PESO :: Philippine Emerging Start-ups Open

The Technopreneurship Tsunami

Over 72 business plan summaries were submitted to PESO for the first round of judging and we couldn't be happier with the response. There were a lot of teams with PhDs or multiple PhDs as members, and a lot of business people who had impressive backgrounds.

Stay tuned to see which teams ran the gauntlet and made it! :)

Cramming to meet the PESO biz summary deadline

According to PESO CEO, Dickie Gonzalez:

"As of 6 pm tonight, 67 teams had registered online, and 32 had submitted entries. I am hopeful that a large % of the rest will catch up with the deadline."

Get cracking on those plans people! We're so excited about the entries we're going to get! :)

Good luck to everybody!

12 teams and counting

Things are heating up as 12 teams have already registered and business summaries are rolling in! Everyone in the PESO team, on both sides of the planet, is excited to see what kind of innovations participants will come up with.

Need a key team member or a mentor? Check out the PESO forums, where you can connect, create and catalyze with perfect ease.

Confused about the requirements, there's a wealth of information at the PESO website.

Best of luck to all the teams!

PESO forums online!

12 days before the business summary deadline and still missing a key member of your team? Want to have some mentors take a look at your business summary?

Don't worry, the PESO forums are finally online!

Aside from helping out with the competition, this is also a place to chat and make new friends. Good luck to all the participants!

Deadline Extended!

Great news, the deadline for the submission of the business summary and team submissions is EXTENDED TO SEPTEMBER 19.

On the campus tour side, we were recently at UP Diliman, UP Los Banos, and UST at the invitation of graduate students and faculty. It was really inspiring to see how many people are willing to support PESO.

Thanks for all your emails and your good wishes!

PESO @ CLSU

Our intrepid CEO, Dickie Gonzalez, will be at Central Luzon State University on August 17, 2005 at 10am!

Catch him and the technopreneurship wave!

One month left

Ony one month to go before the Business Summary is due. Get your team together, dust your theses off your shelves, and start brainstorming! You probably want to use our online resources to polish your summaries. If you need a mentor to look over it, please get in touch with us via peso-info@mit.edu.

In the meantime, check out this free article from MIT about their entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Coming of Age

Like many of the people who create, systematize, manage, and work damned hard at something, I'm happy that PESO is coming of age -- even if it is among uncertain political times. In fact, I think that it's incredibly appropriate.

According to Peter Wallace's report on the Philippines, our GDP growth and population growth for the last 25-30 years has averaged about 3%. It doesn't take an economist to see that means little or no national development. To my mind, entrepreneurship is the only realistic solution. The only way our country can prosper is if we create jobs at a greater rate than our population is growing, and the only thing that can do that is technology and innovation based entrepreneurship. This is because an entire support system must be in place to create a technology industry, such as the one outlined in Rice Bowl and Chips. This industry will hire chemists, marketers, engineers, accountants, illustrators, programmers, public administrators, and people with many more careers.

Secondly, I think that the award categories of PESO are areas where Filipinos can truly add value instead of manufacturing services and products that are easily duplicated by other countries. Areas such as:

• Information Technology and Communication
• Agriculture and Aquaculture
• Life and Biosciences
• Services
• Process Technology and Engineering

No matter what system we have or who runs this country, the Philippine's financial statement will be as dismal as ever if we don't do something to staunch the flow of cash and talent (recent PCIJ estimates we ship out 2,700 people per day from NAIA).

I'm a big believer in "being the change you want to see in the world". That's the reason I joined the PESO team a year ago. Since then PESO has been popping up on the public consciousness via articles at ABS-CBN, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Business World, Computer World, and Enterprise Magazine, we've held many free seminars on technopreneurship, and we've solidified an extensive multi-sectoral network that will support our initiatives.

And next wednesday, at long last, PESO will have it's official launch on Wednesday, July 20, from 1pm - 5:45pm at the SM Megatrade Hall. This is timed to coincide with the government's Small and Medium Enterprise Expo.

Hope to see you there!

Download the PESO launch schedule (PDF) here

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Maoi Arroyo | PESO Philippines

The PESO Primer

PESO is a technology and innovation business plan competition modeled after the MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Competition.

PESO will allow you to:

• Connect: with people across academia, industry, and government as well as experienced mentors both here and abroad.

• Create: teams with the right mix of skills who will be trained to write, refine, and pitch strong business plans to industry experts and venture capitalists.

• Catalyze: the building of technology and innovation based businesses by providing support from the PESO network even after the competition is over.

PESO is the only business plan competition that:

• Is organized by a bi-continental team with diverse backgrounds and expertise

• Has a technology and innovation based orientation

• Offers skill-building and attitude changing workshops for free

• Provides mentors for idea generation and business plan writing

• Introduces teams to potential investors, funders and other expert assistance to accelerate start-up formation

• Ensures that teams own the intellectual property rights of their business plans

• Provides a post-competition support system

The PESO team are a group of friends, alumni and students of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who seek to use the knowledge and expertise we have gained at MIT to make a positive impact on the Philippines, with which we all share personal and professional ties. Freely contributing our time and effort, and guided by the MIT creed mens et manus ("mind and hand"), we look for actionable steps we can take to promote sustainable progress in the Philippines.