Yap who is running for congressman in Cebu City North District against a political veteran. “So far,” Richard admitted in an interview for Cebu Vote, the special election coverage of The Freeman, The Philippine STAR’s Cebu-based sister publication, “it has been going very well, I think, we’ve had a lot of resistance in the beginning. But I think people are now warming up … [Read more...] about What Richard Yap dreams for Cebu
Going (pili) nuts about beauty
The tough shell of the pili nut is cocooned by what many have claimed is the fountain of youth. And this “fountain” is the pulp that coats the nut. When blanched, “depulped” and manually pressed for extraction, this turns into oil. And voila! After purification and filtration, the pili oil, without preservatives, is ready to turn your dreams into Instagram-worthy reality. “This is actually the next big thing since Argan oil,” says Jane Ong of Pili Ani, the only skin care line made with powerful pili oils. Pili stands for the fruit and for “Pilipino,” as the Philippines is the world’s only grower of pili trees, and Ani means harvest. “Because what we have in the pili tree is a treasure that we don’t really know we have — we have two oils from one tree. From the pili tree, you can get elemi oil, which is the one Chanel buys from the Philippines. Chanel started buying elemi oil from the country around 30 years ago. If … [Read more...] about Going (pili) nuts about beauty