Startup Weekend Cebu participants solving real-world problems

It’s no secret that the Philippines has a growing startup scene with talented designers and developers.

Filled with 200 enthusiastic and hopeful individuals, the room in the University of Philippines Cebu is buzzing with excitement. More than 40 individuals took turns to pitch this time.

It’s Startup Weekend Cebu, the third Startup Weekend held in the Philippines. Tickets for the event are sold out. Much like Startup Weekend Manila, you can’t help but soak in the positive energy all around you.

(Read: A rapturous Startup Weekend Manila, right to the very end)

Startup Weekend Cebu - A long line of people waiting to pitch

For the uninitiated, Startup Weekend is an intense 54-hour event which focuses on building a web or mobile application which could form the basis of a credible business over the course of a weekend. The weekend brings together people with different skillsets – primarily software developers, graphics designers and business people – to build applications and develop a commercial case around them.

Team Commute.ph, pitching to solve the problem of a lack of public transportation information

It became clear to me that while Singaporeans like myself were busy solving first-world problems by simplifying photo-sharing and bar hopping, it is a different set of circumstances in the Philippines.

I was delightfully surprised at the diversity of problems that attendees were trying to solve — even more impressed by the standard of their pitches and prototypes.

The crowd favorites were those that were clearly solving a critical pain point in the daily lives of millions of Filipinos.

WaitKnowMore, codetoki and Commute.ph for example, respectively deal with issues such as making long queues more enjoyable, IT graduates more employable and public transport more accessible.

Here’s a rundown of the winners: