IdeaSpace wants you to be the next startup founder

Startups. Ten years ago, you might have thought of booting up a CPU with the big red button in the middle and waiting a few minutes for Windows XP (or quite possibly, Windows 98) to blink into existence right before your eyes. No, now startups mean something different. It means the future. Gone are the days when new graduates from top-notch schools all over the world hustle into giant corporations with their fresh haircuts and their off-the-rack suits. Now, graduates are rushing into entrepreneurship, or trotting off their own way into baggy hoodies and light sneakers to build their own businesses. The trend is rampant all over the US and it’s starting to catch on here in our country, starting with a little non-profit organization called IdeaSpace Foundation.

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IdeaSpace is a Philippine startup incubator dedicated to cultivating the country’s most brilliant start-up ideas and nurturing them through dedicated mentoring and substantial aid. Recently, IdeaSpace invited us to a press conference at their newly-furnished offices at the Colbella Arcade in Makati. There, we were introduced to the incubator’s role towards the startup scene in the Philippines. Already on the hunt for its third batch of startup “graduates,” IdeaSpace has nurtured two sets of startups from the ground up, including SALt, Tambio, and PortfolioMNL, which you’ll meet below. Some of these startups are starting to make waves, if they haven’t already. Through links to resources and investors, mentoring, legal support, and office space, these startups grew from mere ideas into companies of the future.

During the press conference, we were treated to demonstrations and talks by three different startups whom you’ve met above. PortfolioMNL is a portfolio networking hub for headhunters and creative artists all over the metro. Tambio is a raffle consolidation system that combines the efficiency of digital lot-drawing with the reliability of physical ones. SALt is a saltwater-powered lamp that uses simple science to provide affordable and eco-friendly ways for light.

You may not have heard of these companies. In fact, you may be wondering why startups are something you should care about. We need to look at the bigger picture: the ASEAN region. The region is now considered an important startup hub for the economy of the future. The ASEAN region, with all its ten countries, is eyeing international integration into one unified ASEAN Economic Community. Startups have never been more important for the future of our economy and the mettle of Philippine innovation.

As mentioned above, IdeaSpace is searching for its third batch of startups. The company is accepting entries via apply.ideaspacefoundation.org until January 15, 2015. The top twenty ideas after three rounds of judging will officially enter IdeaSpace’s six-week incubation phase, where each startup will receive a P50,000 grant for prototype development, presentation materials, and customer validation, among others.

After incubation phase, the IdeaSpace Board of Trustees will select the top ten startups that will enter the acceleration phase, an intensive 18-week program that will help each startup develop their products, set up their corporation and business permits, and conduct market validation, among others.

Each startup that successfully enters the acceleration phase will get P500,000 in seed funding, plus a separate grant worth at least another P500,00 inclusive of business management classes, marketing and financial consulting, intellectual property consulting and incorporation, office space, and business registration costs, among others.

A non-profit foundation, IdeaSpace is supported by the following companies, First Pacific, First Pacific Leadership Academy, Metro Pacific Investment Corporation (MPIC), Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation (MPTC), MPIC hospital group, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), Meralco, Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart), Digitel Mobile Philippines, Inc. (DMPI) and its mobile brand Sun Cellular, SPI Global, ePLDT, Indofood, Philex Mining, Maynilad, MediaQuest, and TV5.