What I learned from the brilliant people who attended the Forbes summit in Manila

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I was back in Manila! It seems like a second home now. I love the people and culture, which is not far from what I have experienced in the US, Middle East, and South Asia. As a company, we have spread wings across the globe but Southeast Asia is where I find the perfect summation and confluence of cultures. There is a great balance between tradition and innovation.

At Forbes Under 30 Summit in Manila, I couldn’t help but marvel at how the power of innovation is bridging cultural and generational gaps across the world.

A startup is a vision of greatness

As I left the airport, I was welcomed by the exciting and growing startup infrastructure of the Philippines. It was truly engaging and humbling to see that there are energized dreamers across the world ready to take innovation up many notches.

I asked some young and veteran entrepreneurs who had built a startup in the past year, “What is a startup?” I got varied responses but my favorite was from an unassuming individual at the cocktail meetup. I sat down with a street artist who had just showcased his ware to the 30 Under 30 batch. He said:

“A startup is a vision, a vision of greatness. You simply visualize something beautiful and mesmerizing, like a grand mural, and you embark on realizing that vision. You plan ahead, arranging for your resources, your time, your support, and then you structure your vision through to the end. That’s how I do art. That’s how I do business.”

I looked back at the early days of my company, LogiNext, when it was still a nascent startup in the US. We knew we had something grand and amazing in our heads and hands when we figured out the benefit of machine learning and logistics optimization.

I also felt the power of the future as I listened to the speakers at the conference talk about their ventures. In his welcome address, Forbes editor Randall Lane said, referring to the 2017 batch of 30 Under 30, “These are the people who will run every industry for the next 50 years.” This couldn’t be closer to the truth if he had been a sorcerer. He also pointed out that everyone is on a mission to forge a path for multiple industries, as we leverage each other’s shared intellect and guidance.

The spirit of innovation clearly manifested in the words of Hrishikesh Datar, founder of Vakilsearch Legal Solutions in India: “If what you’re trying to do is bigger than yourself, [you have to] stay awake and do it.”

Asia as epicenter of opportunity

A population close to 5 billion spread across Asia and a cultural inclination toward tech disruption in the name of progress make a very strong case for a global industrial reawakening. The fourth industrial revolution or Industry 4.0 shows a high adoption rate in Asia, as vigorously pointed out by some of the youngest members of 30 Under 30.

Asia has truly become the epicenter of opportunity for the world. But come to think of it, it has always been the epicenter of opportunity of all ages.

Asian ecommerce and retail solutions have taken an exceptional position in consumer goods. For example, the recent Single’s Day of Alibaba outperformed all retail and ecommerce campaigns in the US.

Consumer goods was a hot topic among the subgroups at the conference, and as someone who’s into enterprise mobility optimization, it was a good place for me.

Changing face of talent

Giving back to the society

Sustaining the sense of community in the startup ecosystem