START-UPS are advised to be disruptive as a way to survive and grow, as well as regain their competitive advantage in a tough business world.
One way to do it is through technology, Xurpas CEO Nix Nolledo said.
He said small-scale entrepreneurs today are very interested in technology as they know its great impact, not only on their business, but also to the industry at large.
While their interest is strong, he said that they need funding to help them grow, mentorship from more experienced entrepreneurs and business owners who can guide them with running the business.
This, he explained, will “create an opportunity that will generate value that is bigger than the original opportunity.” With this in mind, the Entrepreneur’s Organization (EO) Elevation Pitch 2 was held to bring together promising start-up businessmen to introduce their enterprises and network for possible investments, partnerships and support through a synergy among other entrepreneurs.
This event featured 12 start-up businesses, such as Knots and Pans, Loan Solutions, Kallfly, Coins.ph, Salt, Ayannah, Avail.at, PawnHero Autodeal.ph, Dragon Pay, TaskUs and Abra.
“The start-up in the industry should have a lot of potential, which is potentially very disruptive, [with] the kind of technology that they have. A start-up that is led by the team, that is very qualified to execute the strategy and the vision. Each of the start-up presented here already have products that have proven track record,” said Nolledo, who is also the chairman of EO Elevation Pitch 2.
A disruptive business trend is seen in the financial industry, EO Philippines President Sheila Ramos said.
This is apparent, she said, among the start-ups that participated in this year’s event.
Disruption is coming, particularly in the banking sector with the advent of mobile technology, she added.
“The trend that I like is in the financial services, making banking available—not affordable—to the broad market because a lot of people don’t have access to products of the banks,” Ramos said.
She noted that existing banking system is quite traditional and is not available to mass market’s reach that it is time to look for ways on disrupting the financial systems by coming up with new products or services.
“There are presentations [in the Elevation Pitch 2] that I really found interesting. They are all talking about efficiency in delivering the service. So, I like that angle. So let’s see how it progresses if there will be a lot of disruption. Last year, the disruption was in the services like Uber. So this year, the disruption will be in financial services,” Ramos cited.
The local market is enough for start-up entrepreneurs to build platforms around and to export it. But in their case, they import technology and bring it locally.
“Because of the need locally, entrepreneurs come up with platforms that will hopefully expand in the future,” Ramos said.
With disruptive financial technology in the case of the financial or banking system, there will be a lot of opportunities to transform how people get their loan or do their remittances.
“One trend is that more and more people will surf the Internet with their phones because the cost of a unit of a phone is cheaper than a PC [personal computer]. Yet, 99 percent of corporations in the Philippines don’t have an app. So this is a big disconnect where there is big opportunity,” Nolledo said.