19-year-old Filipino gave up scholarship to be an entrepreneur

Jolo Balbin is the founder of Commute.ph, a website that crowdsources travel directions. We first met him at Startup Weekend Manila. This article is an edited version of the original on his blog.

I graduated last year. Then I worked as an intern in a company in our school. They provided me with a scholarship for my graduate studies in which I pursued immediately after my university education. They also provided me an allowance that is greater than most entry level jobs, no tax.

I quit after six months. No allowance, no scholarship.

I was almost at the end of my graduate studies. I was working my thesis proposal. Luckily, my father funded my enrollment for me.

So why did I quit? Simple. I think I’m wasting my time. It’s not what I like to do. Read more

How to ace Startup Weekend like a boss

The author was a participant at Startup Weekend Manila. A version of this article first appeared on WebGeek.ph, a community of web developers, designers, technopreneurs and geeks . The next Startup Weekend will be happening in Cebu, Philippines this Friday.

I’ve been part of two Startup Weekends already and I must say there is nothing like the energy of founders trying to turn an idea into a startup in a scant 54 hours. Here are some things I did that helped me during the event.

1) The Pre-Startup Weekend

I made soft connections and went to tech events before Startup Weekend, asking around who’s going while I’m at it. I also caught up with a few friends who were going to the Weekend via Facebook, Twitter and through meetings offline.

I’ll explain later why I did this.

2) The Idea

 Thinking up an idea can be a struggle. Here’s what I did.

I thought about my idea way before the Weekend. I tried to find out if startups needed a better way to connect with mentors and discovered that yes, they do. Essentially, a good idea is a solution that hasn’t existed yet, but solves a problem that is bugging people.

Believe in your idea and the problem it solves. For me, I really believe that mentorship is important for young businesses to thrive. If you believe your idea and how it will change the world, that goes a long way in attracting people to your team.

No idea yet? The most popular ideas are either fun or world changing. Again, make sure that you are really convinced yourself that the problem is worth solving. Read more

A rapturous Startup Weekend Manila, right to the very end

While the judges huddled for an hour to decide the winners of the second Startup Weekend Manila, an unlikely person kept the crowd thoroughly entertained.

Call it the first Standup Weekend ever. SW Manila participant Jerome Punzalan came out swinging like Manny Pacquiao, dropping one joke after another, leaving the packed room exploding in laughter and applause. Chants of “More, more!” followed after each punchline.

You would think everyone would be sullen after 54 hours of preparing their pitches, but it turned out that they had an extra fuel tank for the final stretch, with the finishing line clearly in sight.

Finally, the judges streamed back in one by one, and it was time to announce the winners. Read more

Startup Weekend Manila 2012 – 27-29 April

Update: View our post-event report here!

Startup Weekend is an intense 54-hour event which focuses on building a web or mobile application which could form the basis of a credible business over the course of a weekend. The weekend brings together people with different skillsets – primarily software developers, graphics designers and business people – to build applications and develop a commercial case around them.

Last year, SW Manila was organized by Singapore-based incubator JFDI. SW Manila 2012 is however brought to you by a bunch of people led by Jay, a tech entrepreneur who also runs Roofcamp.

Our editor-in-chief, Gwen will be mentoring and judging at SW Manila! Our assistant editor, Terence will also be there to find cool startups to write about on SGE. So please say hi to the both of them. Read more

Philippines Digest: Startup Weekend Manila, Beer Below Zero, and more

Here are some interesting startup news from around Philippines, not only in its capital, Manila, but also other startup hubs such as Cebu, General Santos City, Pasay, Quezon City, and many more. Read more