Insights from Chino Amilano's Lecture

So, I'm Chino Amilano, I'm CEO of Time Freedom. and before that I used to be the fiber optics engineer for smart so I'm a licensed ECE and 100% this afternoon is our journey which started when we were like you guys, there it is, we were just like you Fourth year kami college, tanay na sa buwangda. That was the sixth to cohorts and there was a call for entries. So us being from sa buwangda. During those times, there were not many promotions about SWEEP. But we were fortunate enough that one of our professors, Engineer Eugene Calindo, pushed us to join. Sweet. So just like you, majority of the things that we do are projects, thesis, exams, and at the start, we actually didn't have any idea at all. And that made us hesitant to join Sweet. We were thinking, it's very difficult to think of an idea, right? Are you ready? Yes! Actually, the idea creation is easier, it's the execution that's more difficult. Later on, you'll see it in my presentation. But, that didn't stop us. The last day before the deadline for submission of entries, so me and my classmates were talking amongst ourselves and we're asking, what problems can we solve? And there were a lot of problems in Zamboata. We had a lot of crazy ideas. But one of my classmates said, You know, my best friend suggested that Why in the finance office, and I'm not sure if it's the same here, In our school, in the finance office, One week before the midterms or the final exams, The queue is long. People should be... Alright? The queue is really long. You would go to the finance office at 6.30 am. You would finish at 2 pm. Sometimes longer than that. And remember, this is one week before the midterms and the final exams. We should be studying, right? We should be studying and reviewing. So that's the problem. And my best friend said last week, I'm wasting my time here. I can't study. Obviously, I'm not losing for studying the environment. There are a lot of people, it's noisy, it's hot. So, So he said, why is there no system that instead of waiting for a few hours, why not I can stand by at the library and give my lessons. And then when my turn is near, he'll text me. So we thought, yeah, that makes sense. And being engineers, I mean engineering students at that time, we went to work. We made a two-page entry for smart. We submitted that. During that time, we didn't have 4G connectivity. So you can just imagine how long it took to upload the file. And we kept on trying. We kept on trying, no? We didn't give up, we didn't give up without the thought. It's hard, it's hard to think of an idea, much less something that's really worth doing. But that didn't let us, we didn't let that stop us from doing it. So we had the right ingredients. Number one, the right attitude. Engineering students by nature are curious and very stubborn. Very stubborn. Even if they say they are, they are not. Why did you plan doing that? There's a little bit of effort Jigs to less, there's a little bit of effort Even if you say, it looks impossible to do that You'll still try to do it Right? Tell them, it's basic Let's go, let's make a transistor It was a terrible taste, it got to me. We experienced those things. So we had the right attitude. And then, our friends and family were very supportive. There would be times we would have to spend all our nights to do the project. So we were supportive. That's what our family is all about. And our idea at that time... Like we said, it does solve a problem. During that time, we didn't realize how important it is that your idea solves a problem. You don't need an out of this world idea. And out of this world, we have a lot of ideas. We saw the ideas, so we settled for this one. The idea that we call human system, it solves the basic problem of being unproductive in time. But we had challenges. So part of our challenges during that time was that SWEEP was still in its early stages. There were startups, there were startups that had an ecosystem that at that time was still very, very, very, at a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, So different from WACA, if we need a set of diodes, resistors, or what have you, it's hard to get it done. So what we do, we have to call the ISMO. I don't know if you guys are familiar with the ISMO. That's where we order the hardware products, right? So we order the GS module, the keypad module, the LCD module. And then we have to wait for two weeks for the parts to arrive. And then, in fact, the diodes... So those were part of the challenges. And money. Money was definitely a problem at that time because unlike today, before there was no support from the government, not from the government, not from private institutions. Where you are right now compared to where we were back then, that is more advantageous because the support system is already there. But, you still have to be careful. We went through it. We did our business project and we joined the sweep awards. So at that time, the roadshow was in Davao. Out of I think 92 teams nationwide. We were one of the top 10 that entered. And we were really, really excited. We were like, wow, we're going to the top 10. So we went to Manila. It was our first time to go to Manila. And we were like, wow, we're going to the top 10. We were like, wow, we're going to the top 10. We didn't win. We didn't win in the competition. Okay? But, we learned a lot of things. During the sweep awards, the pitching competition, we learned... And then, we thought, hey, they like people. Because we talked to a couple of people, and they said, hey, actually, it's a good idea. You can pick up the bus, you can pick up the voice in the public offices. And it's like that. What's that? That's called feedback. So initially, we had assumptions that we thought, okay, this can be used in this place. And eventually, we got the feedback from other people. And so, back to Zamboanga, we finished our studies, we took the board exam, so we passed the board exam, and the next two years, I got a license to see working in Bahati. I used to be a private office engineer for SMART, I used to be an engineer for Manila, I used to be a software engineer for WPI, and I was an assistant engineer for most of home. So we were four in the team. And we thought that it's okay. We're good with our regular jobs. But what is going on? Sweet gave us a second chance. So during the 9th Sweet, going to the 10th Sweet Awards, so 9 years of Sweet, every year there are 10 finalists, right? So the possible 19 finalists, we are one of the 3. So, they chose Sweep to support them. And out of those three, we are the only ones who are the grand winners. So, what does it tell you? It tells you that if your idea solves the basic problem, and you've exhibited the skills and the talent to... I execute on those ideas that is something possible for to find someone who would support you and your team. So they gave us Symfantic we got our first client We knew our company back in 2013. Joke all jokes, we were registered on April 1st. But it's okay. During that time, going to 2014, we joined a national competition, Ideaspace. Who was the one who joined Ideaspace? Okay, Google it, check it out. That's another, they're an accelerator program. And if you have ideas, you can join the competition. Who knows, maybe you will win, right? So we joined the competition, we won, we received another set of funding. So we were given a set of money, and we received a set of money from ESB. Right? So we got the whole funding. And we used that to further hone our, to further develop and improve upon our project. So, 2014, we stopped finding employees. So we bet on ourselves. We know that it's hard, but we bet on ourselves. We said, it's about time that we... take the leap. It's about time that we believe in ourselves. Because if we don't believe in ourselves, who else? So it's the same with you guys. If you have an idea, it's very important that you believe. what you intend to do. Because there are a lot of people who say that they can't do it, that it's not possible. If you're going to go there, then nothing is going to happen. So we seem to be employees. We will spend countless sleepless nights. We try to run up, basically, the number of people. And before, our business system is higher, our human system. Because... Because as engineering students, you need a transistor, a metal, a module. But one feedback that we got was, number one, very high cost of making a casing. The casing itself cost about 5,000 pesos. The finished product cost about 15,000 pesos. So it's a bit expensive. So instead of using hardware, we made a fully software system. Which at that time, we could only make because of computer computing. So we were able to guide down the cost. The second thing that we got is if you start with a hardware-based system and you deploy it in let's say 100 sites nationwide or 1000 sites nationwide, if any of the consistors there are damaged, in all of those sites, what is the implication? We'll have to go to each and every one of these sites and fix those things. So, you'll lose money. That's why we innovated. Instead of hardware, we innovated to full software. Since it's possible now. So, if you're saying that our hardware projects or hardware products aren't good, I'm just saying that in our case at least, that was the logical step. And so, you have to understand that, where you are right now, Some of you here might have the next big idea. So don't be afraid to try it out. Like I said, this is the Rending11. It's bulky. It's our prototype. And now, we have a mobile app. We have a web-based platform. For the mobile app, we have both Android and iOS. So all of them... you can see here, we have 4 years, right? 4 years of gap and this is what usually people miss out. They think that if you think of Facebook, they think that Facebook is big now. But did you know that before, they were just coding at the door. Apple, Apple has a market cap of 700 billion dollars. But before they became that big, Steve Jobs and Steve Jobs, Bosnia had to bootstrap. There was even a time that Steve Jobs was kicked out of Apple only for him to come back and save the company. Same thing with Hilden Packard. Same thing with Google. So that's the important thing. Kung saan kayo ngayon, that's the first step. There will be challenges and definitely different in the sense of challenges that we will be facing from what others are facing. And that's why it's important to have a clear vision not to compare yourselves with other startups. Okay? Don't be fooled by the fact that the startup you see is too high and you can't even catch it. Right? Each startup has a different set of challenges that you have to overcome. And for that reason, you need to be positive. Okay? We need to be positive. So, before I end this one, I would like to invite you guys to join the sweep awards. Alright? Who knows? Maybe what you have right now, what your idea is, no matter how basic it is, could be something that could, like your brother's part, could be the start of your own journey. Alright? So... Okay. I have one tag right here Is it this one? One tag right here Who wants this one? Who wants this one? Who wants this one? Me? Who wants this one? Who wants this one? There What's the lesson there? What's the lesson there? I kept asking A couple of people are raising their hands What's the problem? You're the one who came here to me, right? Right, it needs to be thick It needs to be thick Because you have to understand that in the real world, if you don't have a good look, you'll be embarrassed. Right? So, the lesson is, it's very important, it's very important, you have to understand that You have the idea. You have the idea. You want the bag. You want the bag. But unless you go out and get it, right? Unless you go out and get it, nothing will happen. Unless of course, you have the authority to get the bag. So anyway, I hope you learned something from my short presentation. I'll just be around the corner. If you guys have any questions, feel free to approach me.

So us being from sa buwangda. During those times, there were not many promotions about SWEEP. But we were fortunate enough that one of our professors, Engineer Eugene Calindo, pushed us to join. Sweet. So just like you, majority of the things that we do are projects, thesis, exams, and at the start, we actually didn't have any idea at all.

And that made us hesitant to join Sweet. We were thinking, it's very difficult to think of an idea, right? Are you ready?

Yes! Actually, the idea creation is easier, it's the execution that's more difficult. Later on, you'll see it in my presentation. But, that didn't stop us. The last day before the deadline for submission of entries, so me and my classmates were talking amongst ourselves and we're asking, what problems can we solve?

And there were a lot of problems in Zamboata. We had a lot of crazy ideas. But one of my classmates said, You know, my best friend suggested that Why in the finance office, and I'm not sure if it's the same here, In our school, in the finance office, One week before the midterms or the final exams, The queue is long. People should be...

Alright? The queue is really long. You would go to the finance office at 6.30 am.

You would finish at 2 pm. Sometimes longer than that. And remember, this is one week before the midterms and the final exams. We should be studying, right?

We should be studying and reviewing. So that's the problem. And my best friend said last week, I'm wasting my time here. I can't study. Obviously, I'm not losing for studying the environment.

There are a lot of people, it's noisy, it's hot. So, So he said, why is there no system that instead of waiting for a few hours, why not I can stand by at the library and give my lessons. And then when my turn is near, he'll text me.

So we thought, yeah, that makes sense. And being engineers, I mean engineering students at that time, we went to work. We made a two-page entry for smart. We submitted that.

During that time, we didn't have 4G connectivity. So you can just imagine how long it took to upload the file. And we kept on trying.

We kept on trying, no? We didn't give up, we didn't give up without the thought. It's hard, it's hard to think of an idea, much less something that's really worth doing.

But that didn't let us, we didn't let that stop us from doing it. So we had the right ingredients. Number one, the right attitude.

Engineering students by nature are curious and very stubborn. Very stubborn. Even if they say they are, they are not.

Why did you plan doing that? There's a little bit of effort Jigs to less, there's a little bit of effort Even if you say, it looks impossible to do that You'll still try to do it Right? Tell them, it's basic Let's go, let's make a transistor It was a terrible taste, it got to me.

We experienced those things. So we had the right attitude. And then, our friends and family were very supportive. There would be times we would have to spend all our nights to do the project. So we were supportive.

That's what our family is all about. And our idea at that time... Like we said, it does solve a problem. During that time, we didn't realize how important it is that your idea solves a problem.

You don't need an out of this world idea. And out of this world, we have a lot of ideas. We saw the ideas, so we settled for this one. The idea that we call human system, it solves the basic problem of being unproductive in time. But we had challenges.

So part of our challenges during that time was that SWEEP was still in its early stages. There were startups, there were startups that had an ecosystem that at that time was still very, very, very, at a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, So different from WACA, if we need a set of diodes, resistors, or what have you, it's hard to get it done. So what we do, we have to call the ISMO.

I don't know if you guys are familiar with the ISMO. That's where we order the hardware products, right? So we order the GS module, the keypad module, the LCD module. And then we have to wait for two weeks for the parts to arrive. And then, in fact, the diodes...

So those were part of the challenges. And money. Money was definitely a problem at that time because unlike today, before there was no support from the government, not from the government, not from private institutions. Where you are right now compared to where we were back then, that is more advantageous because the support system is already there. But, you still have to be careful.

We went through it. We did our business project and we joined the sweep awards. So at that time, the roadshow was in Davao. Out of I think 92 teams nationwide. We were one of the top 10 that entered.

And we were really, really excited. We were like, wow, we're going to the top 10. So we went to Manila. It was our first time to go to Manila. And we were like, wow, we're going to the top 10. We were like, wow, we're going to the top 10. We didn't win. We didn't win in the competition.

Okay? But, we learned a lot of things. During the sweep awards, the pitching competition, we learned... And then, we thought, hey, they like people.

Because we talked to a couple of people, and they said, hey, actually, it's a good idea. You can pick up the bus, you can pick up the voice in the public offices. And it's like that.

What's that? That's called feedback. So initially, we had assumptions that we thought, okay, this can be used in this place.

And eventually, we got the feedback from other people. And so, back to Zamboanga, we finished our studies, we took the board exam, so we passed the board exam, and the next two years, I got a license to see working in Bahati. I used to be a private office engineer for SMART, I used to be an engineer for Manila, I used to be a software engineer for WPI, and I was an assistant engineer for most of home. So we were four in the team.

And we thought that it's okay. We're good with our regular jobs. But what is going on? Sweet gave us a second chance.

So during the 9th Sweet, going to the 10th Sweet Awards, so 9 years of Sweet, every year there are 10 finalists, right? So the possible 19 finalists, we are one of the 3. So, they chose Sweep to support them. And out of those three, we are the only ones who are the grand winners. So, what does it tell you? It tells you that if your idea solves the basic problem, and you've exhibited the skills and the talent to...

I execute on those ideas that is something possible for to find someone who would support you and your team. So they gave us Symfantic we got our first client We knew our company back in 2013. Joke all jokes, we were registered on April 1st. But it's okay.

During that time, going to 2014, we joined a national competition, Ideaspace. Who was the one who joined Ideaspace? Okay, Google it, check it out.

That's another, they're an accelerator program. And if you have ideas, you can join the competition. Who knows, maybe you will win, right?

So we joined the competition, we won, we received another set of funding. So we were given a set of money, and we received a set of money from ESB. Right?

So we got the whole funding. And we used that to further hone our, to further develop and improve upon our project. So, 2014, we stopped finding employees. So we bet on ourselves. We know that it's hard, but we bet on ourselves.

We said, it's about time that we... take the leap. It's about time that we believe in ourselves.

Because if we don't believe in ourselves, who else? So it's the same with you guys. If you have an idea, it's very important that you believe. what you intend to do.

Because there are a lot of people who say that they can't do it, that it's not possible. If you're going to go there, then nothing is going to happen. So we seem to be employees.

We will spend countless sleepless nights. We try to run up, basically, the number of people. And before, our business system is higher, our human system.

Because... Because as engineering students, you need a transistor, a metal, a module. But one feedback that we got was, number one, very high cost of making a casing.

The casing itself cost about 5,000 pesos. The finished product cost about 15,000 pesos. So it's a bit expensive.

So instead of using hardware, we made a fully software system. Which at that time, we could only make because of computer computing. So we were able to guide down the cost. The second thing that we got is if you start with a hardware-based system and you deploy it in let's say 100 sites nationwide or 1000 sites nationwide, if any of the consistors there are damaged, in all of those sites, what is the implication? We'll have to go to each and every one of these sites and fix those things.

So, you'll lose money. That's why we innovated. Instead of hardware, we innovated to full software. Since it's possible now. So, if you're saying that our hardware projects or hardware products aren't good, I'm just saying that in our case at least, that was the logical step.

And so, you have to understand that, where you are right now, Some of you here might have the next big idea. So don't be afraid to try it out. Like I said, this is the Rending11.

It's bulky. It's our prototype. And now, we have a mobile app.

We have a web-based platform. For the mobile app, we have both Android and iOS. So all of them...

you can see here, we have 4 years, right? 4 years of gap and this is what usually people miss out. They think that if you think of Facebook, they think that Facebook is big now.

But did you know that before, they were just coding at the door. Apple, Apple has a market cap of 700 billion dollars. But before they became that big, Steve Jobs and Steve Jobs, Bosnia had to bootstrap. There was even a time that Steve Jobs was kicked out of Apple only for him to come back and save the company.

Same thing with Hilden Packard. Same thing with Google. So that's the important thing.

Kung saan kayo ngayon, that's the first step. There will be challenges and definitely different in the sense of challenges that we will be facing from what others are facing. And that's why it's important to have a clear vision not to compare yourselves with other startups. Okay? Don't be fooled by the fact that the startup you see is too high and you can't even catch it.

Right? Each startup has a different set of challenges that you have to overcome. And for that reason, you need to be positive.

Okay? We need to be positive. So, before I end this one, I would like to invite you guys to join the sweep awards.

Alright? Who knows? Maybe what you have right now, what your idea is, no matter how basic it is, could be something that could, like your brother's part, could be the start of your own journey.

Alright? So... Okay.

I have one tag right here Is it this one? One tag right here Who wants this one? Who wants this one?

Who wants this one? Me? Who wants this one? Who wants this one?

There What's the lesson there? What's the lesson there? I kept asking A couple of people are raising their hands What's the problem? You're the one who came here to me, right?

Right, it needs to be thick It needs to be thick Because you have to understand that in the real world, if you don't have a good look, you'll be embarrassed. Right? So, the lesson is, it's very important, it's very important, you have to understand that You have the idea. You have the idea. You want the bag.

You want the bag. But unless you go out and get it, right? Unless you go out and get it, nothing will happen. Unless of course, you have the authority to get the bag.

So anyway, I hope you learned something from my short presentation. I'll just be around the corner. If you guys have any questions, feel free to approach me.

Transcript for:Insights from Chino Amilano's Lecture

Transcript for:
Insights from Chino Amilano's Lecture