Start-ups are hard-work, not just for the VCs but especially for the entrepreneurs running the companies 24x7. They work hard, sacrifice, find innovative solutions, etc. etc... whatever it takes to come up with differentiated products and convince skeptical customers to buy from a new supplier.
If they do a good job people recognize this and they win customers, make money... even win awards.
One of Narra Venture Capital's investments is Astute Networks and they sell high-performance, lowest-power ATCA bladed edge storage solutions. They just made the finalist list of TechAmerica's Best High Tech Product Awards. We are proud to be associated with a good group of entrepreneurs such as those that run Astute Networks.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
BGN Serves The Diaspora's Need to Stay Connected & Help
FROM www.BGN.org Blog on BGN Serves The Diaspora's Need to Stay Connected & Help
First of all: our deepest sympathies and prayers go out to all the victims of the past typhoons.
Disasters like Ondoy and Pepeng (internationally called "Ketsana" and "Parma") have brought out the best in the Filipinos - even if sometimes we still forget to hide some of our lesser traits at the same time. There are thousands of people donating relief goods and cash to the affected victims. Companies and individuals are also assisting their colleagues as they recover from their loss. Even more heroic are those who sacrificed their own lives to save others and those who lost everything yet give their time and efforts to assist others. We don't need to talk about the sad few who continue to campaign in the places that they have neglected to help with better infrastructure and drainage.
I don't feel like it is my place to comment on the goings-on especially since a lot has been said by better people who have helped and continue to help. The little I would like to share is the following.
Even in the Brain Gain Network which is embodied by the web-enabled network and the countless emails among our informal members there is a COMMUNION OF SPIRIT: an almost tangible sense of unity among the Filipinos and Friends of Filipinos scattered around the world. Through this network, on this service, on facebook, or simply via an email or text, many friends ask how they can assist in the relief efforts. On some of our pages like the Group on Ways of Donating $ or Time to Charitiesor Relief Efforts in the Philippines we do our humble best to share posts and links that others have shared to causes that we are aware of and which we believe will best course any assistance sent from abroad*.
Details aside, we are happy to confirm that our idea of re-building www.BGN.org has been validated by the need of many smart and intelligent Filipinos and Friends around the world who are HUNGRY FOR WAYS TO GIVE TO THE PHILIPPINES. BGN has given links to ways to help with donations but in the end we believe that the collective (brain and spiritual) power of this network begs to be used to identify the root causes of the major problems plaguing our nation and to propose innovative and radical solutions. We hope that the forums and provocative media shared will allow all to contribute valuable experience and insights into how Filipinos around the world can collaborate to improve our country, physically, economically and spiritually.
Sincerely,
Paco
*The best is always to send your donations or assistance through people you know personally and deeply trust, but if you don't have access to those, here are some other options. We still urge you to get comfortable with your chosen course and follow links and read how your support will be used.
First of all: our deepest sympathies and prayers go out to all the victims of the past typhoons.
Disasters like Ondoy and Pepeng (internationally called "Ketsana" and "Parma") have brought out the best in the Filipinos - even if sometimes we still forget to hide some of our lesser traits at the same time. There are thousands of people donating relief goods and cash to the affected victims. Companies and individuals are also assisting their colleagues as they recover from their loss. Even more heroic are those who sacrificed their own lives to save others and those who lost everything yet give their time and efforts to assist others. We don't need to talk about the sad few who continue to campaign in the places that they have neglected to help with better infrastructure and drainage.
I don't feel like it is my place to comment on the goings-on especially since a lot has been said by better people who have helped and continue to help. The little I would like to share is the following.
Even in the Brain Gain Network which is embodied by the web-enabled network and the countless emails among our informal members there is a COMMUNION OF SPIRIT: an almost tangible sense of unity among the Filipinos and Friends of Filipinos scattered around the world. Through this network, on this service, on facebook, or simply via an email or text, many friends ask how they can assist in the relief efforts. On some of our pages like the Group on Ways of Donating $ or Time to Charitiesor Relief Efforts in the Philippines we do our humble best to share posts and links that others have shared to causes that we are aware of and which we believe will best course any assistance sent from abroad*.
Details aside, we are happy to confirm that our idea of re-building www.BGN.org has been validated by the need of many smart and intelligent Filipinos and Friends around the world who are HUNGRY FOR WAYS TO GIVE TO THE PHILIPPINES. BGN has given links to ways to help with donations but in the end we believe that the collective (brain and spiritual) power of this network begs to be used to identify the root causes of the major problems plaguing our nation and to propose innovative and radical solutions. We hope that the forums and provocative media shared will allow all to contribute valuable experience and insights into how Filipinos around the world can collaborate to improve our country, physically, economically and spiritually.
Sincerely,
Paco
*The best is always to send your donations or assistance through people you know personally and deeply trust, but if you don't have access to those, here are some other options. We still urge you to get comfortable with your chosen course and follow links and read how your support will be used.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Scouring the World for Filipinos with Experience
Welcome Back Friends in the Brain Gain Network
Posted: June 9, 2009, 3:04 pm, by: Paco Sandejas
After founding the Brain Gain Network in 1992 with Dr. Marc Loinaz and after the development of internet enabled social and business networks, many will ask, "Why are we still doing the Brain Gain Network after all these years?"
Any project or "business" plan starts with a market need and in the case of the revived Brain Gain Network, our team has noted that there is still a huge need to locate and empower the valuable collective experience of the Globally scattered Filipino professional community. Over the many decades of immigration of millions Filipinos to foreign lands to seek better training and opportunities, we have seen the growth of a vast pool of human resources with a wealth of professional experience. Collective wisdom that surely could benefit the socio-economic development of the Philippines.
The above facts are noted by Philippine-based leaders yet they have not made an inventory of the above human resources, nor have they located most of them. And for the few that have been found, Philippine based professionals have limited ways of interacting with the foreign based professionals.
And yet, life goes on in the Philippines. With the help of many good people (sometimes with foreign help) there are many worthwhile projects and initiatives that are begun in the Philippines that could benefit from the joint cooperation of the above parties. This cooperation has previously been limited by the distance, time zone differences, and difficulties in collaboration.
The new and improved Brain Gain Network is of course the name we give to the global network of professionals who share the common purpose of helping improve the Philippines. The website BGN.org (www.BGN.org) is a tool that will enable the above activity to happen.
And in the end, one other reason for continuing this effort is that it is a whole lot of fun and very satisfying!
We look forward to interacting with you all from the Philippine Brain Gain Network on our new site and hopefully we will be able to meet many of you in person and/or read about your BGN-assisted projects' success in the news.
Mabuhay!
-The BGN Development Team (Paco, Nicole, Mira, Shem, Melo, Randell, Ian Ernie, and Clorets)
P.S. Thanks also to Dae, JJ, Rhea, Ray, Marc and others who also helped out at one point or another.
Posted: June 9, 2009, 3:04 pm, by: Paco Sandejas
After founding the Brain Gain Network in 1992 with Dr. Marc Loinaz and after the development of internet enabled social and business networks, many will ask, "Why are we still doing the Brain Gain Network after all these years?"
Any project or "business" plan starts with a market need and in the case of the revived Brain Gain Network, our team has noted that there is still a huge need to locate and empower the valuable collective experience of the Globally scattered Filipino professional community. Over the many decades of immigration of millions Filipinos to foreign lands to seek better training and opportunities, we have seen the growth of a vast pool of human resources with a wealth of professional experience. Collective wisdom that surely could benefit the socio-economic development of the Philippines.
The above facts are noted by Philippine-based leaders yet they have not made an inventory of the above human resources, nor have they located most of them. And for the few that have been found, Philippine based professionals have limited ways of interacting with the foreign based professionals.
And yet, life goes on in the Philippines. With the help of many good people (sometimes with foreign help) there are many worthwhile projects and initiatives that are begun in the Philippines that could benefit from the joint cooperation of the above parties. This cooperation has previously been limited by the distance, time zone differences, and difficulties in collaboration.
The new and improved Brain Gain Network is of course the name we give to the global network of professionals who share the common purpose of helping improve the Philippines. The website BGN.org (www.BGN.org) is a tool that will enable the above activity to happen.
And in the end, one other reason for continuing this effort is that it is a whole lot of fun and very satisfying!
We look forward to interacting with you all from the Philippine Brain Gain Network on our new site and hopefully we will be able to meet many of you in person and/or read about your BGN-assisted projects' success in the news.
Mabuhay!
-The BGN Development Team (Paco, Nicole, Mira, Shem, Melo, Randell, Ian Ernie, and Clorets)
P.S. Thanks also to Dae, JJ, Rhea, Ray, Marc and others who also helped out at one point or another.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Low-cost desktop to spur PC adoption
Low-cost desktop to spur PC adoption
Interesting and a great effort from the government, Intel and their respective partners. www.xeptocomputing.com is trying to help out in this effort in the area of making the systems easier to manage as the provinces seem to lack the needed support infrastructure and we need to make the systems as idiot-proof as possible or else the computers will end up crashing and dead.
These problems still need to be addressed.
Interesting and a great effort from the government, Intel and their respective partners. www.xeptocomputing.com is trying to help out in this effort in the area of making the systems easier to manage as the provinces seem to lack the needed support infrastructure and we need to make the systems as idiot-proof as possible or else the computers will end up crashing and dead.
Over the years we have seen:
1) many unpatched PCs.
2) viruses, porn, and unauthorized applications installed on the PCs.
3) mechanical problems tending to be top reasons for failure, mostly hard disks and sometimes even power switch.
4) high-power usage at almost 200W, underutilization of CPU power and hard disk space.
5) expensive support costs to repair or address the above.
These problems still need to be addressed.
Nonetheless, all in all, this work of Intel and the government is a great effort to be supported. Intel's low-power Atom platform does a lot to lower the cost and power usage. We need more technology that is customized to developing nation environments.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Good read on Making Money from Developing iPhone Apps
Making Money from Developing iPhone Apps
Summary:
Pros:
by Bill Snyder, Infoworld on Jan. 15, 2009
Summary:
Pros:
- Yes, the iPhone is very cool and many people enjoy playing with it.
- There are tens of millions of users and they are able to easily buy your app from the AppStore
- There are ONLY tens of millions of users versus the billions of mobile users around the world.
- There are still limits to the iPhone platform ("the iPhone application environment is very difficult") and you rely solely on Apple to fix them, example given in this article is the inability to run multiple apps.
- You need a critical mass of users -- but you can't get there if the iPhone is your only platform.
- Location-specific apps have to be very location-specific, or you risk the wrath of users.
- Market your butt off.
- You're going to make enemies.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Cool mobile services for phones and some PC tidbits. For entrepreneurial ideas?
Really cool services or products found from various magazines or-ezines like Wired January 2009, Yahoo and others:
1) IF YOU HAVE AN ANDROID PHONE:
a. http://www.panoramio.com/ - see the world through google earth with pictures.
b. www.joyity.com: play phone tag with people near your GPS location.
2) Funny and useful for the iPhone and Blackberry
a. Sitorsquat: http://www.sitorsquat.com/
b. http://myrete.com/ - geo-location based social networking
3) FOR PEOPLE IN THE COMPUTER SPACE
1) Gaming PCs need liquid cooling: http://tech.yahoo.com/news/pcworld/20090108/tc_pcworld/newliquidcoolshotgamingpcs_1
2) PC Shipments decline worldwide in Q4 09: http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090115/ap_on_hi_te/tec_pc_shipments_3
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
First Blog
This Blog Group is linked to the site of the Brain Gain Network at www.BGN.org.
No longer just tech-focused, the Philippine Brain Gain Network is a virtual community of all those who love the Philippines and want to take action to make it a better place through our professional work and volunteerism.
This web service is a collaborative tool to help us all take concrete actions to rebuild Philippines 2.0. Whether you live in the Philippines or not. Techie or not. Retired or just starting. Filipino or simply in love with the Philippines.
This project is sponsored by Narra Venture Capital. I look forward to cooperating with all the idealistic and capable Philippine-lovers aspiring for positive change.
Paco Sandejas
No longer just tech-focused, the Philippine Brain Gain Network is a virtual community of all those who love the Philippines and want to take action to make it a better place through our professional work and volunteerism.
This web service is a collaborative tool to help us all take concrete actions to rebuild Philippines 2.0. Whether you live in the Philippines or not. Techie or not. Retired or just starting. Filipino or simply in love with the Philippines.
This project is sponsored by Narra Venture Capital. I look forward to cooperating with all the idealistic and capable Philippine-lovers aspiring for positive change.
Paco Sandejas
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