Open Source developer to bankroll ‘Pinoy’ startups

AN Open Source developer house put up by a “balikbayan” technopreneur shall bankroll this year 20 to 30 startups to be established by Filipinos seeking global markets for SaaS, or “software as a service” applications.

The company is called Morph Labs, with Winston Damarillo as its chairman. In 2005, IBM Corp. had purchased the Los Angeles-based Gluecode, also an Open Source applications vendor firm he had earlier founded.

Morph Labs currently does its R&D work in Cebu City through the Morph Application platform it had released only in February. Running on Open Source, this is a developer tool for SaaS applications that also maximize the Web 2.0 phenomenon.

Damarillo announced their company’s planned entry into venture capital funding at a recent press briefing at the Shangri-La Manila Hotel in Makati City. He said the startups would receive $100,000 to $200,000 each in funding, with priority going to developers of e-health, e-learning and e-government programs running on the Morph Applications platform.

Responding to a question by Tech Times, Damarillo said bankrolling of the startups would not be acts of philantrophy. Instead, they would be acts of enlightened self-interest and investments into the creation of future opportunities as done today by many vendors in the global IT community such as Intel Corp.

According to him, bankrolling the startups would jumpstart the building of a Morph Applications ecosystem in Asia with the Philippines as base area. This ecosystem would consist of developers, users and other venture capitalists, as well as other possible stakeholders.

The intent to build this ecosystem is the reason behind its launch of the Morph Code Challenge, a series of events starting this March 29 and ending May 3, according to Damarillo.

Phase One would be a one-day workshop to be conducted by experts on how to establish and manage a startup. This happens on March 29 at the Ateneo de Manila University and would be free to all who are interested.

Phase Two would be the pitching by interested workshop attendees of technology venture proposals using the Morph Applications platform. These proposals would be “elevator pitches,” three- to four-minute presentations before a panel of technology business experts.

The second phase would take place on April 5 also at the Ateneo.

Phase Three, a “by invitation only” event would be on May 3 at the Shangri-La Manila Hotel in Makati City with many of the invitees having good chances to receive Morph Labs venture capital funding. Damarillo said that the very best among the presenters, as chosen by a panel of judges, would definitely be bankrolled for two years’ operations and
also mentored by their company.

Damarillo told reporters that only proposals for “disruptive technologies,” revolutionary applications that radically change the ways individuals and organizations conduct their activities would be considered for venture capital funding.
SaaS is a technology concept that offers use of software to users in a manner similar to that by electrical power and utility companies offering their services to their customers. This concept is done through the Internet with pricing on a per use basis.

On the other hand, Web 2.0 refers to the online social networks spawned by the Internet along with the social, economic, political, and other cultural changes brought about in their wake. The changes have been brought about by the fact that these networks enable all participants to simultaneously be sharers, users, and creators of information.

Some examples of the Web 2.0 phenomenon would be Friendster, Amazon.com, and Wikipedia.

The IT market research firm, Gartner Corp. has projected the global SaaS applications market to be worth $12 billion in 2012 as against its estimate of $6.5 billion in 2007. By Ike Suarez - Manila Times