StartupWeekend Will Hit the Philippines Twice This Year

We can feel the super hot atmosphere among startups in the Philippines where there will be 54 hours StartupWeekend held two times, one in Manila on April 27 – 29 and the other leg in Cebu on May 11 – 13. This follows the success of same event held last year, where we saw 200 developers, 60 ideas and 27 prototypes [The actual weather in Manila is sweltering hot, too. – Ed].

Most of us might still remember that Startup Weekends are all about people trying to develop a prototype of either a mobile or web application over the weekend. As entrepreneurs, we should not be lazy, right? Weekends are for work, and not just fun.

Participants are expected to come from various educational and working backgrounds, with different skill sets, but mostly primarily developers, designers and entrepreneurs. Everyone is expected to build apps in three days.

Friday is the pitching day. Entire participants will be alotted one minute to pitch their ideas focusing on problem, solution, tool and participant’s needs. Afterwards, they should start forming teams and brainstorm ideas, hunting for the best. Discussion on resources and skills needed to support the ideas and build the products should also be held during this day.

The second day is all about preparing a business plan and creating prototypes. Participants will be accompanied by their respective mentors, who will challenge assumptions. Mentors prefer to encourage entrepreneurs to think, rather than give the direct answers. You can follow their advice or you might want to have your own direction.

On the last day, all teams will pitch their ideas, as well as demonstrate their apps, in front of a panel of judges who will determine the winners. Don’t forget, there are usually plenty of investors coming in, sitting down and looking for prospects to spend their cash on.

At this point, there is no information on how many teams will actually deliver their pitches. But with lots of excitement and a passionate ambience surrounding the Philippines’ startup ecosystem, we are sure to see more teams participating than last year’s 62 pitches.

All attendees will get a copy of e-book titled The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development as giveaways from Brant Cooper and Patrick Vlaskovits. If you would like to join the event, head over to Manila and Cebu for registration.

Curiosity may still kill the cat, but have you ever wondered which startups have been successfully established after participating in the event? According to StartupWeekend Chief Marketing Officer Joey Pomerenke, approximately 10% of team attendees have had an investment and more than 35% are still going strong after three months. To give few examples, Pomerenke mentioned Zaarly, FoodSpotting, Memolane, inDinero, CloudBot, ReportGrid, Cloudmine, Saygent, PocketTales, Giant Think Well, Jimmy Fairly, KeepStream, Volly, LaunchRock and Proxomo. A special note to Zaarly, as their valuation is now in the millions of dollars.

Last but not least, those who couldn’t attend may check out the live tweets from @startupmanila with #SWM as the official hashtag. And the event is likely to be streamed live here.