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AIM partners with Dado Banatao for Silicon Valley-type incubator program


The Asian Institute of Management (AIM) and Diosdado "Dado" Banatao, Philippine Development Foundation (PhilDev) founder, on Thursday launched a new incubator program that aims to accelerate the development of startups and pave the way for more opportunities in entrepreneurship.

Banatao, best known for pioneering chipset and graphics acceleration architecture, founded several Silicon Valley companies including Chips & Technologies, S3 Graphics, SiRF, Marvell, and Inphi.

He has also made major investments in Cyras Systems, Stream Machine, and Wilocity.

The program, known as the AIM-Dado Banatao Incubator, intends to support early-stage startups with "deep technology, science, or engineering solutions to the neglected problems of an emerging world."

The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Incubator Creation Program gave AIM and PhilDev a P14.8-million grant for the initial funding of the AIM-Dado Banatao Incubator.

"We applied for a small grant in the DOST. We received about P15 million which helped us to renovate the place," AIM president and Dean Jikyeong Kang said in a press conference in Makati City.

"We now have a process and systems in place that will allow us to actually start accepting applications from startups and we'll go through the process of assessing their applications and hopefully soon we will actually help them," Kang added.

The rent-free, private office space of the AIM-Dado Banatao Incubator is located at the AIM Conference Center Manila in Legaspi Village, Makati City.

It can accommodate up to six members per incubated startup and will will have a guaranteed high-speed internet connectivity of 50 mbps. If the need arises to house more than six members, the incubator would be "strongly advised to find ways around the space constraints."

 

 

What will set the new incubator program apart, according to Kang, is the fact that Banatao himself would be bringing his Silicon Valley experience to the project.

"He has studied in Silicon Valley, where competition is enormous. He always talked about his humble beginnings, and bringing that on board, his experience and success, his network, all of those will make a huge difference," Kang said.

"Our incubator will not charge anything to our startups but they have to be 120 percent committed...They really, really have to be committed and have energy and commitment to take it through all the way," she added.

"We're not talking about superficial—somebody who has been there for a few months. We're talking about people who are actually successful, who actually made it there. Who know how to make this kind of project work in a national arena. I think that's another way we differentiate ourselves," Kang said.

Banatao said that the incubator aims to promote innovation that will bring about inclusive growth.

"Inclusiveness in this sense is the proper sharing of ownership in the enterprise between money and intellect. When successful, this is why entrepreneurship is the best example of bridging the gap between the rich and the poor," Banatao said.

"Beyond these teachings of inclusive innovation in classrooms, the next stage in building a successful start-up is for the team to be formally formed and move to a space where they can begin to write up a business plan, look for funding, and if successful, begin to design the product in a suitable space similar to a university laboratory. Spending precious money begins to escalate," he added.

"In my experience as an entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, this phase is the toughest with the highest failure rate in the life of a start-up. Unless there is help from investors or friendly mentors, founders of the company are either suicidal or crazy, putting at risk their life status, family, friends, and future," Banatao continued.

Startups that are eligible for the program are those who have a "proven ability to build, sell to customers, and evolve their idea into a business that can grow."

The AIM-Dado Banatao Incubator has a "rolling application" with no set deadline. Interested parties may fill out the application form here. —NB/BM, GMA News

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