Starting a business venture is a rewarding journey, but it is not without its challenges.

From raising funds, to scaling operations efficiently to navigating market competition––the list of obstacles a startup faces is endless. Fortunately, starting a business in 2024 may not be as daunting as it was a decade ago when the Philippine startup ecosystem was young and startups lacked support.

This was the key takeaway in a panel discussion organized by PayMongo, a Philippine-based digital financial services solutions provider, as part of the BUILD Startup Festival held recently  at Six/NEO in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig. The event was moderated by PayMongo CEO Jojo Malolos, with PayMongo Co-Founder and Chairperson Luis Sia, Growsari CEO and Co-Founder Ed Rollan,  Great Deals E-Commerce Corporation Founder and CEO Steve Sy, and Managing Partner of Foxmont Capital Partners Franco Varona serving as panelists.

To grow the Philippine digital economy by helping aspiring Filipino entrepreneurs survive the ever-growing startup ecosystem, here are the top 4 tips shared by the experts:

1. Know how much time it takes to build your business and stick it out.

This is the advice that Sia, who co-founded PayMongo at the age of 23, would give to his younger self. A startup’s journey to success is a long and bumpy road; hence, founders need to be patient when dealing with obstacles that are bound to come along. Sia encouraged entrepreneurs to have the persistence to see through these roadblocks and turn them into opportunities for success.

“A lot of great problems are solved over a long time,” he added.

2. Choose what you invest in wisely to generate more returns in the long run.

Rollan, coming from his experience with Growsari, explained the importance of understanding your investments, whether in warehousing, logistics, or staff hiring. He further expounds that startups, especially in their early stages, will always be bound with questions and challenges, but knowing which to focus on and your expertise as an owner will be vital to making your business thrive.

“Our business mindset is always, if I do this on my own, I should be the best person to do this in the industry otherwise, it’s better that someone else do it,” Rollan stressed.

3. Know when to grow and scale your business.

Growing and scaling your business are two different matters but both are important in business development, Sy, who steers the business direction of Great Deals E-Commerce Corporation, highlighted. Growing a business is when revenue increases as a result of expanding the organization through new hires, investing in new equipment, and so on. Meanwhile, scaling is when businesses manage their existing resources to efficiently sustain growth. Understanding the difference between these two concepts can help founders determine what they need to raise funds for and get to the next level.

“When you focus too much on growth, you tend to overlook important steps to be able to scale, so it’s important to know the right processes for your business to grow and then eventually be able to scale,” Sy underscored.

4. Before you gain and grow, think rationally about whether you need another investor.

Varona, who engaged a number of entrepreneurs at Foxmont Capital Partners, emphasized that as business owners, you need to have a reality check and ensure that you have a specific intention to raise capital rather than for vanity or increasing your business’ worth.

“Raising money should always be accompanied by very specific reasons, like growing or scaling,” he said.

Aside from these valuable tips, the trailblazers also highlighted the importance of establishing support systems such as mentorships to ensure a productive and encouraging environment for the development of local startups.

“The evolution of the Philippine startup ecosystem over the years has unlocked tremendous opportunities for local entrepreneurs. Support systems and mentorship programs have been critical components in helping these businesses succeed, especially at the early stages,” Malolos said, “hopefully, through events like BUILD, we can continue to foster collaboration and innovation, driving the continued growth of the startup community,” he added.

BUILD, organized by Esquire Philippines and Sinigang Valley Association with support by PayMongo this year, is an annual one-day event convening startup founders, executives, investors, incubators, and government regulators, showcasing the Philippines’ thriving startup networks. This year’s festival concluded with a strong call for entrepreneurship and innovation, encouraging Filipinos to continue solving old problems with new takes through their startups.

PayMongo has recently shifted into a digital financial services provider from an online payments processing company to drive the Philippine digital economic growth by transforming business owners into digital Filipino entrepreneurs.

The use of congruent messages and emojis when promoting tourist destinations on social media leads to greater user attention. This strategy helps users to process the information effectively and reduces their cognitive effort. More specifically, the use of emojis in online messages about tourism destinations facilitates processing and reduces ambiguity, especially when the recipients encounter content with low levels of congruence.

This is according to a research – “The effect of online message congruence, destination-positioning, and emojis on users’ cognitive effort and affective evaluation” – that was published in the Journal of Destination Marketing & Management.

The study, which was carried out at the University of Granada’s Mind, Brain and Behaviour Research Centre (CIMCYC), consisted of an experiment using eye-tracking techniques on 60 users of the social network Facebook. These individuals underwent a series of experimental procedures in which the researchers manipulated the level of congruence between the messages of those posting and the users, the use or omission of emojis in the content, and the way in which the tourist destination was positioned in the media (natural environment, gastronomy, hotels, sun and beach).

The UGR research team, which includes Beatriz García Carrión, Francisco Muñoz Leiva, Salvador del Barrio García and Lucia Porcu, point out that the study “clearly illustrates the benefits in terms of the effectiveness of using congruent messages in marketing communications in general, and especially in digital communications via social media, as well as how the use of emojis contributes to improving users’ information processing, increasing their attention and reducing the cognitive effort involved. Moreover, congruent messages not only facilitate users’ information processing, but also improve their affective evaluation — a crucial aspect when it comes to making a decision on a tourist destination.”

The key findings included:

• Importance of maintaining a high level of congruence in the information they convey through social media. As the researchers explain: “This involves systematically reviewing and managing comments across all communication channels to identify any comments that do not align with the destination’s desired positioning, with a view to mitigating potential negative effects.”
• Pictorial representations (emojis) significantly enhance the overall comprehension of the information. However, the study did not find a significant impact of emojis on the formation of affective evaluations.
• Tourism managers should focus on information related to the destination’s gastronomy and natural environment, rather than more conventional aspects such as sun and beach facilities or hotel offerings, as the former attract more attention and are perceived more favorably, even under low levels of congruence.

The research findings suggest a shift in the preferences of potential consumers towards more nature-based tourism. “Therefore, tourism managers should place greater emphasis on communicating aspects related to the environment and sustainability of the tourist destination in their social media posts, thereby reaping benefits in terms of visual attention and affective evaluations,” the researchers stressed.

For many people, leaving a job can be like leaving a family — and because of the personal and professional bonds they’ve forged, many naturally stay in touch with their former coworkers and keep apprised of what’s happening in the organization.

But what happens when companies make a concerted effort to bolster those bonds, help former employees in their careers and keep them in the loop? According to new research from the UBC Sauder School of Business, it can have big benefits for both employees and employers.

For the paper, researchers studied a wide range of businesses — from top law firms to Starbucks — to understand why organizations are putting time and resources into solidifying ties with ex-employees, also known as alumni.

The researchers propose that alumni-organization relationships (AORs) are particularly important to companies because alumni have a unique mix of insider knowledge and outside-world information and contacts. This can be valuable if employees return as contractors, or move on to companies that might do business with their former employer. Companies can also gain a boost to branding and reputation because maintaining these relationships shows they support employees even after they move on.

“Traditionally, AORs were most common in professional service firms. But as it becomes more common for workers to job hop over the course of their career, we are seeing more organizations investing in relationships with alumni,” said UBC Sauder assistant professor Dr. Rebecca Paluch.

For some organizations, AORs help generate new business. Many law firms support AORs because junior lawyers move on and end up in general counsel roles new organizations. If they need to hire outside counsel, the continuing relationship with their former employer may encourage them to hire that firm.

Companies like Starbucks appreciate the fact that AORs boost their brand image in the community. “They call all of their stores ‘third communities’ because they want to make people feel welcome and like they’re part of something when they visit the stores,” said Dr. Paluch, who co-authored the study with Dr. Christopher Zatzick of Simon Fraser University and Dr. Lisa Nishii of Cornell University. “AORs are in line with the overall branding of building community and keeping people connected.”

Programs that support AORs can offer a variety of benefits to alumni, including newsletters and updates about alumni and the company, career resources, job boards, training and development opportunities and in-person networking.

One of the primary challenges in forming AORs is there is no set playbook, said Dr. Paluch. There are established norms for employee management when it comes to practices like hiring, compensation and benefits, but standard practices don’t exist for managing relationships with alumni after they move on.

In order to develop successful AORs, organizations need to think about their outreach to alumni through broad communication with a wide-range of alumni as well as strategically target alumni who can bring back the most value to the company. It’s also important to encourage current employees to stay in contact with alumni so they can help bring knowledge and resources back into the organization.

The most successful programs, she adds, involve input from former workers. “It’s important to make sure the organization is getting alumni feedback so they’re meeting their needs and not just offering things because some other company is doing it,” advised Dr. Paluch.

One of the biggest mistakes employers make is not supporting workers on their way out, and then turning around and saying they want to stay in touch. “If employees are having terrible exit experiences, then it shouldn’t be surprising if they don’t want to stay in touch after they leave.”

The idea of cultivating relationships between alumni and organizations might seem counterintuitive because it can make leaving more palatable, said Dr. Paluch. But savvy companies realize today’s workers are highly mobile, so it makes sense to keep a positive relationship even after they’re gone.

“We’ve been seeing tenure decline over the past few decades, and most employees move on to a new company after four or five years,” said Dr. Paluch. “Strategically, organizations might as well consider, ‘If we can’t keep them in the organization, how can we at least keep them connected to the organization?’”