Introduction to X Marks The Spark 🚀

I owe this blog to my colleague, Pjotr Steinmetz. Thanks to his encouragement (and prodding), I am finally getting this blog out to share my thoughts, perspectives and experiences on startups and scale-ups. 

I have always wanted to inspire young Filipino entrepreneurs and founders out there. I believe in two things related to entrepreneurship in this country: 

#1 That startups, especially innovation-led and technology-driven ventures, can play a pivotal role in accelerating the growth of the local economy. 📈Simply put, they provide new jobs, bring new ideas to the market, and create wealth and value that can impact the entire community. There is also the “ripple effect” of successful startup founders in that they breed new founders, companies and innovations in their network, and consequently produce even more jobs, innovations and economic benefit. [Note: This “ripple effect” is also what my friends at Endeavor always talk about.]

#2 That founder mentality and training should start earlier in someone’s career. My own entrepreneurial journey started later in my professional journey (i.e. I didn’t sell “juice” on the street stand or had to work in a family business when I was young, for example) – I’ve had to learn a lot of things on my own and many of the insights I’ve gotten were from trial-by-fire experiences. 🔥But I think prospective founders should get into the startup game while they are still young and have more wiggle room to experiment. While it’s true that one can be an entrepreneur at any age (see figure below from LinkedIn), I believe that the right mental models and approaches should be learned when people are still in school or have just graduated from their university programs.  

So let’s start. For young entrepreneurial minds out there, get started! Next week the first X Marks The Spark article will be published!