By Rizal Raoul Reyes
A Filipino-American aims to enhance the development of start-ups in the country by going to provinces to search for programmers with an entrepreneurial instinct.
In a recent interview with the BusinessMirror, Katalyst.Ph founder Jose Maristela III said he is [partnering with Pangasinan State University to support its program. Meanwhile, he also revealed Katalyst will provide support to the startup program of Faith Academy in Batangas running this year.through funding and providing cash prizes.
Brainsparks and Bitspace are the companies helping Faith Academy in running the program.
By developing an entrepreneur-centric ecosystem, Maristela said the goal is to establish a strong pool of technologists who can develop world-class information communications technology (ICT) products. “We want to establish a support for a new generation of [technologists],” he pointed out.
Maristela hopes he can find the talents in Pangasinan and Batangas who have the bright ideas that could be nurtured to become world-class start-ups in the future.
He said the program will have a start-up technology competition. The winners will be given an office space and stipend to help the start-ups in their operations. They have Microsoft Corp. as partner to provide additional support.
Maristela said there is a big need to develop more local talent to give the country a stronger position in the global ICT market. He laments the exodus of talented Filipinos overseas that has deprived the country of a strong brain pool in science and technology.
On a broader scope, Maristela said it is quite challenging to build start-ups from the ground up in the Philippines. The angel investor said main reason is that the conglomerates acquire them once they think the fledgling enterprise has a lot of potential to bring home the bacon so to speak.
“It’s unlike in the United States where you see companies like Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat emerge from the ecosystem.”
Furthermore, he said the paperwork is much easier in other countries. “If you’re to look to Hong Kong, Singapore, or the US, you can easily boot up a start-up in literally a day, on credit cards.”
Maristela acknowledged the huge difference between the Philippines and the US in terms of the operating environment. Expounding, Maristela said a company’s shareholder agreements (online forms) can be obtained in a day unlike in the Philippines where it takes weeks to months to process the documents.
He said he wants to position Katalyst.ph as a resource hub of applications and tools that startups can use “to manage the rigorous process of building a business from scratch.” Further, he envisions Katalyst.Ph to become not just a go-to platform but a community that incubates ideas to prototypes, from prototypes to product, and from products to a resounding business success that will become catalysts for other start-ups in the making.
The Maristela family owns and operates a number of business-process-outsourcing companies, including Star Business Centers offering backend services in the health-care industry in the US and the Philippines. As a passionate entrepreneur and angel investor in the start-up community, he is a seed investor in Qwikwire and Satoshi Citadel Industries.