Kickstart Ventures and Pollenizer Seek the Next Gutsy Startup in the Philippines

Globe telecom-backed incubator Kickstart Ventures is ready to see the next entrepreneur who can address problems no one has yet dared to solve.

Recently, Kickstart Ventures gave seed funding to 10 optimal startups. We also featured Apptivate, one of the recipients of the funding. Following this, Kickstart is again calling the attention of individuals who want to be entrepreneurs. To do this, the incubator has announced it has a new partner in the form of Australian online venture builder Pollenizer, Kickstart will again give the new breed of startups an incubation period to improve their ideas, which could lead to possible funding.

So why is Pollenizer looking for Philippine-based talents? Pollenizer co-founder and CEO Phil Morle says they found an obsession with the Philippine market because of “the standard of entrepreneurship” here. He adds:

People in the Philippines think about building value, building a business, which can be important in startups.

Christian Besler of Kickstart also speaks of the importance of this strategic partnership of startup wannabes:

The whole idea of Kickstart and Pollenizer collaborating, is to bring access to local network and funds, while Pollenizer brings international network and well- proven education.

Looking for niches to disrupt

What they are looking for, is a team with specific skill sets:

1. Engineers: Experience with Ruby on Rails or CakePHP is a preference. Someone that can learn fast, especially those that have great skills in other languages and platforms.
2. Product Managers: Someone who understands the customer and expressing it as a product. It includes wireframes, pitching, and prototyping.
3. Hustlers: Someone who sells with a vision, and is comfortable to get out of the building to do it.

Christian also says that after talks with the Pollenizer team, they have agreed that real estate listings, e-commerce, remittance, Overseas Filipino Workers’ (OFW) placement, labor costs, education, and healthcare are the key areas that can be addressed by participants who want to join.Christian says that the reason is that they are looking at “interesting spaces nobody has disrupted.” He cites the OFWs as an example of a huge market today.

If we get professionals and help them with funding, we could disrupt these spaces and do something new.