Supporting innovation in the Philippines

Fostering a startup ecosystem

IdeaSpace is a nonprofit organization dedicated to building the start-up ecosystem in the Philippines – a key step to eradicating poverty in that country. Launched in 2012 with significant financial support from a short- term grant, IdeaSpace approached Global Entrepreneurship Lab (G-Lab) for help developing a strategic plan for long-term success in supporting innovation, technology development, and entrepreneurship.

Forming a long-term strategy

G-Lab students conducted extensive research and interviewed a global range of incubators, government officials, and angel investors to explore how IdeaSpace could foster an entrepreneurial ecosystem in the Philippines. The team then led a series of interactive workshops and brainstorming sessions with the company’s executive team to help them develop a strategy for long-term success. The G-Lab team provided IdeaSpace with metrics, funding strategies, and a variety of business contacts as a future resource. In addition, the students created culturally relevant teaching materials for budding technology entrepreneurs and trained IdeaSpace employees to use them.

IdeaSpace was enthusiastic about the students’ recommendations and quickly implemented several: they refined the metrics, they created clubs of angel investors to support start-up funding, and they reached out to government entities to find additional partners.