The Founders Institute is based in Silicon Valley and it’s the world’s largest entrepreneur training and startup launch program which aims to help aspiring founders all over the world build enduring technology companies. Meanwhile Kuyi Mobile is a game development company that is based in Manila which focuses on creating a new breed of mobile games.
Vigattin Radio with anchors Mr. Den Macaranas and Mr. Elison Barcelo invited respected guests from these two companies and they are CEO-President of Ideyatech Mr. Allan Tan and Founder of Dayanan Business Consultancy Mr. David Elefant, both are from Founders Institute (www.fi.co). From Kuyi Mobile (www.kuyimobile.com), Vigattin Radio invited its founder Mr. Erick Garayblas.
Mr. Allan Tan told Vigattin Radio that the Founders Institute has been in 60 cities worldwide to help launch companies. They are starting here in Metro Manila cause of the overwhelming startup scene going around here and it’s a good opportunity for them to help young founders on how to start their own company.
The target of Founders Institute is to help employees who want to become an entrepreneur. They aim to guide aspiring entrepreneurs on how to do business properly and to make sure that they undergo certain training programs to make sure that their startup is well founded.
He added that since Founders Institute started in Silicon Valley, most of the startups that apply to them are tech-based but they are also open for non tech which includes traditional business.
When asked if the Filipinos are not far from the world standard, Mr. Allan answered, “I think we are at par if not, better. If you look at the social media usage, the Philippines has a higher usage than US. If you look at the programmers, they are just as good as any programmers in the world.”
He continued, “If there’s anything missing, it’s the lack of drive for starting your own business. Most of the Filipinos when they graduate, their goal is to find a job, compared with the US, the first goal is to build something in your own.”
Meanwhile Mr. David Elefant, co-director of Founders Institute, shared about what he thinks of the startup community here in the Philippines. He said, “Well, it’s something that’s pretty new here, it has really grown big for the last couple of years. This year you could say that there’s almost a startup event every week. “
He was asked if there is any qualification they are looking for a startup. He responded, “The qualifications are people should have the drive to succeed and not give up. Ninety percent of new business actually fails so that’s why Founders Institute created. To help people learn from other people’s mistakes.” He continued, “The Founders Institute had over a thousand of founders going through our programs since 2009 and about ninety percent of them is still in business.
He was later asked if there is a plenty of room for startup companies here in the Philippines. Mr. David replied, “There is a plenty of room because if you do a startup, you are not just looking at the Philippine market. Especially if its tech, it can be used anywhere so there are many markets.”
They continued to talk about how the Founders Institute works. Mr. Allan told Vigattin Radio, “Part of the program (of Founders Institute) is to guide people on how to look for the right thing. Maybe you have certain skills but you need additional skills to augment what you know. So there is actually a topic on how do you actually form a team and on how do you look for the right team members to cover all aspects of the idea and to execute it.”
Mr. David added, “That’s part of the program is to take an idea and give constructive criticism. See what can be done to make it better, so how do you monetize it. If you know how, then there are a lot of people that will come and speak to them on how you can make money with your idea. Well, if you don’t know then you better find something.”
Afterwards, Mr. Erick Garayblas (Founder of Kuyi Mobile) talked on Vigattin Radio. Kuyi Mobile is a home grown mobile game development company and already published a number of award-winning games which includes the hit “Streetfood Tycoon” which has received an overwhelming millions of downloads worldwide.
Before he became a game developer he was a cartoonist, his curiosity about how a game is created lead him to become a developer and taught himself how to do it. Erick was just a one-man team when he created Streetfood Tycoon.
He told Vigattin Radio that it took him six months to finish Streetfood Tycoon because he did everything from graphics to programming even marketing. To date, the hit app has been downloaded 13 million times globally while in the Philippines it has been downloaded for about 1.5 million. He added that the game became popular because of the local culture that is integrated within the game.
They also talked about the latest mobile game his team created; it’s called Epic Paint Adventure. It’s a puzzle game with a different concept. He said, “This game took me three months only (unlike Streetfood because he already has his own team.”
He continued, “He actually formed a team to keep up with the updates because he learned that when your app becomes really popular, your consumers will ask for a continuous update. So the team’s focus is updating the old titles, meanwhile my focus is producing new games.”
When asked if it’s practical to create a new game rather than improve the previous game, he answered; “In my experience, it’s best to improve the previous game because you learn a lot from the users. So you just need to polish it and optimize it. For example, if you earn one dollar for every user you can improve it to five dollars per user. So if you have a million users, it is highly scalable.” Erick added that Kuyi Mobile continues to create more games and upgrade the previous one. He still has a long list of new developments in his mind.
The guests later answered questions from listeners and the show ended with the guest giving inspiring message to the listeners. It is good to know that there are organizations like the Founders Institute that helps aspiring entrepreneurs to have their own business. Meanwhile, it’s amazing that there is a mobile game company that is based in the Philippines and is known worldwide.
To know more about Founders Institute and Kuyi Mobile, you can visit their websites at: www.fi.co and www.kuyimobile.com.
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