The Department of Science and Technology-Information and Communications Technology (DOST-ICT Office), in partnership with Philippine Software Industry Association, is currently conducting a series of ?Lean Startup 101 Boot Camps? in different locations across the country to increase the capability of college professors in mentoring their students on how to build successful start-up companies.
The series kicked off last June 4 in Cebu City, followed by Iloilo City last June 20, and most recently in Baguio City last July 4.
The remaining leg will be on July 18 in Cagayan de Oro City, July 21 in Quezon City, and July 25 in Davao City. This is the second straight year that ICT Office is staging this series of boot camps.
The workshops aims to help college professors, specifically in IT and engineering courses, to understand the basic principles of ?Lean Startup? — a business methodology that Facebook, Instagram, and Dropbox used in their startup phase a decade ago.
Lean Startup Methodology helps start-up founders or technopreneurs to adapt their business quickly to the present needs of their target market based on feedback generated from a small number of customers.
Lean Startup 101 Boot Camps also serve as preparatory events for the 2015 Philippine Startup Challenge (PSC), a student startup competition promoting “technopreneurship” among college students.
It dares students to create bolder, more creative software and internet-based innovations that will solve real problems and help improve the lives of individuals.
?DOST is recognizing the vital role of academic institutions in enhancing science and technology ecosystems in the country and conducting this kind of activity could be a great step to encourage more innovators to develop new products and services, specifically in the field of ICT,? DOST secretary Mario G. Montejo said.
Meanwhile, Emmy Lou Delfin, program manager for ICT Office?s e-Innovation Group, said that one of DOST?s top priorities is to enable students to become major contributors in nation building at a young age.
?We always encourage our Filipino students to actively be involved in creating more ICT innovative ideas and to have an entrepreneurial mindset early on. We consider professors/ teachers our best partners that we can rely on to achieve these goals,? she said.
Delfin is hoping that after conducting this kind of activity, our country can produce skilled professionals, who can not only work in local or multinational companies, but are also capable of building world-class tech companies that can generate career opportunities in their localities.
Through the boot camps, participants will learn how to eliminate wasteful practices and increase value producing practices during the product development phase so that startups can have a better chance at success without requiring large amounts of outside funding or elaborate business plans.
Lean Startup 101 Boot Camps and PSC are both activities under ICT Office?s Seed.Ph Program which promotes technopreneurship thru e-commerce and technology startup businesses.
