The Philippine economy’s secret weapon: Area 55

As early as January of 2014, the braintrust at Philippine investment firm Kickstart Ventures – Minette Navarrete, Dan Siazon, Christian Besler, Pia Bernal – as well as Kalibrr CEO and co-founder Paul Rivera were toying with the idea of how to rebrand the startup cluster in the Philippines.

The issue was a momentous one. Paul Rivera, concurrently a Kickstart mentor, explains, “People are attracted to brands. You don’t buy soda – you buy Coke. You don’t buy a car – you buy a BMW. When you go to Singapore and think startups, the first thing that often comes to mind is Block 71, and I think the Philippines would benefit from an identity for its startup scene just like Singapore and Silicon Valley have.”

The Kickstart and Kalibrr colleagues went back and forth over email, but no suggested name sounded right, nor truly captured the essence of their startup scene.

Despite the uncertainty, there was one name they definitely did not want. They were all against the “Silicon + [landform]” formula that other clusters around the world fell into. Kickstart’s senior vice president and treasurer Dan Siazon says, “there are too many Silicon Valley namesakes around globally. I personally think the term ‘Valley’ has lost credibility with overuse.”

Rivera agrees. “We’re not trying to recreate Silicon Valley here, which is impossible to do,” he says. “What we’re trying to do is create an identity for technology entrepreneurship and startups in the Philippines.”

Where everyone is your pitchman

The search for a perfect name was understandably difficult, given the vibrancy of the small but growing community. The Philippine startup scene, of which Kickstart was one of the main hubs, is centralized in Makati City, Metro Manila – the beating financial heart of a country on rapid ascent.

Kickstart is itself situated on 55 Paseo de Roxas Avenue, Makati City, and it shares an office with non-traditional college The One School (and if you’re anyone who’s anyone in the Philippine startup scene, that address is known to you – it’s where you converge for their monthly #raidthefridge event, where beer flows freely and ideas flow freer).

Entrepreneurs here tried to solve problems that were varied but uniform in their enormity. Some challenges were legal, such as Tripid trying to bring ride-sharing to the Filipino masses, much to the chagrin of the Land Transportation Franchising Regulatory Board (LTFRB). Others were cultural, as in Peekawoo, which wanted to bridge the extremes of offline and online dating with a more wholesome alternative. Many were economic: Lenddo attempts to bring financial inclusion to the emerging middle class. And still others were technical, with Rivera’s Kalibrr seeking to apply the magic of machine learning to improve how companies select who to interview and hire.

Perhaps what set these entrepreneurs apart was how well they know one another, and more critically, how strongly they support each other. Kickstart manager of social enterprise investments and head of communications Pia Bernal tells Tech in Asia how it’s common for founders to pitch the unique value propositions of other startups. For example, Bernals recalls that at Singapore startup conference Echelon 2014, “whenever one of our tiny band of portfolio company founders went on breaks, the remaining founders from the other startups in the portfolio would stand in the other team’s booth and talk about your startup even with you not around.”

The closeness probably owed to the fact that Kickstart-backed entrepreneurs were people, who, at their heart, ultimately just want to bring value to the Philippines. Of his peers, Rivera says, “We’re all united to make an impact, foster change, and create large meaningful companies” that are filled with “doers, engineers, hustlers, and people who will do whatever it takes (WIT!) to be successful.” He adds, “If you can call that a culture, that’s who we are.”

David Duchovny saves the day

In clusters we trust

Does Area 55 have gatekeepers?

Popularizing Area 55