Technopreneurs’ race to success
By Luisa S. Lumioan, S&T Media Service, DOST-STII
When most
graduates make seemingly endless rounds in business districts or endure
long lines in job fairs in hopes of
landing their dream jobs, Deogracias
“Gary” P. Villame took the road less taken.
Fortunately, it
led him to become Chief Executive Officer of a tech company.
A graduate of Electronics and Communications Engineering
from University of the Philippines Diliman, Villame and his former classmates
founded Itemhound, a tech start-up company that provides sports timing
solutions to running and motor racing events through the use of Radio Frequency
Identification (RFID) hardware and applications.
Challenging headstart
Interestingly, the successful start-up company began as
just a college thesis of Villame
and his thesis mates John Paulo Adaoag,
Roy Flores, Mark Gil Manalansang and Joe Cris Molina in 2006.
Seeing the study’s potential, their thesis adviser, Dr.
Joel Joseph Marciano Jr. encouraged them to join Philippine Emerging Start-ups
Open, a business plan competition organized by Ayala Foundation. They won the competition and saw the prospect
of creating their very own company. However, even with the prize money of Php
100,000, they felt that they were not ready yet. “Parang di pa naming kayang
pangatawanan (We were not ready to handle it yet),” Villame recalled.
Soon after graduation, Villame, Adaoag, Flores, and
Manalansang pursued graduate studies in UP as scholars of Engineering Research
and Development for Technology, a program of Department of Science and
Technology. Molina, on the other hand,
went abroad to work.
Meanwhile, the start-up plan took a backseat; but they
never totally gave up on the idea.
Until the year 2009 when
the four, who were still pursuing their graduate studies, were asked by UP to do a study for a big
company on RFID applications.They took
on the project and this made them
realize that the time was ripe for their start-up company. Molina, then still working abroad, also
welcomed the idea.
Soon, they pooled whatever they had saved from their stipends and other
sources and made their first tough decision.
In January 2010, Itemhound was formally incorporated.
“Hindi na drowing
to, hindi na puro laway lang (This is reality, not just pure rhetoric),”
Villame mused, referring to the competition they won a few years back.
Overcoming the hurdles
But like most ventures, starting up can be an uphill
race.
Their biggest hurdle was penetrating the market. Villame
revealed that even the company that commissioned them to do a study never
became their client. Wooing a big
company when they were just starting out did not come easy for them.
They also had to contend with being cash-strapped. “For
the first nine months we practically did not have any revenue,” Villame
recounted.
In the end, they figured that they needed to identify a
market that is easier to penetrate.
That period saw the growing
popularity of fun runs, marathons, and other racing events. Villame and his
team saw it as a big opportunity. They also found it easier to relate to the
sporting community because of its less formal atmosphere.
In the last quarter of 2010, they had their first big
break. Itemhound finally had its first client.
Racing towards success
Since then, the company has been on a dash in
handling the timing of various running and motor racing events as it
continued to develop its own timing products.
One of these is the Strider® system which can be used in both high volume races
such as marathons and small fun runs alike. The company was also the first to
introduce paper-based timing tags in 2010 which have made it possible to
provide more affordable timing to larger races without sacrificing
accuracy. Strider® has figured in big
running events in the country such as NatGeo Earth Day Run 2013, Alaska Iron
Kids Philippines, Columbia Eco Trail Run, Merrel Adventure Run among others.
For motor sports, Itemhound has developed Racer®, a race
timing system designed for closed-circuit motor racing that uses economical
reusable timing tags.Racer® has been the official timing system of the Yamaha
MotoGP series for three consecutive years and was the official timing partner
of the Yamaha ASEAN Cup 2012.
Lessons learned as local technopreneurs
The first lesson they learned: “You need to be flexible.
Your original plan might not work out so you need to be agile, to adapt,”
Villame said.
As the CEO, Villame also has to deal with a lot of
stress to make sure the company is able to stand the pace. “Many people depend on you, not only in terms
of money. I don’t only look after my own
career development but also that of my colleagues. When things get hard I have
to help boost their morale.”
In spite of the difficulty of establishing and keeping a start-up firm afloat, this self-made technopreneur is not
giving up. “There’s something fulfilling in creating your own products, in
creating your own business.”
He added, “Kagaya ng laging sinasabi ng DOST, kailangan
natin ng entrepreneurs. Ang laki ng
natutulong. Ang laki ng multiplyer effect.
Malaking fulfillment din sa amin na nakakapagbigay kami ng trabaho (As
what the Department of Science and Technology or DOST always says, we need
entrepreneurs. They are very useful. They create a huge multiplier effect. The
fact that we provide employment also makes us fulfilled),”
In retrospect, he never really found it attractive to
work abroad or even in the local industryafter hefinished his graduate
studies. “I was very exposed to
entrepreneurship because my father is an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship was my
first choice for my career path; but, if I did not end up as an entrepreneur, I
would probably teach or work in the government,” he said.
For those who are considering the technopreneurship track, here is his
advice:
“Expect that you will do a lot of mistakes; but you don’t
have to beat yourself over them. What is
important is that you learn from them fast.
For me, it is not a good sign if you’re not making mistakes anymore;
because it means that you’re not trying hard enough.”
