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[kentjasserdurias]

Entrepreneurial Mind Experience

Kent Jasser L. Durias

If there is two words that comes into my mind when I reminisce the lecture series it is probably the word listen and learn. "Listen" the ability of an individual to hear something with thoughtful attention. "Learn" on the other hand, is to gain or acquire knowledge or skill through listening and experience. In both listening and learning we can all become an entrepreneur; an entrepreneur equiped with the knowledge needed. I am Kent, although I am not ready yet, but I have listened and for sure have learned... A lot.

Engr. Bronson Mabulay, the first speaker in the lecture series, addresses the importance of start-ups in the business ecosystem. Start-ups are the growth catalyst and engine. When innovation and entrepreneurship are combined, a concept can grow into something larger, thus as entrepreneurs, it is beneficial to find government and non-government sectors that can assist our start-ups in terms of investment. Mr. Mabulay highlighted that there are government entities that can assist us in funding our start-ups as well as legalizing and operating the ideas for start-ups.

Furthermore, the second speaker, Mr. Arnel Areglo, emphasizes the importance of having a positive mindset when starting a company. His presentation has helped me visualize the competitiveness of the real corporate world, which is extremely beneficial to me as a student who lacks experience in both the business sector and as an entrepreneur. This lecture emphasizes that "as a response to society's increasing need for entrepreneurs, citizens should be trained to start businesses."

Moreover, the third speaker reinforces the need of intellectual property protection. Because start-ups are new or enhanced concepts of society, it is critical to initially file for patents, copyrights, trademarks, and other rights to ensure that the idea is credited to people who created it. This presentation also highlighted the distribution of commercialization benefits, where it teaches us the numbers on how to divide the economic gains in the commercial exploitation of start-ups as early as today.

In addition, the experience of pitching our own start-up idea to my classmates is somewhat worthwhile. On the demo day, however, the River level detector team did an excellent job of representing the section. I acquired insights and had a good experience listening to other sections' startup ideas.

In conclusion, I have learnt to listen in this experience, and with this experience it provides me knowledge and I hope to apply it anytime soon in the future as a real entrepreneur. I am thankful for a semester filled with fun, learning and experience.

[kentjasserdurias]

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Kent Jasser L. Durias

Following the completion of our idea with our start-up, the team completed a series of activities to ensure that the market will patronize and use our application. The team has encountered challenges as we validate our market, but we believe that we have done enough interaction with the target market to ensure that we can do the necessary things, such as doing surveys and interviews, sending emails to some local retailers, and developing our prototype.

For the surveys and interviews, we asked several respondents and allowed them to answer a series of questions about whether they have felt the effects of rising commodity prices and whether they are willing to make more informed decisions. Fortunately for us, the majority of respondents have had this experience. Commodity prices are simply too high for them to bear. After reviewing the responses, the team determined that we could create a premium product.

Furthermore, the group issued a letter of request to all small, medium, and large businesses in Bukidnon. We tried to email them to see if they would be willing to provide some information regarding the prices of their items; while we did not obtain any responses from large corporations, we did receive favorable responses from a handful of stores we contacted.

Another project we completed was the digital prototype; it was difficult, time consuming, and a little stressful, but it was a worthwhile experience. We were able to put our editing talents to the test while also showcasing our creativity in developing the prototype. It was quite rewarding, and I had a lot of fun doing it.

In conclusion, the market has a wide range of needs from which we might draw inspiration. However whether the market is willing to utilize the solution we made for them, is up to the hands of the entrepreneurs to work hard and earn the validation of the market. Overall it was a great experience for me and observation about the market never stops.