I know very little about the startup world that’s why when Jojy Azurin, Regional Director for Continental Asia of Freelancer.com, shared with me his stories about this growing community in the Philippines, I became so fascinated about the topic that we ran out of time talking about our main subject for the interview that day, Freelancer.com.
This episode, in fact, was supposed to be the 2nd of a 2-part series featuring Freelancer.com‘s Evan Tan (Director for South East Asia) and Jojy Azurin. However, I decided to bump up Jojy’s interview and I will need to go back to the Freelancer office soon for another interview with Evan to talk more about their company and find out how freelancers can take advantage of the growing freelance marketplace, Freelancer.com. Please watch out for that.
Now, if you are a person who has lots of neat ideas that you think can be turned into a successful startup business, then this episode is definitely for you. Listen intently as Mr. Jojy Azurin will pour his heart out and share with us his vast knowledge and experience in the fields of freelancing, technology and business as well as the hurdles he encountered along the way.
Key Takeaways
– How Freelancer grew from 150,000 members to 600,000 member in just 1.5 years.
– His personal advocacy and how he is fulfilling that through Freelancer.com.
– His first dot com company and how he was able to do full circle with it. – The startup landscape in the Philippines.
– Why Metro Deal is the Jollibee of group-buying sites.
– Why now is the best time to create your own startup business.
– The midwife role of Freelancer in the startup community.
– The first two Philippine companies credited for investing in local startups.
– The long and short process on how to turn your idea into a startup business.
– What happens during the Startup Weekend.
– Why your idea doesn’t have to be technology-related to build a startup.
– The fastest rising job in Freelancer.
– 3D printers and why it will be ubiquitous in the next 4 years.
– The opportunities in “Big Data” and “Internet of Things”.
– The importance of growth hacking.
– Why tech startups are not pressured to have profits yet.
– Why most tech startups’ ultimate goal is, fortunately and unfortunately, to get bought by a bigger company.
– The failures and hurdles encountered by Jojy.
– What Jojy learned from his failed software company that closed down and was P25M in debt.
Links and Resources
- Freelancer.com
- Horsepower.ph
- BusinessSummaries.com
- Sulit.com.ph
- Metro Deal
- Globe’s Kickstart Ventures
- PLDT’s IdeaSpace
- 500 Startups
- Y Combinator
- Naspers
- IdeaSpace PH – Facebook PageId
- Startup Weekend
- Lean Startup Machine Manila
- Eric Ries
- The Lean Startup
- Angel Hack
- AirBNB
- Startup Grind
- Geeksonabeach.com
- Printers2Go.ph
- Salt.ph
- Startup Nations
- Twitter: @jojyazurin
- Facebook: /jojyazurin
- jorge.azurin@freelancer.com
Quotes
“My advocacy became my day job.”
“Freelancers are also by themselves technology startups.”
“Kailangan nagtutulungan. Like for me to help some of these statups become successful means that they become models for other freelancers to build their own startups.”
“The low lying fruit is going to be e-commerce.”
What are your challenges as a freelancer to turn your solo business into a startup business? We would love to hear your inputs in the Comment Box below.
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odcast: The Podcast for the Philippine’s Premier Community of Freelancers
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