Top Start-up to Receive Instant Seed Fund in Hack2Hatch (h2H)

This Competition open to all Filipino-owned start-ups and Cebu provides first venue for series of h2H events across the nation!! PhilDev and DevCon will host the first Hack2Hatch Entrepreneurship Camp at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Cebu City on October 5-7, 2012.

Philippine Development Foundation (PhilDev) and Developers Connect (DevCon) Philippines cordially invite local technopreneurs with existing start-ups to submit applications for Hack2Hatch: from Hacker to Founder {h2H}. At h2H, young, existing start-up groups will receive one-on-one mentorship from the leading global entrepreneurs, learn how to present to top venture capitalists, and win seed money to fund and grow their business.


“Cebu has tremendous growth potential,” says Winston Damarillo, Chief Executive Officer  & Co-founder of Morphlabs and Chairman of the Board for Exist Software Labs, both companies either founded or holding office in Cebu. “The way it’s organized, the way the people are so entrepreneurial, the way the community is bringing up the level of skill and innovation. We’re so excited!”
 


Damarillo said that the Board members of PhilDev are “working on an Infrastructure for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, a Framework, so that Filipinos Can Be Great."
 


Aside from Damarillo, top Filipino American technopreneurs including PhilDev Chairman of the Board and Tallwood Managing Partner, Dado Banatao and Founder and CEO of Care.com, Sheila Lirio Marcelo, will also be supervising and advising participating groups and showcase that the Philippines’ software industry is ready for leadership in the ASEAN and the global markets.



“The message we want to relay in Cebu is that we have all these opportunities…it is time to take advantage of them now,” said the serial entrepreneur turned venture capitalist. “We have identified the cause of poverty, which we are addressing with education. Let’s keep moving forward and build. What we have to do is build high value products in the Philippines. “


“That’s my advocacy: to support products built and designed by Filipinos in the Philippines. For example, Philippine-grown start-ups like Rappler, Codetoki and PicLyf are being discovered and funded by investors who see their potential to succeed, and promise to create more productive lives for their markets. So we need more of those. There are probably more of those we just need to show that in these events.”


One of those key events is Hack2Hatch, debuting on October 5 to 7 at Radisson Blu Hotel in Cebu City. Around 10 start-up groups with a maximum of 5 members each will receive concrete steps and real tips from Filipino technopreneurs who have had success in Silicon Valley. Venture capitalists will also teach participants pitching and presenting tips to take their existing start-ups from the local scene to global sphere.

On the first day, October 5, they will be expected to deliver elevator pitches describing their existing prototypes or businesses. They will then be matched to a mentor who will coach and guide them on Day 2 towards honing and improving different elements of their business. On Day 3, they are expected to present their 'improved businesses,' to actual and high profile investors and venture capitalists. The winning group will receive P100,000 instant seed funding to apply their learnings, improve their prototype, and grow their business. "We encourage all start-ups in the Philippines to apply. This is the grad school for start-ups," said Damarillo.


Other mentors will be Alvin Gendrano, Director of the Developer and Platform Group for Microsoft Philippines, and Eric Manlunas, co-Founder & Managing Partner of Siemer Ventures. They will be joined by some special guests: investors and experts from Silicon Valley.
 


Hack2Hatch is part of the “Silicon Valley Comes to the Philippines,” (SVC2PH) a special 4-day mentorship and speaker series which aims to take Filipino innovation and entrepreneurship towards collective empowerment and economic development.  The weekend entrepreneurship camp is a kickstarter to PhilDev’s 2012 Economic Forum, “PhilDev Economic Forum: Harnessing Filipino Innovation and Entrepreneurship,” to be held on Monday, October 8th, at Manila Peninsula in Makati.


 
Mr. Damarillo is encouraging other “Strategic Philanthropists” to join in the forming of an  ‘Entrepreneurship Fund' to award the best of future hack2Hatch participants from around the Philippines. 'We want to develop and harness an ecosystem of entrepreneurship and Filipino-to-Filipino support to help boost our economy,' he said.
 


Individuals, groups or companies who want to contribute to the Entrepreneurship Fund may contact Jo Eduardo at joed@devcon.ph. For more information, visit www.hack2hatch.com
 


A free application form for Hack2Hatch in Cebu is available for groups on PhilDev’s website www.phildev.org or on hack2hatch.com.

Hack2Hatch is a free event and is supported by Exist Global, Inc., Morphlabs, and the Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA).
 


For more information on Hack2Hatch, please call Ida Ortiz at 0920-848-1553, email mailbox@devcon.ph, visit hack2hatch.com, or follow us on Twitter @hack2hatch.


For more information on SVC2PH or to be a sponsor, please call Jo Anne Coruña at 0923-343-6183, email jo@phildev.org, or visit www.phildev.org/svc2ph. You may also like www.facebook.com/philippinedevelopment or follow PhilDev on Twitter @phildevfdtn.