Daily Tribune‘I started my startup and raised P9 million in venture capital funding. My claim to shame is what many startup founders experience: I spent all that money and barely made anything; we didn’t focus on the customer but on the technology in finding investors. Now we advocate the opposite’
PHOTOgraph courtesy of RC makati STARTUP Training Veteran Carlo P. Valencia advises would-be startup founders to focus on design thinking, which he says is ‘human-centric as it begins with empathy. We need to understand the people we want to help and the problems they have. Design thinking begins with empathy. It is a human-centered framework.’ Valencia was the guest speaker of the Rotary Club of Makati's weekly meeting at the Peninsula Manila last 24 October 2023.
Startup training veteran Carlo P. Valencia advised startup founders to ditch their technology-centric mindset and shift to human-centric thinking to grow their businesses faster.
Valencia, founder and facilitator at StartupPH Training, said startup founders should first identify the people they will serve and the problems they aim to solve.
This way, he said, startups can avoid burning money while creating a meaningful impact on society.
"In 2014 I started my startup and my claim to fame is I raised P9 million or $200,000 in venture capital funding. My claim to shame is what a lot of startup founders experience: I spent all that money and barely made anything," he recalled during the Rotary Club of Makati weekly meeting at the Peninsula Manila Hotel last Tuesday.
"We didn't focus on the customer but on the technology in finding investors. Now we advocate the opposite," stressed Valencia, who has acquired his startup expertise from training entrepreneurs for over a decade.
He explained that tradition startup thinking begins with finding technology materials, assembling them into a single product, then finding customers who will use it. "That takes too long and is also expensive," Valencia cautioned.
Human-centric
Design thinking, on the other hand, is human-centric as it begins with empathy.
"Instead, we need to understand the people we want to help and the problems they have. Design thinking begins with empathy. It is a human-centered framework," Valencia said.
Under such framework, having empathy for customers and defining their problems are followed by three other steps:
Ideate, which means to challenge existing ideas or to find the disadvantages of existing products and take alternative ways to solve customers' problems.
Next is to prototype where startups build the product. Valencia said this stage requires startups to create a functional product, not a perfect one. "Often the first attempt will fail, but you'll get the feedback you need," he said.
Last is to test the product. Valencia said this is where startups synthesize all the data they have acquired and note key observations for improving their products.
Design thinking is an iterative process where products are enhanced in the quickest way possible through identifying mistakes early on, or what the startup community summarizes as "Fail fast often and forward."
Fastest startup ecosystem in SEA
Citing data from the Asian Development Bank, Valencia said the Philippines has one of the fastest startup ecosystems in Southeast Asia.
He shared that funding for startups surged from $40 million in 2010 to $1.18 billion last year. "Rumor has it that we're going to hit $2 billion this year," Valencia said.
Globally, the startup mentor said startup funding can reach $3.5 billion. "The growth in startups is fueled by financial services," Valencia explained.
Business consultancy McKinsey & Co. said digital banks and e-wallet providers can tap the bankable population in the Philippines which is projected to grow by 30 percent by 2030.
It added that the country has an estimated 15 million informal entrepreneurs and self-employed workers who can benefit from financial technologies.
Easier through AI
Valencia, along with other technology experts, said reaching out to capable customers and identifying their preferences have been made easier through artificial intelligence or AI.
"I teach AI for marketing of innovative products that help improve the lives of the people. I was part of the creation of a startup mapping report for stakeholders in Baguio, Batangas, and Cabanatuan. There are 21 areas in total," he said.
Valencia continues to share his knowledge as a senior innovation training consultant at Limitless Lab which helps startups spot social problems to solve, secure business deals, and market their products.
