I had a treat for myself recently watching start-ups or small businesses give pitches to venture capitalists (VCs) from here and abroad.  Jojo Flores of Plug and Play gave Pinoy entrepreneurs and technopreneurs the opportunity to strut their stuff in front of an audience at the e-Services Global Outsourcing Conference last February 9.

The participants were to covet an experience of a lifetime: training and exposure to hard-core VCs in Silicon Valley and then to more international start-up pitching arenas. One could easily sense electricity in the air – excitement mixed with nervousness, since only three would be chosen from the pool.

As of date, being in the VC business is not actually far from what I was doing fund raising for NGOs.  My background gave me a good analogy to understand the operations of a venture capital firm. Similar to grant-giving entities which award development programs worthy of producing high, sustainable impact in poverty-ridden and disenfranchised grassroots communities, VCs provide the much needed capital high-potential and high-growth start-ups need in jumpstarting their dreams.

The Plug and Play event was able to attract around 23 start-ups. Each was given four minutes to attract VCs to fund their inventions and products. According to Jojo, pitches abroad are usually delivered for two minutes but for this particular event, they decided to extend the time a bit.

One can actually say a lot in a minute but knowing how we Filipinos want to impress and are not used to short spiels, the challenge was gamely met. Some beat it before the mark, others went a bit over.

Participants had also two minutes to entertain Q&A from the panel of judges composed of known venture capitalists like Paco, Dickie Gonzalez, and Billy Valtos from here with counterparts from abroad like Jojo, Denny Roja, and Christina Laskowski.  They were also joined by people from the government’s Departments of Science & Technology and Trade & Industry – Undersecretaries Fortunato “Boy” de la Pena and Jose Antonio Buencamino, respectively. Fernando Teodoro from Globe Telecoms was also part of the panel.

 If there was one word to capture the proceedings, it would be astonishing. Not only did you have experienced entrepreneurs/ technopreneurs doing pitches, but we had students from Ateneo and new graduates from La Salle also grabbing this opportunity to showcase their lab works.

One will also notice seasoned people but  all were very courageous in allowing themselves face and interact with a very distinguished panel, if only to provide them more showcase mileage and leverage for their products even if it does not get chosen.

Products ranged from a web-based blackboard/ whiteboard for those in the teaching profession to a search engine aggregating social media tools to a remote controlled underwater robot scraping off barnacle infestations at the bottoms of ships to a proposed more accurate Karaoke scorer.

The fields addressed spanned education, agriculture, human resources, advertising/ marketing, communications, and e-commerce.

At the end of the day, the three start-ups which bagged the three slots were Ayyanah, a tech solution company promoting “remote” and “present” payments for overseas Filipinos which they can send via mobile or over the Internet; Tao Solutions, which presented an information locator for maps and alumni networks integrating the Wiki platform; and Ascendant Technologies, a software development company providing innovative medical technology, in this case accessible, efficient electronic medical records for physicians.

But the rest did not go home empty-handed. All judges enthused about the participants’ energy and drive to pitch their products and services. Each offered great items which impressed them. For the judges, this was a showcase of great Filipino creativity and ingenuity.

For the newbies, this was a start of more things to come – learning experiences to refine and improve their presentation skills. Some days previous to D-day, Dickie gave the participants a day’s seminar on what VCs look for in a presentation and the format they ought to follow.

But for everybody in general, the key was to continue pitching their ideas and their dreams.  According to Paco, some of the entrepreneurs and technopreneurs that they (he, Denny and Dickie) have been helping and coaching over the years have improved.

Earlier that day, Denny mentioned that to crash the VC gates the best way is to get referrals from people who know them (i.e. start-ups), know the VC hot spots (according to Denny, the hot ones nowadays are green/ clean technology, cloud computing, SNS, healthcare and mobile applications; not hot are those that are capital intensive), do a lot of networking and join business competitions.

Finally to make that killer pitch, don’t do a lecture; make it simple and deliver it as if it were the presentation of your life.  

When I got back to the office to begin writing this entry and to check activity on the BGN site, I just had to smile to myself – I was just sitting a few seats away from some Plug and Play celebrities who are our network members. Michael Poblete, Jay Fajardo and Matthew Cua & co. from the Ateneo Innovation Center: Awesome job guys! I could only say, wow, wow, WOW. Of course, Dr. Eric Tomacruz of Tao Solutions – congratulations!  

Jojo Flores, again thanks for opening this to the Brain Gain Network and I’m sure we’re looking forward to more activities from Plug and Play.

We’ve also uploaded the presentations of Denny’s (E-Services 2010: Ten Keys to Getting VC Funding) and Christina’s (Alquemie e-Services Presentation) here in BGN. These can be located in the Venture Capital & Private Equity in the Philippines and Entrepreneurial Opportunities for High Technology BGN Groups.