It’s rare to see people who are willing to offer inspiration and help, especially as we know sometimes the Internet is full of haters. But let’s not get into that. Let’s just talk about people who love to help genuinely.
Peter Cauton is the guy behind Juan Great Leap, aptly refered to as the Filipino Startup Movement. It is a Philippines-based innovation forum. He aims to inspire others to take that one great leap into the world of entrepreneurship.
Ever curious, I asked Peter some questions, basically to find out more where his passion for inspiring startups and hopeful entrepreneurs comes from:
What was that defining moment when you made a conscious decision that helping others is what you want to do?
Peter: In 2008, I made the biggest career decision of my life – I took the leap, kissed my corporate career goodbye and went full-time to help my struggling startup. Considering it was in the middle of the recession and I had a newborn son, it was an idiotic decision.
By God’s grace, it worked out. In 2011, not only was I making a good living running my own firm, I also founded more startups.
I just felt incredibly blessed. There was a great need in me to pay it forward. At first I thought, perhaps I could write a book! It would consist of some of the lessons I learned in leaving corporate and developing my startup. But after some months, I found that it was just a huge step to develop material from scratch into a book. So I thought of something I had never thought I do – write a blog.
I remember writing my first post. I dilly-dallied a lot, postponing pushing the ‘publish’ button for as long as I can. In many ways, starting a blog was scarier than writing a book. The exposure was instant. What if people hated what I wrote? Or thought “this guy is a hack”?
But I thought, like my startup leap, nothing worthwhile is ever accomplished without some risk. And so I clicked publish.
The blog has almost taken a life of its own now. I totally did not forecast how much it would resonate with people. Its been an amazing blessing for me.
What are your current projects? Follow up to Juan Great Leap event?
Peter: I am very busy helping out the startups I have helped found: STORM, Searchlight, Mobile Academy, Stream Engine, as well as a couple more in incubation.
For Juan Great Leap, I do a lot of advocacy work to promote startups.
The biggest things we plan are the Juan Great Leap conferences. In the last one, sponsored by Ayala, we attracted over 200 people to a learning session/panel discussion. We are planning another one on March 2nd: a mass ‘speed dating’ event with 20 awesome startup founders.
These bigger events are geared towards creating a mass learning opportunity for participants. We also hold a smaller meetup, called Open Coffee, every month with around 40 to 50 people, which is geared towards collaboration and helping one another. It is open to people from any part of the startup process from “I have an idea” to “I have just sold my startup.” The main attraction in this event is the open floor where people have two minutes to pitch anything to the group – an idea, a problem to solve, a need, a survey. It’s pretty fun!
Aside from these, I meet two to three entrepreneurs for coffee every Saturday morning. We talk about everything and anything – from startup ideas, outlining opportunities, and even the spiritual side to startups. A couple of people I’ve met at Startup Saturdays have become dear friends of mine, some also who I’ve had the privilege to mentor.
What do you think are the greatest challenges for Filipino tech startups?
Peter: There aren’t enough entrepreneurs to take on the multitude of great ideas which are available. Right now, you see the same people in startup events – this is very good of course, as we are creating a strong community, but we need more people to join in.
The biggest challenge is to inspire even more Filipinos to take that great leap!
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