Innovation and Technopreneurship

LUIS SISON, PH.D.

Guess the startup!
 Hint #1

— “All the best things that I did at <my

startup> came from (a) not having
money and (b) not having done it
before, ever. Every single thing that
we came out with that was really great,
I'd never once done that thing in my
life.”
 Hint #2

— Cofounder A single-handedly
designed all the hardware and
software for their personal computer
while working at his day job at HP.
Cofounder B's mesmerizing charisma
and vision has been described as a
"reality distortion field“.
 Hint #1

— A fresh college grad and a hedge fund

manager started this company that
initially developed cryptography
software
 Hint #2

— Their next product was a service for

transmitting money via the Palm
PDA
 Hint #1

— This startup tried unsuccessfully to sell

computer hardware that allowed people
to visualize complex images clearly,
such as CAT scans and MRIs.
— The parent company of this startup
tried to sell the startup and only got one
interested buyer, who paid only $5M.
 Hint #2

— To survive, they made short digitally

animated films for TV advertisements
to demonstrate the company’s imaging
hardware.
 Hint #1

— He graduated from Ateneo de

Manila in 1998 but had a tough time
looking for a job because of the
Asian currency crisis.

He was eventually hired as an assistant

manager at KFC SM North Edsa outlet
 Hint #2

— He founded a company to develop

digital products for the mobile
consumer with P62.5K in seed capital
which he grew into a company that
debuted in the PSE in 2014 with a
market cap of P6.8B
 Hint #1

— This husband and wife team, Isosceles

and Leonora from UP Chemistry sold
their first product called Calda which
was based on Isosceles' thesis
 Hint #2

— Eventually their company became one

of the leading pharmaceutical
companies in RP, and manufactures,
among many other drugs, Ascof (from
Lagundi leaves) under license from
UP
Insights?
Current
UP technology
TECH101!
“Begin with the end in mind”
–Stephen Covey
Why do startups fail?

“… failing to involve customers and

their feedback from literally the first
day of a startup’s life …”

-Steve Blank, technopreneur and author of

“The Startup Owners Manual”
 “get out of the building” and talk to
the only folks who matter—your
customers.

-Steve Blank, technopreneur and author of

“The Startup Owners Manual”
Main goal:
market validation
(customers, investors, or sponsors)
with technical validation
(specs, test, production)
Lab course for startups

Oslo Startup Lab

 Class Workflow for 1S17

Opportunity Problem/User IP, tech transfer Validation

M1

M2

M3

M4
identification story Channels, sales Implementation
One-day Validation Production, proposal
validation Design sprint costs Demo day
Team formation LoFi MVP HiFi MVP
First pitch Validation
“Is the venture a good investment?”
Demo day scores (max 20)

17.6

17.4

17.2

17

16.8

16.6

16.4

16.2

16

15.8

15.6
2S14 1S15 2S15
 Notable class ventures
(total <PhP170M public-private funding as of 2S16)

—  Tanglaw: school pilots, DOST funded

—  SmartSurface: DOST Technicom funded, customer
pilots
—  AgrowGel: for UPLB pilot testing, customer pilot
requests
—  RetailGate: pilot requests from multinational
companies, DTI nominated Tech in Asia (Singapore)
—  FishEye: customer pilot requests
—  EyeScreen: clinical pilot request, preproduction
—  StepGear: pre-clinical evaluation with PGH,
preproduction
—  FarmWatch: pilots w/ industry customers, pilot
investment
—  Amihan: distribution/integrator partner, pilots
ongoing
—  HeLe: Phil Natl Ear Inst as clinical collabs, PCARI-
funded
—  HeartSmart: DOST – UK Newton Fund Leaders in
Innovation fellowship, IdeaSpace
—  Jolt: DOST Technicom, DOST – UK Newton Fund
Leaders in Innovation fellowship
21 Universities

11 existing TBIs

56 people
 Program recognition

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 Value Creation with Innovation

Products

Innova.on  

Value

Technical   Technology   Customer  
Capabili.es   Process   Needs  
Product  
Service  

There  is  no  value  un.l  customer  needs  and  

technical  capabili.es  intersect  

ITRI
 and
Technology Push vs. Market Pull
Star.ng   Development   Selling   Value  
Point   Focus   Point   Hit  

Technology   Technology   Performance/   Costs  

Features  
Price   Down  
Push  

“We  sell  what  we  can  make”  

Market   Customer   Integrated   Benefits  

Differen.a.on  
Pull   Needs   Solu.on   Up  

“We  make  what  we  can  sell”  

Adapted  from  ITRI  slides  

 112+94
KnowHow
127 Venture +KnowWho
Ideas

22+ One-
day
validations

29 Venture teams (2S14)

Agileachievement.com
 Activity: KnowWho*

Market   Customer   Integrated   Benefits  

Differen.a.on  
Pull   Needs   Solu.on   Up  

“We  make  what  we  can  sell”  

—  Identify a contact in an industry related to your field of study

¡  Someone you can contact easily and frequently. You can ask your professors or older/
alumni orgmates for referrals.
—  Problem
—  What’s the hardest part about <problem>?
—  Can you tell us about the last time it happened? How often does it
happen?
—  Why was that hard?
—  What, if anything, have you done to solve the problem?
—  What don’t you love about the solutions you’ve tried?
—  Post your entry online in the KnowWho database
—  Do customer interview, post results in KnowWho database
 Sample KnowWho entry

—  Contact: xxx, Pollution Control Officer, xxx Construction

Corporation
¡  technical buyer, end user
—  Problem: Large volume of expanded polystyrene (EPS) waste
generated in precast plant
—  How often: xx tons generated every month
—  Current solution: Polystyrene waste is delivered to a cement
plant to be used as refuse-derived fuel
—  Issues with current solution: Instead of utilizing the
polystyrene waste as refuse-derived fuel, it may be used for
higher-valued purposes
—  Possible solution: Mixing recycled ground polystyrene with
cement to produce expanded polystyrene concrete, which can
be used for thermal insulation or structural concrete
 Activity: KnowHow*

Technology   Technology   Performance/   Costs  

Features  
Price   Down  
Push  

“We  sell  what  we  can  make”  

—  Talk to one or more professors in your lab/department. Pick one of

their recent or ongoing R&D projects. (If your department doesn’t do
tech R&D, ask your friends, classmates, or me to refer you.) Preferably
aligned with a validated customer problem in the KnowWho board
—  Who is the (assumed) customer/user?
—  What is the (assumed) value proposition?
—  Technology Readiness Level (TRL 3 to TRL 7 only)
—  Possible industry partner (buyer or distributor)
¡  Prefably from personal network or KnowWho board
¡  If none of the above, identify possible philippine companies via online search
—  Post your entry online in the KnowHow database
 Sample KnowHow entry

—  Possible customer: PCB Industries, Semicon

Industries
—  Value proposition: A reactor that treats the
wastewater containing copper and nickel without
sludge. Also recovers high purity of new copper and
nickel compounds
—  TRL: 4
—  Possible industry partner: Daeduck Phils
 Activity: Customer story
—  Enumerate the diff’t users/customers of your
system
—  Describe the day in the life of each user/customer
¡  Before your product (existing solutions)
¡  After your product
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 Customer ROI

—  Return of investment for the customer

—  How will your product increase your customer’s revenues?
¡  Examples
¡  Fertilizers increase the yield of a farm
÷  Quantitative: If yield is currently P100K/hectare, a 10% yield increase results in
P10K/hectare revenue increase
¡  Online classified ads bring customers to a seller
÷  Quantitative: If ads bring 2000 new customers per month with average purchase of
P800/customer, then revenue increase is P1.6M/month
—  How will your product decrease your customer’s costs?
¡  Examples
¡  Instrumentation for preventive maintenance reduce losses due to unscheduled
equipment downtime
÷  Quantitative: If each unscheduled downtime costs the company P80K and there are
7 unscheduled downtime per year on average that can be eliminated with the
system, then the annual cost savings is P560K
¡  Analytics for tracking and improving HR performance reduce losses due to staff
turnover and reduce expenses for training new staff
÷  Quantitative: If each staff turnover costs the company P100K in hiring and training
expenses as well as reduced productivity, and the system can reduce the turnover
from 12 to 4 per year, then the customer can save P800K per year
luis.sison@up.edu.ph