Lost Meets Found: Cebu startup finds success

On March 25, Ideaspace Foundation, Inc., the Philippine-based business incubator, announced the twenty finalists for their search for the top tech startup ideas from across the country. "Lost Meets Found," a team from Cebu, is one of the twenty finalists who are hoping to make it to the cut of ten startups who will join a six-month incubation program with a whopping P5 million funding. I met up with the team to talk about their experiences ever since their winning at Startup Weekend Cebu 2, a 54-hour hands-on event where teams launch startups. What is Lost Meets Found? www.LostMeetsFound.com (LMF) is an online web and mobile application that connects the lost to the found. It gives people their first hope of recovering what they lost (things, properties, pets and missing people) by using both internet and sms technology. It has a unique cross-matching algorithm and geolocational tagging for pictures posted and uses an LMF code to prevent fraud claims of lost items for registered members. LMF makes the lost and found items all available at your fingertips. Who are the people in the LMF team and what are your strengths? The LMF team is composed of four people who met during Startup Weekend Cebu 2. Jan Caser is their co-founder and lead developer who is also currently a Senior Web Developer of Big Foot Studios. Neilson Navarrete is their graphics and UI expert who is a Senior Industrial Designer of Lexmark Research and Development. Robert Bryan Uy Mandin is a student from the University of San Carlos Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineer and a founder of kamikini.com. Leonid Warguez is their founder and business development person. He is also the founder and president of Love Pony kiddie Ride. How did you come up with the idea of Lost Meets Found? Every company starts with a dream but Lost Meets Found literally started from a dream - a dream of Leonid Warguez. When Leonid woke up, “Lost and Found” were the first words that popped in of his mind. So he checked the market and competition and found out that it was a good idea to pitch for Startup Weekend Cebu 2 which eventually won 3rd place. What were the lessons you learned in winning the Startup Weekend Cebu 2? Not all good ideas get a chance to push through. It’s the action and taking more actions that separates successful startups from starting up all over again. What were the challenges you encounter after SWC2? From November to December of 2012, the team severely suffered the “analysis paralysis syndrome” of startup companies to the point that it almost died. How did you overcome those challenges? The team decided to just do what we had to do and focus on taking action. We realigned and proceeded with the basic concept and decided not to over-complicate things. How did you decide into joining Ideaspace Startup Competition? We’ve learned about Ideaspace before Startup Weekend Cebu 2 so it was already part of our plan. Can you share what you went through joining the competition? It was really a fun journey. Every time Ideaspace sent us emails that we qualified for the next round, we got very excited. Everytime they notified us, the deadline was usually very tight, but we quickly adapt and executed. We became Oscars awardee when we did our startup video shoot. How much financial backing do you expect to have from the competition? We are seeking around P3 million funding to execute our plans and possibly seek more for growth and sustainability. What do you expect to happen after this competition? How confident are you that you're going to win? We’re expecting more endorsements and safe zone partners to jump on board the Lost Meets Found. We are a strong team with a strong idea. It’s rare!

Fleire Castro is a Cebu-based digital marketing consultant and long-time social media practitioner. She heads Third Team Business Solutions and is a member of the Cebu Bloggers Society, Inc. Her blog at www.fleirecastro.com contains her musings on current social media topics.