Stakeholders who set up shop here will be tasked with evangelising their company and the ecosystem

As the top two business cities in the Philippines, Manila and Cebu are also inevitably where the startup ecosystem is concentrated. Most venture capital firms are housed here, and naturally are the startups as well as all the other resources you need to build a tech company, from coworking spaces and incubators to conferences and other events.

While such alignment is expected, the real measure of a nation’s tech ecosystem is its spread from major business cities to other parts of the country. In this view, one of the most promising new tech hubs in the Philippines is Baguio City.

Located about four to five hours north of Manila in Benguet province, Baguio is known to locals as the Summer Capital of the Philippines. It is also fast becoming the home of choice for startups in the region.

The birth of the startup ecosystem in Baguio arguably began when Grab opened eligibility of GrabTaxi to all the taxis in Baguio in 2016. If a Singaporean tech unicorn were to take notice of Baguio as a market centre and talent hub, then all Filipinos should take heed — Baguio is next.

But Baguio truly arrived as a tech destination with the founding of Calle Uno in July 2016, the first coworking space in the province, marking the beginning of formal startup resources, programming, and infrastructure in the city.

Forecasts of Baguio as a tech hub are firmly grounded in reality.

TaskUs, which now services some of the top tech companies in Silicon Valley, was once a startup itself, founded not out of Manila, but in Cavite. Founders Bryce Maddock and Jaspar Weir set up office in the province outside of Manila in order to tap into an untapped talent pool. The results of this forward-thinking speak for themselves: TaskUs recently passed a US$500 million valuation.

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Of course, even if the most prestigious tech companies in Asia Pacific follow suit by setting up regional offices in Baguio, and more Filipino founders are drawn to the area, there still is a need to convince local talent to participate in this new economy.

We must sell the tech ecosystem, in short, to people who have had very little exposure to it and who may be accustomed to the idea of climbing the traditional corporate ladder as their measure of success.

Branding tech in Baguio

To easily understand how Baguio can win over more local talents, we need to deep dive into how one area startup is already doing so.

FullSuite is a tech-enabled financial concierge housed at Calle Uno that has already convinced more than 60 local accountants and other business professionals to join its ranks.

While the Calle Uno area is a blend of the work-fun balance that characterizes startup life — boasting of a permanently parked food truck, a third-wave coffee shop, bar and cafe — there are still important messages to promote beyond the ambience.

The startup ecosystem can have accelerated career pathing

Traditional corporations in the Philippines are stereotyped as very hierarchical because most of them are.

Higher-ups must be addressed by “sir” or “ma’am” and this decorum holds true across the organisation: When discussing new ideas or initiatives, seniority generally holds more weight than quality. Whoever is the highest tenured person at the meeting will ultimately win out with his or her idea.

Startups are a welcome respite from the hierarchal Filipino corporate. The organisational chart is flat in more ways than one. Not only can any employee put forth his own ideas (and be taken seriously to boot), career development tends to be much more rapid, as startups tend to be results — rather than tenure-oriented. High contributors, in short, who make it rain will be rewarded.

It’s this mentality that FullSuite has embraced, allowing one intern to be promoted three ranks in just the span of six months.

The startup ecosystem may have more youth-centric benefits

When people think of tech perks, they inevitably think of the likes of Facebook and Google, which boast of incredible benefits, from dozens of eateries stocked with free gourmet food to massages and every other service that can help employees.

While not every company can be Facebook or Google, tech companies as a whole do offer benefits that better cater to the busy lives of its employees. As an example, FullSuite caters daily lunch by a US-trained graduate of Enderun, and overflowing food and drinks at a monthly meet-and-greet.

Some may criticise these free food perks as frivolous, but they do have a purpose: It reduces the inconvenience and cognitive load of finding somewhere to eat, allowing employees to focus more on their role.

Many of the Silicon Valley-style perks that Filipino companies offer are designed for just that purpose: Enabling you to laser-focus on your work and work alone. For young professionals eager to make their mark in the world, these allowances are more than welcome.

Startups may be more mission-driven

Study after study has shown that millennial job seekers increasingly care about one factor when deciding where to work: purpose.

They want to make a difference, even if it’s their first or second job. Their most common assumption of such impact is person-to-person, such as an employee at a social enterprise giving aid to beneficiaries.

By their very nature, startups give young professionals the chance to make an impact on a much wider scale: They can help not just individuals, but an entire industry. Startups need to present themselves in this manner, just as how FullSuite has done in Baguio.

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The company bills itself as a financial concierge that disrupts how companies operate everything from strategic to operational finance. By giving them an entire team of accountants and business professionals as opposed to just one CFO, FullSuite enables companies to maximize their business potential. It’s this mission that has already captured the attention of more than 60 professionals and even enticed local universities to sign memorandums of understanding to be a “feeder” program for their relevant graduates.

Startups must always harken back to this core mission, especially in newer talent markets like Baguio. It also does not hurt that FullSuite is led by leaders in the mould of chief strategist Maggie Po, who has built her career helping companies grow through finance and has personally raised venture capital from seed to Series E, and wants to transform the company into a training ground for other professionals who want to do the same.

Baguio, in short, has plenty of promise. To fully realise its full potential, startups and the other stakeholders who set up shop in the city must evangelize not only their company but also the ecosystem itself.

The three most salient selling points are the accelerated career pathing, the lifestyle benefits, and the potential to create industry-wide impact.

If Baguio’s nascent tech ecosystem can convert more locals away from traditional enterprises and toward the startup world, the city should continue to rise as a major innovation hub in the Philippines.

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