#hack2hatch

hack2HATCH: Day 1, October 5, 2012 | Cebu, Philippines

One way to improve our startup community is to share the learnings. We're happy because we're given a chance to share our learnings from Hack2Hatch to a group of startups headed by Markjeee, Dave and Tins.

Ademar shared what Codetoki learned from h2H.

The best way to present the learnings is to dress the experience.

That's the explanation why Hawaiian was the perfect outfit. hehe. So, here's what we shared:

Hack2hatch Learnings Summary

The main point we highlighted was how important the business plan is. We're not referring to the traditional business plan. What we're talking about is that you have to be prepared on defending the viability of your proposed solution through research and figures.

From our experience in h2H, we learned that being prepared on the business aspect really matters. Here's a list on what we think we should have prepared:

Elevator Pitch - A short summary about your product and its value proposition.

Market Validation - Determine the market size and target market. Can also include your research / survey on what your target customers think about your product. 

Problem - A clear explanation on what you are trying to solve since you are proposing for a solution to a problem, not a solution looking for a problem. 

Solution - Explanation on what your product is all about and how it will help solve the problem. 

Revenue Model - What is your price structure. How would you price your service offering.

Financial Projections - Revenue forecast for 3 to 5 years. (Don't get intimidated with figures. You may check your market size and from there, forecast how many would use your product.)

Market Opportunity - An identified need, want, trend or demand that opens an opportunity for you to grab and exploit. 

Differentiation - What makes your product/service stand out among your competitors. Explanation on the unique value you give to your customers. 

(Disclaimer: These were based from the things we understood. Feel free to correct us if we're wrong. Also, feel free to share what you learned too so more people can benefit from this discussion. Thank you!) 

Here's a group photo of BSFounders Club. Thanks Markjeee for the treat! :)

Master List

Markjeee of Caresharing

Dave of Sym.ph

Tins of Techtalks.ph

Wes of Mynimo.com

Mark and Johanna of Happy Garaje

Jerome and Daryl of Luto.co

Albert and Nicole of Spelldial

Janessa of WaitKnowMore

Ian and Patrick of Schoolabs, Tropa.ph

Me and Ademar of Codetoki

more photos here

(P.S. Markjeee is also calling out startup founders out there. If you're interested to be part of the tech circle in Cebu, feel free to email me at honee[at]bootyard.com so I can introduce you to the group.)

So Hack2Hatch is finally happening tomorrow. You can see all the media buzz, the hashtags and the facebook shares flying on the internet. It is certainly a big event, all the successful Filipino technopreneurs are coming back to help mentor local aspiring technopreneurs.

From all the chaos of working on our client projects and requirements we had to pass for Hack2Hatch, we silently deployed the new version of codetoki.com yesterday.

So what does this new version do? Let me summarize what it does exactly:

1. Companies post jobs.

2. Companies list their requirements (technical/programming skills) represented by badges.

3. Applicants who wants to apply to a specific job has to collect those badges the company required by taking on challenges (sets of programming problems presented with gamification principles).

So what happened after we deployed?

We posted a (Ruby Programmer) job for Bootyard . And after that, nothing actually happened :) We purposely didn't share or tell any of our friends to use it.  Cause we had experiments in mind (a.k.a. Lean Startup's testing assumptions).

Our experiments was this:

1. Would an applicant/entry level developer actually take the time to work on those 15 sets of problems?

2. Was our workflow (UI/UX) intuitive without any further instructions?

Today those assumptions where all tested.

We got our first application! :) Surprisingly it wasn't from an entry level developer, it was from an experienced Java developer who wanted to learn and change career as Ruby Developer.  Which somehow makes him an entry level developer for  the Ruby Language.  

So was he hirable for us?

For one thing, he was really, really interested that he finished the Ruby Mining Challenge. Compared to the resumes we received before, we would certainly choose him!

Attached is his cover letter:

In 1950's, the Philippines was predicted to be one of the tiger economies in Asia. Sadly, we missed the opportunity to deliver. Today, Bloomberg predicts that in 2050 the Philippines will be a Tiger economy. Let us not miss it this time.

In the tech scene, successful Pinoy technopreneurs from abroad like Dado Banatao, Winston Damarillo and Sheila Lirio Marcelo are trying to mimic the Silicon Valley environment, helping the Filipinos through mentorship and possibly funding them. Hack2Hatch as described in their website is:

Hack2Hatch is a weekend entrepreneurship camp where young startups will be mentored one-on-one by experienced investors and founders from Silicon Valley. Join us on Oct. 5-7, 2012 in Cebu City.

Last Tuesday, September 6, 2012, we attended a pre-hack2hatch party in Loft Cebu City.

Here's a perspective photo by Ademar:

"Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation."

- Robert F. Kennedy 

"Iilan ang magiging dakila sa pagbali ng kasaysayan, subalit bawat isa sa atin ay maaaring kumilos, gaano man kaliit, para ibahin ang takbo ng mga pangyayari. Kapag pinagsama-sama ang ating munting pagkilos, makalilikha tayo ng totalidad na magmamarka sa kabuuan ng kasaysayan ng henerasyong ito."

- translated by Tito Sotto